[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
While i love doing dips for my tris, whenever I would attempt them for my pecs, my shoulders would just take a beating. Eventually I figured out that my creating a low decline (3-4 olympic plates under one end of a flat bench), I can get a similar lower pec squeeze and not wreck my joints. I later found that Jim Cordova does similar low decline work (rationalizing that it hits his chest better), and Dr Clay also mentioned in one of his articles that decline work recruits more chest fibers than flat,… so I feel pretty good keeping it in my rotation.
S
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sorry for being a newb, but what/how do you do decline dips?
I guess i’m lucky in that i feel no shoulder pain while doing heavy dips. However, sometimes, my wrists take a beating as well as my sternum. It seems to me , some people’s shoulder’s just don’t have the ROM needed to properly do a dip.
well, it kinda, depends on your shoulder width, and the width between the two handles for the dips, some i find more comfortable than other, but some just kill my shoulders, so it just depends what kind of equipment your gym has and you. if your shoulders arnt bust yet, or if your not getting any irregular pains after your sets, id say your fine too.
[quote]zooropa1150 wrote:
I guess i’m lucky in that i feel no shoulder pain while doing heavy dips. However, sometimes, my wrists take a beating as well as my sternum. It seems to me , some people’s shoulder’s just don’t have the ROM needed to properly do a dip. [/quote]
X2 on the sternum part. Last time I did dips I got this horrible tearing sensation on my sternum. And when I bumped my chest doing clean, I felt a pop there accompanied by pain for a week. That was in august and I have not done them since.
I would usually take 2 or 3 reps and slowly work down to parallel or a little below and then I would be find. A little pain aroudn teh clavicle but nothing I couldn’t handle. Was up to around 30 bw dips and 8-10 hanging 90#…but now even a set of 10 with just BW feels like my pecs are going to rip from my sternum. So I dont do them anymore
The old “if it hurts dont do it” is always a good guide. But its also good to know if it has to hurt or if there is something you can do to make it not hurt. Dips are a bit different than many other upper body exercises because there is no real set end to the eccentric portion of the movement. Many people dont have the flexibility/strength to get really deep on dips.
From a flexibility standpoint pec minor can cause a ton of issues because it helps create shoulder hyperextension and scapular instability. A strong serratus and pec minor soft tissue and flexibility work can go a long way toward making dips feel like a good movement. This is the same with other pressing exercises during which the shoulder blades are not retracted (i.e. some sort of bench press) military presses and pushups also require those same muscles to be working similarly well.
[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
While i love doing dips for my tris, whenever I would attempt them for my pecs, my shoulders would just take a beating. Eventually I figured out that my creating a low decline (3-4 olympic plates under one end of a flat bench), I can get a similar lower pec squeeze and not wreck my joints. I later found that Jim Cordova does similar low decline work (rationalizing that it hits his chest better), and Dr Clay also mentioned in one of his articles that decline work recruits more chest fibers than flat,… so I feel pretty good keeping it in my rotation.
S
[/quote]
sorry for being a newb, but what/how do you do decline dips?
[/quote]
He’s talking about decline bench press.
Dips are pretty much an extreme version of decline bench press.
[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
While i love doing dips for my tris, whenever I would attempt them for my pecs, my shoulders would just take a beating. Eventually I figured out that my creating a low decline (3-4 olympic plates under one end of a flat bench), I can get a similar lower pec squeeze and not wreck my joints. I later found that Jim Cordova does similar low decline work (rationalizing that it hits his chest better), and Dr Clay also mentioned in one of his articles that decline work recruits more chest fibers than flat,… so I feel pretty good keeping it in my rotation.
S
[/quote]
sorry for being a newb, but what/how do you do decline dips?
[/quote]
He’s talking about decline bench press.
Dips are pretty much an extreme version of decline bench press.
[/quote]
Ah thanks bonez. terrible reading comprehension from my part
[quote]ridethecliche wrote:
I used to get pain in my right clavicle area during dips, but then it stopped one I changed one thing. When you dip are your shoulders kind of shrugged up towards your ears? During dips I now depress/retract my shoulder blades and kind of extend my neck upwards, and now no more pain.[/quote]
tried this last night and it really helped. not that i was having trouble before, but that extra tweak really works
I was just thinking of this issue the other day so I’m glad I came across this thread. I used to do dips with a fairly substantial amount of weight (my max was 150 lbs. plus 240 lbs. of body weight) but now even body weight dips feel uncomfortable. I abandoned the bench press a long time ago and have no intention of bringing it back so I will be sticking to pushups with chains around my neck, cable chest presses and blast strap pushups from now on.
I like doing the blast strap pushups with the straps set out at a wide angle instead of hanging straight down. Makes the movement much more difficult and works chest adduction much better.
Something i just thought about while looking at this article is how you do the dips.Dips are good for two muscle groups primarily, The Chest and Triceps.
How you do them is the determing factor on what muscle group youre training.I said earlier that I had givin up on freeweight dips and opted to use the machine but what just came to mind is I use to wear a dipping belt and that kept me from really being able to lean forward and focus on my chest, I was using my tri’s more.If youre having shoulder pain like I was try leaning forward more and like im gonna do get some chains to wrap around youre neck ala Branch Warren.
This way youre weight will be over youre chest and not hanging from youre waist pulling you down.
Weighted dips are one of my favorite exercises. I never had shoulder issues but I can recall a few years back when I was going heavy, it really jacked up my right trap.
Not sure what it was, I’m thinkin’ it was pinched nerve or something. Anyhow, it was a weird injury as it didn’t really interfere with my shoulder or trap routines. I was only able to feel it when I would try to attempt to do dips, needless to say, it was quite uncomfortable and I wasn’t able to do dips for about a yr or so.