How to Strengthen Shoulders With Chest Dips

Starting position for dips

Follow these exercises to strengthen your shoulder by doing dips and learn how to increase your reps while protecting your wrists.

Things You'll Need

• Dip bars
• Wrist wraps--optional

Instructions

1. Perform dips by grasping the two parallel bars that are approximately shoulder-width apart. Raise yourself up to an initial position with your arms extended and supporting the entire weight of your body.

2. Lower yourself to a final position where your elbows are bent and your shoulders are slightly stretched, and then use your arms to push yourself upwards back to the starting position. Try to do four to five sets of 12.

3. Be careful of stress on your wrists. Dips are hard on the wrists, so make sure the handles you grasp are centered below the heel of your palm, not further up in the hand/fingers. The added stress of bad hand position will quickly end your workout with a blast of pain!

4. Once you can comfortably do four sets of 12 reps, you can either add more sets to your routine, or use a weight belt to add weight to yourself for more resistance.

5. If you cannot do dips with your own body weight at first, you can get a friend to help hold and lift your feet. Some gyms also have weight assisted dip machines to help with this problem. Just make sure you know your limits and don't hurt yourself.

Tips & Warnings

• Add weight once doing 12 to 15 reps of 4 sets becomes too easy.

• Center the handle on the heel of your wrists; wrist pain is a big problem for many people doing dips.

• Make sure you know you can do your own body weight without hurting yourself.