Why You Should Include Single Bar Dips in Your Routine
Dips are one of the all-around best upper body gymnastics exercises that you can include in your workout routine. Done properly, dips will increase the strength and mobility in your chest, shoulders, and arms, and they also serve as an excellent intermediate step on the path towards getting a strict muscle-up.
Whereas dips are most often performed on parallel bars or rings, it is also beneficial to include Single Bar Dips in your routine. Single Bar Dips provide their own unique challenge to your strength, flexibility, and coordination, especially advanced progressions such as Korean dips. In this post, we will detail why you should include Single Bar Dips in your routine, as well as how you can get started with this exercise today.
Getting Started with Single Bar Dips
For many people new to Gymnastic Strength TrainingTM, doing dips on a single bar may be a completely new movement. For this reason, it is important to make sure that your shoulders, elbows, and wrists are all physically prepared so that you can learn how to do Single Bar Dips safely and effectively.
When approaching Single Bar Dips for the first time, Coach Christopher Sommer of GymnasticBodies recommends that you start by first focusing on preparing the joints for the mobility and loads necessary for this exercise. In this case, your shoulders will need adequate extension mobility back behind your body, and your wrists will also need to be strong enough to support your entire bodyweight.
Korean Dips are a great challenging exercise straight out of the GB Foundation Series.
Fortunately, the GB Courses are full of bodyweight exercises that you can include in your home workout routine today in order to prepare your joints for Single Bar Dips. Specifically, the Reverse Plank is a simple and effective isometric hold that will strengthen your wrists and stretch your shoulder extension. When combined with other staple GSTTM exercises such as the pushup, Reverse Planks will help develop the physical capacities needed to later progress towards Single Bar Dips.
How to Do Single Bar Dips
Once you are ready, you can include Single Bar Dips in your routine so that you can build upper body pushing strength and begin preparing for bar muscle-ups. To start, set a parallel bar or another single bar at about mid-chest height. Jump on top of the bar so that your hands are wider than shoulder width and the bar is touching your hips. Slowly, lower to the bottom of your dip, making sure to balance on top of the bar while you descend. Pause briefly at the bottom, then press up strongly back up to the top before repeating.
As you get stronger with Single Bar Dips, you can try progressing to a more advanced progression: Korean Dips. Exercises such as Korean Dips really tie together the need for both strength and mobility, and if you have not been training the full extent of the GB Courses, then you will quickly find your deficiencies.
For Korean Dips, start in front of the bar and jump on top so that the bar is behind your hips. With either an underhand or overhand grip, support your body weight so that your glutes are mostly clear of the bar. Once ready, slowly descend down to the bottom of the dip, doing your best to control the swinging motion with as little momentum as possible. As you can, push back to strongly to the top of the dip so that your hips are on top of and in front of the bar once again. Repeat for reps!
Takeaway Points:
- Single Bar Dips are beneficial to prepare your chest, shoulders, and arms for more advanced movements later on, such as the strict muscle-up.
- The GymnasticBodies Online Courses are full of exercises to help prepare your body for the rigors of Single Bar Dips, including Reverse Planks.
- Once you are ready, Single Bar Dips and even more advanced progressions like Korean Dips will provide unique challenges to your strength, mobility, and coordination.
So if you are looking to get stronger and learn new movements, be sure to include GymnasticBodies Single Bar Dips in your routine today!
