Is It OK to Do Dips Every Day? Here’s the truth!

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Dips are upper-body strength-training exercises that work all the major muscles of your upper body. But Is it OK to do dips every day?

You can perform dips exercises everyday as long as you are allowing your body to rest and recover. Recovery is an essential part of a productive and healthy training program. If you do not give your muscles sufficient recovery time, they cannot improve and even may atrophy or weaken.

Keep reading to find out everything you need to know about dips workouts, how to do them properly, why dips are harder than push-ups, and more.

See also: Health and Physical Benefits of Doing Dips Every Day.

Is it OK to Do Dips Every Day?

You can do dips every day; however, ensure that you alternate your workout routine. For example, one day, you work your chest, triceps, and then work your back and biceps the next day. Keep in mind that your body requires a recovery period, not just individual strengths.

If you perform dips every day, eventually, you will wear your body out. To avoid being overtrained and reversing all your progress, throw in a recovery day after every two workouts. 

Beginners should rest for at least 48 hours between full-body workouts, recommends the National Strength and Conditioning Association

And advanced lifters working out at a higher intensity should rest 72 hours between workouts that target the same muscle group; however, they can also work out other muscle groups in the interim.

Getting recovery time between working out your muscles is crucial; otherwise, you will experience overtraining. Also, keep yourself hydrated with water to prevent injury.   

One slight change in the movement of an overtrained muscle and not hydrated can leave you injured and aggravate your injuries, and thus forcing you to stop working out. 

See also: Crossfit Vs. Gym: Which One is Should You Choose?

How to Do a Dip Workout?

Dips are multi-joint, compound workouts targeting several upper-body muscle groups, including shoulders, chest muscles, triceps. And you can do a dips workout anytime and anywhere, from the edge of your living room sofa to the bench at the gym.

To perform a dip workout at home, you first need to find a sturdy bench or chair. Also, any stable elevated surface will work.

1. Sit on your bench or chair with your feet flat on the floor, hip-distance apart, and your arms at your side.
2. Place your hands so that your palms are down alongside your hips. And grip the front of the chair seat with your fingers. 
3. Move your torso forward off the bench or chair with your arms stretched. Your glutes should hover over the floor while you slightly bend your knees. Your heels should reach the floor a few inches (cm) in front of your knees.
4. Inhale as you gently and slowly lower your body, hinging at the elbows till each forms a 90-degree angle.
5. Exhale as you push up to your original position with your arms completely extended.
6. Repeat 10 to 15 times for your first set.

Check out this video for instructions on how to do a dip workout.

What Muscles Do Dips Work?

Dip exercises are very effective moves for developing a high level of muscle activity in the triceps, found a research study issued by the American Council on Exercise (ACE).

In other words, dips are excellent exercises to improve size, strength, and power in the triceps. And adding dips variation to your training program is a good idea, especially if you are looking to develop your triceps and improve your pressing strength.

We all use our triceps in everyday movement involving extending the elbow and forearm. And we use our triceps when lifting things, including grocery bags, walking our dog, or reaching for things overhead.

Once you can do dips on the actual dip stand and achieve several reps, you can make your workout more challenging and productive by adding external resistance. 

With constant repetition, you will get better at doing dip exercises. In addition, being a light weighted individual can make doing repetition easier as there is less load. You can throw in some variations to make them more challenging by adding external resistance and to build strength as high reps build strength endurance.

• Performing a dip exercise vertical to the floor targets your triceps more than your chest. 
• Performing a dip exercise by leaning forward slightly builds your chest muscles more than your triceps.

See also: Does Chin Ups Make You Taller Here’s the truth!

How Many Dips a Day? 

How many dips a day depends on your strength, fitness goals, the added weight, and dip variation. Try to do as many reps as you can spread out throughout the day. For instance, you can start your day with a few dip reps, do another dip rep before lunchtime, and then end your day with another few dip repetitions. 

Aim to do dips exercises at least twice a week. Start with three sets of 5–10 and progress to 5 sets of 10, which will give you size and strength.

However, if you don’t have enough strength, try to do five reps or any amount you are comfortable performing. If you find performing 10 dip exercise reps too easy, you can get a dip belt and add weight.

While dips are a great exercise, they are also technically demanding and easy to perform with improper form. And doing dips exercises everyday may tamper with your ability to perform the reps properly, which may lead to shoulder issues.

Finally, when you master doing dip exercises properly, you can incorporate other workouts such as push-ups and pull-ups. 

See also: Here are all the 9 Effective CrossFit Foundational Movements You need!

Dips vs. Push ups Muscles Worked.

Both dips and push-ups exercises work your pecs, anterior deltoids, and triceps. However, each workout targets a different part of the body. Dips exercises target the lower pecs more, while push-up exercises focus on the upper and lower pecs. 

In addition, both push-ups and dips have several variations targeting various anterior upper body muscles and tend to work the pectoralis, triceps, and anterior deltoid and require the use of the rectus abdominis for stabilization. However, dip exercises tend to focus more on the sternal head of the pectoralis (‘lower chest’) with decreased clavicular (‘upper chest’) activation. 

Why are Dips Harder than Push-ups?

Performing a standard push-up requires less resistance than doing dip exercises. Doing a standard push-up requires using about 60–70% of your body weight while performing dip exercises involves about 96% of your body weight.  

The main difference is that when you do a standard push-up, your feet are helping to hold that weight up. In contrast, you do dip exercises without any surface contact other than your grip on the pressing surface. In other words, to do dip exercises, you need to use more strength to move the whole body weight because your feet are not on the ground.

In addition, a basic pushup works mainly the pec major and tricep, whereas the dip uses almost the entirety of the chest. You can also modify pushups and hit various muscles within the arms, shoulder, and pecs. 

Just because dips are more challenging doesn’t mean you shouldn’t avoid doing pushups. Basic pushups are an excellent place to start and always make good for warming up. You can do different variations and get a great workout. Both push-ups and dips exercises are also a perfect addition if you are busy, traveling, and want to keep yourself in shape.

How To Make Your Dip Workout Easier? 

When doing dip exercises, try to keep your feet squeezed together and straight out forward instead of bending the knee and hanging backward. And, if you find performing dip exercises difficult, try these two exercises. Jackknife dip is easier because you can put your feet down like semi-squatting. 

• The jackknife dip, in which case your feet would be on the ground, you are in the jackknife position, and your hand is on the bars or rings for support. 
• The ballet dip, in which case your feet are under you on the tip of the toes. It doesn’t support too much strength but removes the legs’ weight from the exercise and provides a little more stability.  

However, dips are still more challenging due to the simple fact that you are lifting more weight. They make a great exercise to add to a weekly routine for growing your chest, shoulders, and triceps.

See also: Why Are Resistance Bands Very Effective in Reaching Your Fitness Goals? A definite answer!

Best Tips for Dip Workout proper form

If you can, consider hiring a personal trainer to help you perform dip exercises with proper form. Once you start adding weight on top of your body weight, you can injure yourself. And, if you are a beginner or a heavier starter, you need to exercise some caution with doing dips. A shoulder injury can start small, eventually become an ordeal. As always, learning proper techniques is crucial to a successful fitness plan.

Here are a few tips to help you perform a dip workout properly:

• Ensure you keep your elbows straight behind you versus splaying them out.
• Avoid shrugging your shoulders and keep them neutral, with your neck relaxed.
• You can make it challenging by straightening your legs and positioning only your heels on the floor instead of the whole foot.

See also: Here are Running 5km Everyday Health and Mental Benefits

Wrapping Up

Overall, it is ok to do dips every day, but ensure you add variation to your fitness routine and allow your body muscles to rest and recover.

Experts recommend doing at least two sessions of movements like chair dips and other strength training each week. I would recommend combining dip workouts with physical activities such as running, yoga, and doing push-ups, pull-ups, and chin-ups to keep your body healthy and strong.

And above all, this will help you achieve your weekly dose of 150 minutes of moderate or 75 minutes of vigorous cardiovascular activity as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).