3 Common Mistakes Beginners Make During Dips

⇣ 3 DIP MISTAKES⇣ 1 - “THE SHRUG” (No Scapula Depression) Pushing the shoulders down (away from the ears) is something you should be aiming to keep at all times. With bodyweight dips, weighted dips, forward lean dips… Scapula depression is a must. Unless you are intentionally doing dips elevating your scapula, for your own purposes. Gotta keep our minds open. Anti-fragility is real. 2 - “THE ELBOW TO THE SIDE” (No Shoulder External Rotation) Internally rotating your shoulders makes your biceps face your body, which leads to a very probable movement path towards flaring your elbows when doing a dip. Flaring the elbows too much could result in shoulder impingements – by reducing the subacromial space of the shoulder. Not something you want. However, too much of the opposite (externally rotating) isn’t necessarily better. Tucking the elbows too much increases the tension and stresses the front delts specially when your shoulder mobility is limited. Respect and appreciate the uniqueness of your anatomy, and adjust to a degree of external rotation that feels comfortable to you. Here is a curveball… On wider dip bars (where the bar width is way wider than your shoulder width) you can internally rotate the shoulders and not flare the elbows. Good or bad… Looks like a big tangent topic. 3 - “THE LEG-CROSS” (Inconsistent & Imbalanced Body Position) Putting one leg over the other automatically makes us open and separate our legs. An asymmetrical position that isn’t efficient and could create unwanted compensations. Lock the legs together to keep a more solid line of tension. If possible, keep them straight for a higher transferability into other variations (weighted) and skills (planche, handstand, front lever…) If not, bend the knees, but know that you are adding one more thing in the complex. Keeping them straight will always be easier and more efficient. No added hamstring tension there. We hope these tips serve you well family. Much love! - The SM Team