Descend into the pain
- malthejarlby
- Aug 12, 2025
- 2 min read
I love dips. Like squats, they scare people. They’re afraid to go deep, afraid to push the limits, so they choose the bench press instead. Don’t get me wrong — I love the bench too — but I’m writing this to show you that dips are at least as good, and in some ways, better.
Dips is a lift you can progress on for decades. Add a little weight at a time and you’ll keep getting stronger for years without hitting a ceiling. They also give your chest and shoulders a deep, loaded stretch that keeps them healthy and resilient — building strength where most people are weak. Progress can also be more than just adding weight. Increasing your range of motion and improving form can be a damn good type of progression. Compared to the regular bench, dips have a much better range of motion. That body just keeps getting in the way of a good stretch...
They’re not just chest and triceps either. Heavy dips light up your traps, make your lats work for stability, and force your whole upper body to stay tight while your abs stay braced. Dips are a full-body exercise. For heaven’s sake, the only muscle that has ever cramped on me during heavy dips is my abs.
In programming, dips can work well for racking up your weekly pressing volume and support a healthy shoulder girdle while allowing your shoulder blades to move freely. But they can just as well take the spotlight and be a stable core exercise for any serious lifter — try using a concentrated loading cycle like Smolov Jr and ramp your pressing to new heights.
It’s even surprisingly safe with an easy self-spotting option built in. If you set it up smartly, you just lower your feet to relieve yourself from the load, allowing you to go beyond failure in a safe manner. No risk of dropping anything on yourself.
If you treat them with respect, dips will build pressing power, muscle, and shoulder health beyond more or less anything else. Stop fearing the depth. Strap on some weight and start descending.
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