My recovery week is almost up, and I’m about to start a 3-day a week total body program (xxAxBxA - xxBxAxB), and workout A has pull-ups and dips as the big compound back and chest exercises. I’m 17 and new to training so I’ll be doing a 3 x 8 scheme, working on contracting the muscle as fast as possible, and releasing it in a controlled fashion (usually it’s about 3 seconds, I really don’t count, I just try to do it in a controlled, steady, fashion).
Now there is no way I can do 3 x 8 sets of bodyweight chins and dips, and the assisted machine at my gym is horrible for a lot of reasons. Would it be OK if I did as many sets/reps with my bodyweight as possible, and for the remaining sets and reps, I only did the eccentric (lowering?) portion of the lift (jumping off a bench or with a partner or w/e)?
I’m also wondering, since we’re here, the B workout has antagonistic BP + bent-over rows as the chest and back exercise, so would it be at all beneficial to do neutral-grip chins with the dips? Or will that really not matter at all?
Stats, if they matter:
age - 17
bw - 155 lbs
bf - ~11%
body type - ecto-mesomorph (skinny, hard to gain/lose weight, but very defined muscles regardless of how skinny I am)
I would suggest that by going almost to failure probably in doing the first set of 8 and then continuing doing negatives which are extremley hard you are going to burn out. Why not substitute something like lat pulldown at about 75% of bw and another exercise like close grip press ups instead of dips. Alternatively get a partner to assist you by lifting your feet a bit on the dips and chins for the last few reps.
When I started doing chins/pullups I followed the Zeb routine. You will build up fast on them. On chins, if I remember right, the first time I did them the first set was something like 6. Then the count went down kinda fast. Do something like 5 sets. Do as many as you can. Stretch, rest between sets. You will do fine.
Here’s what I did to build up my reps, worked damn well. I only used it for chin-ups but I’m sure it’ll work for dips too.
I did a set of five, then took a one minute break. Then I did another set of five, then another one minute break. Then I only got three reps. End of training session.
The next time I got all five reps on the three sets. End of workout.
Next time I got all five reps on the three sets, rested a minute, and got two. End of workout.
Every session I would always go for more, but only in blocks of five reps with a minute of rest.
Eventually I was able to do six sets of five and then another four reps. At that point I switched to adding weight.
Doing it this way rather than sets of eight will probably get your more total reps with less need to recover between training sessions. More muscle faster.
If you have a band you can choke it on the chin up bar and stand on the other end and do chins that way and as you get stronger put only your knees in the band. It has been myexperance that the stronger I get in the bench, OHP and tri extentions the better my dips are.
Good luck
Will42
