Fitness for the busy dad

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There area lot of resources our there for new moms, but not a whole lot is geared at new dads.

Not wanting to steal our beloved spouses, partners or lady friends thunder, I only want to point out the ratio of resources, based off my limited research on the subject.

“You take the blue pill, the story ends. You wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.”

No one is ever prepared enough for parenthood. I have a lady client who is due in June, and a colleague who just became a proud daddy of a little baby girl himself.

I have some tips I would suggest for dads, as I did when the whirlwind of fatherhood, its intrinsic sleepless nights, constant exhaustion and resulting hormonal setbacks, not to neglect how eating habits are affected (if new parents are lucky, kind souls will bring the poor but happy saps some comfort foods, which also in some cases may cause setbacks as the kind of foods Mommy ingests get passed on to Baby and may cause gas, discomfort or other).

1) Focus on strength, and Easy Strength at that. Forget hypertrophy goals. Conditions are NOT prime for that.

2) Rule of 10’s: no more than 10 working reps per exercise.

3) Keep workouts short: 20-30 min.

4) Keep frequency realistic until you set a groove (you won’t, by the way, so aim at 2-3 sessions per week in the beginning, remember you have to be there for your beloved wife and baby, and even more so if you have more than one child).

5) Circle your drills: go from one exercise to the next with a little bit of rest in between (not a circuit, which is back to back). That way you can push hard on each set of each drill, but get adequate rest in between sets of the same exercise.

6) Pick compound moves rather than isolated exercises, meaning using more than one joint and several muscles. Big reliable moves like squats, deadlifts, presses (bench or military). Focus on form and intensity, like 80% effort for a few reps, whether it’s dumbbells, barbells or kettlebells.

These are a few tips you can use for one type of program. Not the only one, just a suggestion that is manageable and beneficial.

Feedback welcome!

 


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