Rings Dips vs. Bar Dips

[B-MoreBeast]

I train in my garage and don't have access to parallel bars or a dip stand of any sort. I do have rings though. A few weeks back a Crossfit place was shutting down and I picked up some discount stuff to add to my garage gym. To get to the point I was wondering if any of you coaches know how well ring dips relate to regular dips. This morning I was reading The Quest for a Stronger Overhead Press by Bill Starr and he talks about having his trainees use Weighted Dips to help increase press and Bench Press strength. Starr also says before progressing to weighted dips trainees should be able to do 4x20 with their own bodyweight. Obviously 20 bodyweight ring dips are a lot harder than 20 Bodyweight bar dips. Would 10 ring dips be comparable to 20 bar dips? Thanks and sorry for the length.

[Tom Campitelli]

Ring dips are a little riskier than bar dips due to the inherent instability. If you wiggle, you can put your shoulder in a bad position. Both have a reputation for bothering people's shoulders. You might be just fine with rings and I have done my share of bodyweight ring dips without incident, but I am not in a hurry to recommend either movement. I don't know how ring dips compare to bar dips on a rep for rep basis, only that ring dips require more effort due to the additional stabilization required. Weighted dips are probably best done from a stable platform instead of rings. I'd recommend close grip bench and pin presses before ever worrying about dips if you genuinely needed assistance work outside of straight benching and pressing.

[Tom Campitelli]

I should also note that you may not need assistance work at all, depending on where you are in your training progression.

[B-MoreBeast]

Thank you Tom. You hit on my only concern and which is the increased injury risk from being on the rings. I will do them sparingly and continue on my regular program.

[asmuts]

Do you want to do weighted ring dips? The idea scares me. SS3 calls it "foolish for anybody" (p.274).

I just got some rings, mainly for inverted rows. Using a bar kills my elbows. . . . I tried doing a few ring dips for the hell of it. The first time I tried, everything started shaking violently after just 3. I tried again a week later and barely got 8.

I haven't done normal bar dips in 10 months. I used to do them with weights in a backpack. . . . In any case, I just gave them a shot after my workout today and knocked out 20 super easily.

The lesson: Ring dips are much, much harder (for me).

In any case, I don't think I'm going to work on improving my ring dips. The picture on p.80 in SS3 scares me.

As noted above, SS3 also warns against ring dips on p.274.

[B-MoreBeast]

Thanks asmuts. You were spot on with everything you said. I found this from Rip upon searching "dips" in the ebook version,

Bench pressing with an incorrect elbow position and certain gymnastic movements, like ring dips and ring pushups in the absence of adequate strength preparation, are good ways to put the shoulder in an anatomically or mechanically dangerous situation that you cannot control. Powerlifting is hard on the shoulders’ long-term health, and the recent fascination with gymnastic exercises by novice athletes has been responsible for many surgical procedures that would otherwise not have been necessary.

Another valuable quote I found when searching was you referenced in your post was

Ring dips are best left to gymnasts or other people at lighter bodyweights who are not training primarily for strength. Ring dips are a dangerous movement for your shoulders, and weighted ring dips are foolish for anybody; it doesn’t take very much lateral movement of the rings to place the shoulder joints in a position of such instability that it cannot be controlled. The shoulders can easily be impinged during a dip because the load is driving the humerus and AC joint together, and the addition of lateral moment force to the configuration has resulted in many avoidable surgical repairs to many rotator cuffs (see Figure 3-7). Do your shoulders a favor, and just do your dips on bars.

Again thank you for the advice and for alerting me to some importing info I'd been missing in SSBT3.

[Notrhwoods]

I'd recommend close grip bench and pin presses before ever worrying about dips if you genuinely needed assistance work outside of straight benching and pressing.

I am curious why you like CGBP better than dips. I debated on which one I should do to bring up my tricep weakness and ultimately went with dips because of the neutral hand position (helps with elbow tendonitis) and the extra coordination it takes to move your body through space. One distinct advantage I see with CGBP would be that it is more easily loaded.

[Tom Campitelli]

Close grip bench very closely mimics the lift it is trying to assist. People with sore shoulders can often do close grip bench, whereas dips tend to irritate people's shoulders.

[Will Morris]

One other note, people with shitty shoulders or elbows who have problems doing CGBP with a barbell can do so with an EZ Curl bar without issue.