Weighted dips v Smith machine bench press

**Kentucky Fried Chokin** · Posted On: 12/13/2008 8:26pm

It's also one of the quickest ways to destroy your shoulders if you **** it up.

**TheRuss** · Posted On: 12/13/2008 8:29pm

Originally Posted by Kentucky Fried Chokin

It's also one of the quickest ways to destroy your shoulders if you **** it up.

How's that?

**Kentucky Fried Chokin** · Posted On: 12/13/2008 8:31pm

If you dip too deep you can injure your rotator cuffs.

**Emevas** · Posted On: 12/13/2008 8:42pm

Originally Posted by Kentucky Fried Chokin

If you dip too deep you can injure your rotator cuffs.

Am I dipping too deep in this video?

YouTube - Squats w/chains + weighted parallel bar dips

4:40 mark

**TheRuss** · Posted On: 12/13/2008 9:09pm

Originally Posted by Kentucky Fried Chokin

If you dip too deep you can injure your rotator cuffs.

Odd... I've never had that problem despite doing lots of dips, and I've got a real talent for finding creative ways to injure myself.

**GIJoe6186** · Posted On: 12/14/2008 12:48am

If you dip too deep and aren't flexible enough to got hat far and you are using more weight then you should be using and don't dip safely so that when your stuck at the bottom your just hanging there instead of being able to just put your feet down, then yes, you will hurt your shoulders.

Dips are a great substitute for the bench press if you can not bench. They work a similar movement, not the same but similar. I love weighted dips and am have made great gains on them. I'm 175 and my PR now is 3x110lbs. I love it and have no shoulder problems, just make sure that you aren't dipping to wide as the wide grip does seem unnatural to me.

Thank you Emvas for pointing out the "functional" strength. I hate when people ask about benching and dipping and are told to shoulder press or do any other upper body lift because they are more functional. When I punch people in the face my triceps thank me for dipping heavy.

Dips make you strong. Strong hurt people. Me like strong so me like dip.

**mjgb61** · Posted On: 12/14/2008 6:03am

Originally Posted by Emevas

Am I dipping too deep in this video?

4:40 mark

****! That's deep. I go pretty low (until I feel a pull in my chest/front delts) but I don't think I have the flexibility to go that low. I'm definately going to give weighted dips a try for a few weeks but it's going to be difficult to relegate benching to a minor role as I still have that rather sad attitude that big bench press = real man. (Which is probably why my full squat stinks and my legs are like knotted string).

**Emevas** · Posted On: 12/14/2008 10:30am

Originally Posted by mjgb61

****! That's deep. I go pretty low (until I feel a pull in my chest/front delts) but I don't think I have the flexibility to go that low. I'm definately going to give weighted dips a try for a few weeks but it's going to be difficult to relegate benching to a minor role as I still have that rather sad attitude that big bench press = real man. (Which is probably why my full squat stinks and my legs are like knotted string).

I added 10-15lbs (don't remember the exact number, have to backtrack my log) to my bench in 6 weeks doing nothing but overhead press and weighted dips. For most people, chest strength really isn't the limiting factor for the bench compared to the delts and triceps (mainly because most folks put too much emphasis on chest early into their lifting careers because they want "Pecs and Bis!"), and bringing up those two muscle groups should have good carryover into the bench press.

I love the bench press, don't get me wrong, but weighted dips are prolly my most favorite upperbody strength and mass builder.

Regarding my depth: I actually couldn't fathom not going that deep. Stopping the dip midway would require much greater effort from me than just sinking to the bottom and pushing back up, haha.

**mjgb61** · Posted On: 12/14/2008 11:08am

That's interesting. My reluctance to ditch the bench press was partly because I've been told (by people who give the impression that they know what they're talking about) that other pressing movements have little or no carryover to the bench press and that if you don't practice the move, you'll regress. This never made sense to me but I didn't want to go backwards and so continued with the poor Smith machine version because, as I've previously mentioned, big bench = manly man.

It's laughable really because I haven't even got a lot to lose: I've never quite reached the 300lb where manliness begins so I should just bite the bullet and leave them out for a few weeks. So I will. Rambling over. Thanks.

**Emevas** · Posted On: 12/14/2008 11:43am

Originally Posted by mjgb61

That's interesting. My reluctance to ditch the bench press was partly because I've been told (by people who give the impression that they know what they're talking about) that other pressing movements have little or no carryover to the bench press and that if you don't practice the move, you'll regress. This never made sense to me but I didn't want to go backwards and so continued with the poor Smith machine version because, as I've previously mentioned, big bench = manly man.

It's laughable really because I haven't even got a lot to lose: I've never quite reached the 300lb where manliness begins so I should just bite the bullet and leave them out for a few weeks. So I will. Rambling over. Thanks.

Don't get me wrong, specificity is a good thing in training, but it is still possible to improve on a movement without directly training it. The whole principle of Westside Barbell Powerlifting training is training movements that bring up the weak point in a lift, yet a lot of lifters don't actually hit the competition lift until the day of the competition.

Besides, if you think about it, the smith machine bench press isn't a bench press, it's a smith machine bench press. They're two different movements, that train the body in different ways. And if given the choice between a machine lift and a free weight, almost 100% of the time you're gonna wanna go for the free weight.