Dips bad for young athletes?

XTrainer

Red Belt
Joined
Aug 4, 2006
Messages
7,898
Reaction score
0
No, this isn't a troll job:

From my log:

According to Dan John, dips might not be such a good idea for young athletes such as myself:

TESTOSTERONE NATION | World's Largest Bodybuilding and Weight Loss Underground Nation

And here's a snippet of discussion from Rippetoe's board...
Bench press? Why not dips instead? - Page 2 - Strength Mill Forums

I love dips, but I have a lot of respect for Dan John's opinions. Kind of arguing this back and forth in my head for the past few days.
 
I have heard that in the past. Something about how the sternum grows. I think the main thing to consider is: if it hurts, don't do it.
 
When I first started doing dips in high school, they hurt a little bit. I just kept doing them.
 
i think im all about done growin so ill still do em/
 
with most, if not all, dip stations, you can't adjust the bars to your own athropometry.

on a pull-up bar, you can go wide or as close as you need to feel comfortable and avoid any discomfort.

on dips, you usually have one option and one size does not fit all. too wide and i get pain in my chest and shoulders, closer is better for me.


the second thing is young kids are flexible and might have too much range of motion.
 
with most, if not all, dip stations, you can't adjust the bars to your own athropometry.

on a pull-up bar, you can go wide or as close as you need to feel comfortable and avoid any discomfort.

on dips, you usually have one option and one size does not fit all. too wide and i get pain in my chest and shoulders, closer is better for me.


the second thing is young kids are flexible and might have too much range of motion.

So true... I know I had done dips on some painful stations when I was younger due to this problem
 
While personal examples are not often a great argument, neither I nor any of the athletes I have worked with have ever had problems doing dips in their late adolescent years.
 
I'm a late adolescent and I usually get pain around my clavicle area after doing dips, but I like the pain because I'm a sadomasochist.
 
I also find it weird that I get pain from dips but don't get pain from upright rows. People tend to have it the other way around.
 
I used to get pain in my sternum when I first started doing heavy dips, but I do them much heavier now and have no pain. I think a combination of factors helped, between switching dip stations to one that fit me better to making sure I had a proper warm up.
 
I don't do dips because of sternum pain. I'm not young though.
 
i never had problems in high school. I dont do them now due to an elbow problem.
 
A personal trainer i used to speak too was adamant against the use of dips due to the amount of pressure on the joint capsule.

This might just be due to how bad a lot of people's shoulders are though, thus only exaggerating any problems already there. personally i dont like them and dont really see the specificity of them for MMA training
 
I love dips and have no problem with them. Sometimes they hurt my shoulder but usually only after lots of volume with other shit.
 
I think the general consensus is that you have to know the difference from the normal workout pain and the "oh shit, that's not good" pain. If you're getting the latter during ANY activity, you need to stop and re-evaluate what you're doing.
 
Interesting, good discussion so far.

I never had terrible sternum pain, just a "stretch" in my chest that I felt was harmless, if not beneficial. I think I'll keep doing dips, keeping the sternum issue in mind if I ever do feel severe pain.
 
If you're lucky and can find one, the best dip stations I've seen are in a "v" shape. You can find the right width of grip this way.
 
Back
Top