YouTube Exercise Video
How To Do Dips
Contrary to popular belief, push-ups aren’t the only effective way to work your upper body and chest muscles. If you want to target these muscle groups, there are a host of other routines you can work into your regime, such as dips. Dips are a bit more advanced than push-ups, and for those with existing medical conditions, they can be potentially hazardous.
They do require you to be able to lift your body weight a few feet off the ground for a few seconds at a time, so if you’re not quite there yet, don’t be ashamed. You may need to do some more traditional workouts for a while before something like this is safely possible for you.
What You Need
You need two parallel bars. You should also have a decent pair of gloves for a safe, effective grip.
Dips Muscles Worked
Action
- For a starting position, grab each bar and lift yourself directly up until your arms lock, feet off the ground.
- If you need, cross your legs for extra focus – not touching the ground helps you hold your form, as it can be distracting and cause you to misjudge.
- Take in a deep breath, and lower your body as you do, leaning your torso around 30 degrees.
- Flare your elbows slightly outward until you experience a stretching sensation in your chest.
- Breath in again as you lift back up.
Caveats
This is definitely not an exercise for people just starting out, so if your body refuses to go along with this, heed its warnings without hesitation. Ask your doctor before trying this if you have cardiac issues, joint problems or back trouble. Never overexert yourself, when your body wants to stop, actually do so. Overdoing it can result in injuries, damage or even worse.
To learn more about exercises like this, and the safe way to go about them, fill out our contact form or call us today.
