Russian dips

Hi guys,

I'm used to do the russian dips in the parallel bars but now the gymnastics season is over and we are on summer break, so the only bars that I have in the fitness gym are these ones with V shape, so it was not very comfortable, can you check it please?

The mobility exercise was easy as always but feedback is appreciated.

Hi ELoy, i have understood that those are not Russian dips only by looking the hands' position, too closely to the end of the bars. 

I understand the mistake because if you look to the youtube there are 100000000 videos full of bullshit saying that touching the forearm makes a dip a Russian dip. unfortunately, things are different.

on the Russian dips, the support in the bottom position is in the middle of the upper arm, on the tricep/bicep.

I'm gonna ask you to visit again the course page to check the correct execution.

1 hour ago, Alessandro Mainente said:

Hi ELoy, i have understood that those are not Russian dips only by looking the hands' position, too closely to the end of the bars. 

I understand the mistake because if you look to the youtube there are 100000000 videos full of bullshit saying that touching the forearm makes a dip a Russian dip. unfortunately, things are different.

on the Russian dips, the support in the bottom position is in the middle of the upper arm, on the tricep/bicep.

I'm gonna ask you to visit again the course page to check the correct execution.

Do you mean to flare the elbows to the sides so the bars touch the inner part of the biceps (like brachialis dips)? That's easier, no problem!

1 hour ago, Eloy Bote said:

Do you mean to flare the elbows to the sides so the bars touch the inner part of the biceps (like brachialis dips)? That's easier, no problem!

You will need to explain how going twice as deep during the dip is “easier”.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

47 minutes ago, Coach Sommer said:

You will need to explain how going twice as deep during the dip is “easier”.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

The range of motion is not an issue for me I can reach shoulder level with my elbows, but the flared out elbows seems easier for me, Next workout probably I will see that it's harder

18 hours ago, Eloy Bote said:

The range of motion is not an issue for me I can reach shoulder level with my elbows, but the flared out elbows seems easier for me, Next workout probably I will see that it's harder

Russian dip is one of the exercises where mistakes occur often. I highly suggest posting a form check.

35 minutes ago, Alessandro Mainente said:

Russian dip is one of the exercises where mistakes occur often. I highly suggest posting a form check.

Sure I will do. Today I checked the exercise and yes coach Sommer was right, it's harder but still easy, maybe a bit uncomfortable because my traps are always full of knots.

Hey coaches,

Tomorrow I will do russian dips with no cheating and I will record a video. Anything to correct on the IM that I posted on the OP?

Hey Eloy, I suggest moving the angle of your arm a little bit closer to your head so that it creates a 90 degree angle from your body. You might find that this helps you to get a deeper stretch.

3 hours ago, Jeffrey Bittner said:

Hey Eloy, I suggest moving the angle of your arm a little bit closer to your head so that it creates a 90 degree angle from your body. You might find that this helps you to get a deeper stretch.

Yes when I twisted the body I lost the 90 degrees. Today I focused on that and having both arms parallel.

This is my russian dips attempt of today:

As you can see looking the foot of the dips bar, it has a V shape. It's short, I unconciously bend the knees on the way up, when I do regular dips I touch the floor with my feet

Oh and the surface of the bars is very slippery, it's like a slipper paint and even with chalk my thumbs lose the grip when I go to brachialis at the bottom, I even failed to go up sometimes.

Hi Eloy, we have 2 classical errors here:

1- from the side view you can notice that when you reach the bottom position the shoulder is not in line with the elbow but it is more in front of it;

2-at the bottom the shoulders it is at the same height of the shoulders while it should be higher.

I would consider the knees and feet movement unnecessary. 

12 hours ago, Alessandro Mainente said:

Hi Eloy, we have 2 classical errors here:

1- from the side view you can notice that when you reach the bottom position the shoulder is not in line with the elbow but it is more in front of it;

2-at the bottom the shoulders it is at the same height of the shoulders while it should be higher.

I would consider the knees and feet movement unnecessary. 

Thanks Alessandro, let's see if I got it:

1- You said that the shoulder is in front of the elbow, should they be parallel? That means to fully flare the elbows to the side when going down.

2- Seems that I'm shrugging, I have to keep the shoulders down the whole time, right? That makes more sense to not lose the tension and be in a stronger position to push back up.

1- yes you got it;

2-absolutely yes. if do not make this point you have no chances to develop the L-russian dips!

This is today's attempt, I'm not sure if it's better or the same, but I focused on flaring the elbows more to the sides instead of back and keeping the shoulders as down as posible.

Only 3 reps. Maybe it's because of the slow down but I found it much harder to come back.

Good start.

Notice that your shoulders are right next to your hands in your upper arm support.  As your strength improves, work on getting those shoulders behind your elbows during the upper arm support.
 

Yours in Fitness,
Coach Sommer

OK I think I got what you mean. What I'm doing is going backwards maintaining the same elbow extension, and what I have to do is extend the arms more as I'm going backwards so the arms are less bent. Then when coming back I have to flex the arms again and finally push up to the support position.

Hi guys,

Today I put into practice your advice, I only did 4x2 to get used to the exercise.

I still bent the knees because I forgot to squeeze the quads, I'm focused on the upper body tension. Gimme time!

If you stop at the bottom of the 2nd rep you can notice that the shoulder is not aligned with the elbow, they are more on the back.

Sorry coach Sommer said to work on getting the shoulders behind the elbows, that's why I pushed myself that back

9 hours ago, Eloy Bote said:

Sorry coach Sommer said to work on getting the shoulders behind the elbows, that's why I pushed myself that back

it is a common tendency to make the exercise easier at the beginning, BUT it is also clear that you have a very small lean. probably not so significant from Coach' POV. 

So if you can perform the 5x5r you can move on.

1 hour ago, Alessandro Mainente said:

it is a common tendency to make the exercise easier at the beginning, BUT it is also clear that you have a very small lean. probably not so significant from Coach' POV. 

So if you can perform the 5x5r you can move on.

Thank you for your time Alessandro, I really appreciate it.

I will keep doing this exercise with low reps until I feel strong on the whole execution before move on. The video coach Sommer sent shows a lot more control than my execution and I aim for that. HBP, RC and SLS are the only foundations that I can take with some easiness but looking the program things start to get very hard soon, and because I'm nearly a noob in the core and SPL I can just take it with calm until I overcome my weakness in the other foundations.

Consider that you can reach the point where the body moves vertical without the "forward" jump.

11 hours ago, Alessandro Mainente said:

Consider that you can reach the point where the body moves vertical without the "forward" jump.

That's my goal, because I won't be able to do that kip when doing the l-sit variation.

Hi coaches,

I'm working on avoiding the kipping, can you check this one please?

I'm trying not to go too far behind the elbows, but I have no clue how to know that when I'm doing the exercise. Any tip for that? In this one I think I didn't went too far but it was just luck.

The only way is doing slow negative. the most beneficial thing is doing only the negative phase so that you can understand the alignment of bodyparts and understand the positioning of the upper arm and shoulders.