FAQ: Dips, upright rows and decline bench press

Today we have another article about training. We're going to talk specifically about 3 exercises - namely dips, upright rows, and the decline bench press. For each of these exercises there is a question that is often asked, questions which we will answer in detail.

Dips

Let's start with dips. A question that is often asked at the moment is: Do dips target the chest more or the triceps more? The question comes up a lot right now from people who do home workouts, because you can do dips very easily at home.

By the way, we are talking here about the dips where you hang in the air and push yourself up - not the kind of dips done on the bench. Dips on the bench are absolutely not for the chest and are not really an effective exercise. But more about that in a moment.

So, do dips target the chest or the triceps more?

A given muscle experiences a strong training stimulus when it is taken through the largest possible range of motion and is the limiting factor for the exercise. The main task of the triceps is to extend the arms and the main task of the chest is to guide the arms from the side to the trunk.

Which muscles are used most by the dips depends on how far you bend forward with your upper body and how far you rotate your upper arms outward.

The more you bend forward and the more you rotate your upper arms outward, the more you stress your chest.

One reason for this is that the outward rotation of the upper arms means that the arms have to be guided more inward by the chest. The chest is therefore taken through a greater range of motion, but the range of motion of the triceps is reduced.

Secondly, more pectoral muscle fibers are used because the direction of movement during the exercise with the upper body bent forward is much more in line with the direction of most pec muscle fibers than when you are fully upright.

A muscle can always work well when the direction of its fibers corresponds as well as possible with the direction of movement. By bending forward, you also make the dips more similar to the decline bench press.

And the decline bench press, of course, targets the chest more than it does the triceps. To be precise: it targets the lower part of the chest more than the triceps. In most cases, the chest is the limiting factor for forward bent dips with the upper arms turned outward, which are called "chest dips" for a reason.

If you now straighten the upper body further and hold the arms closer to the torso, the dips will target more of the triceps. The chest is then less stimulated and the triceps will be the limiting factor for your performance of the exercise. The triceps also have a much greater range of motion than the chest in this version of the exercise.

So it's up to you whether the dips you perform should focus more on the chest or the triceps.

By the way, the dips on the bench mentioned at the beginning mainly go into the triceps, but are not really a good exercise. One reason for this is that the chest is hardly used at all, since the upper arms are close to the torso and the pectoral muscle fibers do not correspond at all to the direction of the movement.

Also, the targeted muscles, the triceps, are not used optimally, given that the range of motion is very small. So when you do dips, it's best to choose regular dips or chest dips.

It is always difficult to explain exercises in writing. To get a better mental image of the exercises mentioned, you can simply search the Alpha Progression App for the exercises mentioned in this article. There you will find videos, exercise explanations, exercise ratings, and suggestions for alternative exercises.

Upright rows

Let's move on to the next frequently asked question: Are upright rows dangerous? Should you avoid this exercise?

Upright rows cause shoulder or wrist pain for some people. That is a fact. If this is the case for you and you don't want to experiment with the technique of the exercise any further, then replace the exercise with another exercise for the lateral delts - e.g. some lateral raise variation.

However, if you want to spend the time to learn the technique, then in most cases the exercise substitution is not necessary at all.

Wrist pain usually occurs with upright rows with a straight bar and a narrow grip. This setup causes the wrists to be very bent in the top position of the movement. If you have petite wrists that are not very sturdy, this can lead to pain. The solution is quite simple: grip the barbell a little wider.

If that doesn't help either, use dumbbells or an EZ bar instead of the straight bar. You can hold the dumbbells in such a way that your wrists don't bend as much and you can grip the EZ bar in such a way that your hands point slightly inwards. This also means that your wrists will not have to bend as much.

The most common cause of shoulder pain in upright rows is that some trainees bring their upper arms way too high. Although we know by now that we should go all the way down instead of only going down to a knee angle of 90° when doing squats, this is not the case for this exercise.

However, when upright rowing, it is better for most people to only bring the upper arms up until they form a 90° angle with the torso.

If you raise your upper arms higher, you run a greater risk of pinching your supraspinatus tendon. This is called impingement syndrome, and it can sometimes be so severe that you can hardly lift your arm above shoulder height. If you still have pain, change the exercise, of course!

If you're interested in the topic of impingement syndrome and the 90° angle story with upright rowing, check out this study by Schoenfeld et al. (2011). It describes the phenomenon pretty well.

Decline bench press

The next question (or rather statement) is why the decline barbell bench press is not a good chest exercise for most people.

Firstly, this is due to the great risk of injury when performing this exercise.

But for now, let's not even talk about the decline bench press, but rather the flat barbell bench press.

You surely know this: The first reps are quite easy and the form is correct. However, as soon as it comes to the last, very strenuous reps, you find it increasingly difficult to maintain proper form.

What then very often happens is that the shoulders no longer remain nicely pulled down - towards the legs - but gradually move more towards the head. This is because most people are stronger when they push with the shoulders pulled up a little.

So it's tempting to pull the shoulders a little towards the head in order to get through the last few reps. The problem with this, however, is that then - as with rowing too high upright - the shoulder joint is put in a bad position and the risk of impingement syndrome occurring increases.

As always: this does not mean that the bench press is a bad exercise. If you force yourself to finish the set as soon as your technique starts to fail, everything will be okay.

However, if many people already have the problem of their shoulders moving towards their heads during the normal bench press on the flat bench, then it's no wonder that even more of them get injured during the decline bench press.

During the decline bench press, gravity also pulls the shoulders toward the head. After all, you are lying with your head down. So it's even more difficult to keep your shoulders properly positioned.

Then of course the question is: Should I really accept this high risk of injury? Probably not, because the exercise is simply not an effective chest exercise - at least not the variation with the barbell. This is because the range of motion for the chest is very small.

By lying with your head down and bringing the barbell to your chest with your upper arms not completely spread, you touch your chest very early on. This is much earlier than in the normal flat bench press.

So you don't even come close to reaching the fully stretched position. You would if you spread your upper arms out and moved the bar towards your neck, but that's not worth it because then you run an even greater risk of getting impingement syndrome and the bar might even fall on your neck.

If you decide to stop doing the decline barbell bench press, what would be good alternative exercises that focus on the lower part of the pecs?

Incidentally, it is not obligatory at all to include an exercise in the plan that focuses on the lower part of the chest. Especially not if you perform the bench press with dumbbells or a barbell or the chest press with a slightly arched back.

With these exercises, the arched back already somewhat(!) simulates a decline bench, so that these exercises already work quite well for the lower part of the chest.

But if you're still looking for exercises that properly stimulate the lower part of the chest, then do the decline bench press with dumbbells instead of the barbell. You'll also have the problem that your shoulders can easily slide towards your head, but at least you'll be able to guide your chest through a greater range of motion.

After all, the dumbbells are brought down past the chest, so the chest does not limit the movement. However, a better alternative would be the decline chest press.

If the machine is a good one, you can take the chest through a large RoM AND there is less risk of the shoulders moving towards the head because gravity pushes the shoulders down in this position.

Nevertheless, you must of course concentrate on not letting the shoulders move upwards. Another good alternative exercise is of course the chest-focused dips we just discussed!

If you are looking for a fly variation for the lower part of the chest, then you could do flys on the decline bench with dumbbells. Here the range of motion for the chest is quite large, but of course you have to be careful that your shoulders don't move towards your head, because you are lying upside down again.

A better fly variation for the lower chest would be decline flys on the cable pulley. The range of motion for the chest is great and the risk of the shoulders sliding up is much lower because you are standing and gravity is pushing the shoulders down a bit.

So there are plenty of alternatives to replace the barbell decline bench press with other exercises.