Chest · Compound

Chest Dip

A bodyweight pressing exercise on parallel bars emphasizing the chest with a forward lean, also working triceps and shoulders. Leaning forward and letting the elbows travel wide turns the dip from a triceps lift into one of the deepest-stretching chest movements available. Bodyweight makes it self-scaling: hard enough for most lifters as is, and loadable with a belt once it is not.

By Macros Inc Team Verified by Alex Dedmon Updated August 2026

Intermediate Bodyweight Compound Push
chest-dip-poster
  • Level Intermediate
  • Equipment Bodyweight
  • Primary Muscles Front Delts, Lower Chest, Pectorals, Triceps
  • Movement Compound Push

Demonstration

Watch the Form Demo

Technique

How to Do the Chest Dip

  1. Grip parallel bars and press up to straight arms.
  2. Lean your torso forward around 30 degrees and let your legs drift slightly behind you.
  3. Lower under control by bending the elbows, letting them travel out and back.
  4. Descend until your upper arms are roughly parallel with the floor and you feel a stretch across the chest.
  5. Press back up to straight arms without straightening the torso.
  6. Hold the forward lean for the entire set.

Anatomy

Muscles Worked

chest
Primary muscles
Lower Chest Pectorals
Secondary muscles
Front Delts Triceps

Do This

Form Cues

  • Lean the torso forward around 30 degrees to bias the chest.
  • Keep the shoulders pulled down away from the ears.
  • Stop when the upper arms reach parallel with the floor.
  • The lean is the exercise. Stay tipped forward at the top as well as the bottom, or the triceps quietly take over.

Avoid This

Common Mistakes

  • Staying upright, which makes it a triceps exercise instead.
  • Sinking too deep in search of a stretch.
  • Swinging the legs to generate momentum.
  • Adding a weight belt before clean, full-depth bodyweight reps are comfortable.

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Variations & Related Exercises

Variations of this lift

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