Which chest exercise do you think is better: bench press or chest dips?

Discussion in 'Health and Fitness' started by Frederick Foresight, Jul 16, 2019.

Which chest exercise do you think is better: bench press or chest dips?

  1. Bench press

  2. Dips

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  1. DTB2

    DTB2

  2. LS1Z28

    LS1Z28

    I always preferred bench press because you could adjust the angle to hit different areas of the chest muscle. Incline for upper chest, flat for middle chest, and decline for lower chest. Plus I liked the ability to easily change weight to do drop sets. I always liked dips for triceps.
     
    #22     Jul 16, 2019
    El OchoCinco and CaptainObvious like this.
  3. #23     Jul 16, 2019
  4. destriero

    destriero


    It's primarily a triceps movement, but should be in every split.
     
    #24     Jul 16, 2019
  5. If you bend your knees and your hips, with your chin down, you will be leaning forward, and primarily activating your pecs, especially at the bottom of the movement. And the beauty part is that you can get a real stretch at the bottom. The range of motion makes it special, in my mind, anyway.
     
    #25     Jul 16, 2019
    LS1Z28 likes this.
  6. destriero

    destriero

    Pectoralis major and minor. There is no middle chest nor middle Earth.
     
    #26     Jul 16, 2019
  7. destriero

    destriero

    Bench over fly. Close-grip bench over dip. For a pec-dominant workout that works both.
     
    #27     Jul 16, 2019
  8. That used to be my thinking but some material I’ve since come across suggests otherwise, depending on positioning.

    In any event, bench press causes me grief, so I do what I can to get things done.
     
    Last edited: Jul 16, 2019
    #28     Jul 16, 2019
  9. I stopped doing dips a long time ago because it caused pain in my shoulder joints. I don't have shoulder problems with bench press. I recall from when I did dips that they worked my triceps more than my chest muscles. That made me consider dips as being a triceps exercise, not a chest exercise. Vice versa, bench presses work my chest muscles but my triceps are loaded much less. These days I do flat bench press with a barbell, close-grip flat bench press with barbell, and incline bench press with dumbbells.
     
    #29     Jul 16, 2019
    destriero likes this.
  10. Years ago, I used to have some shoulder discomfort when trying to do them specifically for triceps by keeping my body vertical. That was a mistake. Since I started doing “chest” dips by leaning forward as explained in my earlier post, the movement has been pain-free. And, again, rightly or wrongly, it is the deep range of motion that I find appealing.
     
    #30     Jul 16, 2019