Straight Bar Dip

The straight bar dip is a bodyweight pressing movement performed on a single fixed bar: you support yourself with your arms locked out, lower your body until your upper arms are parallel to the floor, then press back to the top. Because both hands grip the same bar in front of you rather than two parallel bars at your sides, the torso leans forward slightly and the lower chest takes more of the work, with the triceps and front delts finishing the rep. Is it a beginner exercise? Not really. Pressing your full bodyweight from a locked-out support demands real shoulder control, so it fits lifters who already handle eight to ten clean bodyweight dips. Wrist position is the other filter: the fixed bar forces the wrists to rotate around it, which some lifters need a few sessions to tolerate. Three to four sets of six to ten reps, stopping a rep or two short of failure, build upper-body mass without wrecking the shoulders.