Before we start discussing the detailed exercise steps of tricep dips at home, the benefits, difficulty level, and alternative exercise, let’s review the following assumptions.
We live in a global situation where many countries have had to impose social distancing measures or directly impose quarantines, which means that many activities typical of our daily lives, such as exercising in the gym, have to be suspended.
Given that gyms in few countries have to close, the only remaining alternative to exercising is to do it at home. But thanks to the fact that we are used to exercising only with specialized equipment, when we find ourselves needing to exercise at home without any equipment we feel lost.
Many people also find it particularly difficult to train the upper body, much more so than the lower body, with particular emphasis on training that focuses more on the arms than the back or chest.
Triceps training during this time has become a challenge for many people, but this should not be a concern as there are ways to train triceps at home without any equipment, and today we will tell you how. But first let’s talk a little bit about the triceps muscle.
What are Triceps?
The triceps brachii muscle is located in the back of the arm. Its name comes from Latin, which means three heads, as it is of three origins and a single insert. It is the main extensor of the arm at the elbow joint, thus it can also extend and adduct the humerus.
This muscle covers most of the arm, therefore exercise them should be a priority in your workouts schedule.
Exercise your Triceps Muscles
The triceps muscle correspond for 60% of the entire arm muscle mass, more than any other muscle. But since its motion is an extensor motion in favor of gravity, it doesn’t naturally develop much. Therefore, to exercise it, it is necessary to perform exercises that should be against to gravity.
With all the necessary equipment at our disposal, such as pulleys or dumbbells, you can perform exercises that clearly focus on the triceps, such as the triceps push down, which is performed on a pulley, or the triceps extension, which can be done with dumbbells.
But when we don’t have the equipment to train it, people usually don’t know the steps of how to train the triceps.
Fortunately, there is an easier way to do the triceps dips, which can also be effective and can be done from home without any equipment.
Tricep Dips at Home, How to Perform!
To do this, you will only need a chair or a surface that you can lean on, and your knees should be at least as high as a small bench.
To perform the exercise, sit on the chair/bench, making sure to roll your shoulders down, and open your chest, to get a correct posture with a straight back, to minimize any strain that the shoulders can cause.
Place your hands on the edge of a chair or bench (make sure it’s a stable object), fingers toward your feet, arms semi-bent and elbows as close to the body as possible. The legs should be slightly bent, to be concentrate and support by the heels.
After you set yourself in this position, you should lower yourself toward the floor until your elbows form an angle close to 90. This should be done with a movement that you are in control of.
Then, using only the triceps muscles, lift up your torso to return to the starting position.
With this exercise, you will work primarily on the triceps and, to a lesser extent, on part of the chest.
Triceps Dips working muscles
Dips are a kind of easy workout steps that can be performed in short time, with virtually no equipment, but the results are impressive. On the other hand, the target muscle range focuses on the upper Limbs of the body.
The following muscles that work during exercise dips:
- Main Muscle: Triceps muscle
- Secondary Muscle: Deltoids, located on the shoulders.
- Other Muscle: The muscles of the Forearms and Traps (Trapezius) are located in the upper back. And some time the upper chest “pecs” if a narrow, shoulder-width hand grip is used.
Mistakes to Avoid During Tricep Dips Workout
People can sometimes make some mistakes during exercise that can lead to ineffective training results, or strains some parts of the body especially on the shoulders and neck, which leads to the implementation of incorrect and wrong steps, so to ensure the correctness of the exercise, avoid the following:
- While the hands grips to the surface and your body downward, people forget themselves and sink their head and neck between their shoulders. The correct movement: Make sure to keep your neck straight and long at all times.
- Move the hips up and down, without actually using their triceps arms and elbow joint to perform the election and extension motion to raise and lower the body during the exercise.
Control the Difficulty Level of Triceps Dips
By working out without the use of equipment to gain triceps muscle mass, you still have the option to control the difficulty level of the routine.
We usually have two levels of what we can work on, the idea being to focus entirely on the feet, without changing any steps of this routine or body movement, keep it as is, while keeping your hands on the edge of the surface, before starting the routine:
- If you want to start with a simple level, such as an easy startup, you need to place your feet flat on the surface of the floor. Then start your routine. By following this step you will reduce the effort and resistance to work the triceps arm.
- In case you want to move up to a higher difficulty level and increase the difficulty of the challenge, start fully extend your legs, lift your body weight by placing the edges of your heels on the floor, this way you focus all of your body weight are elevated by triceps and using heels for balance.
Benefits of Triceps Dips
Dips are a great exercise for beginners and for those who are more advanced in the exercises, so the benefits of dips are varied, since it is the best way to work the triceps, it puts a lot of exerts on them and works intensely and their flexibility.
It is an exercise that can be adapted to each person’s level of difficulty and that will properly work on the largest muscle in the arms and it is much better than push-ups.
Therefore, there is no reason to neglect arm exercises these days, as they can work properly from home even without exercise equipment.
The Concept of Exercise your Triceps at Home
If you do not have equipment for training at home, you can always choose the basic calisthenics exercise without any support or the upper body, which is the push-up. This exercise works the chest, triceps and shoulders.
When done in a way with more open space between the elbows, it will primarily work the chest and shoulders. Being done with the arms a bit more closed, it will emphasize the triceps but not the level we want to reach.
If we talk about calisthenics exercises, then the best exercise for the triceps muscles is not push-ups, but dips on parallel bars. This exercise concentrates on increasing the stress on the triceps, then secondarily working the chest and shoulders.
This is the best exercise that can be done for the triceps using only body weight, but to perform it, it is necessary to have parallel bars, and in the same way, it presents a certain degree of difficulty due to the stress that it exerts on the arms, it is necessary to rely on a certain degree of strength.
Alternative workouts of Tricep Dips
There are different exercises that can be done to strengthen the triceps other than dips, which add more strength and effective muscles during your training and complete dips workout.
Close Grip Push-Ups (Diamond Shape)
It’s a great example of a push-up that works the chest, shoulders, and triceps, a concept here where you need to move your hands closer than they would in a standard push-up, by place focusing definitely on the triceps.
Begin the exercise by lying on all fours with your hands and knees on the mat.
Place your thumb and index finger so that they touch, which will end up forming a diamond shape, keeping your arms extended and making sure to raise your body by forming a straight line starting from the head down until into your feet.
Then lower your body towards floor, so that your chest ends close to your hands, but be sure not to extend the elbows out to the sides of the body and keep the back straight.
Then return by push your body up by raising your chest to the first position.
Body Weight Triceps Extensions
You need a flat apartment bench, stable chair, or surface to grab onto, about 3 inches high from the floor.
Hold the edge of the surface with overhand grips so that your chest is facing the floor, while keeping your body straight.
Using your elbows in, bend your elbows and bow your head as low as possible under the surface.
Then push your body up to the first position by extending your elbows, then repeat.
Plank-to-Push-Up
Lie down on a mat, with a plank position and forearms flat on the floor under your shoulders, palms clasped together, and raise your lower body using your toes, with your legs closed, keeping your body straight and parallel to the floor the whole time.
Begin by balancing your body forward using your forearms and elbows, while lowering your body by pushing from your triceps into reach your palms. Then raise your body with your forearms straight back to the starting position and then repeat.
Press Up
Lay your body on a comfortable mat with your hands flat on the floor about shoulder distance apart.
Starting in a cobra position, while your stomach and hips are lowering to the floor, raise your upper body by pushing your hands into the floor and engaging your triceps to straighten the arms as far as possible.
Maintain stress on the triceps without fully straightening it. Then reverse back by lowering your upper body and return to the starting position on the floor and repeat.
Overhead Triceps Extensions
These are another best exercises for developing triceps with dumbbells, in my opinion, give the exercise a try.
Before you begin: Using heavy weights above your head is a bad idea. The benefits of exercise depend on your ability to use a full range of motion to properly function your triceps, and heavy weights complicate this and limit your flexibility, while increasing the potential for injury.
Start standing straight or seated position, feet shoulder width apart, grab one dumbbell with both hands, then gently lift it above your head until your arms straight.
Then gradually lower the dumbbells behind your head as far as possible, hold them for a few seconds, and then return the weight to the starting position to be above the head. Lock the elbows so that they do not extend to the sides.
Conclusion
Triceps using dips is a powerful routine to strength muscles at different levels, and it includes simple steps that can easily be done at home.
In addition to balancing your arms on the other front side, it is important to workout biceps muscle to expand strength and gain an evenly toned shape on both sides of the arm, ultimately producing the shaped looks of massive strength you need.