This is for the bros out there that lift (hopefully all of you).

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weighted chinups is veiwed by many to be superior to pulldown and bent over rows, however the same bodyweight excercise done for chest is being placed last in most peoples workout (or not done at all).

I have been looking into dips and done them myself, here is why I think weighted dips are superior to bench:

  1. Better EMG activity of chest / triceps. (three times as much acitivity on the triceps as bench and also alot more to chest but less)
  2. You can dip more weight than you can bench because you use more muscles (you can do weighted dips with around 20-25% more weight than you can bench for better overload). Say you bench 280 for reps you can do dips for 340 for reps (including bodyweight).
  3. Russians found out half a century ago that excercises that moves your sternum through space activate more stabilizers and musclemass in general than excercises that does not.
  4. having replaced bench with dips I dont need to do any isolation for my triceps and my chest is far more sore, even if on a RPE scale it didn't feel as hard when I was doing the dips.
  5. The strongest natural bencher at 198 pounds, Marvin Eder was primarily doing weighted dips for his chest. He benched 575 pounds.
  6. You can make crazy fast workouts doing weighted chinups and weighted dips and then just doing deadlifts / squats / overhead press after without compromising quality.
  7. If you keep your form good the excercise will strenghted the serratus anterior and shoulder girdle over time instead of leading to impingement as bench is doing for alot of people.

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I have been increasing my bench doing just weighted dips and put on size on my triceps, even as a relatively advanced lifter in a short period of time (couple of months). The only con I think the excercise has is that some people don't have the stabilisers to do the excercise without pain and you have to not go below parrallel as it can really fuck your shoulder girdle - form is as essential as on the bench so look up good cues - Have fun building bigger arm and chest!

/over and out.

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