Muscles worked
Machine dips train the same muscles as dips between bars: your triceps do the main work, helped by your chest and the front of your shoulders. The difference is that you sit and choose the weight yourself, so you neither have to lift your full bodyweight nor balance. Because chest and shoulders chip in, you can usually go heavier here than in pure triceps exercises.
Common mistakes
- The seat is too low. If the handles start high relative to your shoulders, the movement gets deep and may pull at the front of your shoulder. Set the seat so the starting position feels comfortable, with no strain at the front.
- Rising off the seat. As the weight gets heavy, it is tempting to lift up into the handles and push with your body. Use the thigh pad if there is one, and lower the weight if you still rise.
- The stack yanks your arms up. If the handles shoot up on each rep, the weight drags your shoulders forwards and up. Follow the handles back at a steady pace with your shoulders down.
Variations and alternatives
- Triceps dips on parallel bars are the bodyweight version, once you can lift yourself.
- Bench dips need nothing more than a bench or a chair.
- The close grip bench press trains your triceps heavy with free weights.
- The machine triceps press keeps your upper arms still, when you want to isolate your triceps completely.
Sets and reps
For heavy work, 5 to 8 reps over 3 to 4 sets fits, with 8 to 12 for muscle and 12 to 20 for endurance. A couple of light sets first let your shoulders and elbows settle in before the heavy ones. How the ranges tie in with your goal is in the guide to sets and reps.
The weight stack makes progress easy to measure: add reps until you reach the top of your range on every set, then move up one plate. Few exercises make progressive overload this easy to follow. Should your shoulders actually hurt, rather than just work hard, stop and have a doctor or physiotherapist look at it.