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Band Assisted Dip

The dip is an old-school bodybuilding exercise that uses a compound, functional movement pattern. You lower your body below a set of parallel bars and back up again. While it sounds easy enough, it requires a large amount of upper-body strength and stability to perform.

The band assisted dip uses a resistance band to reduce the relative intensity. Alongside making the dip more accessible, it allows different programming options to be used. In this guide, we look at the band assisted dip in detail.

How To Do

  1. Stand in front of a set of parallel dip bars, either part of a stand-alone dip station or a multi-gym unit.
  2. Loop a resistance band securely around the dip bars, ensuring it is evenly spaced.
  3. Step onto a raised platform and grasp the bars with a double overhand grip, with your arms fully extended. This is your starting position.
  4. Engage your core and carefully place both knees onto the resistance band, allowing your arms to support your body weight.
  5. Inhale as you lower your body by bending your elbows until your upper arms are parallel to the floor. Keep your chest up and your head facing forward.
  6. Pause briefly at the bottom of the movement.
  7. Exhale as you press through your arms to extend your elbows and return to the starting position with straight (but not locked) arms.

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Tips From Expert

  • Use the band assistance to place focus on the primary muscle movements. Think about contracting the lower chest and triceps to develop a better mind-muscle connection.
  • Use slow and controlled movements for both phases of the band assisted dip. This allows you to maintain focus on the primary movers and reduce injury risk.
  • Keep your core engaged throughout the movement to maintain a stable body position.

Optimal Sets and Reps

Use the table below to find your ideal sets and reps for each training style.

Training TypeSetsReps
Strength Training3–54–6
Hypertrophy3–48–10
Endurance Training3–412+
Power Training3–51–3 (Explosive)
Optimal Sets & Reps of Band Assisted Dip

How to Put in Your Workout Split

The band assisted dip is a compound shoulder band exercise that uses a functional movement pattern. Alongside improving upper-body musculature, it helps to build functional strength and enhance muscular coordination. With the band helping to assist the movement pattern, it can be programmed in different ways.

  • Bodybuilding Training — The band assisted dip is a great way to add more training volume. Perform it as part of a superset or drop set workout that targets the upper body.

  • Beginner Training Class — The reduced lifting intensity makes it great to learn the movement as a beginner. Perform it as part of a beginner lifting class to learn the functional dip movement.

  • Functional Fitness Workout — Use the band assisted dip to form part of a functional fitness workout. This provides a functional movement at an easier intensity.

    As a beginner movement that uses your body weight, you don’t need to worry about specific training intensities. For strength and power training, ensure 2–3 minutes of rest between sessions. For hypertrophy and endurance training, aim for 60–90 seconds of rest between sets.

Primary Muscle Groups

Abdominal Head of Pectoralis Major

Muscles located at the bottom of your pectoral region, just above your abdominal muscles.

Triceps Lateral Heads

Muscles located on the back of your arm between your shoulder and elbow.

Triceps Medial Heads

Small muscles located at the back of your arms. Deep to the triceps long heads between the shoulder and elbow.

Triceps Long Heads

Large muscles located at the back of your arms between your shoulder and elbow. Most outside portion of the tricep.

Abdominal Head Of Pectoralis Major

The abdominal head, or lower chest, is the lower part of the pectoralis major. It brings the arms behind the body and moves them forward and closer to the midline.

When performing the band assisted dip, the abdominal heads extend the arms as you lower into the bottom position. As you push up into the starting position, they adduct the shoulders to pull the arms in.

At the bottom position with full shoulder extension, the pectoralis major shows a maximum muscle activation rate of approximately 65%. Maximum muscle contractions are a measure of how hard a muscle is working when stimulated.

Triceps Lateral Heads

The lateral head is the outer part of the upper arms. It originates from the humerus, or upper arm, and inserts into the ulna, or forearm. The triceps lateral heads extend the elbows as you push from a parallel arm position. This helps you to come back to the starting position under control.

The lateral heads show the highest activation rate at 35 degrees of elbow flexion. This is approximately 15% of the maximum muscle contraction. For the band assisted dip, this would be at the bottom position when your arms are parallel to the ground.

Triceps Medial Heads

The medial head is under the lateral and long head. It primarily functions to extend the elbow. However, it's active in all forms of elbow extension, including without resistance.

During the band assisted dip, the medial heads work alongside the lateral and long heads to extend the elbows. This helps maintain the correct elbow position in both phases. At 35 degrees of elbow flexion, the medial heads show an activation rate of approximately 15%–20%.

Triceps Long Heads

The triceps long head is beside the lateral head and above the medial head. It originates from the scapula, or shoulder blade, rather than the humerus. This means that it helps to stabilize the shoulders and extend the elbows.

When performing the band assisted dip, the triceps long heads extend the elbows and stabilize the shoulders. This means that they are active throughout both phases of the movement. They help to push up from the bottom as the arms are parallel and maintain a stable arm position.

At 35 degrees of elbow flexion, the triceps long heads are the most active. They show a muscle activation rate of approximately 20%. This rate slowly declines as the elbow angle gets bigger.

Secondary Muscle Groups

Anterior Deltoid

Muscles located at the front of your shoulder region

Upper Rectus Abdominis

Muscles located just below the lower chest and above the lower abdominals. Between your ribs and pubic bone.

Lower Rectus Abdominis

Muscles located below your upper abs and above your public bone between your ribs.

Obliques

Muscles located on the sides of your rectus abdominals. Runs on the sides of your trunk.

Latissimus Dorsi

Large, triangular shaped muscles located just below your shoulder blades. They extend along your spine down to your pelvis.

Anterior Deltoid

The anterior deltoid, or front deltoid, is at the front of the shoulders. It originates from the collarbone and attaches to the humerus.

The primary functions of the anterior deltoid are to perform arm flexion and extend the shoulders. This means bringing the arms in front of the body and ensuring the correct shoulder position.

As you push up from the bottom position, the anterior deltoids flex your shoulders as they come in front of your body. This happens at the same time as your triceps extend your elbows.

Latissimus Dorsi

The latissimus dorsi, or lats, is a large upper back muscle. It originates from the lower spine and is inserted into the upper arms. This means it spans most of your back musculature.

The lats extend and adduct the arms. As you lower down, they extend the arms. As you push up, they adduct the arms to bring them closer to the midline of your body.

Upper Trapezius

The trapezius is a triangular upper-back muscle running from the back of the head across the shoulders and upper back. It can be split into three parts, and the upper trapezius is one of them.

The upper trapezius stabilizes and moves the shoulder blades. When performing band assisted dips, the upper trapezius elevates the scapula. This allows the arms to extend back as you lower into the bottom position.

Wrist Flexors

The wrist flexors are a group of muscles located on the inside of the forearm. To grip the parallel bars, the wrist flexors function to flex the fingers. They also ensure the wrists don’t flex too much during the band assisted dip movement.

Wrist Extensors

The wrist extensors are a group of muscles located on the outside of the forearm. They function to extend the wrists and fingers which are the opposite movements of the wrist flexors. During the band assisted dip, the extensors prevent the wrists from overextending during both phases of the exercise.

Equipment

Dip (Parallel) Bars

Resistance Band

This can be carried around your home or gym and used for a full-body workout. Ensure you use the correct tension. Check for wear and tear regularly.

Dip (Parallel) Bars

This is a great piece of equipment to perform chest dips and leg raises. Ensure your chest stays up.

Variations

Exercises that target the same primary muscle groups and require the same equipment.

Triceps Dips

Chest Dip

Resistance Band Tricep Pushdown

Standing Banded Single-Arm Overhead Tricep Extension

Standing Banded Overhead Tricep Extension

Band Tricep Kickback

Banded Push-Up

Alternatives

Exercises that target the same primary muscle groups and require the different equipment.

Barbell Bench Press

Ez Bar Lying Triceps Extension

Dumbbell Bench Press

Barbell Lying Triceps Extension

Dumbbell Skull Crusher

Decline Dumbbell Bench Press

Cable Chest Fly

Chest Fly Machine

Smith Machine Bench Press

Push-Up

Who Should Do?

Recreational Gymgoers

Band assisted dips help to teach a functional movement pattern at a lower intensity. This makes them more accessible for beginners to learn the correct technique. Following this, they can progress to the non-banded version. 

Resistance bands are great for all exercises as a recreational gym goer. They can be used for your upper body or even as part of a resistance band ab workout at home.

Bodybuilders

Bodybuilding aims to build an aesthetic physique. This means your muscle proportions are symmetrical and balanced when looking at the whole body. To do this, a well-rounded resistance training program is needed. 

The chest and shoulders are large muscle groups that comprise most of your upper body. And the triceps make up two-thirds of your upper arms. The band assisted dip works each of these muscle groups. 

Therefore, they are great for bodybuilders to build their upper body. Add more training volume to provide a suitable stimulus when using it as part of a resistance band arm workout.

Functional Fitness Athletes

Functional fitness athletes perform movements that closely resemble those used in daily living and sports performance. This allows the body to become more efficient at performing them. 

The band assisted dip uses many of the muscle groups involved in functional movements. The chest and triceps function to push objects such as when opening doors or pushing opponents in sports. The shoulders function to reach overhead to put an item away or bring something down.

With this, the band assisted dip is a great way to improve functional strength using an accessible exercise for all ability levels. Because it uses the band for assistance, it’s designed to practice the movement pattern rather than promote progressive overload.

Who Should Not Do?

Competitive Powerlifters

As a competitive powerlifter, your focus will be on using advanced training techniques such as periodization. This is the planned manipulation of training variables to stimulate beneficial strength adaptations. 

For strength improvements to take place, you need to progressively overload your muscles. This means using a suitable training intensity to sufficiently challenge them.

The band assisted dip is designed to make the intensity easier. Therefore, it may not be suitable for these populations who are looking for a bigger training stimulus.

Those With Chronic Shoulder Issues

The shoulder is one of the most commonly injured body parts when resistance training, accounting for 7.4% of total injuries. 

Chronic shoulder issues such as rotator cuff injuries cause pain and limited shoulder range of motion. Because of this, it’s often best to limit movement during the rehabilitation process. 

Even with the band assistance, dips involve large degrees of shoulder extension and flexion. This is as you come down to bring your arms parallel to the ground and come back up.

This movement may not be possible for those with chronic shoulder issues. With limited range of motion, it may cause pain and make existing injuries worse. 

Benefits Of The Band Assisted Dip

Improves Upper Body Mass

The upper body consists of four main large muscle groups. These are the chest, shoulders, upper arms, and back. Band assisted dips work the triceps and abdominal head of the chest as the primary movers. The front deltoids latissimus dorsi, and traps function as secondary movers.

Therefore, the band assisted dip works a large amount of upper body musculature. Even with a lower intensity, this can improve upper body mass when enough lifting volume is performed. 

They work well as part of a muscle-building routine following the normal movement to add volume. This can be done as a superset or drop set. These are where you perform one movement after the other or lower the lifting intensity by using a stronger band. 

Enhances Muscular Coordination

Muscle coordination refers to the way muscle groups move together to perform large movement patterns. This is especially important in compound movements. For example, when performing a push press, both legs perform a slight leg drive as you extend your arms overhead.

With good coordination, your primary movers work alongside your stabilizer muscles and joints. This ensures the correct movement path. 

The band assisted dip is an excellent way to develop better muscle coordination for the upper body. The band assistance allows better focus on the main movement patterns and muscle activation. 

Builds Functional Strength

Functional strength is determined by factors such as mobility, balance, and muscular strength. Good functional strength means that the body is efficient at performing movements that closely resemble those used in daily living.

The dip movement closely mimics common functional movements used in daily living. For example, getting out of the side of a swimming pool with no stairs. 

While the intensity will be lower with the addition of the band, it can still be used to build strength with adequate volume. It’s a good way to work on movement efficiency for the normal dip as well. 

Frequently Asked Questions

What muscles do band assisted dips work?

Band assisted dips work the abdominal heads of the pectoralis major and the three triceps heads. The secondary movers include the anterior deltoids, latissimus dorsi, and upper traps.

Are band assisted dips effective?

Band assisted dips are easier to perform than normal dips due to the band assistance. However, they are effective when performed with more volume. They’re also great for beginners.

What are the benefits of band assisted dips?

Band assisted dips improve upper-body strength, muscular coordination, and functional strength.

Are band assisted dips safe?

Band assisted dips are safe to perform when using the correct form. Follow the form guide above and expert tips to ensure safe performance.

Resources

Endomondo.com refrains from utilizing tertiary references. We uphold stringent sourcing criteria and depend on peer-reviewed studies and academic research conducted by medical associations and institutions. For more detailed insights, you can explore further by reading our editorial process.

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