Dip Machine
Also works: Chest · Shoulders
A seated dip machine gives you the pressing path of a parallel-bar dip with a pin you can set below your own bodyweight. Elbows pinned to your ribs, you drive the handles down until the arms are almost straight, which makes it the most usable triceps press for anyone who cannot yet hold themselves up on bars.
Own the movement
Set up first, then execute. Every cue below is something you can check on your next set.
Before the first rep
- Set the seat height so the handles start level with your lower chest and your elbows sit at about 90 degrees.
- Sit right back into the pad. A gap between your lower back and the pad turns the set into a slouching contest.
- Grip the handles with a neutral, mid-strength grip — squeezing hard pulls the forearms into the work.
- Pull your elbows in against your ribs and keep them there before you move the first centimetre.
- Pick a weight that lets you pause at the bottom, not one that needs a shrug to start.
Every rep
Breathing & tempo — Inhale as the handles come up, exhale through the press down. Three seconds up, one second down, no pause at lockout.
Sets, reps & load
Where to start, and what to change when it stops being hard.
Start around a third of your bodyweight on the stack and add a plate only when you can pause the bottom of every rep for a full second. The useful marker: when your working weight approaches bodyweight for sets of 10, you almost certainly have a set of bodyweight dips in you — go and test it.
What goes wrong
The errors that show up most often, and the cue that fixes each one.
Drop two plates on the stack and hold your elbows against your ribcage for every rep. Wide elbows recruit the chest and quietly delete the reason you chose the machine.
Stop about 10 degrees short of straight and turn round immediately. Continuous tension is the machine's advantage over free-weight pressing.
Count three seconds on every return. If you cannot, the weight is set for a range you are not actually training.
Raise the seat until your elbows begin at roughly a right angle with your shoulders down. The handle should meet you, not hang above you.
Why bother
A bodyweight dip is an all-or-nothing lift: you either press 75 kg or you press nothing. The machine breaks that wall by letting you select 30 kg, then 35, then 40, so the triceps get progressive overload months before the bars become an option.
The seat and back pad also remove the swing. On bars, most of the triceps work leaks into torso lean and shoulder drift; strapped into a seat with your elbows glued to your sides, the elbow is the only joint with anything to do, and the lateral head takes the load it was supposed to.
Where it fits
Late in a push session, after benching or overhead pressing, for 3-4 sets in the 8-15 range. Pair it with an overhead extension rather than another pressing variation — the machine keeps the elbow under the shoulder, so the long head still needs a stretched-position movement to finish the job.
If this one isn't it
No kit, too hard, or too easy — here's where to go instead.
Same job, different kit
Asked and answered
Is the dip machine as good as real dips?
For triceps hypertrophy it is close enough to not matter, and it is better if bodyweight dips are still out of reach. What it does not train is the shoulder stability and trunk control of hanging between two bars. Use the machine to build the pressing strength, then move to bars when you can.
Why do I feel this in my chest instead of my triceps?
Your elbows are drifting away from your ribs, or the seat is too low so you are leaning into the handles. Pin the elbows in, sit tall against the pad, and drop the weight until you can hold that position for ten reps.
Should I lock my elbows out at the bottom?
No. Stop just short. A hard lockout parks the load on the elbow joint and gives the triceps a rest halfway through your set — on a machine you have no reason to accept either.
Is this the same as an assisted dip machine?
No, and the difference matters. On an assisted dip machine you still hang on the bars and the stack counter-weights you, so more plates means an easier set. On a seated dip machine you press a stack away from you, so more plates means a harder set. If your reps get easier as you add weight, you are on the assisted one.