Personal trainers share variations of the tricep dip exercise.

We hope that January is now a distant past and that all who have fallen off, or never actually got started, on their healthy New Year’s resolutions will do so this month. This is when we personally prefer to get started on those health goals. Welcome to February!

We would like to tell you all about exercising the muscles in the back of your arms – the triceps. The reason is that there are so many variations to this lovely exercise and we wanted to make it accessible to everyone from beginners to advanced as a great way to build the muscles that help you with the pushing part of anything you do involving your arms and using only your own body weight.

Against the wall:

*Stand with your feet (on tiptoes) shoulder width apart and your hands flat on the wall with your elbows tucked right into your body. Have your feet be as far back from the wall as to feel the exercise as you are doing it.  

*Slowly, with control lower your nose towards the wall and once your nose gently touches the wall, slowly with control push (triceps working here) yourself back to starting position.

*Once mastered, try lifting one leg off the floor.

(Note that this is also a potential variation for beginners to do the push up exercise for the chest muscles if you widen the gap between your arms on the wall!)

On the floor:

*Start by sitting on the floor with knees bent and arms behind you with your hands flat on the floor (fingers facing towards your feet).

*Slowly bend your arms getting your elbows closer to the floor, then push (aha those triceps) back up.

*Increase the difficulty by lifting your bum off the floor. Then by lifting your bum and one leg off the floor!

Using a table (bench or sofa):

*Sit on the edge of the table with your hand exactly hip width apart and palms on edge of table. Bend your knees at 90 degrees and keep your feet flat on the floor.

*As you come off the table, bend your elbows straight back to lower your back and bum towards the floor and then push (ahhh those triceps) back up.

*Make sure that you feel your bum and back against the table as you go up and down so that you are not sliding away from the table (which makes the exercise easier!)

*Make these harder by straightening both legs. Then by lifting one straight leg off the floor. (Oooh feel the triceps burn)!

We recommend doing two sets of 15 repetitions if going for a ‘toned’ look. We use these exercises in our whole body workout programmes. Our male and female personal trainers can help put together a programme tailored to your individual needs.

We hope that you will enjoy these variations of the tricep dips and working off those bingo wings.

(We need to add here that there is no such thing as spot losing fat! When you lose fat, it comes off from everywhere around your body not just the back of the arms, thighs or tummy etc. But this is a blog entry for another time).

Get in touch and tell us which is your favourite variation of the tricep dip!