My buddy said I should get some pics of my bench dips and post em here. Yes, I'm probably insane for how I'm adding my extra weight.

Have you tried placing the weight plates on your lap when your doing the dips?

Yeah, but I always had a hard time keeping them there. Maybe I'm coming up too far from the dip, or maybe the bar is too high up. I'd love to perfect that exercise as I absolutely LOVE what that is doing for my tri's.

My buddy and I were discussing the differences between having them up high like that vs in your lap. Is there any fulcrum advantage one way or the other? Like with crunches, keeping the weight on your chest is easier than keeping them behind your head because you move away from the fulcrum.

The bench shot was just kinda nice because last night I moved up to 125 lbs (woot!). I think I could have handled 130 and I might try that week after next. I'm currently maxing out at 150 lbs. I started at <80 lbs so this is definant progress for me.

The other day, my brother in law came over and was looking at my setup and he asked me how much I could lift. I said "like what? bench press? 150 lbs." Then he said he didn't know how much he could do and I asked him if he wanted to find out. He agreed, and I asked what he wanted to start with and he said "same as you, 150". I looked at him dubiously but agreed anyway. He doesn't work out but he does have a very physical job with a lot of lifting. We slid the weights on there and I helped him off the rack, he eased down and then started to push up and couldn't budge it. He conceded right there that I was "getting pretty buff". hehe. Made me feel pretty good I guess. My work seems to be paying off one way or another.

Ok ... I'm done

One thing you might want to try is putting the weights in a backpack and putting the backpack on backwards (resting on your chest, straps around your back). That would at least transfer all that weight from the your neck to your shoulders.

For safety purposes, I would get a chair.
- Use your bench for your hands and the chair for your feet.
- Load the weights on your lap, and spread your legs a little wider so the weights are balanced. That should help stabilize them.
- Bend at the knees just a little so that your hips are lower than the knees. This will all help keep the weights in one spot. Also, if the chair is 1" higher than the bench, that will help.

I wouldn't put them around your neck. That is pretty dangerous. Have you thought about getting a full dip station or building one? They are pretty simple to build.

For safety purposes, I would get a chair.
- Use your bench for your hands and the chair for your feet.
- Load the weights on your lap, and spread your legs a little wider so the weights are balanced. That should help stabilize them.
- Bend at the knees just a little so that your hips are lower than the knees. This will all help keep the weights in one spot. Also, if the chair is 1" higher than the bench, that will help.

I wouldn't put them around your neck. That is pretty dangerous. Have you thought about getting a full dip station or building one? They are pretty simple to build.

I never thought about using a chair. I'll have to try that next week and see how it works for me.

I don't think I could convince my wife to let me put anymore equipment in the garage. :whistle:

Great that you're working out. Two questions:

1) How does the brushy thing on the wall help your workouts (the w/the long white handle and greenish sponge at the end)?
2) The weight around the neck....you're not actually trying to get qualify for medical leave?

Just kidding w/you ;)