Plates and Dips

[pastdoubt]

I know everyone says bench dips are for wussies, but wouldn't weighted bench dips be a good exercise for targeting the triceps? I find that my chest is pretty hammered after an intense workout and regular dips are fairly hard for me to do. Plus adding weight allows for progression (I use dumbbells instead of weight plates so I can add in 5lb increments). I also read that the more weight an excercise allows you to do, the more muscle fibers it recruits. I can do a fairly good amount of weight on weighted bench dips so wouldn't that warrant including them in my workout?

[Tryska]

question?

where do you put the dumbbells?

[Alex.V]

Not necessarily. Mechanical advantage means a lot. More weight doesn't necessarily mean more stimulation.

If I were you, I'd work on the parallel bar dips. let progression be for reps right now; you can work on adding weight later. bench dips aren't bad, but IMO they're inferior to parallel bar (With the intended purpose of tricep and pec stimulation).

[pastdoubt]

I hold the dumbbell about an inch or two above the knee cap, any higher would be too close for comfort .

[syntekz]

Slide the dumbell in between your legs.

[pastdoubt]

Oh and Belial, the reason I was asking is because I'm doing a fat loss workout for the next few weeks and I'm looking to isolate only the triceps. I know I could use nosebreakers or something like that, but I find that using a barbell or ez bar with triceps causes my right arm (dominate arm) to do most of the work, where bench dips seem to even out the load (my left arm is much weaker so it tends to burn more on bench dips). Also the number of reps I can do on regular dips after a few sets of high rep pectoral exercises is not nearly as high as I want them to be for a fat loss workout. It would probably be less than 6, maybe a little more depending on how I'm feeling.

[Gyno Rhino]

Bench dips torque your shoulders like nothing else.. I'd stay away from them. At least in parallel dips you can change your body angle to take some stress off that shoulder rotation. I'd say stay away from bench dips.

[Alex.V]

hrmm... well, I still don't feel that (when it comes to fat loss) there's any significant difference in being able to do 6 reps versus 10-15. that's a difference of about 10 calories. If you want to get your heart rate up, I'd say do some cardio instead.

My only point is that there's no reason to do a less-effective exercise simply because you can do more (Reps or weight). Have you tried DB skullcrushers? I like those. That might take care of your arm problem.