Bodyweight dips after we can do 30+ reps?

[huskers1998]

The cutoff for when you introduce weighted chin ups is around 15, since 15 is a (slightly arbitrary) cutoff for when you start getting into conditioning stresses for the movement.

The only way to strengthen a movement is to add weight. So, you add weight.

For all the reasons I laid out before, chins are an assistance exercise. Your progress on them is going to follow, not lead, progress on the other lifts. Like Rip said, the specific way you do them doesn't matter: incorporate them into your routine in whatever way fits. If they get stuck, but the other lifts are progressing, it doesn't matter.

You're getting yelled at because a) you are doing dips, which are not in the NLP. They have very limited utility as an assistance exercise for the bench, and there's no reason to include them unless they are actively doing something to increase your bench. Which it doesn't seem like you know they are doing. And b) you are doing 35 reps of them. Nothing you do for 35 reps constitutes a force production stress. I know this seems arbitrary but think about it for a second. There may not be a "hard cutoff" for when to stop including bodyweight exercises but if there were, it would be less than 35.

I understand your point, but in the book it says do Bodyweight on one day alternating with 3x5 while adding 1-2lbs per session. At no point does it say "once you can do X reps you should stop doing BW". I don't mind getting yelled at, if I say something incorrect you can correct me and yell at me all you want. If doing 3x5 and adding 1-2 lbs per session is no longer recommended because depending on what you wear and eat you will weight different each time. Then you can just say that.

[Mark Rippetoe]

98, if you want to do dips, do the goddamn things. We Don't Care.

[huskers1998]

98, if you want to do dips, do the goddamn things. We Don't Care.

I don't want to do dips. I already removed them. I am defending my reasoning for starting the thread and clarifying my question. Since I must not have explained myself correctly originally.

You all are acting as if I came in here saying "what is the exact rep scheme I should use for tricep kickbacks and wrist curls to replace squats and deadlifts on my homemade madcow 5x5 hybrid amraps from greyskull LP ". I just asked a simple question about a part of the actual book where I was confused.

[Mark Rippetoe]

You all are acting as if I came in here saying

I'm glad it's not just me.

[huskers1998]

I'm glad it's not just me.

It is not just you, which is why I am still responding to the comments here. For some reason people think I "want" to do dips, when I never said this in any of my comments.

[Maybach]

The question "why are you doing dips" as asked by a few of us is not entirely rhetorical. We wanted to know what your actual reason for including them in your programming was, and since this informs our advice. We firmly attempted to disabuse you of the notion that they belong on the NLP, which is a term YOU used in your first post.

There are good answers to this question: perhaps you injured yourself in some way that prevents you from benching but allows dips. Perhaps you cannot press and you have found dips to be a suitable substitute. Perhaps you are prevented from benching by a court order.

The only way to strengthen a movement is to add weight to it. Adding reps is not an effective way to strengthen the movement. I attempted to elaborate why adding weight to chins is not generally prescribed for novices incorporating chins, despite adding weight being the only way to provoke a strength adaptation.

The short version of that post is: because they are an assistance exercise. They serve miscellaneous important functions, but generally do not need to be aggressively strengthened independently. Which is why we asked you why you were doing dips: an exercise not used except by people who have a good reason for doing them (that is, independent of thinking they might be a good idea). This means there is no "optimal protocol" for dips. Or chins, for that matter.

If your question is "how do I program dips?" the answer is "it depends". If your question is "how do I make my dips stronger?" The answer is "add weight." However, the REAL answer is "make your bench press go up"