Dip bars are intended for doing body-weight dips, which work your triceps, and to a lesser degree your anterior deltoid, lats and chest muscles. But if you’re creative, dip bars can form the core of a body-weight exercise routine that allows you to work every major muscle group without any additional equipment.
Apparatus
Although a few leverage-mount pullup bars bill themselves as doubling as dip bars, they only elevate you a few inches off the ground, which in turn only permits dips with an extremely limited range of motion. The limited range of motion means less muscular development, and fewer options for doing other exercises. So if you’re looking to do a full-body workout, stick with the dip bars on commercial gym machines, mounted on a home gym, or one a home version of the VKR or vertical knee raise station, which usually includes not just dip bars but pullup bars and a captain’s chair as well.
Pullups
To use your dip bars for self-assisted pullups, which work your back, arm and shoulder muscles, squat between the bars. Reach up and grasp the bars in a neutral, or palms-in, grip. Then pull up, using the muscles of your arms and back to carry as much of your weight as possible. Depending on your ability, you can either keep your feet planted just in front of you and use your legs to assist with the lift. If you’re strong enough, you can walk both legs out in front of you, keeping your hips directly underneath your hands, and use only your upper body to lift.
Pushups
Dips are an excellent triceps exercise and do promote some chest involvement, but for the best body-weight chest workout, you should do pushups. Start by planting both hands on the bars, shoulder-width apart or slightly wider. Walk your feet back until your body is in a straight line from head to feet, then bend your arms to lower your body toward the dip bars, and straighten your arms to push yourself away. As you build chest strength, you’ll have to abandon the dip bars in favor of more challenging apparatus. Moving your hands slightly lower -- to a weight bench, for example, or the edge of a sturdy, wide chair -- makes the exercise more difficult.
Leg Exercises
You won’t actively use the dip bars to perform leg exercises, but they do make excellent supports to help you maintain your balance as you do lunges, squats and calf raises to work the muscles of your lower body.
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