Assisted Dip Machine: How to Use It and Progress to Full Dips

An assisted dip machine helps you do dips by using a weight stack as a counterweight: you kneel or stand on a pad that pushes upward, so the more weight you select, the more help you get and the easier the dip becomes. That's the single thing most people get backwards. If you weigh 75kg and pin the stack at 35kg, you're dipping about 40kg. The goal is to keep lowering that number until you can dip your full bodyweight on bars, and this guide covers how to set the machine up, the cues that keep your shoulders safe, and a plan for getting off it.

How the assisted dip machine works

Most gyms have a combined assisted dip and chin machine. Dip handles sit at around hip height when you're on the platform, pull-up handles sit overhead, and a padded lever or footplate in the middle links to the weight stack through a cable.

When you step on and select a weight, the stack tries to lift the pad. That upward force cancels out part of your bodyweight. So the number on the pin isn't what you lift; it's what the machine lifts for you.

This counterweight design has one quirk worth knowing. Because the stack helps you most when the pad is lowest, it gives you a little extra help at the bottom of the dip, which happens to be the hardest point. Bands do something similar, though they behave differently at the top (more on that below).

How to set it up

Machines come in two styles, and the setup differs slightly.

Knee-pad machines are the most common. You climb the steps, grip the dip handles, then lower one knee and then the other onto the padded lever. Kneeling keeps your hips stable and makes it hard to swing, which is why most beginners find these easier to learn on.

Foot-platform machines have you stand on a plate instead. Your legs hang straighter and the position feels closer to a free dip on parallel bars, but you'll need to keep your core tight to stop the platform drifting.

Whichever type you're using:

1. Set the weight first, before you climb on. Start heavier than you think (more help), because you can always reduce it next set.
2. Check the handles. Many machines have rotating or angled grips; a neutral grip roughly shoulder-width apart suits most people.
3. Climb up and take your grip with your arms straight and shoulders pressed down, away from your ears.
4. Lower your knees or feet onto the pad slowly. Dropping onto it can jolt the stack.
5. Finish the set by stepping off one leg at a time while still holding the handles, so the pad doesn't fly up.

How to do an assisted dip

Start at the top, arms locked out, chest up and shoulder blades pulled down and slightly back.

• Lower under control. Take about 2 to 3 seconds to bend your elbows, letting them travel back rather than flare out to the sides.
• Stop at roughly 90 degrees. Your upper arm should end up close to parallel with the floor. Going lower than that loads the front of the shoulder heavily and adds little for most people.
• Press back up. Drive through your palms until your arms are straight again, keeping your chest proud. Don't shrug at the top.
• Pick an emphasis. A more upright torso shifts the work towards your triceps; leaning forward a little brings in more chest. Our guides to chest-focused dips and tricep dips go into this in more depth.

Lab work on dips backs up that the pecs and triceps do most of the work. A 2022 study of bench, bar and ring dips found the bar dip produced higher peak triceps activation than the bench dip, and the researchers described it as a sensible step up from bench dips (McKenzie et al., 2022). The assisted machine sits between those two: it's a bar dip movement pattern with the load turned down.

Common mistakes

Shoulders rolling forward. This is the big one. As you get tired, your shoulders tend to slump forward and up towards your ears, and your chest caves in. That puts the front of the shoulder joint in a vulnerable spot at the bottom. Keep your chest up and think about pulling your shoulder blades into your back pockets. If you can't hold that position, you need more assistance, not more effort.

Going too deep. Sinking until your shoulders sit below your elbows looks impressive and feels like a big stretch, but it's where most dip-related shoulder pain comes from. Ninety degrees at the elbow is plenty.

Rushing the descent. Letting the counterweight catch you at the bottom wastes the lowering half of the rep, which is also the half that builds strength towards a full dip fastest.

Never reducing the assistance. Plenty of people pick 40kg in their first week and are still on 40kg a year later. The machine is a ladder, not a destination. Write your weight down each session so you can see whether it's actually moving.

Swinging or bouncing. On platform machines especially, some people bounce out of the bottom using their legs. Keep your legs still and let your arms and chest do the work.

Interestingly, fatigue doesn't seem to wreck dip technique as badly as you'd expect: the same research group found that peak joint angles stayed similar between fresh and fatigued reps, while pec and triceps activation went up (McKenzie et al., 2022). That's a reason to train sets fairly close to failure, as long as your shoulder position holds.

How to progress off the machine

The progression is simple maths. Each time you hit your rep target, take one plate off.

Stage	Assistance	Target
Start	Enough for 8 to 10 clean reps (often 40% to 60% of bodyweight)	3 sets of 8 to 10
Build	Drop roughly 5kg once you hit 3 sets of 12	3 sets of 8 to 12
Close	10kg to 15kg of assistance	3 sets of 8, plus 2 to 3 bodyweight attempts
Graduate	None	3 sets of 3 to 5 unassisted dips

A few practical notes. Some machines step in 5kg plates, others in 7kg or 10kg jumps; if the jump is too big, use the add-on half-plate many stacks have, or keep the weight and add reps until the next drop is manageable. Two or three dip sessions a week is enough. And once you're down near 15kg of help, start adding slow negatives on parallel bars: jump to the top, then take 4 to 5 seconds to lower yourself. Those negatives teach your body to control your full weight long before you can press it.

When unassisted dips get easy, the next steps are adding reps, then adding weight with a dip belt.

Machine vs band-assisted dips vs negatives

These three methods all get you to the same place, and each has a different strength.

The machine is the most precise. You can change the help in measured steps, it's stable, and you can see your progress in kilograms. Its downside is that the knee pad steadies your body more than a free dip would, so your stabilisers don't get as much work.

Band-assisted dips use a long loop band stretched across the dip bars. You kneel or stand in it, and it stretches most (helping most) at the bottom, then helps less as you press up. That suits dips fairly well, since the bottom is the hardest part. The catch is that bands are hard to measure and the help changes through the rep, so you'll find it harder to know how much progress you're making.

Negatives are just the lowering half of a dip, done slowly with your full bodyweight. They build strength for unassisted dips quickly but are tiring and can leave you sore, so keep them to 3 to 5 reps a set.

Our pick: use the machine if your gym has one, add negatives once you're close, and save bands for home training.

Home options if you don't have the machine

You don't need a gym machine to get the same effect.

A dip station is the cheapest route: two parallel bars on a stable frame. Loop a resistance band over both handles for assistance, and you've basically built your own assisted dip machine. Our guide to the best dip stations in the UK covers stable models at different price points.

A power tower gives you dip handles and a pull-up bar in one frame, which mirrors the dip-and-chin setup of the gym machine. The Sportsroyals power tower is a popular choice, and you can band-assist both chin-ups and dips on it.

If you've got neither, start with bench dips off a sturdy chair or step with your feet on the floor, then move your feet further out as they get easier.

Recommended reads

• Dips: how to do them, muscles worked and variations
• Tricep dips: form and progressions
• Best dip station UK
• Sportsroyals power tower review
• Chin-ups: how to do them
• All workout guides