The under-rated exercise that delivers perfect T-shirt arms, even in your 60s

Possessing reasonably athletic arms seems to be the one aesthetic goal that unites both men and women of a certain age. As I turn 61 this week, I’m fairly keen on mobility, somewhat interested in stamina and moderately enthusiastic about heart health. What really excites me is looking good in a T-shirt. My fellow arm aficionados, I have the best exercise for you.

If you’re not performing dips, let me introduce you to this wonderfully straightforward and effective move. Dips are beautifully simple and easy to grasp, and they deliver a whole range of benefits beyond beautiful, tight arms. They don’t receive the airtime of, say, deadlifts or pull-ups but most trainers share my passion.

“I love dips. I give them to a lot of my clients, they are fantastic,” says Nico Schwandt, a personal trainer at Stone London gym.

How to do a dip

The dip is a 90-degree bend in the arms that improves almost every part of your upper body.

The move is raising and lowering your body using your arms to support your weight. You are literally dipping your body up and down. The purest form of the exercise is carried out on two parallel bars, but the entry-level version can be done on the end of a bed, edge of a sofa or a park bench.

“People think of dips and they think of triceps but you often get a great deal of stimulus to the chest. You put your shoulder into an inverted position so they also strengthen the rotator cuffs (shoulder joints). You can do them with any range of motion, so you can do shallow dips or go as low to the floor as possible.” That’s not all, they also help with stability, wrist strength and engage the stomach muscles.

Superstars: When dips had their moment of glory

I’ve been including dips in my workouts since my teens and I have to say none of these benefits were what drew me to the exercise. For a brief moment in the 1970s and 1980s, dips became a national cult. Superstars, a decathlon-style fitness TV competition was staged by the BBC and drew huge audiences. Elite sportsmen took part in a multi-element battle to see who had the most able body. We would see F1 drivers, world champion boxers, international footballers gamble their injury insurance and thrash themselves to win.

Dips became the iconic event of the series and judo champion Brian Jacks excelled, performing 100 in 60 seconds in 1980, winning a famous victory over Daley Thompson. Dips were having their moment of glory. I was 14 at the time and became completely hooked.

The easy at-home starter for beginners

A bench dip with legs bent is the perfect exercise for beginners

As soon as I was old enough, I began with bench dips (these are also bed dips or chair dips) and this is where I recommend you start.

James Castle-Mason, an operations manager and personal trainer at Roar Fitness, says this exercise, with its accessibility and emphasis on the muscles at the back of the arms, is a great starting point. “People look at a movement like dips on parallel bars and they get a bit scared, it seems a bit intimidating,” he says. But a bench is a great place to start if you’re new to exercise.

Phil demonstrates a bench dip with legs stretched, which makes the exercise more taxing

Bench dips involve placing your hands behind you on the raised surface and your legs on the floor in front – bending the legs makes the move easier and stretching your legs out makes it more taxing. The position throws most of the effort onto your triceps because your arms are behind you. It’s not the same as supporting your entire body weight but not an exercise to underestimate either – you will feel these instantly.

Full bar dips for first-timers

Bar dips allow for a full upper-body workout

However, if you want the full benefit of dips, you will need to come to terms with the parallel bars. This will move the focus away from your triceps and give the full upper-body benefits.

And before you storm out of this article in a huff, let me reassure you there is a beginner-friendly way into these. By hooking up exercise bands to bridge the gap between the bars, you can kneel on them and they will give you a beautifully assisted version.

Castle-Mason explains: “The resistance bands assist you where the movement is at its toughest. The bottom of the dip is the hardest part to get out of and that’s where the band is at its greatest tension. It can act as a confidence booster for someone trying to have a go.”

By hooking up exercise bands to bridge the gap between the bars, they will give you a beautifully assisted version

There is always an element of performance about doing bar dips, a hint of Olympic gymnast as you hoist yourself up into the air. The prospect of having to collapse back in public is profoundly off-putting. By using the bands, you can guarantee success and feel your own capability as you build to your first triumphant, unassisted dip. Castle-Mason recommends using a few lighter bands rather than a single thick piece of kit because that will be hard to pull down to a place where you can comfortably kneel into the move.

He suggests dips once or twice a week and starting with sets of relatively easy repetitions (a lot of bands underneath you assisting each movement) enabling you to do sets of 12-20 dips. Long but light sets allow your body to learn the exercise.

Once you feel your strength and ability increase to the point where you can raise and lower your entire body weight many times without bands, a whole new world of variations and showing off opens up. Fairly subtle adjustments to your position over the bars will change the emphasis of the exercise radically.

For those who’ve fully progressed to parallel bars

Connor O’Brien, the founder of Absolute Body Solutions, says: “If you’re aiming to target the lower chest, flare your elbows slightly and focus on driving the biceps into your ribs at the top. For bigger triceps, keep the elbows more tucked and focus on extending them forward.” From a distance, these adjustments are hardly noticeable but once you try them, you can feel the difference instantly.

It’s also easy to add to the challenge. For the very keen, some gyms supply metal chains of differing thickness that you drape over your shoulders as if you are about to enter the Colosseum and swing them at lions. I have tried these simply because they look heroic (in reality, they are difficult to put on and have never become part of my routine).

A less dramatic approach is to attach a weight via a belt and have it dangle between your legs – this is a gym power move reserved for the extremely self-confident.

Dips for people who like showing off

Hanging ring dips are one of the most demanding exercises, but mainly serve as an ego boost

My favourite way to impress my (largely imaginary) gym audience is to perform dips on hanging rings. These are among the most demanding exercises I do across my workout week. Castle-Mason explains why: “If you have two dip rings that are absolutely all over the place, your body is fighting to hold position more than anything else. If you’re looking to create stability, the hanging rings are a great proposition. To build muscle they’re pointless.”

In reality, of course, my goal is a very brief and fairly shallow sense of achievement. Whether, like me, you want to perform questionable manoeuvres for a momentary ego boost or, more sensibly, you want to look good in a T-shirt or sleeveless dress, there are few moves less technically complex or more all-round health-boosting than dips – one of the few things famous in the 1970s that still makes sense today.