The weighted triceps dip is a form of the triceps dip that is utilized by exercisers to work the muscles in the chest, shoulders, and most especially the triceps. You can easily add intensity and progress from the bodyweight variation of the triceps dip by adding weight to a dip belt and securing it around your hips. This will ensure that you are constantly increasing your strength as wells as building muscle as you execute the move. You can incorporate the weighted triceps dips in your full-body workouts, push workouts, upper body workouts, or arm workouts.
How to perform weighted triceps dips
The weighted triceps dips is an easy exercise to master as it does not require a lot of steps. These are the steps to perform the weighted triceps dips;
- Firstly, get a weight belt and secure it around your hips carefully.
- Then, make your way to the dip bar and use an overhand grip to hold the bar with your hands.
- Straighten your arms to push yourself up and into the air. Then, control your stability by tightening your core.
- Next, you start bending at your elbows, then with the use of slow and controlled motion, lower yourself.
- When your upper arms become parallel with the floor, maintain that position for a while, and then push yourself up. Ensure that you place your focus on the contraction into your triceps.
Tips to note when performing weighted triceps dips
These are some important tips to keep in mind when performing the weighted triceps dips as they would help you to reap maximum benefits from this movement;
- There are two ways to execute weighted dips. One focuses on your triceps, while the other focuses on your chest. Since you are looking to work your triceps, you should execute the one that targets your triceps, and it involves you staying upright and keeping your elbows in close.
- While bracing your abs and glutes to restrict excessive spinal movement, try to keep your legs straight down as much as you can.
- You can place a box beneath the handles to help prop you up to the bars if there are no steps available with the dip station.
- If there is no available box, you can leap to get into position.
- While you are descending, make sure that you do not allow your head to protrude forward.
- To keep tension on your triceps, make sure that your elbows stay just short of lockout.
- There are some experiments you can try out that may be more comfortable for you. For instance, you can try the false grip by wrapping your thumb over the bar.
Benefits of dips
The weighted triceps dip is an exercise that comes with a lot of benefits for the regular exerciser. These are the benefits you would experience if you incorporate the weighted triceps dips exercise into your exercise program;
Wider chest
Research has shown that there are many reasons as to why when you add dips into an exercise program, you will notice significant developments in your triceps and chest. Dips have been known to promote all-round chest growth and give you that wanted v-taper, and it all depends on your hand placement. If you can performing a dip properly, you would have the ability to alter your angle of stimulation to further intensify the exercise when you get to the lower end of this movement.
When the stretch is increased at the end of this movement, you would be able to get an improved contraction thanks to muscle fiber activation. The intensity of the exercise is then increased, which would then build your chest better by creating more of a muscle-building stimulus.
Enhance pushing strength
A very important movement pattern is pushing. It is part of your everyday movements and that aid in your functioning when you are performing tasks like bending over to pick a child and press them up in the air with perfect form or squatting down to pick something heavy. You may have come in contact with someone that tweaks something when trying to perform a typical everyday humane activity. Most times, these tweaks occur because they are moving wrongly or not do not give enough attention to their form, which would lead to the tightening of a muscle through overcompensation.
In addition to making your everyday tasks easier, doing the weighted triceps dips would strengthen your triceps and promote overall strength. Strengthening your pushing prowess would also help you when performing larger lifts like the overhead press, bench press, and push-ups.
Functional exercise
The dip is a functional exercise, and as such, it helps you to enhance your movement patterns and also contribute to a better life quality by reducing the pains and aches you experience during your day to day activities. Resistance training can be good for altering your body composition and building your strength, but it can also make you lack in some areas, especially when it comes to your smaller muscles.
Functional and bodyweight exercises are known for training your muscles to work in harmony and make your movements more effective and also make you less susceptible to tweaking something because you didn’t target or recruit the right muscles. If you are not so obsessed with strict form, it would be very easy for you to cheat when lifting weights. But, you might notice that it is harder to perform a bodyweight exercise with perfect form, mostly because your joints and muscles have to work together to ensure your safety while you perform the movement.
Build more muscle
Studies have proven that functional exercises like the dip can be just as efficient as traditional resistance training for muscular fitness. You might be able to gain more muscle by doing the dips rather than the bench press. When you are performing a compound movement that requires your effort for the stabilization of your body, you would actively recruit more muscle fibers.
When performing the bench press, you are pressing against the bench that supports your body with your back, along with the ground where you planted your feet. So, when the bench is removed and you are required to push your full body weight, you would notice that the intensity of the exercise increases because your body would automatically recruit more muscles.
Among the best upper body exercises
The dip is a compound movement, and as such, it requires you to utilize multiple joints at the same time as well as needing your body to stabilize. For this reason, the dip is placed in line with the pull-up when it comes to the benefits you can get from executing them properly. The dips stimulate more muscle growth and also improve your performance and strength for performing other lifts in addition to the fact that they can be done anywhere. Also, you would get that general sense of satisfaction, lifting your whole body weight with only your arms.
If you are looking to lose weight, you can also utilize the dip as it speeds up metabolism by body composition changes. Because you target many muscle groups with the weighted triceps dips, your body works harder, which would result in increased intensity and calorie burn.
Common mistakes when doing weighted triceps dips
Mistakes are inevitable, especially when it comes to executing exercises, as it could take you a while to get used to the movement. Performing exercises with correct form will ensure that you reap the maximum benefits. These are the common mistakes people make when executing the weighted triceps dips that could sabotage the growth of the triceps;
Dipping too fast
It takes time under tension to build muscle, and that includes the triceps you are targeting with this exercise. When you constantly increase this tension, you overload your muscles, which would promote gains in both size and strength. You will only apply tension to the muscle for a short period if you are used to having extremely fast reps and sets. Try to train with a 2-1-2 tempo. What this means is that you should use 2 seconds to lift the weight, then maintain the position at the top of the movement for 1 second, then use 2 seconds to revert to the initial position.
Not being able to differentiate between different dips variation
It is without a doubt that the dip is an exercise that targets both the triceps and the chest, although to isolate your triceps further (which is what is needed here) or to work your chest alone, you would need to utilize a slightly different form. It will be a bummer if you are looking to train your triceps in isolation, and you are performing the chest dip variation.
The triceps dip is fully upright and does not require the involvement of the chest. While the chest dip is one that is known to rely on a forward lean that gives you the ability to push through your chest, and that angle is to remain the same throughout the set.
