All right, before I tell you all about what I feel is the best way to perform the Triceps Dips exercise – I have a very important announcement to make!
There’s a big reason why you haven’t seen lots of new Blogs and posts on my Facebook page in the last few weeks. A small part of the reason was my trip to China to teach the Fitness Pro’s in Beijing. The other BIG reason is…I’ve moved to South Florida!
Yes, that’s right! I’ve left my beloved hometown of Baltimore MD for the sun, beaches and warm winters of South Florida!
Although I’ve moved and now live in a new state, everything I do professionally will be  “business as usual.”
In fact, I’ll be using these next few months to focus primarily on writing and developing new educational products, which will continue to help you to utilize and successfully benefit from the scientifically based and battle-tested effective Performance U approach to strength & conditioning. The first of which will be the release of my newest DVD project: Angled Barbell Training – The Best Landmine Exercises.
I teamed up with Bert Sorin (owner of Sorinex Equipment and the inventor of the Landmine) to bring you THE most comprehensive resource ever assembled for exercises using the Landmine or any other method of Angled Barbell Training (ABT).
The ABT DVD will be released this coming Saturday, Oct 8th at a limited time reduced price and also include some killer bonuses. So, keep your eyes open this Saturday because this innovative, one of a kind DVD is absolutely not to be missed!
All right, now that you’re up to date on what I’ve got going on. That is, at least for now, because I’ve got a few more tricks up my sleeve, which are coming soon as well 🙂 Let’s talk about today’s exercise topic: Triceps Dips!
The Best (and Worse) Way to do the Triceps Dips Exercise
I’ve already made you read a good bit. So, I’ll keep today’s exercise tutorial short and straight to the point!
I DON’T recommend performing the Triceps Dip exercise with a bench (as shown below).
I don’t recommend using Triceps Dip with bench (1 or 2 benches) for two simple reasons:
1. The position of your arms on the bench, which is behind you, places your shoulders into and extreme range of extension. Continually forcing your shoulders into an extreme end range (or beyond) extension, especially with additional weight load, can really increase your risk of shoulder injury.
2. The bench dip just looks awkward and unnatural!
Now, if you’re going to perform Triceps Dips, I do recommend doing them using parallel bars. More specifically, I recommend doing parallel bar dips in the specific way I describe in this video:
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I used to avoid programing parallel bar dips because I felt they might be tough on the shoulders. But, after revaluing them and tweaking the way I have my clients and athlete perform them, I feel they’re a safe and effective exercise that offer unique benefits to other, more isolated triceps exercises.
Since, re-incorporating triceps parallel bar dips into my programs, I’ve made them a staple bodyweight training exercise. Once some one can master 15 bodyweight dips with proper form. I’ll then add additional load using a dip belt.
The Personal Significance of Today’s video!
Before ending this post I’d like to share with you why my video on triceps dips with parallel bars is significant and somewhat special to me.
Today’s video is special to me because it’s the very last training video I filmed at FitNology Health & Human Performance center, which is where I’ve trained my clients and filmed all of my DVDs, before I moved.
I have nothing but fond memories of my time at FitNology from training alongside my great friend Marc Spataro, to training an amazing group of dedicated and supportive clients, to constantly talking shop with our in-house Physical Therapist Morgan Johnson, to filming over 200 YouTube videos and over 10 DVDs!
Watching today’s video inspires me to not only reflect on some great memories and past accomplishments, it also excites and motivates me to keep doing everything I can to elevate my game and continually deliver the most innovative and most effective strength & conditioning concepts to YOU: my fitness family!
