Dips in detail: every muscle, head by head

Dips look like a chest exercise. They are — but only the lower chest.

The arm finishes behind your ribs, so the bottom fibres are the ones still in their line of pull. Upper chest barely shows up. Front delt pushes with it. Both triceps heads work hard.

But only the long head crosses the shoulder — so only it can be trained at long muscle lengths, and a dip never does that. That's what overhead work is for.

Measured in 3D from the Fitlapse anatomy engine.