Dips instead of bench press? (Partner woes...)

[blowdpanis]

Do you use a public gym? Surely you can find another spot?

Failing this you could try the no collars method, where you slide the plates off the side if you get stuck. I admit this would be dangerous if you are moving big weights.

From my experiences with dips vs bench press, I always felt dips were missing something, like they were the easy option. Bench pressing relies a lot on good technique/maintaining thoracic extension/stabilising muscles. Dips however seem very "self-regulating" and not work a lot of the supporting muscles like benching does.

Perhaps throw in some dumb bell bench pressing in addition to dips?

What muscles does a bench work that a dip doesn't?

Courtesy of exrx:

For dips...

http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/...tChestDip.html

Target

• Pectoralis Major, Sternal

Synergists

• Deltoid, Anterior
• Triceps Brachii
• Pectoralis Major, Clavicular
• Pectoralis Minor
• Rhomboids
• Levator Scapulae
• Latissimus Dorsi
• Teres Major

Stabilizers

• Trapezius, Lower

For bench...

http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/...enchPress.html

Target

• Pectoralis Major, Sternal

Synergists

• Pectoralis Major, Clavicular
• Deltoid, Anterior
• Triceps Brachii

Dynamic Stabilizers

• Biceps Brachii, Short Head

If we're being real technical, there's actually more muscle involved in a dip than a bench press, and it also requires comparatively more stabilization, by virtue of your body dangling in the air, instead of smushed against a bench behind you. I would agree that the bench is arguably the more technical lift, but I'm not sure this is necessarily an advantage.

All of that said, there are a few disclaimers I'd make towards proper dipping:

* Do not use overly wide handles. Wide grip dips are murder on the shoulders. Conversely, gymnastic rings, or something ~shoulder width or just outside, actually increases the ROM while tending to spare the shoulders.

* Don't "relax" to get depth in dips. Gary said something about barely breaking "dip parallel" or whatever. This is probably a better idea than relaxing something to get depth. Sort of like in squats, the real danger in dips, imho, comes when you're getting depth by allowing shit to relax, when the shit that's relaxing is precisely what's helping prevent your shoulders from exploding.

* Even with the above two disclaimers, some people's shoulders just don't seem to tolerate them well. If spotters are that big of a deal, as Dastardly said, you could always just do dumbbell benches instead. You can buy 2.5 lb magnetic plates that should give you a lot of growing room, and even smaller than this are sold online, I believe.

[Gary Gibson]

* Don't "relax" to get depth in dips. Gary said something about barely breaking "dip parallel" or whatever. This is probably a better idea than relaxing something to get depth. Sort of like in squats, the real danger in dips, imho, comes when you're getting depth by allowing shit to relax, when that shit that's relaxing is precisely what's helping prevent your shoulders from exploding.

* Even with the above two disclaimers, some people's shoulders just don't seem to tolerate them well. If spotters are that big of a deal, as Dastardly said, you could always just do dumbbell benches instead. You can buy 2.5 lb magnetic plates that should give you a lot of growing room, and even smaller than this are sold online, I believe.

Bears repeating.

[jerji]

wow, so many great replies, I don't know where to start. A few people commented about this, but no, I don't collar the bar when I bench.

@Simonsky, I hadn't thought of moving a bench into the rack (the way it's set up, the squat rack is a ways away from the bench). I'll have to experiment and see if I can get the pins and bar hooks at a safe height for me.

@Dastardly, I train in a climbing gym (I'm primarily a climber) in the morning and it's quite common to be the only person in the barbell area.

@LimieJosh and burnsco, I seem to find myself going to failure somewhat regularly so perhaps like LimieJosh said, I'm using too much weight. I tend to just try to get my 3x5 solid (which may take two sessions) and then add 5lb which will usually cause me to miss a rep or two but then I repeat it. I guess if I'm failing reps I need to just use smaller increments on the bench.

Thanks for the comments about bar width and keeping tight. I have some long-standing bursitis over my supraspinatus now and I think it was because I was doing dips incorrectly (it seems like an endless battle to rehab this...). I was doing them for 3x5 like the other lifts and weighting them fairly quickly which I think was probably a mistake. I also wasn't making sure the bars weren't too wide and to keep my shoulders tight.

So I guess I'll just do happily dips when my partner isn't around and not really think of them as a compromise. I think that movement is more transferable to climbing anyway, so that's cool

Any thoughts on programming them? I was thinking get to BWx3x15 and slowly adding weight from there, mostly for the purpose of not putting too much strain on my already injured rotator cuff but also because this is similar to how pullups are programmed in the PPST Novice program.

[Mark E. Hurling]

The opinion of others may differ on this, but treat dips just like you would any pressing exercise with a barbell. If you can do sets of 5-8 with body weight start by adding 2 1/2 to 5 lbs. and progress the same way you would with weight on a bar. I have seen the 15 reps recommendation elsewhere, but it just doesn't seem founded in logic if you already have enough strength do do your lifting rep range already. Why spend a lot of time working up to reps that high?

[LimieJosh]

The higher rep scheme is based on using them (as with pull/chin ups) as assitance exercises to the lower rep core lifts. If you're doing either as primary lifts then you should mimic the rep range the of the primary lift you are replacing.