The primary muscle worked in a triceps dip is your triceps, but your shoulders, chest and abs get a workout too. The triceps is a problem area for women as they advance in age, because it begins to sag due to underuse. Doing strength-training exercises like triceps dips helps to prevent the deterioration of this muscle.
Triceps Brachii
The primary muscle worked in triceps dips is your triceps brachii. This muscle has three parts: the long head, the lateral head and the medial head. The long head goes from the back of your elbow to your scapulae and stabilizes your shoulder joint. The lateral head goes from the back of your elbow to the the back of your upper arm bone called the humerus and assists the other two muscles when extra force is needed. The medial head also goes from the back of your elbow to the back of your humerus and helps with elbow extension.
Basics
Triceps dips use your body weight as resistance. Bending your elbows up to 90 degrees is the movement required to do the exercise. If you do triceps variations on dip bars -- with your feet in the air or on an assist plate -- your hands typically grip the bars next to you with your thumbs facing the front wall. When you do variations of triceps dips with a bench or on the floor, you typically place your hands behind you with your fingers pointing toward your feet.
Dip Bar
To do a triceps dip using the dip bars, stand between the bars and grasp the handles on either side of your body with your thumbs facing forward. Lift your body off the floor by contracting your core muscles and extending your elbows. Bend your knees slightly and cross your ankles behind you to get into the starting position. Bend your elbows up to 90 degrees and return to the starting position to finish one rep.
On the Floor
Do regular and one-arm triceps dips on the floor. Sit on the floor with your feet together and your hands on the floor 1 foot behind your hips, shoulder-width apart, with your fingers pointing toward your feet. To get into the starting position, straighten your arms to lift your butt off the floor. This is not a tabletop position, so let your hips sag, but keep your abs contracted. Bend your elbows together or one at a time up to 90 degrees and straighten them to complete one rep.
Exercise Guidelines
As a general guideline, healthy adults should do up to three sets of up to 12 repetitions for each strength-training exercise.
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