Bench Press vs Chest Dips

T

The Journey Man

New Member
I have noticed that Chest Dips give me much, much better chest development than Bench Press.
Right now, my workout is simple, like a 5x5

Deadlifts/Olympic Squats
Chins/ Clean + Press
Dips
One iso exercise (2 sets)

So I wanted to know, is there any signifcant advantage of incorporating Bench Press into my workout alternating it with Dips or is Dips alone fine?
 
This belongs in the general training forum....actually there is already thread about this here: Bench/Dips
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Heh I never pay any attention to what forum stuff is in cause I use the "new posts" feature, but anyway to answer your question (cause that other post is a bit long and complicated), chest dips are considered to focus on the lower (sternal) pecs, and incline bench is used to focus on the upper(clavicular) pecs. So its a good idea to alternate both every workout.

Has anyone done just dips and seen good overall pec development?

BTW Sci love the new avatar, looking thick bro
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Yeah, the general consensus seems to be dips+incline press (or incline flyes) are the best exercises for complete chest development. But the upper pecs are worked in dips too, so I would think someone could get pretty darn big pectorals from just dips. I actually do just dips for chest, and then seated press (60 degrees) hits my upper pecs, front delts and side delts all at once!

Thanks Peak!  I have to update my avatar every few months as fast as I am growing lately!
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IMO, the mixture of the two works best.

Dips though due to the much heavier possibility of load bearing tends to produce better results than bench alone.

Gironda's recommendations are as follows:

PECTORAL

Broad movement

Wide and middle Dip slide; flat bench d.b. press; bent arm flat bench d.b. fly.

High Pectoral

Incline d.b. press; neck press; bent arm incline d.b. fly; incline pulley fly (cleft)

Low Pectoral

(Feet forward and down slightly) wide dip; incline d.b. press; decline d.b. fly; double circle pulley fly; standing double cable pull down.
 
Dips seem to have a less stressful effect on the AC joints. I am doing dips while my right AC joint heals. Bench is what started the problem for me.

As has been pointed out before, you need to use a reasonably wide grip to really hit your pecs. I favour a grip width slightly wider than shoulder width to hit both my pecs and tris. Dips give me a really good pump in the entire pec area but I have found that body positioning during the movement makes a difference to how the exercise feels as does the depth of movement. The more you lean forward the more you feel it in your pecs as opposed to tris. I like to get a good stretch at the bottom position and I am careful not to drop quickly when using a heavy weight.

AFAIK I am the only person I know at my gym who does dips with a weight attached (probably in part due to there being no dipping belt - I have to improvise with a tricep push down rope and my weight belt!) but IMOO I have had better results from dipping than from any other chest exercise. My poundages have increased every single cycle (right now I'm up to bw + 120lbs for 5s). Last cycle my 5RM was bw + 110lbs and this cycle I made 9 (almost 10) reps with that! My body weight is currently hovering around 215lbs.

Chest has always been my weak point even though it's quite strong, so I was really cheesed when I had to stop benching. Thankfully dips have come to the rescue.
 
I have dropped all benching and my shoulders have sid "Thank You"! I suffer from too many years of bullshit benching and my bench is just out of proportion with everything else, i.e. it is too strong compared to my Shoulder and squat 5RM.

Since dropping the benchs, and replacement with dips as the sole chest exercise, my shoulder presses are getting stronger.
 
<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">IMOO I have had better results from dipping than from any other chest exercise</div>
This is my experience, too, probably because dips allow you to use more weight than any other chest exercise. In my opinion, dips should be your #1 chest exercise (wide grip, leaning forward).

Regards,
Dimitris
 
Dips are better for chest development for the same reason squats are better for leg development than the leg press.

1) Higher load
2) You are moving your body through space rather than just your arms or legs (This is also the reason pull-ups/chin-ups are so much better than pull-downs).
 
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(Lol @ Dec. 11 2006,05:21)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">My poundages have increased every single cycle (right now I'm up to bw + 120lbs for 5s). Last cycle my 5RM was bw + 110lbs and this cycle I made 9 (almost 10) reps with that! My body weight is currently hovering around 215lbs.</div>
You are truly an animal Lol!
215 lb.s and doing dips with 120 lb.s on your belt!
One year of HST and I think you are among the top ten strongest guys that post here at the forum.  Move over Leigelord and Stevejones, we have a new &quot;strongman&quot; among us.
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  I remember being impressed before by your squat and deadlift, but I didn't realize what a powerful presser you were.  Just think how much you'll be pressing once you strengthen your rotator cuffs a little and heal up your shoulders...
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Yeah about that rotator cuff....mine is popping and it isnt level with my left soulder if you look closely. It pretty much pops whenever i move it outward. I am pretty sure this is a very common injury amongst weight lifters.

Just wondering if there is anyway to fix that.

About the chest dips and bench press....there is less utilization of the chest muscles in bench compared to the dips which is farely obvious. I read you can get more benefit out of the bench press by having resistance bands that apply resistance when you near the top of your press. Basically it applies a rising tension as you follow through the movement and then decrease as you bring the bar back down.

I would just do an A/B sort of workout and do bench press on A and the dips on B.
 
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(scientific muscle @ Dec. 12 2006,04:24)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">215 lb.s and doing dips with 120 lb.s on your belt!</div>
Sci: Actually, I blew my trumpet too soon! The 2 big plates I use are 44lbs not 45s so I'm only lifting 118lbs total, not 120!  
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Once I can squat 400+ and dead 500+ I will feel like I have attained pretty good strength levels. I've just taken delivery of Rippetoe and Kilgore's &quot;Practical Programming for Strength Training&quot; which along with HST will hopefully help me to attain my goals. Looks like a good read.

If I can get this shoulder sorted I want at least a 300lb bench too.

Cova: Did you check this link?

http://familydoctor.org/265.xml

And check this thread for more info:

AC Joint injury

I see you have posted there too. Sorry, missed that one. I think if you read through all the linked articles you will have a much better idea a) about your problem and b) what you can do about it.

All the best.
 
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