Dips and adding weight.

[JM3]

At what point is it useful to add weight to dips? I am rarely over 10 at bodyweight- and was sort of assuming that when I could do 20 I could start adding weight.
I generally do them last so often its something like 7-4 reps. spread over 3 or 4 sets.

[AdamW]

I think like anything else that if you can do sets of 5 weighted then it's useful to weight them. BW for higher reps is always good for assistance as well but if you are trying to drive up the weight on your dips then weighting them for sets of 5 is fine.

[Oldster]

Add weight as soon as its possible, if you really want to get strong at dipping. Doesn't matter if you add weight and do only low rep sets. Add weight. For instance years ago I had a terrible time doing even 1 chin. So I started adding weight doing just 1 chin. After quite a few months I was doing 10 sets of 1 chin with 100lbs around my waist. After that I was able to perform fairly high rep sets. The same thing will work with dips, especially since you are able to do more than the one rep I was limited to.

[skipbeat]

Holy crap oldster! Personally I can't do more than 5 sets of anything. I lose count at the fourth set, haha.

[JM3]

- thanks yall. I dont have any dipping goals per se- l only do DB bench presses and was thinking of dips as assistance to make up for no barbell bench as well as the press. Ill play around.

Oldser- you're fucking scary when youre not funny.

[Joe Williams]

FWIW, I'm planning on weighting dips, chins and pullups when I can do 3 sets of 15 of each. Dips and chins are closest, pullups will probably be a while.

[Josh306]

I've found that you're best off adding weight relatively early - say about 8-10 bodyweight dips and maybe five or six good deadhang pullups. Adding weight and lowering the reps will pretty quickly increase the number of reps you can do at bodyweight. The only thing to be careful with is adding too much weight, too quickly. I made this mistake with pullups - was hitting good sets of 5 with an added fifteen kg (and I'm already big for my height, 97kg at 5'7") so I decided to pull a few triples with a 20kg plate (after a day of eating, drinking water etc, so I was probably pushing 100kg bodyweight). All I got out of that was a damn sore elbow for about a week and a half.

[Dastardly]

It depends what you are using the dips for. If it is to supplement your bench press, and to possibly increase arm size. Then I would suggest doing sets of 20. There is something special about dips, that forces extremely intense tricep contractions. Even one rep of a 20 rep dip is probably as intense on your triceps as a 90% 1rm bench press. Tehcnique is important too, so rushing adding weight can cause problems. So many people fail to lock shoulders in position or cheat by changing body angle etc. 20 strict reps is a pretty mean feat.

Even if using things like dips as your most intense pressing movement (like me) I wouldnt add weight unless I can do 3x12 on it. Using added weight, for something you can only clumsily 5 rep seems more dangerous than its worth. Why not just do closer grip bench or decline bench?

Also, it is super easy to build up from 10 reps @ BW to 20. If you manage to bench your BW, you should be able to knock out nearly that much on your first ever attempt.

[JM3]

Dastardly- that nails a lot of things for me- first of all, Im pretty sure I have good form - I tend to stay more upright to engage the shoulders and I dont swing at all with neutral (not forward hanging) neck- thats pretty much all I know about form but Im careful.
I cant bench bodyweight (200) and dont barbell bench more than once a month - Im at 180 x5 dumbells for next monday. When you say bench body weight are you meaning for ME or just sets across?
If Im fresh I can usually manage 15x2 then 10 on down.. but Ive been primarily just using them once a week to improve my press and to look like Im not training my wife when Im training my wife at the gym- the trainers there get funny about that and the dip bars are next to the rack.. I dont care about size- my appearance is fine- I just like being strong as I can and like having as many compound movements in the mix as possible. why 3x12 vs 3x15 anything particularly special about that or just numbers that worked for you?

[nkelman]

Fuck waiting. I could only do something like 15 at bodyweight, now Im on 3x5 with an added 30kg (@93kgBW)

Why wait? Dips are easier with weight anyway.