Anyone out there ever replace their conventional free weight exercise routines with just Dips and chins for a while? Because of a nagging injury, I have decided to take a month to do just dips and chins for my upper body, but I am a bit freaked out about losing some size because I usually lift heavy for low reps, and chins and dips are not heavy for me. Will one month of this make me lose too much? Anything? Any ideas? Thanks.
Yep, I have focused on chins and dips for a while. It is not the only thing I did, but it was the core. I made a ton of progress. You really don’t appreciate how many upper body muscles chins and dips hit until you really focus on them. If you can add extra resistance go ahead and do it. If not try some advanced techniques like t-mags modified gymnast routine for chins and something like german volume training for dips. The important thing on dips is full range of motion and how upright you hold your body. Bend formard to hit more chest and dip more upright to hit the triceps and shoulders a bit more.
I have a question that is related to this one. I am a beginner with no access to a gym yet so i will do dips and chin ups. I will also do one hand push ups as they seem to require alot of upper body muscles. Just what areas does the one hand push ups target? How many should i aim for? thanks
Dips are great for Tri’s and PEcs depending on the expansion of your grip. FOr extra resistance, try a Power Pushup around your shoulders when doing dips. You can also simulate the dipping motion using a *stable (*No wheels on the bottom) chair or even desk, provided it’s somewhat lower than your shoulders. Lata.
“MB Eric: More animated than Hanna Barbera since 1973.”
-Eric
I read a good article in MILO where the author only did chins, dips and squats for a few months as a break from his normal lifting and to rehab injuries. Him and his partner did them three days a week (mon, wed, fri). If they were too sore, they may only do them twice a week. They would try to do something like 100 dips and squats and 50 chins in each workout doing however many sets needed to acheive it. If it was easy, they added weight to the dips and chins. The author titled the article “The Three Bears of Muscle Growth” and said he and his training partner made increases in strength and size while following the program. So yes, this could work.
Add resistance!! Use a dipping belt on both movements, and add plates. If you don’t have a dip belt (or can’t afford the $35), then use a rope and loop it through your lifting belt. Try a fanny pack, maybe (but put the weight in front on dips). You won’t lose too much in a month, but you’ll need to start the other movements a bit lighter when you get back to them.
hey,
Your doing the right thing especially if you
have an injury an can still continue if you switch to chins/dips add a weighted belt
you will probably do better when you return to weights.care for your injury first I know I’m injured and bumming out.peace
Chins and dips are exercises for men, not boys. First be sure that you are doing them properly (they definitely require practice and patience to get right; SLOWLY dip down until biceps come in contact with forearms), and then add plates to a dip belt. There is no doubt that you will GROW, unless of course you are already overtrained. There is a very good reason that you never see anyone doing these in the common gym; they are extremely tough and they work. Now go be a man and don’t get “freaked”.
Chins and dips are excelent mass builders. I include them in almost every upper body workout. As already mentioned, buy or make a dip belt to hang extra weight around your hips. Alternate between A)Heavy: with extra weight/faster tempos, and B) Bodyweight with slow tempos (4 second negatives). You’d be very surprised how much harder bodyweight chins and dips become with slow eccentric tempos.
JG011W,
If your injury is in either shoulder, be you might want to consider whether or not dips are a good exercise to use. Other then that, I can only say that I agree that they are exercises for MEN (and WOMEN, my gf can do 6x2 w/ 200#, bw plus 70#), not boys or girls.