I like to do strength and conditioning exercises for my body. I try and do a variety of exercises with dumbbells, barbells, weight machines and my body weight. One of the body weight exercises I perform for the chest, shoulders and triceps are dips.
Dips are done on a dip station where you balance yourself on the bars with your hands. The two bars run parallel to each other. You start with your arms fully extended and then lower yourself until your armpits are close to your hands.Then you push up again to the extended position. Also, keep your feet off the floor during the exercise. Do as many as you want and then lower down onto your feet and rest. Then you can do more sets until you are tired. Five years ago, my workout partner started us out with dips on chest days and then we proceeded to bench presses and other exercises.
At Spiece Fitness there are four dip stations – two assisted ones near the SpinZone room and two regular ones. One of the regular ones is near the Sports Performance entrance and the other is by the TV/Cardio area. Your gym probably has at least one you can use.
If I’m home and want to do dips I would try putting two chairs together back-to-back. This worked, but I was afraid the chairs would flip on me as I lowered down. And it probably wasn’t good putting my weight on their backs because I was too heavy.
One day I was in the kitchen and realized our L-shaped counter could be used for dips. I position my body in the center where the two sections meet and put my hands on the counter. The counter supports my weight and I can vary my hand position to hit my muscles at different angles. Click on the above video to see my kitchen Dips.