By Mike Shilling, Recovery & Training Editor · Updated 28 June 2026
Tricep dips are a bodyweight press where you support yourself on parallel bars, a dip station or the edge of a bench, then bend and straighten your arms to drive your body up. Done with an upright torso and your elbows tucked, they load the triceps harder than almost any other bodyweight move, which is why they belong in any arm or push day. They also happen to be one of the most misunderstood exercises in the gym: get the torso angle and shoulder position wrong and you turn a great triceps builder into a shoulder niggle. Here's how to do them properly, what they train, and how to scale them up or down.
You can dip on a fixed dip station, a set of parallettes, gymnastic rings, or a sturdy bench. Parallel bars set slightly wider than your hips are the classic setup, so that's what these cues assume.
Breathe in on the way down, out as you press. Quality beats depth every time here.
The cue that saves your shoulders
Depress your shoulder blades and hold that position for the whole set. If your shoulders creep up towards your ears at the bottom of the rep, you've lost the packed position and the joint takes load it shouldn't. Shoulders down, chest proud, elbows travelling straight back.
Tricep dips are a closed-chain vertical press, so several muscles share the job, with the triceps out in front.
Why bother when a triceps pushdown exists? Because dips give you things the machine can't.
Shrugging at the bottom. If your shoulders ride up towards your ears, you lose scapular control and stress the front of the joint. Poor scapular positioning is a hallmark of shoulder impingement (scapular biomechanics study), so keep the blades pinned down the whole way.
Going too deep, too soon. Sinking until your shoulders are far below your elbows loads a deep, stretched position that untrained shoulders often don't like. Build the range gradually; upper arms to parallel is plenty to start.
Flaring the elbows when you want triceps. Wide, flared elbows pull the chest in and take tension off the triceps. If arms are the goal, tuck the elbows so they brush your sides and travel straight back.
Leaning forward by accident. A forward lean is fine if you're chasing chest, but if you meant to hit triceps and keep drifting forward, you'll wonder why your pecs are sore instead. Pick an angle and hold it.
Bench dips with your hips out too far. On bench dips, keeping your backside a long way from the bench cranks the shoulder into internal rotation under load. Keep your hips close to the edge and don't drop past a right angle at the elbow.
Bouncing. Dropping fast and rebounding out of the bottom uses momentum, not muscle, and it's how people tweak things. Control the lower, own the bottom, then press.
Once plain dips feel easy, or if full bodyweight is still out of reach, adjust the difficulty rather than grinding away at the same thing.
Work dips into your workouts twice a week, run 3 to 4 sets of 6 to 12 reps, and add either a rep or a little weight whenever you hit the top of the range with clean form. When bodyweight sets stop being hard, load them; that's the whole game.
Tricep dips are a compound press, so the triceps do most of the elbow-straightening work while your lower chest and front deltoids help drive you back up. Your scapular stabilisers, upper back and core all fire to keep your shoulders stable and your body from swinging. Staying upright with your elbows tucked shifts more of the load onto the triceps; leaning your torso forward pulls the chest in.
Parallel bar dips are the stronger triceps and chest builder because you move your full bodyweight through a longer range and your shoulders sit in a more natural position. Bench dips are a useful starting point when you can't yet hold yourself on bars, but the behind-the-back arm position puts the shoulder in more internal rotation, so keep the depth modest and don't sink until your shoulders scream. Progress to bars when you can.
To make them easier, keep your feet on the floor (bench dips), loop a resistance band under your knees for assistance, or lower slowly and step back up. To make them harder, slow the lowering phase to 3 or 4 seconds, add a pause at the bottom, or hang a plate or dumbbell from a dip belt once eight to ten clean bodyweight reps feel manageable.
Lower until your upper arms reach roughly parallel with the floor, or until your shoulders sit just below your elbows. That gives you a full, productive range without forcing the shoulder into a deep, loaded stretch it may not tolerate. If you feel a sharp pinch at the front of the shoulder, cut the depth back and work on scapular control before going lower.
Yes. The triceps make up roughly two thirds of your upper arm, so loading them through a full range with dips adds size and lockout strength that curls never will. Run 3 to 4 sets of 6 to 12 reps, add weight or reps over time, and pair them with a curl variation for the biceps to fill out the whole arm.
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