Parallel Bar Dips Exercise for Bigger, Thicker Triceps

Parallel Bar Dips are for Serious Muscle builders. Do have what it takes?

Bar Dips builds Triceps Faster!

Are you serious about Building Bigger Triceps? And not going to take puny exercises like kickbacks for an answer?

Then try the best triceps muscle builder - The Parallel Bar Dips and the weighted bar dips.

I have increased from 15 to 16 inch arms by concentrating on heavy dips for a 6 week cycle. The results have shocked me.

Now my clients do the same. Max out dips and weighted dips!

Inside This Article:

• Why bar dips are the best triceps builder
• How to perform parallel bar dips properly
• Reps and Sets for Triceps building
• What if you cannot do a single dip?
• Bar Dips Variations
• Recommended Programs

Why Bar dips are the best triceps muscle builder

Triceps are the key to sleeve-bursting arms!

Two big reason why dips are magical:

Firstly, Remember the No.1 way to select the best exercise for any muscle? Its loading. The more weights you can lift, higher the muscle stimulation.

And which exercise for triceps building loads the most weights? Triceps kickbacks, triceps extensions or bar dips?

Pick up a dumbbell and try to kickback or do extensions with a weight equal to your bodyweight and you will find the answer.

Secondly, with a slight change in angle you can target your chest muscles too. Thus dips are a compound move which works the shoulder and elbow joints, stimulating more muscles. More stimulation = More Muscle growth.

With that, lets see the best way to perform bar dips on parallel straight bars for maximum gains.

How to perform Parallel Bar Dips Properly

What you need?

1. Parallel or straight bars which are present in most gyms
2. Shoulder flexibility is important but its not a problem for most, unless you have shoulder pain.

Grip, Feet Position and Posture

Grip the bars tightly with closed grip, i.e. thumb wrapped around the bar. Grip as if squeezing the bar to stimulate more mechanoceptors which provides instant strength boost.

Wrap your legs in a scissor like manner for better lower body stability.

Maintain an upright posture or you lose the stress from triceps.

My 2 Step Bar Dips Technique

Understand that depending on how you do it, bar dips can stress chest muscles or triceps. In this article, you are using dips as a triceps muscle builder. Lets get on..

Step One: The Push

With the right grip, posture and feet position, take a deep breathe in and raise yourself till your elbows are locked out. No partials here.

Locking out fully contracts the triceps muscle and a small squeeze & hold at the top ensures total muscle contraction and increases time under tension.

Exhale out at the top position. Squeeze the bars as if trying to crush them, this increases strength especially in those difficult last few reps.

Step Two: The Pull 

Now instead of passively lowering yourself, actively pull yourself down with your biceps. This is a killer technique which will double your muscle growth as it takes the eccentric muscle lowering to a whole new level.

As you lower yourself make sure your elbows stay in straight line. No bending forwards or backwards which takes the stress off the triceps.

Also lower yourself to a level your arms are parallel to the floor {go lower than shown in the image above}. You have no business going below this point and stress your shoulders in an area where they are very weak.

Inhale on the way down, take a deep breathe at the bottom and push back up for your next rep.

Reps and Sets for Triceps Muscle Building

Triceps don’t care about puny weights as they are active all day long. Give me some heavy loads, they say. And they respond best to heavy loads.

If you can do 10-15 reps easily, don’t add reps. Instead do loaded bar dips.

Its easy to slip into exercises like pressdowns and extensions. Don’t! Take it from my experience. Dips are tough but TEHY BUILD MASS!

What if you cannot do a single dip?

Cannot do even a single dip properly? Don’t fret. Negatives to the rescue.

Place a chair in between the bars and stand on the chair. You can ask a partner to assist you also.

Push yourself to the top position by pressing with your feet. Now lower yourself slowly by keeping tension on your triceps. No bouncing, no quick movement.

Bar Dips Variations

There are two excellent parallel bar dip variations - Bench Dips and Behind the neck dips.

Just make sure that you don’t lower yourself beyond the shoulder range point. Shoulder safety comes first.

Recommended Programs

Try the NNMB Muscle Building Program for bigger Arms, legs and shoulders.