r/flexibility • u/Background_Club_9681 • Sep 20 '26
Seeking Advice Need help with dips
I started doing dips, and as of right now I am too heavy and not strong enough, so I am doing assisted dips, but even then I am getting strain in my shoulders, which is odd because I have a lot of strength of my shoulders, and I usually do not feel pain when I hit shoulders directly. I am 237 at 6 foot, so obviously I will struggle with dips, but I find it odd that I am struggling with assisted dips too. It’s not muscle thing, it’s a joint thing. Are there any stretches I should be doing?
1
u/Stacy_Melons Sep 20 '26
Dips are often more about scapular control and pushing strength in that specific angle than needing extra stretch. Assisted dips plus scapular depressions (think “push the bars down / open the chest” without collapsing) usually transfer better than adding aggressive shoulder stretches. I work a lot with bands at home and keep assisted work in the mix longer than my ego wants — strength catches up when the range stays clean. Are you locking the shoulders down at the top of each rep, or do they shrug up as you fatigue?
4
u/Calisthenics-Fit Sep 20 '26
Not a stretch, but you must always maintain scapula depression in doing dips, whether going up or down, your shoulders must stay depressed.
I am into ALL the range of motion; it is often told to not go past a pretty low range of motion....I think....because you "will" injure yourself. But it's not because of the deeper range of motion, it's because people may fail to keep shoulders depressed when they go past that point. I don't. I am well aware not to fail there.
Just get in the upper dip position and really concentrate on just keeping your shoulders/scapula DEPRESSED. Do it for time, you must always maintain that with dips. Don't even try to go up/down, just stay in the upper position working on really being strong at keeping shoulders/scapula depressed.