Triceps dips are a true classic when it comes to building upper body strength in areas like the triceps, shoulders, and chest. But in order to really hit it home with this exercise, you've got to finesse your form and push past the basics. Whether working on V-bar or parallel bars, these pro tips will help you take your tricep dips to new heights, break plateaus, and experience serious gains in strength and muscle definition.

1. Perfect Your Grip and Body Alignment

Optimal V-bar grip and  a neutral body alignment set the foundation for effective tricep dips. When using a V-bar, your grip should be firm, and your hands should be close together to elicit maximum tricep activation.

Try to keep your body as upright as possible throughout the dip, so that the focus of work is heavily on the triceps, with some work from the chest and deltoids. This upright posture isolates the triceps and at the same time minimizes the risk of shoulder strain.

2. Optimal Elbow Placement & Positioning

The position of the elbow is critical if the intention is to place maximum stress on the triceps when doing dips. One wants to position the elbow straight back, and avoid flaring out to the sides. It will keep more of the stress on the triceps and off the shoulders, helping you avoid injury while gaining better muscle involvement. Imagine that your elbows are moving down and up along parallel lines behind you as you lower and raise your body. This visualization cue will help you keep your form throughout each rep.

3. Controlled Eccentric Phase

The eccentric portion in the tricep dip is where most of the magic happens. Lower your body slowly and under control until your elbows are at least at a 90-degree angle. By further increasing the time under tension of your muscles, you're also magnifying even more the strength-building and hypertrophic effects of the exercise.

A controlled, slow descent will also ensure that momentum doesn't come into play but rather your muscles do the work against gravity.

4. Execute a powerful concentric movement

On the controlled descent, and push up powerfully from the bottom of the dip. This will recruit more muscle fibers, building you further in both strength and power. Just be sure to reach full elbow extension at the top—without fully locking out your elbows—so you can get maximum triceps contraction.

It should therefore be balanced against the explosive movement phase to maintain muscle tension and drive muscle growth.

5. Utilize Proper Breathing 

Optimal breathwork during tricep dips will go a long way to improve your performance. Inhale as you lower your body to increase the stabilization of your core by intra-abdominal pressure, and forcefully exhale when pushing yourself up.

This pattern of breathing would not only help maintain both stability and core engagement but also would coincide with the natural movement of your body, making the dip feel somehow easier and also allowing for better focus on the muscle contractions.

6. Add Weight

Use a dip belt to add external load once you can comfortably perform bodyweight dips with perfect form. It is an important progression for continued strength gain. Add some intentional pauses at the bottom of your dip to increase time under tension, which will help towards better muscle endurance and growth.

7. Partial Reps

At the end of your set, if you are too fatigued to get a full rep, do a few partial reps to get up to that full rep. With these five expert secrets in place, your Tricep Dips will morph from just another exercise you do at the gym into a key exercise in your strength program that reaps huge rewards for muscle size, strength, and overall power in your upper body.