I’m looking for some advice on continuing my progress while being a dad to 2 boys under 2 years old.
I’m 42 years old and 6’4” 240lbs and around 20% bf. and now have 2 little boys under 2 years old. When my first was born I was 280lbs decided that I needed to make some lifestyle changes and get back in shape. Since then I have cut 40lbs but have stalled out in the last 3-4 months. My goal is to cut another 20-30 lbs before working on a clean bulk.
I would appreciate some recommendations for a program that would help me continue my progress while being sleep deprived and not having much free time to spend hours in the gym.
I was thinking of doing 3x a week full body routines with super sets and short rest intervals.
Thanks in advance for any advice you guys can share.
Anything that works for people that aren’t Dads will work for you too, being sleep-deprived may just make you progress a little slower, and need that bit of extra recovery between sessions
Full body 3x a week is obviously a great choice, but the sessions can sometimes get very long which you might struggle with.
I think you’d get a lot of value out of the Modified Hatfield split (Squat & Press/Hinge & Pull). You can be very flexible with it. It’s every other day so 3-4x a week, but you can play around with your days quite a lot. I often had times where i’d run it as a basic M-W-F and progress didn’t change at all. Whether you have to skip a couple of days, or if you can get in 4x on the odd week, it doesn’t matter at all. I really enjoyed the freedom of it in terms of time management. You hit parts of your upper and lower each workout, there’s some variation between the days to keep it from getting boring which will keep you motivated, and you feel very well recovered between workouts.
Get your compounds in for the day and if time allows, add in the isolation stuff.
Right now I’ve been kinda doing some full body calisthenics routine with some farmer carries and weighted walking lunges/hill sprints for the lower body stuff.
I was looking at starting something like this Full Body 3x week program. 3 supersets with minimal rest to get in and out.
If you can spend that much time in a single session then, by all means, everything can work.
Some of this you may have to figure out by listening to your body along the way. I know I can’t handle anywhere near that pressing volume listed but we’re all individuals. Remember that more is not always better.
I’m in a similar situation (Jayden is 4, Madyson is close to 2). One thing I can tell you is that it’s very hard to design a “new dad” plan because:
No kid is the same. Some sleep very well from an early age, which has much less of a negative impact on your sleep and recovery. Some kids wake up several times a night right up to 4-6 years old, which obviously affect recovery a lot more.
No marriage/relationship has the exact same tasks split. The best example is if the mother is breastfeeding full time vs. mi breastfeed + bib. In the first case, the mother has a lot more work and less rest as she often needs to wake up in the middle of the night for a feed whereas if there is a split breastfeeding + bib, the man can wake up to give a bib. And that’s just one example.
No work situation is the same. Being a dad and working shifts on a manual labor job isn’t the same as being a dad and working from home, for example.
Daycare situation. Do the kids have daycare during the day or not? Also makes a huge difference.
And I could go on.
Furthermore, those factors can change often.
Let’s take two extremes:
SITUATION 1
Kids are waking up often
No daycare
Turbulent kids requiring a lot of discipline
Full-time physical job
Train at a commercial gym (so have to travel there)
SITUATION 2
Kids sleep throughout the night
Daycare during the week
Well-behaved, autonomous kids
Working from home
Train in a home gym (BTW, this is likely the best investment for a dad of young kids)
Both will be able to do dramatically different programs. In case #2 I’d argue that the impact on training capacity is minimal and the person would be able to train pretty much “normally”. Whereas in the first situation, recovery capacity will be much lower and workouts would need to take that into consideration.
As you can see, I can’t make you blanket recommendations. The workout you posted might be perfect or it could be too much daily volume for your situation. Impossible to say.
Here are some general recommendations:
I don’t like to use a static program. It needs to be adaptable/scalable depending on how you are feeling on that day.
I like to have a layered program, Layer 1 would be what I call my skeleton program; the MINIMUM amount of work I can do and get OK results. For me, that’s two exercises for the session (e.g. incline bench press and trap bar deadlift) that cover a large proportion of the muscles in the body. Layer 2 would be the primary assistance exercises, also multi-joint exercises targeting muscles that might be neglected by the first two (e.g. barbell row and dips) and layer 3 would be the single-joint assistance work to address lagging muscles or muscles I want to develop more (e.g. barbell curl and shrugs).
Depending on how you feel you would do 1, 2 or all three layers.
Fat loss seems to be your main goal. In which case, understand that weight training isn’t the key tool, nutrition is. And probably cardio or lots of walking.
The main issue is sleep. A poor night of sleep impact insulin sensitivity negatively. Making it harder to lose fat, especially if you ingest a lot of carbs. So if anything, you should worry about getting more sleep rather than stressing out about what is the best workout for you.
While 3 days/week or a 1 day on/1 day off schedule will allow you to recover from your workout, another option (one that I PERSONALLY like) is to train more frequently (as often as 6 days a week) but with a lot less work per session (2-3 exercises instead of 5-6). I personally like it because I can get a good workout in 20-30 minutes. This makes it possible to do it regardless of my schedule and I typically maintain a high quality of work for the whole session as I do not build-up enough fatigue. I also like to make training part of my daily routine. But it’s best done if you have a home gym.
wake up several times per night (for the baby pacifier <= that’s really the name ???)
I’m an engineer so mostly behind a desk
And most important I had some health issues in 2020 (not covid, lymphocytic meningitis), and from this time my ability to recuperate has greatly diminished.
I’ve tried to train more but with less volume (best damn workout like programm, and I crash after 3 or 4 weeks. But if I train longer but less frequent (3 big sessions, up to close to 2h), I can handle it.
I personnaly REALLY need the rest days.
And as always, try a method and see if it works, if not, try an other one…
OP, high rep bodyweight training is a great way to keep you ticking over because so many curveballs will appear which means that it’s hard to get locked in to a weights based training program.
A chin up/dip tower is a relatively inexpensive purchase. Throw in a couple of kettlebells and you’ll have the tools and accessibility to get some really profound results
I work 24 hour shifts so sleep is very questionable but I totally get the importance. And I’m getting some meal preps done to make the diet a little easier to stick with.
I have a pretty good garage gym setup but I’d still like to get a 3x/week program so I can hit up some HIIT and cardio workouts on my off days.
I’ve made some tweaks to the Athlean BeaXst program that seem to fit with the layering idea. I’m basically doing a full body routine each day. Hitting 2 push, 2 pull and 2 lower body movements each day. The first layer of the day will be focused on one of the big compound movements (bench, overhead press, squat, deadlift or weighted pull-ups/chins) for 3-4 sets at 3-5 reps then an accessory movement to go with it in the 8-12 rep range.
Layer 2 and 3 will be 2 supersets of push, pull or lower that didn’t get hit in the first layer.
I’m still tweaking to figure out what will work for me but here’s a breakdown of what I’ve come up with so far. Any critique of what I have come up with is appreciated.
Monday: Heavy Push Day
A. Bench Press Variant 4 x 3-5
B. Supplemental press 4 x 10
C1. Quad Dominant movement 4 x 10
C2. Hip Extension movement 4 x 10
D1. Horizontal Row 4 X 15
D2. Upper Back Variant 4 x 15
E. Arms and Abs circuit
Wednesday: Heavy Pull Day
A. Vertical Pull Variant 4 x 3-5
B. Medial Delt or Trap Variant 4 x 10
C1. Overhead Press 4 x 10
C2. Weighted Dips or Push-ups 4 x 10
D1. Lower Body Circuit (a)
D2. Lower Body Circuit (b)
Friday: Heavy Leg Day
A. Squat or Deadlift Variant 4 x 3-5
B. Unilateral or Posterior Chain variant 4 x 10
C1. Horizontal Row 4 x 10
C2. Upper Back Variant 4 x 10
D1. BW or DB chest 4 x 15
D2. Lateral or Medial delt 4 x 15
E. Arms and Abs circuit
Thanks for the tips. I’ve got a pretty good garage gym setup with full squat rack, plates, dumbbells, kettlebells, etc. My biggest issue is the lack of sleep due to kids and shift work.
I feel what you´re going through. I have a full time job in progres, a daughter so family life and a study going on.
My all time favorite is just the basic 5x5 squar bench deadlift, maybe the stronglift variation from time to time.
It´s simple, it´s 3 times a week, and it´s short in time. With enough effort you can make strength and mass gains on this.
I’m 58, have maintained my fitness since around age 21. All natural, etc. Raised 4 boys with 2 years give or take between all of them in age. I’m now fulltime live-in grandpa to my son’s 3 kids, ages 3, 2 and 4 months.
I came into lifting in the 80s when 1.5-2 hour workouts were just what you did. Took many years to learn (by reading and experience) that a good 20-30 min workout gave me the results I wanted.
Above posters have called out the importance of sleep, which is challenged in your life situation and not much ctrl there so you do the best ya can.
Diet is the key for where you want to be. The foundation. Find one you like, can stick with and works for you. Make this your #1 goal IMHO and you will see your physique change just by calorie management. Keep it as simple as possible and measurable.
For lifting with very little time I’m a huge fan of push, pull, leg split. You put strong emphasis on getting stronger at a push, a pull and a lower body movement (simple choice is BB bench, BB Row and Squat). Any thing else you add or put in is just cherry on top but those lifts become your goal in increasing strength. I like a simple double progression overload using reps and weight. My philosophy again, keep it simple as long as possible.
Get cardio/HIIT in 2-3 days if possible for heart and lung health but it is absolutely not needed for weight loss. That can and should be achieved via diet.
At this stage of your life realize you are doing best you can. Take the great advice in this thread, apply it how you feel works best for you and give yourself some grace when things don’t workout. This fitness thang is a marathon not a sprint
Hi just become a new dad and glad I found this thread !! I really like your idea for a session as it’s simple. What would another session look like ? And what are you doing for cardio/HIT ?
