Get Your First Dip: Start Building New Levels Of Strength
You’ve finally found it…
The “Definitive guide” to get your first dip!
What you’re about to get in this post is a Step By Step Guide on how to get your first dip. I want to eliminate all the confusion around this topic!
People often look for complex solutions to simple problems. We don’t need complicated, we need consistent.
Complicated at best leads to plateauing and at worst, injuries!
We are going to cover proper technique and programming progressions to safely get you your first dip OR improve your current dip ability!
Let’s get right to it!
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Ouch, It hurts!
A lot of people experience pain in the front of the shoulders or the elbows with dips. There are numerous structures that would be irritated. And if you are ever in pain, I always recommend to seek medical attention as this isn’t the goal of the article.
Step 1 - No Pain….All Gain!
If you don’t have shoulder pain and are just weak AF, the rest of this blog post is for you! With any new movement, I like to solidify the starting and ending position, prior to moving through a range of motion. For the dip, this is going to be the top of the dip (with locked out elbows) and the bottom of the dip (arms bent). I like to use isometrics to strengthen the top portion of the dip. The dip support exercise will strengthen the connective tissue of the elbows and shoulders and prepare it for more rigorous work, later down the line. We will use decline push-ups to strengthen the bottom position of the dip. The arm position in the bottom of these push-ups is identical to the dip. It’s also a more manageable load for beginners.
A1. Dip supports: 10 seconds x 4; rest 10 seconds
A2. Decline push-ups: 8-10 reps x 4; rest 180 seconds
When you first start out with these decline push-ups, you might need to be doing them on your feet or even on your knees as opposed to a box. You can also use a band anchored to a pull-up bar, wrapped around your waist if you need a little help.
Step 2
Once you can easily perform 10 seconds dip supports into 8-10 decline push-ups, you’ll be ready for step. We now are focusing primarily on the the eccentric portion of the movement pattern. We are roughly 50% stronger in the eccentric movement pattern so it only makes sense we use this as an in-between step to the full variation. It gives you the opportunity to rehearse the movement pattern multiple times, really locking in the correct technique.
A. Every minute on the minute x 10-15 minutes
Eccentric dip x 10 seconds
You are going to want to start at 10 minutes for this. Once you successfully accomplish all 10 minutes, you can add a minute each week. Continue this process until you can do all 15 minutes.
Step 3
Once most people get here they are actually capable of 1-3 clean dips at this point. Occasionally though some people need some “greasing of the groove” on the movement pattern. That’s why I included this step! Here we are using Spotted dips. This will allow us to perform the full dip movement pattern (up and down), while slightly unloading it.
A. Spotted Dips: 6-8 reps x 4 sets; rest 180 seconds
Closing Thoughts
And that, my friends, is the break down of the structure I have used (and continue to use) to get my clients their first dip. The cool thing about this structure, it can work with any strength, flexibility or performance goal.
This works because it’s a simple and straight forward solution. Complexity rarely is the answer!
