Right now I can do about 7 clean dips, but only 1 or 2 pullups -- unassisted, just bodyweight. I was just curious if it is common to be able to do more dips than pullups, or if my back/biceps are weaker than my chest/triceps.

Are your lifts symmetrical, or is this a pointless question?

Right now I can do about 7 clean dips, but only 1 or 2 pullups -- unassisted, just bodyweight. I was just curious if it is common to be able to do more dips than pullups, or if my back/biceps are weaker than my chest/triceps.

Are your lifts symmetrical, or is this a pointless question?

They're very much different exercises, the pull-ups/chin-ups (same thing diff. name) are mainly using your lats and biceps, while dips use your triceps, lats (more or less so depending on how far apart your arms are on execution) and to some extent your chest.

I do completely different numbers of chin-ups to dips: I can do roughly 5, 3 and 2 full chin-ups in their respective sets (while attempting the rest to make up the 10 reps), but I can do 3 x 12 dips failing on my last 1 or 2 reps in the final set.

If you stick at doing chin-ups your numbers will improve, I could hardly do 2 on first set when I started trying them.

while dips use your triceps, lats (more or less so depending on how far apart your arms are on execution) and to some extent your chest. I'm interested to hear why you think the lats, which are pulling muscles, are worked to any significant degree during a pressing movement like dips.

I'm interested to hear why you think the lats, which are pulling muscles, are worked to any significant degree during a pressing movement like dips.

i didnt think they were either. but he is right. check it out.
http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/Triceps/ASTriDip.html

now i know why the handle bars are adjustable on the assisted dip machine thanks :tucool:

I'm interested to hear why you think the lats, which are pulling muscles, are worked to any significant degree during a pressing movement like dips.

It depends on the angle you take when doing the dips. If you take an almost vertical position with a wide grip, your lats will be doing a lot of the work. Lean forward more and you will work more of the chest as opposed to the lats (in a similar way that doing an incline bench works your shoulders more and your chest less).

With a narrow grip, more work is done by the triceps (again, similar to the way a bench press works).

i didnt think they were either. but he is right. check it out.
http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/Triceps/ASTriDip.html I wouldn't call a synergist muscle ("a muscle that assists another muscle to accomplish a movement") one that is getting worked to any significant degree (which is what I stated in my previous post).

Not trying to nitpick, but I thought it might be a little misleading for The Mike to imply that lats are a primary muscle involved in dips (since he listed them second). They are a stabilizer during the movement; tris, shoulders, and chest (depending on angle) are the primary movers involved in dips.

It depends on the angle you take when doing the dips. If you take an almost vertical position with a wide grip, your lats will be doing a lot of the work. They'll be doing a lot more of the stabilizing of the upper body, but very little of the actual pressing work that are required during dips.

Not trying to start a big thing, I just think it's misleading for anyone to claim the lats play a bigger role in the movement than shoulders or chest (which I thought The Mike's post implied).

:D

Not trying to start a big thing, I just think it's misleading for anyone to claim the lats play a bigger role in the movement than shoulders or chest (which I thought The Mike's post implied).

:D

I did say "more or less so" though ;) I know they're not a primary muscle in the movement, most important is that I mentioned the triceps first, I didn't list the other two in any particular order.

I did say "more or less so" though ;) I know they're not a primary muscle in the movement, most important is that I mentioned the triceps first, I didn't list the other two in any particular order. :tu: