Exercise guide · Advanced · Compound

Chest Dip: How to Do It & Muscles Worked

The chest dip lowers and presses your body between parallel bars with a forward lean. Leaning forward brings in the lower chest; staying upright shifts more of the work to the triceps.

Primary muscles
Chest
Secondary muscles
Shoulders , Triceps
Equipment
Body Weight
Level · type
Advanced · Compound

Written by the FitStack training team. Last reviewed .

Demonstration of the chest dip
Front view: muscles worked by the chest dip. Primary: chest. Secondary: shoulders and triceps.
Back view: muscles worked by the chest dip. Primary: chest. Secondary: shoulders and triceps.
Primary Secondary

How to do the chest dip

  1. Step 1: Position yourself on parallel bars with your arms fully extended and your body straight.
  2. Step 2: Lower your body by bending your elbows until your shoulders are below your elbows.
  3. Step 3: Push yourself back up to the starting position by straightening your arms.
  4. Step 4: Repeat for the desired number of repetitions.

Form cues

  • Support yourself on the bars with straight arms and lean your torso forward slightly.
  • Lower until your upper arms are about parallel to the floor.
  • Keep your shoulders down and away from your ears.
  • Press back up until your arms are straight.

Common chest dip mistakes

  • Dropping too deep with shoulders shrugged up.

    Fix: Stop at a depth your shoulders tolerate, usually upper arms parallel.

  • Swinging the legs to get up.

    Fix: Cross your ankles and keep the body still.

Sets, reps and programming

Do 3 sets of 6 to 12 reps after your main press. Use an assisted dip machine or a band if you cannot yet do 5; add a dip belt once you can do 12 or more.

Suggested sets, reps and rest for the chest dip by training goal
Goal Sets Reps Rest Effort
Strength 3–5 3–6 3–5 min 1–3 reps in reserve
Muscle growth 3–4 6–12 2–3 min 1–2 reps in reserve
Muscular endurance 2–3 12–20 1–2 min 1–3 reps in reserve

Ranges follow the ACSM position stand on progression in resistance training. Muscle grows across a wide range of loads when sets end close to failure (Schoenfeld et al., 2017), longer rests between heavy sets support strength and size (Schoenfeld et al., 2016), and stopping a rep or two short of failure works about as well as training to failure (Grgic et al., 2022). Estimate your working weights with the strength calculators.

Variations and progressions

Chest Dip alternatives

More exercises that train the chest as their main target:

Chest Dip FAQs

Are dips bad for your shoulders?

Very deep dips can irritate the front of the shoulder. Stopping with the upper arms around parallel and keeping the shoulders down makes them well tolerated by most people.

More chest exercises

See the best chest exercises, ranked →

Sources

  1. American College of Sports Medicine. Progression models in resistance training for healthy adults. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2009;41(3):687-708.
  2. Schoenfeld BJ, Grgic J, Ogborn D, Krieger JW. Strength and hypertrophy adaptations between low- vs. high-load resistance training. J Strength Cond Res. 2017;31(12):3508-3523.
  3. Schoenfeld BJ, Pope ZK, Benik FM, et al. Longer interset rest periods enhance muscle strength and hypertrophy in resistance-trained men. J Strength Cond Res. 2016;30(7):1805-1812.
  4. Grgic J, Schoenfeld BJ, Orazem J, Sabol F. Effects of resistance training performed to repetition failure or non-failure on muscular strength and hypertrophy: a systematic review and meta-analysis. J Sport Health Sci. 2022;11(2):202-211.

Step-by-step instructions and demonstration media are from the ExerciseDB exercise dataset; cues, mistakes, programming and FAQs are written by FitStack.

This guide is general fitness information, not medical advice. Stop if an exercise causes pain and speak to a doctor or physiotherapist about injuries or health conditions before starting a new programme.