Chins and dips?!
Question: What exactly are chins and dips and are chin ups and dips a good way to build muscle, or will they only tone the current muscle?
Answers: What exactly are chins and dips and are chin ups and dips a good way to build muscle, or will they only tone the current muscle?
These are both excellent bodyweight exercises that should be including in any weight training program.
Chins are performed with your hands facing you. They work a whole score of muscle groups simultaneously: the lats, biceps, rear delts and even traps to an extent. Pull-ups are performed the same way, but you rotate your hands so they face forward (away from your face) and this hand position tends to target the back even more because bicep recruitment is minimized (which means they can't assist with the pull and put more work on the lats.) Performed with a wide grip, they can be very effective at building the lats and providing a broader back with a "bat wing" spread.
Dips work the triceps, shoulders and pecs/chest. Depending on your body position, you can emphasize the chest more, or the shoulders more. If you perform dips leaning forward, you will recruit more of the pecs (especially the lower portion of the muscle.) Lean back and you target the shoulders and triceps more.
As you are able to do more reps with your body weight, you can increase the intensity by adding weight. This can be done using a weight belt that allows you to hand plates from the belt or you can hold a dumbbell between your feet.
They will build muscle in either case, especially if you add weight over time. They also are great for adding some separation and definition and require a fair amount of coordination (especially pullups/chins), which aid in overall development.
Best of luck!
Chin ups are when you pull your self from a bar at a dead hang, they are also hard to do.
Dips is when you go up and down between two parallel bars. They are also hard.
Chins will build up most upper body muscles, depending on hand placement and dips will work on your chest and triceps development, also depending on hand and body placement!