Will Doing Dips Help Your Bench Press?

Both dips and bench presses are compound exercises targeting the chest, front deltoids and triceps. Although dips work the same muscles as the bench press, they might not directly improve your bench press results as much as other exercises. However, including dips in your training routine will not hurt your bench press, either.

Dips

There are two types of dips that strengthen the upper body: chest dips and triceps dips. Perform chest dips by supporting yourself on parallel bars and bending forward while lowering yourself down until your upper arms are parallel to the floor or just past parallel. The farther you bend forward, the more your chest is engaged; the more upright you are, the more your triceps are engaged. Chest dips are good for stretching and improving flexibility the chest, which may benefit the bench press, Frederic Delavier writes in "Strength Training Anatomy." Hanging a dumbbell or barbell plate around your waist can help to add weight to the exercise. Perform triceps dips on parallel bars or off a bench, placing your hands the edge of the bench and lowering yourself down. In the triceps dip, the ExRx website explains, you lower down until you feel a stretch in your shoulders, while in a chest dip you lower yourself down and lean forward until you feel a stretch in the chest.

Bench Press Technique

Improving your technique is one of the most effective ways to increase your maximum bench press. Lie flat on the bench, keeping your feet flat on the floor and your bottom on the bench throughout the entire movement. Grasp the bar using an overhand grip, with your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. Squeeze your shoulder blades together, causing your back to arch up and your lats to flare out. Position the bar directly over your chest, then lower until it reaches the bottom of your sternum. Press the bar back up to starting position.

Assistance Exercises

Maximal, or heavy-weight ,bench pressing recruits muscles throughout your body, so it is essential to train all of your muscle groups are least once a week. More specifically, focus your shoulder and triceps training with exercises similar to the bench press. Shoulder exercises such as military press or overhead dumbbell press will help strengthen the front deltoid, which you use in the bench press. Including some internal/external rotator cuff exercises at the end of your shoulder routine will help to strength the four small muscles used to stabilize the shoulder joint during pressing exercises. Triceps muscles are used primarily in the upward motion of the bench press. Close-grip bench press is the most effective way to strengthen your triceps for the bench press, followed by triceps dips.

Chest Workout

Always begin your chest workout with bench press. Do one or two warmup sets followed by two or three working sets of four to eight repetitions. Follow the bench press with three sets of 10 to 20 repetitions each of chest dips. Conclude your chest workout with three sets of eight to 12 reps of incline dumbbell presses, close-grip bench presses and triceps dips. Train your shoulders and rotator cuff on a different day. Allow at least one day of recovery between the chest and shoulder workouts.