2025 Tricep Dips: A Test Run For Hitting Fitness Goals.

A deep dive into my 10,000 tricep dips journey

Introduction

I’ve never been great at New Year’s resolutions, probably for the same reasons you aren’t. First, I’m bad at estimating future motivation. Second, I wasn’t tracking something measurable. Third, I’ve always failed at tracking progress toward the goal.

So on January 5th, 2025, I set up a system that I hoped would work better toward actually achieving a goal. It wasn’t a resolution—it was a goal. The resolution under the goal? Be the type of man I want my kids to grow to be.

The goal? 10,000 tricep dips in 2025.

Immediately after making (and publicly stating) the goal, a few questions came back from friends and acquaintances: “Why dips?” and “Aren’t you worried about injury?”

Why dips? Two reasons: I had all the equipment needed (a rack to do dips on, and arms), and I needed something easy to track. I was worried about pushups—every time I try to get into them, I end up with shoulder pain.

As for injury, dips are rough on the rotator cuff, and I was concerned, but I shrugged off (pun mildly intended) the risk as something to keep in mind. I focused on not dipping too deeply and listened when my body said I was done for the day.

First, I’ll discuss the system, then the results. Spoiler alert: I hit my goal.

The System

I needed something braindead-easy to track progress. It had to be a shortcut on my phone’s home screen, and logging sets needed to be so simple there was no excuse. Load app, type in number of dips, click submit. My brain has a way of justifying “it’s too hard” if I add even one more step. The app had to automatically log things for me.

Beyond logging, I needed regular status updates on progress toward the goal. I know myself—if I don’t see progress, I’ll stop. The app logged both my current total and the projected end-of-year total. I briefly considered graphs or other visuals, but the motivational kick of watching that projected year-end number climb was enough.

Using Google Apps Scripts, I created a web app (locked down so only my google account could see it) to make this system a reality. A spreadsheet alone would’ve been a dealbreaker—too many steps. The app was one-click simple: load, log dips, done. The backend logged everything in a spreadsheet—timestamp, number of dips, running total, and projected year-end. All calculations were handled by the script and stored as raw numbers. (this made parsing the results super fun: feed CSV to an LLM and ask it to tell a story!)

The Results

I hit 10,000 tricep dips on October 22, 2025, and (sorta) kept going, finishing the year with 10,400 dips by December 11. Across 534 sets and 164 workout days, I averaged 19.5 dips per set and 63.4 dips per workout day. The data, logged meticulously with my one-tap app, reveals patterns about when, how, and why I pushed through.

Overall Stats

• Total Dips: 10,400
• Total Sets: 534
• Total Workout Days: 164
• Average Dips per Set: 19.5
• Average Sets per Workout Day: 3.3
• Average Dips per Workout Day: 63.4
• Goal Achievement Date: October 22, 2025 (10,000 dips)
• Max Dips in a Day: 177 (February 10, 7 sets)
• Max Sets in a Day: 10 (March 6)

Time of Day

I like to start my day with brain work and end with exercise, and the data proves it. Most of my 534 sets happened in the late afternoon or evening, with 75 sets each at 7 PM and 8 PM. Only 17 sets were logged before noon, and none before 11 AM. My sweet spot was clearly after work and often (we’re being honest here) when I could slip away from the chaos of parenting and listen to a podcast while dipping.

Sets and Dips per Day

On workout days, I averaged 3.3 sets and 63.4 dips. Some days were light (e.g., 1 dip on January 13, ha!), while others were beasts—February 10 (fun fact, my wife’s birthday!) saw 177 dips across 7 sets. March 6 was my busiest, with 10 sets. The chart below shows daily dips over time, with spikes reflecting days I went all-in.

Best Months

February was my powerhouse month, with 1,452 dips over 18 days. March was close behind at 1,412 dips, and October surged with 1,285 dips, fueled by the final push to 10,000. Summer months like June (415 dips) and July (435 dips) were slower—blame vacations or heat. The chart below breaks it down.

Best Days of the Week

Mondays and Thursdays were my strongest, averaging 73.2 and 71.8 dips per workout day, respectively. Tuesdays were my weakest at 60.5 dips. The chart below shows the averages.

Best Week

The week of February 9–15 was my peak, with 252 dips across 4 workout days, driven by that 177-dip monster day on February 10. Other strong weeks included March 2–8 (297 dips) and October 13–19 (295 dips). The chart below tracks weekly totals.

Goal Progress

The app’s “Goal Progress +/- %” showed how my pace compared to the 10,000-dip target. I was way ahead early on, peaking at 25.89% above pace in March. By summer, the lead narrowed, but I still hit the goal with over two months to spare. Foot surgery and the long resulting break from late August to mid September means that the there’s a misleading dip in the chart there. The chart below tracks this progress.

Key Insights

• Consistency Won: Small, frequent sets (10–20 dips) added up, with 63.4 dips per workout day keeping me on track.
• Evening Groove: 7–8 PM was the sweet spot, fitting perfectly after daily chaos (or if I’m honest, escaping to the garage during the chaos!).
• Winter Warrior: February and March set the tone with nearly 3,000 dips combined.
• Summer Slump: June and July were low. Turns out it’s hot in an un-air conditioned garage in SC summers.
• System Worked: The one-tap app eliminated excuses, and seeing the projected year-end total kept me motivated.
• Hitting the goal triggered a slowdown: I wish I could say that December was just too busy to fit in excersize, but that’s a cop-out. Once I hit 10K it was just not as motivating to keep pushing.

Conclusion and 2026 goals

Knocking out 10,400 tricep dips in 2025 was proof that I can trick myself into overcoming bad habits, and weaponize my competitiveness. My sincere hope is that my kids see something that I’ve preached at them for years: a goal you can’t track is not a goal: it’s a dream. Give it both a deadline and a scoreboard, and you’ve got yourself a real goal.

As I look ahead to 2026, I’ve got 4 similar systems in place to track my progress on Farmer’s Carry, Dips, Pullups, and Dumbell Squats. I may have gotten a bit overzealous with 4 separate goals instead of one, but I’d rather aim for something unreasonably big and underachieve than to aim too low and achieve it.

• Farmer’s Carry: 1000 laps (with at least some weight) in 2026
• Dips: 10,000 dips in 2026
• Pullups: 7,000 pullups in 2026
• Dumbbell Squats: 25,000 dumbbell squats (with or without weight) in 2026

Here’s to checking back in next year!