What do you see as the pros and cons of wide vs. narrow dips? I typically use the wide bars of the dip station, rather than the narrow bars on the opposite side. I assume wide dips, along with leaning forward during the dip, activates the chest/shoulders more while narrow vertical dips would offer better isolation for the triceps?
Wide dips = chest, narrow dips = triceps for me.
How about you get your ass to a dip station and try both out…badda bing, badda boom
My ass was on a dip station this morning. Like I said, I rarely do narrow grip dips and am wondering if others do them more often and if so, why.
Only ever done them wide leaning forward for chest and with a dumbbell between my crossed legs. Didn’t have a belt to add weight onto.
I’ve been doing narrow dips for a couple of months as my main upper-body push. The result is: good triceps + some front delts stimulation. Chest almost non-existant.
I can’t do wide dips at the gym, so I sometimes do them at the garage, between to desk (the grip changes cause I have to grab the edges of the desks). Its harder and hits the pecs nicely but it feels strange with my shoulders and kind of kills my wrists.
In the recent chest and triceps articles, it was mentioned that doing dips while leaning forward stimulates the chest while doing them while perpendicular to the floor stimulates the triceps. I can’t remember the articles mentioned the difference between wide vs. narrow grip, but I’ve been taught that wide grip dips hit the chest while narrow grip dips hit the triceps.
Leaning forward with a wide grip for me.
Hits chest like a decline press.
[quote]Westclock wrote:
Leaning forward with a wide grip for me.
Hits chest like a decline press.[/quote]
And kills the AC joint in the process…
[quote]utHAUS wrote:
Westclock wrote:
Leaning forward with a wide grip for me.
Hits chest like a decline press.
And kills the AC joint in the process…[/quote]
Sucks to be you.
My chest seems to respond better to wide dips better than any other chest movement. I train at home and have a dip station that I can raise the front of it a couple of inches which makes it easier on my shoulders and feel it even more so in my pecs.
I only do narrow grip dips with upright posture - straight legged/ no lean. I want to do wide dips but my shoulders will not allow it. Yes, sucks to be me. I feel it only in my triceps and treat it as a triceps movement. (Note: if I lose at least 30 more pounds, maybe I can do wide?)
I saw something weird in the gym this morning. A guy was doing wide dips, but was facing away from the station rather than toward it. Has anyone tried this?
For people that do narrow dips, are you facing the station or away from it?
[quote]forlife wrote:
I saw something weird in the gym this morning. A guy was doing wide dips, but was facing away from the station rather than toward it. Has anyone tried this?
For people that do narrow dips, are you facing the station or away from it?[/quote]
It doesn’t matter, its the same thing unless the station leans.
I can’t do wide dips at all. My shoulders simply cannot take it. Very, very painful. But i guess that’s to be expected when your arms are so far apart it’s like trying to do a flye within a dip… hah…
The widest I can go is shoulder width. If I lean forward that still hits my chest plenty hard.
[quote]Westclock wrote:
It doesn’t matter, its the same thing unless the station leans.[/quote]
If you’re doing wide dips facing away from the station, you have more of a supinated grip and use your biceps more. But if you’re doing wide dips facing toward the station, you have a pronated grip and use your triceps more. Most guys I see doing wide dips are facing the station, so it was a little unusual to see this guy doing it the other way this morning.
[quote]krazykoukides wrote:
I can’t do wide dips at all. My shoulders simply cannot take it. Very, very painful. But i guess that’s to be expected when your arms are so far apart it’s like trying to do a flye within a dip… hah…
The widest I can go is shoulder width. If I lean forward that still hits my chest plenty hard.
[/quote]
Do you have problems with wide grip pullups as well?
[quote]krazykoukides wrote:
I can’t do wide dips at all. My shoulders simply cannot take it. Very, very painful. But i guess that’s to be expected when your arms are so far apart it’s like trying to do a flye within a dip… hah…
The widest I can go is shoulder width. If I lean forward that still hits my chest plenty hard.
[/quote]
Wide is relative, though. Since you’re short, those are wide grip dips for you.
I can’t do wide grip dips, period. The station simply doesn’t go wide enough because my arms are so damn long. I’ve never felt dips in my chest. At all.
Being short rocks 
[quote]thorax wrote:
I can’t do wide dips at the gym, so I sometimes do them at the garage, between to desk (the grip changes cause I have to grab the edges of the desks). Its harder and hits the pecs nicely but it feels strange with my shoulders and kind of kills my wrists.[/quote]
Hey, I tried dipping last night on my friends fence. Well, not on his fence, but on conrete colums about 5 feet of the ground, my grip was like yours strange and wide, but my shoulders were better than on dipping station in the gym.