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Wednesday, April 3. 2024

Dips and Pull-ups


Besides both exercises being upper-body, I link them because they share the same gym machine. 


To get the benefits of enough reps, many people (me) need the machine support for 10-15 reps/set. Fit guys and slender gals don't need it, but many of us do.


Dips, depending on form, can be either mostly tripceps or a chest+triceps exercise. 


Triceps are the major arm muscle, but to balance tricep stresses it's always good to do some curls or bench presses for balance. 


Dips are good, but pull-ups are one of the basic measures of physical fitness. In my first week of secondary school, we were all tested for our pullups, pushups, and running sprints - 100-yard dash. 


(It's funny/sad to recall, but we were all also tested on our singing ability, math ability, and public speaking ability. Whew. As a 13 year-old nature-boy nerd, I guess, all was deeply humbling. Humbling is good for the soul, mostly.)


Posted by Bird Dog in Physical Fitness at 13:21 | Comments (6) | Trackbacks (0)

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Keep in mind that a pull-up (palms away from you) is different than a chin-up (palms toward you). Chin-ups involve the biceps to a much greater degree while pull-ups work the lats more.

I'm not sure how a bench press, which works the triceps pretty hard, would be used to balance out other triceps stresses. Chin-ups work the biceps enough that curls are not generally necessary (unless you really want to curl, of course). Chin-ups are still superior to curls because they are a full body exercise (everything is moving), rather than the single joint as in a curl.
#1 RJP on 2021-11-17 17:09 (Reply)
OK, fair enough. But you are more talking about body-building than just general muscle conditioning and use, I think.

Anything hard is good.
#1.1 Bird Dog on 2021-11-17 17:26 (Reply)
Nope. Curls are body building as they focus solely on one joint, one muscle, while pull-ups are much more general strength builders.

Some hard things are better than others. Sure, a heavy set of curls is hard, but not nearly as good for you, or as efficient at building strength, than a hard set of deadlifts or squats. Unless you are a body-building, 'curls for girls' type, curls are a waste of valuable gym time. You get much more bang for your buck by doing pull-ups.

It's like the guys who do bench presses with their feet off the ground to make it 'harder'. You know what else makes bench harder? Putting another plate on the bar. Which also has the advantage of actually making you stronger, which the feet in the air position cannot do.
#1.1.1 RJP on 2021-11-17 17:41 (Reply)
I used to do dips thinking that they were a good triceps and part chest builder but I would always have some shoulder pain. After reading through The Physics of Resistance Excercise I discovered the reason for the shoulder pain. While dips do work the triceps and chest the muscles that get the most work are the front deltoids. https://novaxmandate.org/
#2 Brad on 2021-11-18 09:29 (Reply)
In my first week of secondary school, we were all tested for our pullups, pushups, and running sprints - 100-yard dash.
...
It's funny/sad to recall, but we were all also tested on our singing ability, math ability, and public speaking ability.

Nowadays, that battery of tests would insure that almost no one graduates from high school.
#3 Mike Anderson (Link) on 2024-04-03 15:16 (Reply)
Just averaged 100 pull ups a day for 31 days. Our F3 (Faith, Fitness, Fellowship) sponsored a completion where you received points for pull-ups, push-ups, miles run, miles, biked, miles biked etc.

Surprised myself that I could do this. Finished 4th out of 70 men.
Decent for a 65 year old.
#4 Mark Rutledge on 2024-04-04 08:16 (Reply)

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