Now that many of you have started working out at home because of the pandemic, let’s discuss a (home) dip bar workout. If you have your own parallettes at home, it is great to know what you can do with them. If you do not own any yet, this is your chance to find out why you should!
You can do a lot more exercises with parallettes than just dips. We are going to mention quite a few exercise names in this article. Since it would take too much of your time to explain all of them, we will mostly just list them. But if you are not sure how to perform the exercise please feel free to ask us.
About the Dip Bars
These dip bars are 60 x 80 x 45 cm with 38 mm handles that provide the best possible grip and are kind to your wrists. After all, there’s no need to get injured while training. You can use these bars anywhere, at home or in your office. They carry a maximum user weight of 127 kg.
Dip Bar Workout
In this blog we provide you with a full body dip bar workout for beginners, intermediates and advanced athletes. Some exercises you can (also) perform on the floor. There are around 3 exercises per body part. But the warm-up will be the same for all 3 workouts. And do not forget to stretch afterwards. We include a dip only workout with different exercises for different levels.
Dip Bar Workout Warming up
- Jumping / jumping rope 1 minute
- Jumping jacks 1 minute
- Squats 20 seconds
- Deep squat 40 seconds
- Superman 10 reps
- Scapula dip 20 reps
- Scapula pull- up 20 reps
- Wrist mobilisation to flexion and extension 3x 10 sec. Per hand
- Wrist rotation inward and outward 2x 15 sec.
- Swimming movements (chest crawl and back crawl) 20 sec.
Dip Bar Workout for Beginners
Chest/triceps
- Incline push-ups
- Regular dips (negative or with resistance band when to difficult)
- Push-ups
Back/biceps
- 1 bar rows knees bended
- Tucked front lever hold
- Negative L-sitting chin-up
Shoulders
- Pike push-up
- Straight arm pull-down (knees bended)
- Pseudo push-up hold
Legs
- (assisted) squats
- Bridge
- Assisted backward lunge
Abs
- Knee raises
- Knee raise hold
- Sit-ups
Dip Bar Workout for Intermediates
Chest/triceps
- Decline push-ups
- Elbow dips
- Straight bar dips
Back/biceps
- 2 bar rows knees extended
- Advanced tuck front lever hold
- L-Sitting chin-up
Shoulders
- Elevated/advanced pike push-up
- Straight arm pull-down (sitting knees extended)
- Pseudo push-ups (feet can be put on a chair for better posture)
Legs
- Bulgerian squat
- Elevated bridge
- Side lunge
Abs
- Leg raises
- L-sit hold
- Assisted V-ups
Dip Bar Workout for Advanced Athletes
Chest/triceps
- Decline clapping push-ups
- Advanced elbow dips (russian dips)
- Korean dips
Back/biceps
- 2 bar rows with front lever tuck hold
- Front lever hold
- Archer pull-ups
Shoulders
- Handstand
- Advanced tucked Planche hold
- Tucked planche push-ups
Legs
- Assisted pistol squat
- (assisted) 1 leg side lunge
- Elevated bridge 1 leg
Abs
- V-ups
- V-sit hold
- Diagonal sit-ups
Just Dips
The paralletes dip bar is, obviously, meant for dipping. So you can also do a dip-only workout. Dips and their variants mostly focus on triceps, chest and shoulders. This workout consists of different dip exercises increasing in level of difficulty. Some get easier by doing a negative variant or performing them with a resistance band. If you are at an intermediate level or your triceps are burning it is great to add one or two additional exercises with this variant.
Behind the exercise you see an N for Negative and/or RB for Resistance Band. The number of the exercise indicates the level of difficulty from 1 to 5 starting with 1 being easy and 5 being hard. You can perform all the exercises on your level. And if you still have energy left, perform some additional exercises from a lower level. But take it slowly, with more reps or with some extra weight to increase difficulty.
Try to do around 5 to 7 exercises if you are performing this workout with 3 to 4 sets and 6 to 12 reps. Take a 45 second break between sets.
If you are new to working out and starting on level 1 try 5 sets of bench dips (or negatives) with the maximum number of reps. Then rest 2 minutes between sets. Perform this workout 2 to 3 times a week. After 2 weeks, try (N) regular dips the same way. If you can perform 3 sets of 15 reps from the regular dips you can try the other level 2 exercises. Here is the list of exercises.
List of Exercises
- Bench dips (1) (N)
- Elevated bench dips (2) (N)
- Regular dips (2) (N&RB)
- Straight bar dips (2) (N&RB)
- Walking dips (2)
- Elbow dips (3) (N &RB)
- Knee tuck dips (3) (N&RB)
- Jumping dips (3)
- L-sit dip (3)
- Straight to normal (3) (N)
- Advanced/russian Elbow dips (4) (N)
- Korean dips (4) (N)
- Korean Dips supinated grip (4) (N)
- Clapping dips (4)
- 180 dips (5)
- 360 dips (5)
- Swinging planche dips (5)
- L-sit hold elbow dips (5)
As you can see, there really is a lot you can do with dip bars. Here are two more in-depth review for great dip bars:
