Dips on Rings!

When I first put my Top Ten Exercises up on the site, I had a few comments and emails asking why I didn’t have any chest exercises, well this dip will certainly target the chest. Regular dips or dips performed on parallel bars are a great exercise, performing them on rings increases the benefits.

A dip is what used to be referred to as a closed chain exercise; which can be interpreted as an exercise where the body moves around a fixed object (generally the earth) and performs a movement (think press ups, squats, chins as opposed to chest press, leg press and lat pull-downs). In most cases and if the person performing the dip is in good working order (no major injuries or imbalances) the body should function the way it is intended when dipping.

Performing dips is brilliant for developing all the pressing muscles of the upper body, including the chest, shoulders and triceps. It also develops the stabilisers across the shoulder girdle, trunk and torso. Performing dips on rings takes dipping to another level. Due to the instability of exercising on rings the amount of muscle that you need to recruit just to stabilise yourself is huge add that to the amount of muscle you have to recruit once you start moving and you’ve got one hell of an exercise.

To perform the exercise you need to firstly get yourself to the top or starting point of the exercise, this is with your feet off the ground and your elbows extended or locked. From here you lower yourself in a controlled fashion until you get to the bottom of the movement, your chest should be in line with your wrists, from here you need to push down until you return to the start position again with your elbows extended. You should try to limit as much unwanted or unnecessary movement as possible. Perform as prescribed.

Get Dipping!!

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