DIY Dip Stand

Jeff Rice details a small construction project that will produce a dip station for about $50.

The dip is an important functional movement that’s an integral part of the muscle-up. Between the muscle-up and ring dips, this movement comes up periodically as part of the WODs at most CrossFit gyms. Unfortunately, performing dips on the rings can be challenging to many beginning CrossFitters, so outfitting your gym with a stand to do bar dips—dips on rigid parallel bars—can be important for building the strength, coordination and confidence needed to master ring dips and to get that first muscle-up.

While many commercial pieces of gym equipment can be used to perform bar dips, all have their pros and cons, and in my experience of evaluating dip stands for my own gym, the cons outweigh the pros by a wide margin.

Making dip stands from scratch is one solution to the problem. In my research for homemade dip stands on the Web, I came across an abundance of ideas. Many involved using steel pipe and fittings. These were often attached to walls to provide stability, or they were welded together to form makeshift parallel bars. While all these solutions have their merits, I was looking for something lightweight and something that could easily be moved around the gym. And, of course, I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on the project.

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