Am I unbalanced/should I do something about it?

[enwar3]

I tend to view dips and pull-ups as two complementary exercises, and I've always been able to do more dips than pull-ups. Right now I'm dipping +90lbs vs +30lbs on pull-ups. But at a lot of places I read people have less of a gap between those two exercises. Is this abnormal enough that I should be focusing more on pull-ups?

 

[Howard]

If you think about it, the dip motion is not the opposite of the pullup motion. I'd say the opposite of the pullup is the overhead press, while for the dip it might be the upright row.

 

[brikis98]

Most people find dips easier than pull-ups and there is no reason to assume that the two should be equal in strength. The exercises involve different muscles, ROM, mechanics/levers, and so on. Now, if you've spent a lot of your time doing pushing exercises (bench press, push-ups, dips, etc) but far less time doing pulling exercises (pull-ups, rows, etc) then you may be creating some muscle imbalances, especially in the rotator cuff, that could lead to injury. Otherwise, don't worry about it and just strive to make progress on both exercises.

 

[StageLeft]

I have the opposite problem, but I find dips hurt joints and things in strange ways, so I cannot do them 🙁

 

[The Sauce]

Dips are not the opposite of pullups. Dips use two of your strongest muscle groups - pecs and triceps. Pull-ups use your lats (and biceps, depending on the width of your grip) which are not nearly as large or strong, in general.