Discover the incredible variety of exercises you can do with Dip Bars for your calisthenics workout. In this article, we'll show you exercises for beginners, intermediate and pros, so you can take your workout to the next level. Using a mobile bar allows you to effectively train different muscle groups at the same time and add variety to your workout. Let's dive right into the exercises!
Exercises for beginners
1. Dip Bar Push-Ups
Push-ups on the bar are a great exercise for beginners to strengthen the chest, shoulder and triceps muscles. Use the bars standing parallel to each other to have more range of motion and build strength more effectively. You can adjust the difficulty level by, for example, standing on an object to make the exercise harder or raising the bar higher to make the exercise easier.
2. Support
Lean onto the bars in a parallel setup, straighten your arms and press your shoulder blades down, making yourself as tall as possible. Propping on the bar is a good exercise for the shoulders, triceps and chest. It helps build Straight Arm Strength, which we need later for many calisthenics exercises like the Handstand, Planche, or Front Lever. If you want to build strength in your shoulder blades, you can do reps and let yourself up and down in support with your arms extended and only from your shoulder blades.
3. Knee Raises
Raise your knees to your chest in support for a simple but effective exercise for a strong core, i.e. strong abdominal and lower back muscles.
4. Tucked L-Sit
The L-Sit on the bar is a basic core exercise that works the abdominal and hip muscles. However, you don't have to extend your legs from the start, you can raise your knees to hip level first. Raises into this position from support are also a good exercise for the core.
5. Bodyweight Rows
Rowing is a very good exercise for the back, biceps and back of the shoulders. The closer you keep your feet under the bar of the bar and the more upright you stand under the bar, the easier the exercise is. A bar with a connector like the one from GORNATION is helpful here, so that the bar doesn't simply fall over during rowing. Later, you can make the exercise heavier with the help of a Weight Vest and boost your progress.
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Exercises for advanced
6. Parallel Bar Dips
Dips are probably the most obvious and popular exercise on the parallel bars. Starting in support, the exercise can be adapted to all levels, for example with resistance bands or a belt. Advantages in muscle building and strength gain have dips for shoulders, chest and triceps. Be sure to perform them cleanly and use Elbow Sleeves for additional elbow support in your workout. As a variation in terms of specific training for the muscle up, straight bar dips can be helpful for your workout. Use only one bar for this. Be sure to do a good warm-up for your wrists and consider wrist wraps, as this variation of dips will put more stress on your wrists in addition to the benefits.
7. L-Sit
The L-Sit is an effective exercise for a strong core and stable body tension that is very helpful in other calisthenics exercises such as the Front Lever, Handstand or Planche.
8. Tucked Front Lever
The Front Lever with bent legs is a precursor to the fully extended Front Lever. Make sure to perform it cleanly with arms extended, shoulder blades contracted, and then push the legs as far away from the body as you can and hold the position for 3-5 seconds.
Exercises for pros
9. Back Lever
The Back Lever is a technically challenging exercise that requires an understanding of your body, a good warm-up and full concentration. Before doing the Back Lever, practice the Skin the Cat, German Hang and Dragon Flags exercises first so that you have a stable foundation and don't risk injury.
10. Front Lever
The Front Lever is one of the more advanced calisthenics exercises and trains the entire upper body. To learn this exercise, you can use resistance bands and increase with progressions (preliminary stages) of the exercise. There are many variations of the Front Lever, you can do it on the Straight Bar, in Close Grip or on Parallel Bars. Use your creativity and discover new variations.
11. (Straddle) Planche
The planche is an impressive exercise that trains the entire body. Make sure you have stable wrists, a good warm-up and some lower body mobility exercises for an open and mobile hip during the planche. Bandages for wrists and elbows can be an important tool here for less stress on the joints.
12. (Press to) Handstand
The handstand on the parallel bars usually requires a controlled press up due to the height as opposed to parallettes. Thus, it helps to first master the press to handstand on medium height parallettes before attempting the handstand on bars. For more safety, a bar with a connector like GORNATION's Premium Dip Bars helps a lot.
Summary
Dip Bars are a versatile training tool for calisthenics exercises suitable for beginners to professionals. The above exercises provide a great foundation to take your workout to the next level and work different muscle groups at the same time.
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No matter what level you are at, always make sure to perform the exercises well to avoid injury and get the best possible training results. Remember that it is important to vary your workouts regularly to avoid plateaus and continuously challenge your muscles.
In addition to the above exercises, you can also get creative and develop your own variations to make your workouts more varied and interesting. The possibilities are almost endless! To do so, discover our new product launch with Wooden Parallettes and the Premium Dip Bars.
Finally, remember that rest and nutrition are just as important as the workout itself. Make sure to give your body enough rest and the right amount of nutrients to achieve optimal results. With the right exercises, good rest and a balanced diet, you will surely make impressive progress in your calisthenics training.