Which chest exercise do you think is better: bench press or chest dips?

[DTB2]

http://ironguru.com/category/training/chest/

 

[LS1Z28]

I always preferred bench press because you could adjust the angle to hit different areas of the chest muscle. Incline for upper chest, flat for middle chest, and decline for lower chest. Plus I liked the ability to easily change weight to do drop sets. I always liked dips for triceps.

 

[Frederick Foresight]

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http://ironguru.com/category/training/chest/

That does not look pleasant or easy. But it strikes me as something of a single joint movement; a very difficult fly. Plus, fortunately for me , it doesn’t meet my personal criterion of having what I believe to be evolutionary relevance. (That was close.)

 

[destriero]

Please share your thoughts.

I ask because I've read a number of articles that suggest dips are better. Not that it needs to be a mutually exclusive thing by any means. Although I have pretty much always done them, for the last several years, I have favored dips. Therefore they are my first chest exercise.

It's primarily a triceps movement, but should be in every split.

 

[Frederick Foresight]

I always liked dips for triceps.

If you bend your knees and your hips, with your chin down, you will be leaning forward, and primarily activating your pecs, especially at the bottom of the movement. And the beauty part is that you can get a real stretch at the bottom. The range of motion makes it special, in my mind, anyway.

 

[destriero]

I always preferred bench press because you could adjust the angle to hit different areas of the chest muscle. Incline for upper chest, flat for middle chest, and decline for lower chest. Plus I liked the ability to easily change weight to do drop sets. I always liked dips for triceps.

Pectoralis major and minor. There is no middle chest nor middle Earth.

 

[destriero]

Bench over fly. Close-grip bench over dip. For a pec-dominant workout that works both.

 

[Frederick Foresight]

It's primarily a triceps movement, but should be in every split.

That used to be my thinking but some material I’ve since come across suggests otherwise, depending on positioning.

In any event, bench press causes me grief, so I do what I can to get things done.

 

[HobbyTrading]

I stopped doing dips a long time ago because it caused pain in my shoulder joints. I don't have shoulder problems with bench press. I recall from when I did dips that they worked my triceps more than my chest muscles. That made me consider dips as being a triceps exercise, not a chest exercise. Vice versa, bench presses work my chest muscles but my triceps are loaded much less. These days I do flat bench press with a barbell, close-grip flat bench press with barbell, and incline bench press with dumbbells.

 

[Frederick Foresight]

I stopped doing dips a long time ago because it caused pain in my shoulder joints.

Years ago, I used to have some shoulder discomfort when trying to do them specifically for triceps by keeping my body vertical. That was a mistake. Since I started doing “chest” dips by leaning forward as explained in my earlier post, the movement has been pain-free. And, again, rightly or wrongly, it is the deep range of motion that I find appealing.