This post contains affiliate links. Please see our disclosure policy.
The tricep dip is one of the most basic but also most effective bodyweight exercises that targets the tricep muscle. It can strengthen your arms and, along with cardio and clean eating, can help eliminate the fat on the back of your arms. A simple raising and lowering of your bodyweight engages your triceps and deltoids, also known as shoulder muscles, to strengthen and tighten your arms!
If you learn how to do tricep dips you will learn how to love your arms!
The back of the arm is a common area of complaint for many people. It tends to lose strength as we age and lose some of our muscle mass. It also tends to be an area that is difficult to strengthen. Often the weights we grab are too light to make a difference.
There are lots of machines at the gym that you can use to work and strengthen your triceps, but they can be difficult to find or use even if you do have a gym membership, which many people don’t. That is why tricep dips are so great. They use your own bodyweight to give you a great challenge.
When you do a bodyweight exercise, you don’t need any extra equipment, and most importantly you don’t even need to be in a gym! You can incorporate this exercise into your arm routine and do it anywhere you are, which makes it great for staying active on the go.
There are a lot of moves out there—push-ups for example—that work multiple upper body muscles at once. we love a good push-up, but these tricep dips are perfect because they really target your triceps specifically, but your shoulders still get a little burn too!
This exercise can easily be made more challenging by increasing the incline of your body: add a bench for your hands and/or feet or make this exercise easier by moving your heels closer in towards your butt.
If the tricep dips become a little too intense for your shoulders, try our tricep push up for an equally fun way to work those triceps.
Tricep Dips Exercise Instructions
- Start seated with knees bent and feet on the floor. Place hands behind you, directly under the shoulders, with finger facing your hips. Lift hips to a hover.
- Bend elbow straight back and use your triceps to press back up.
What Muscles Do Tricep Dips Work?
A tricep dip is an amazing exercise that uses bodyweight to strengthen the triceps, biceps and shoulder muscles of your upper arms.
Benefits of Tricep Dips
There are many reasons you should incorporate tricep dip into your workouts. Here are just a few:
Strengthens Triceps
Tricep dip targets the tricep muscles directly to help tone and shape the back of your arms. No more saggy, wavy arms. Tricep dips firm and strengthen that entire area.
Strengthens Biceps
Tricep dip focuses mainly on your triceps, but it also incorporates strengthening in the biceps. The arms work as a whole and lifting your bodyweight up and down is great for shaping your arms.
Improves Core Strength and Stability
The dipping and lifting motion of the tricep dip is done primarily with your arms, but in order to have proper form you have to have your core muscles pulled in and tight.
How Many Calories Does a Tricep Dip Burn?
People often ask how many calories they are burning in their workouts. Most exercises will generally burn about 100 calories for every 10 minutes you are working at higher intensity. Bottom line: the harder you work, the more calories you burn.
Tricep dip builds muscle in your arm and while it won’t create a big calorie burn, it will develop more muscle on your body to help you burn more calories.
Other Exercises Similar to Tricep Dips
If you like the tricep dip and the results you get from it, here are a few more exercises you might want to try.
