Ring Dips: Target Your Chest, Arms, and Shoulders Effectively

The bench press is arguably the world’s favorite chest exercise. But, despite its global appeal, the bench press is actually a relatively new exercise and only became popular in the early to mid 20^thcentury. Prior to that, if you wanted to work your chest, you did floor presses, push-ups, and dips.

And speaking of dips, that particular exercise was deemed so powerful that it was sometimes called the upper body squat. The dip has the potential to build strength and muscle mass throughout your entire upper body. That’s pretty good for a simple bodyweight exercise!

While parallel bar dips are probably the most common way to do dips, you can also do them on gymnastic rings. Using rings adds a whole new dimension to dips and will make your workouts even more effective.

In this article, we explain why and how to do ring dips and provide you with some variations and alternatives to try.

Ring Dips – Muscles Worked

Ring dips are a compound exercise, and involve two joints and multiple muscles working in synergy. You’ll also have to work hard to steady the rings, which increases deep stabilizer recruitment. This all adds up to a very comprehensive upper body workout.

The main muscles involved in ring dips are:

• Pectoralis major – known as the pecs for short, this is your chest muscle. The functions of the pecs are shoulder adduction, flexion, and medial rotation, all of which occur during dips. If you want a bigger, more muscular chest, ring dips will deliver.
• Deltoids – the deltoids are your shoulder muscles. There are three sets of fibers, called heads, that make up the deltoids: anterior (front), medial (middle), and posterior (rear). All three heads are involved in dips, but the anterior head is the most active.
• Triceps – located on the back of your upper arm, the triceps extend your arms during ring dips. Ring dips are a very powerful upper arm exercise and provide a great way to strengthen and build your triceps.
• Rotator cuff – four muscles make up the rotator cuff: the subscapularis, teres minor, supraspinatus, and infraspinatus. Together they assist in stabilizing the shoulder joint as well as in performing various arm movements. Because of the inherent instability of ring dips, the rotator cuff is very active during this exercise.
• Core – the core is the collective name for the muscles of your midsection, namely the rectus abdominus, obliques, transverse abdominis, and erector spinae. You’ll need to brace your core to stop your lower body from moving during ring dips.

How to Do Ring Dips

Get more from ring dips while keeping your risk of injury to a minimum by following these guidelines:

1. Adjust your rings so that when you stand between them and grip them, your arms are almost straight. This means you’ll be able to start each rep from the top.
2. Grip the bottom of the rings and point your knuckles downward to ensure your wrists are straight. Pull your upper arms into your sides and keep them there for the duration of your set.
3. Press your shoulders down and back, brace your abs, and lift your feet off the floor.
4. Bending your legs as much as necessary, flex your arms, and lower your chest down toward your hands, taking care not to hyperextend your shoulders. Your elbows should travel backward while you keep your head and chest up. Descend until your biceps touch the top of the rings.
5. Drive your hands into the rings and, keeping your arms tucked in close, push yourself back up to the starting position.
6. Reset your core, grab a breath, and repeat.

Ring Dip Benefits

Not sure if ring dips deserve a place in your push-day workouts? Consider these benefits and then decide!

Anywhere, anytime – all you need to do ring dips is somewhere to hang your straps. This means they’re ideal for home and outdoor exercisers. Even better, you don’t need heavy barbells, benches, or a spotter to train your pecs with ring dips, and it’s very safe to train to failure, even if you work out on your own.

Improved shoulder stability – the shoulder is the most mobile joint in the human body, which means it’s also the least stable. Lack of stability means that shoulder injuries are all too common, especially in bodybuilding and strength training. Ring dips teach you to stabilize your shoulders, which is good for both joint health and future exercise performance.

Increased pec activation – ring dips hit your pecs hard. That’s because you not only have to push down but inward too, and there is also some medial rotation. This means you work all of the functions of the pecs at the same time, producing a very intense pec contraction during each and every rep.

Good range of motion – because you can move your hands into a comfortable position, you should find you can use a larger range of motion than for parallel bar dips. Getting a good stretch at the bottom of each rep may contribute to hypertrophy and definitely helps to build functional strength.

Variety – while there is nothing wrong with a steady diet of bench presses, you can have too much of a good thing. Ring dips are a viable alternative to the bench press and an excellent way to add variety to your chest workouts.

You may also find that your bench press performance increases as you get better at ring dips, usually because of increased triceps strength and better shoulder stability.

Ring Dip Drawbacks

While ring dips are a very beneficial exercise, there are also a couple of drawbacks to consider:

Difficulty – ring dips are significantly more challenging than regular parallel bar dips. Initially, you should expect to do about half as many ring dips as regular dips. This could be a problem if you can only do a couple of regular dips and could mean that ring dips are too hard for some people. However, if you use some regressions, and work on strengthening your stabilizers, you’ll get better at the movement, and your performance will soon improve.

Equipment – needless to say, if you want to do ring dips, you’ll need a set of gymnastic rings. The good news is the rings are cheap, and you can buy a serviceable set for less than $30. You’ll also need a suitable anchor point, such as a pull-up bar, tree branch, or exposed ceiling joist. However, once you have your rings, they’ll provide you with years of effective training for less than the cost of a tub of protein powder!

Shoulder issues – ironically, ring dips can be both good and bad for your shoulders. For example, if you have very unstable shoulder joints, or they’re very tight, ring dips could lead to joint pain and even injuries, especially if you try to progress too quickly. Because of this, most exercisers should learn to do static dip holds and ring push-ups (outlined below) before moving on to full ring dips.

However, by increasing shoulder stability, and providing you don’t do too much too soon, ring dips can be real shoulder-savers, too.

7 Ring Dip Variations and Alternatives

Ring dips are a highly effective upper body pushing exercise, but that doesn’t mean you need to do them all the time. There are several variations and alternatives you can use to keep your workouts productive and interesting.

1. Static ring holds (top)

The hardest part of ring dips is learning to stabilize the handles. At first, you’ll probably feel you have no control over them! Trying to do ring dips before you can stabilize the handles is a recipe for injury, so isometric or static holds are an excellent way to develop this skill. Work up to 2-3 sets of 20-30 seconds before attempting ring dips.

How to do it:

1. Adjust your rings to about waist height so that, when you hold them, your arms are almost straight.
2. Grip the bottom of the rings and point your knuckles downward to ensure your wrists are straight. Pull your upper arms into your sides and keep them there for the duration of your set.
3. Press your shoulders down and back, brace your abs, and lift your feet off the floor.
4. Hold this position (but not your breath!) for the required duration. Note that shaking is entirely normal and will lessen as you get stronger.
5. Return your feet to the floor, rest a moment, and repeat.

2. Static ring holds (bottom)

Holding a ring dip at the bottom of the rep will challenge your chest and shoulders. This exercise helps develop the strength necessary to push yourself up from the mid-point of a ring dip.

As with top position static ring holds, work up to 2-3 sets of 20-30 seconds before attempting ring dips. In fact, your first few ring dip workouts should probably be limited to two top, and two bottom position holds. Think of these isometric exercises as prehab for ring dips.

How to do it:

1. Adjust your rings to around chest height so that, when you hold them, you are roughly in the bottom position of the dip.
2. Grip the bottom of the rings and point your knuckles downward to ensure your wrists are straight. Pull your upper arms into your sides and keep them there for the duration of your set.
3. Lift your feet off the floor and hold this position (but not your breath!) for the required duration. Note that shaking is entirely normal and will lessen as you get stronger.
4. Return your feet to the floor, rest a moment, and repeat.

3. Leg-assisted ring dips

All types of dip are challenging because you have to lift your entire bodyweight with just your arms and shoulders. Combined with the natural instability of the rings, this may mean that some people are not strong enough to do ring dips.

One way around this problem is to use your legs for assistance. This is a form of self-spotting. Use your legs to take some of the weight off your arms so you can do ring dips more easily.

How to do it:

1. Adjust your rings to about waist height so that, when you hold them, your arms are almost straight.
2. Grip the bottom of the rings and point your knuckles downward to ensure your wrists are straight.
3. Pull your upper arms into your sides and keep them there for the duration of your set. Press your shoulders down and back and brace your abs.
4. Keeping your feet on the floor and using your legs for assistance, bend your elbows and descend until your biceps touch the tops of the handles.
5. Push yourself back up to full arm extension and repeat.
6. Gradually use your legs less as you get stronger. You can also use your legs to lift yourself up (concentric contraction) and then lower yourself down using just your arms (eccentric contraction).

4. Ring push-ups

There is no escaping the fact that full bodyweight ring dips are hard. After all, you’ll be lifting your entire body with just your arms. If this is too big a challenge for you right now, try ring push-ups instead.

Ring push-ups use many of the same muscles, but with your feet on the floor, there is far less weight on your arms. Ring push-ups are a great way to build your strength for ring dips.

How to do it:

1. Adjust your rings so they’re between ankle and knee height. Kneel behind them and hold the bottom of the rings, so your palms are facing inward. The straps should be vertical.
2. Keeping your arms straight, pull your shoulders down and back, and brace your abs. Tuck your elbows into your sides.
3. Extend your legs, so your weight is supported on your hands and toes only.
4. Bend your arms and lower your chest down between your rings. The rings should be just outside your shoulders.
5. Push yourself back up to full arm extension and repeat.
6. You can make ring push-ups easier by shortening the straps and putting your body at an angle with more weight on your feet. Alternatively, make this exercise harder by raising your feet and putting them on a bench, stool, or box.

5. Dead-stop ring dips

It’s very easy to lose stability at the bottom of each rep or try and bounce up as you start to get tired. Needless to say, neither of these techniques is good for your shoulders!

Doing each rep from a dead stop eliminates the possibility of bouncing, reduces the stretch-shortening reflex (SSR), so each rep is a little harder. Dead stops also provides an opportunity to steady your arms for better quality reps.

How to do it:

1. Kneel down, using a mat or foam pad for comfort, and then adjust your rings so they’re about chest height.
2. Grip the bottom of the rings and point your knuckles downward to ensure your wrists are straight. Pull your upper arms into your sides and keep them there for the duration of your set.
3. Drive your hands downward and push yourself up until your arms are straight. Keep your upper arms close to your sides.
4. Bend your arms and gently lower your knees back to the floor.
5. Reset your core, take a breath, and repeat.
6. You can also do dead-stop ring dips from standing, resting your feet on the floor between reps.

6. Weighted ring dips

If you can do 12-15 perfect ring dips, you are probably ready to try doing them with extra weight, i.e., weighted ring dips. However, be warned that a little weight goes a long way, and even a light weighted vest will make ring dips much more challenging. You can also do weighted ring rips with a dip-chin-up belt.

So, to avoid injury, start with about 5-10% of your body weight and lower your rep count. Instead, focus on performing each rep with perfect technique. Increase weights and reps gradually as you get stronger, but never compromise your form, as that could lead to injury.

7. Bulgarian ring dips

Bulgarian ring dips put more stress on your pecs and delts, and because your arms purposely move away from your sides, they are considerably more challenging. However, on the downside, this variation will tax your shoulder joints more, so only do it if you know your shoulders are strong, stable, and healthy.

How to do it:

1. Adjust your rings to about waist height so that, when you hold them, your arms are almost straight.
2. Grip the bottom of the rings and point your knuckles downward to ensure your wrists are straight.
3. Lift your feet off the floor and bend your arms. Your elbows should travel outward so that your arms and shoulders form 90-degree angles at the bottom of your rep.
4. Push your arms down and in to return to the starting position.
5. If this is very challenging, start off with leg-assisted and bottom position hold Bulgarian ring dips.

Ring Dips – Wrapping Up

Training with gymnastic rings will add a whole new dimension to your strength workouts. The inherent instability increases deep stabilizer activation and also produces more muscle engagement, leading to a more effective workout.

Increasing stability and muscle control will help you build muscle and strength and is also good for injury-proofing your body. Stable joints are much less injury prone.

You don’t need to go all rings, all the time. In fact, rings aren’t all that good for lower body training. However, when it comes to upper body pushing exercises, ring dips and push-ups are very hard to beat.

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