From Dad Bod to Father Physique

Training Logs
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Hey everyone! I’m super excited to setup and start using this log. I’ve been super inspired reading these logs on here. I’ve been a reader of t-nation for a while and I think it’s time I take my training to the next level. My goals surround primarily feeling good and confident, being strong, and looking good. Although to be honest my focus on strength versus hypertrophy type training fluctuates. So you’ll probably see me switching things up every few months. But onto my background.

I’m a young father (25 years old) with a toddler and another one on the way, so suffice it to say that my sleep quality is inconsistent. As a teenager I basically just played video games in my parents basement. But I started lifting at 19 years old and fell in love with it. I’ve had plenty of ups and downs. I’ve inured my lower back (never too seriously luckily) several times over the last few years, making it so I’ve had to keep starting over on my major lifts. Not to mention the frustration and sometimes depression after losing tons of progress to a back injury. It’s also worth noting I workout in my garage gym so I’m restricted to mainly basic free weights. Although I’m sure as I continue to progress my career and am more financially able my ability to acquire more and more for my home gym will expand.

A few months ago I was at my strongest: (These are in pounds)
Bench Press 240x4
Squat 265x5
Deadlift 335x3
Barbell OHP 125x5

I know that’s not that strong compared to many people. But I’m just trying to focus on not comparing myself to others and just getting stronger.

After spending some time recovering I’ve designed a program which I’m going run for at least the next few months with maybe some minor adjustments. The program I’m running is essentially an upper lower program.

Upper :
Barbell OHP 3x8-12
Pullups 3xAMRAP

Incline AN (Arch Nemesis Swiss Bar) Bench Press 3x8-12
DB Row 3x8-12 (or) AN Seal Row 3x8-12

DB Curls 3x8-12 (or) Barbell Curl 3x8-12
Lateral Raises 3x10-15

Lower :
Barbell Squat 3x4-8
Hamstring Curl 3x10-15

Sumo Deadlift 1x4-8 (or) Good Morning 3x8-12
Calf Raises 3x15-20 (or) Leg Extension 3x15-20

Rear Delt Flies 3x10-15
Skullcrushers 3x10-15

TLDR of this all is I want to use this log to help keep me accountable and on top of my training. In other words I plan on turning my dad bod which I’ve developed over the last couple of years into a father physique, a phrase which in my mind I’d like to imagine meads a jacked dad haha. I’d also like to get stronger of course, particularly with pullups, OHP, and deadlifts. I want to get stronger in other lifts as well, but those are the ones I’m focused on the most right now.

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Here’s my training from today.
Barbell OHP 105x11, 105x8, 105x9
Pullups 7, 6, 6

Incline AN Bench 140x10, 140x9, 140x8
DB Row 68x11, 68x10, 68x9

I didn’t do the final superset because my pregnant wife needed some emotional support so I cut the workout a bit short to go help her. Such is life.

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Well you’re just in time. Look at this…

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Well would you look at that. That is well timed. I’ve actually been thinking of taking progress pictures too so that’s perfect!

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Dad of four with a 2 yr old here. I understand the balance struggle. I’m looking forward to hearing about the progress!

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Here’s what I did today. Super basic squat work due to having to leave half way through my son’s nap time (my usual workout time) to head to some weekend family activities.

Barbell Squat 135x8, 185x6, 205x5, 205x5, 205x5

Probably could have done a giant set here to include a conditioning aspect to the workout. But I’m still trying to build strength back up in my legs and back.

Also on top of that my son did not sleep well last night so I didn’t either. Since my recent injuries seemed to occur due to accumulated fatigue from continuous heavy lifting without sufficient sleep for recovery, I figure with this log I’m going to try to keep track of my sleep as well so I can mentally keep better track of how hard I can push myself, thereby making injury less likely so I can continue making progress and not have setbacks.

On the nutrition side, to prep myself for the 2023 transformation challenge I’ve started trying to collect and write different recipes which I enjoy and fit the calorie and macro profiles which will lead to sustained fat loss and muscle maintenance. I’ve even been making some recipes of my own. One in particular I’m quite proud of. It’s a spicy potato taco bowl. Maybe once I nail down the recipe I’ll share it here.

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Barbell OHP 105x9, 105x9, 105x9 - Was disappointed at the first set, but managed to replicated it for all 3 sets which was interesting.
Pullups 7, 7, 6

Incline AN Bench 140x11, 140x8 (Got pinned under the bar here but managed to get out from under it and continue my super set.), 135x12
DB Row 68x12, 68x8, 68x9

DB Curl 30x10, 30x7, 30x5 - Clearly learned that I’m not ready for 30 pounds yet. First set was promising but 2nd and 3rd didn’t go as well as I’d hoped. Will probably stick to this weight though and just try to push the reps up.
Lateral Raise 15x12, 15x11, 15x10

Sleep went well last night. I think I haven’t been eating enough. Should take advantage of a caloric surplus until New Years.

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Barbell Squat 135x8, 205x7, 205x6, 205x6
Hamstring Curl 60x20, 60x15, 60x15

Good Morning 115x10, 115x10, 115x10
Leg Extension 80x16, 80x16, 80x20 + 8 MYOReps

Cut the last superset out of my workout because I’m really busy with work today. Sleep was alright last night, though it was really bad the night before. Because of that I felt confident pushing my squats. Because I meant to workout yesterday but didn’t because I felt so sleep deprived I’m now going to be working out 3 days in a row (today, tomorrow, and Saturday). So because of that I chose to go with good mornings for my hip hinge so I could have less of an over all impact so I can feel confident working out lower body in 2 days. Depending on how I’m feeling I may do deadlifts then because I’ll be going to an early family Christmas breakfast so I may be loaded with extra fuel.

In the end I’m still feeling excited with the programming I’m doing. To be honest I far more enjoy upper body workouts right now. Just trying to enjoy my lower body work enough right now to keep doing them.

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Me since ~13yo…

How’s it going? What are your goals for the challenge?

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Still figuring that out a bit. I’ve got a few different factors pulling me in different directions. First, I’ve never really taken a cut super far before. The last time I had abs was when I was like 11. There’s a big part of me that would love to get that lean again. But then there’s another part of me that feels like I’ve never really gotten all that strong with any of my lifts, especially considering I’ve been lifting for 6 years now. So I struggle a bit with the “bro-yo” dieting where I want to get abs but each time I start dieting I get scared to lose strength.

The other aspect I’m considering is the stress of being a father, providing, having another kid in June, etc. I’m thinking an extended cut is probably not the right path for me there. But that being said I still want to do a cut.

So what I think I’ll end up doing is following a “recomp” approach from January through March where I’ll just focus on keeping roughly my current body weight (210-215 pounds) but enjoy lifting, get stronger, etc, and overall just get ready for a cut. Then around the beginning of April I’ll go through with a 6-8 cut.

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I’m not super concerned with looking shredded by any means. I would just like to knock most of the tire off from around my waist. Aside from that I want to look jacked, big shoulders, back, arms, quads, etc.

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Barbell OHP 105x10, 105x10, 105x8
Pullups 7, 6, 5

Incline AN Bench 140x11, 140x9, 140,x8
DB Row 68x12, 68x11, 68x9

DB Curl 25x14, 25x13, 25x11
Lateral Raise 15x13, 15x13, 15x11

Slept well last night. Ate pretty well today. Still focused on learning different recipes to prep for the transformation challenge come New Years. Finally learning to cook chicken breast properly. That should help hopefully.

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I’ve been reading some http://mythicalstrength.blogspot.com/ and decided that I’m woefully out of shape conditioning wise. So I’ve gotten my 40lb. Kettlebell (the highest I’ve got) and put it in my office (I work from home). I’m going to go for the 10K kettlebell swing challenge. I’m going to take frequent breaks from my work to bust out a bunch of kettlebell swings to try to hit 10K by the end of the week.

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I ran that pretty much as prescribed after coming off of Covid this spring and I got some great results, things tightened up and conditioning improved quickly. Not sure if you’ve seen the original plan but Dan John (program creator), lays it out here: The 10,000 Swing Kettlebell Workout

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I have not seen this. Thank you!

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No problem, put a post up if you’re struggling to understand something. Quite a few of us have run it or variations of it on this forum in the last year, someone will be able to help out!

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The version of this I saw was trying to do them all in a single week, which I figured if I regularly did them throughout my work day it may be feeisble. But it sounds like the original version is to just do them over the course of a month. Maybe I should try that first haha.

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Check out @unicornsandrainbows, she’s running it now.

@boilerman ran it a bit before me, pretty close to the original plan and @raven78 did too, if I recall correctly.

Here is my log at the start of my run in May Begin...The Rest is Easy - #1112 by heretolog

If you want to try it in a week, go for it but if your conditioning/grip isn’t already pretty spectacular it’s going to be real real rough.

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Well, I guess I’ll see what I can manage in a week. I’ve done a marathon with no training before. That being said that was when I was a teenager and could consistently sleep 8 hours a night. Thanks for the links. I’ll go check out these logs.

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Workout for today:
Barbell OHP 105x10, 105x10, 105x7
Pullups 7, 6, 6

Incline AN Bench 140x11, 140x9, 140x8
DB Row 72x10, 72x10, 72x9

DB Curl 25x15, 25x11, 25x11
Lateral Raise 15x15, 15x13, 15x13

Also on the 10K KB Swing challenge, I’m currently sitting at 350/10,000. We’ll see how long this takes haha. But being able to take breaks from work and bust out some KB swings definitely is helping me to feel better. I don’t know that I’m going to do the challenge exactly as prescribed. But we’ll see how I feel in a week.

As far as my sleep goes, the last 4-5 days have been pretty rough on average. My son has a cold so I’m up really frequently throughout the night. I felt relatively good this morning though, so thankful for that.

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