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Kettlebell Busy Dad ?Needs Help Losing Fat - Please Help

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James

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Hi Guys, I'm a big fan of Pavel's writing and I have a few of his books, Super Joints, PTTP, ETK, Naked Warrior, Beyond Bodybuilding and S & S. I have a young son who wakes me up a few times each night and a long commute to work everyday, I've seriously let myself go the last couple of years and its really starting to affect my health. I'm 36, 6 "1, about 115 KG I've tried to do S & S but honestly I just don't have the energy, I'm up at 5AM, son doesn't even fall asleep til 10PM most nights, after that I've got to clean up the mess and get woken up 4 or 5 times during the night. My strength and conditioning suck, recently I managed 25 consecutive double handed swings with the 32KG before form broke down and 5 one arm C & P with a 16KG.
I've used GTG in the past to good effect with pull ups, pistols. I'm wondering if GTG with Swings & Side Presses might be the answer, Can't really do TGU because I've to go into the kitchen to exercise so that my son isn't around the bells when I'm using them, the floor is a hard tile floor and not really ideal for Get Ups. In the Basement of my Job they have these 19 Litre jugs of water with a handle, I could go down a couple of times each day and do a couple sets of one arm swings followed by a set of side presses per arm, again TGU not really an option as I wear a suit and can't really get down on the Ground. When I'm at home I could run into the kitchen in the morning for 2 mins and twice in the evening, with this routine I reckon I could easily do 500 swings and 100 side presses per week without getting exhausted and in just 10 mins a day. I'd really appreciate any feedback you guys might have. Thanks.
 
@James, welcome to StrongFirst.

There are ways to help children who wake up a lot at night. We had one, the solutions aren't fun but they work. There has been lots written on this subject. If you'll forgive me being blunt, you need to get to it and now. You continuing to suffer in this way isn't good for your son, either.

The most important thing for you, after the above, is to find something you can do and just do it. Swing, forget the getup, forget everything else, just swing a kettlebell.

When and if you're ready for a second movement, add a standing overhead press instead of a getup. It sounds like you've got that figured out.

Make it happen.

Report back on your progress.

-S-
 
Hey,

I agree with Steve. You can do only swings, or snatches if you know how to do them safely. May be those ones match better your goal (weight loss) because they are more cardio.

You can do them according to a HIIT protocole (4 to 5 minutes only), one workout in the morning, one workout in the evening. But don't forget a big part of weight loss is about food care.

Kind regards

Pet'
 
I 2 have kids. There is something you can do always, its the diet, get on it get the nutrition Coach . You will be better :) i just did my Training today at 5a.m, no need to PR just get to work
 
What have you tried to resolve your son's sleep pattern? As Steve said, that's your priority......resolve that, you resolve your sleep deprivation and go some way to reducing stress.
You may have a simple problem.....room too light/too dark, too warm/too cold. He sleeps too much during the day, an afternoon nap turns to 4 hours. Over/under stimulation during the day......too much TV/iPad before a bed time routine. Or it maybe a complex behavioural pattern that you need a programme to break and may need help from a psychologist or sleep behavioural specialist. Or it may be a medical problem. Make that THE priority.
Exercise? Keep it light and simple. If you are continually stressed don't make drastic changes to your diet right away but look at what you do now and adopt simple strategies to change poor food choices, if of course that is why possibly you've gained weight. If you wake at night, stressed, deprived of sleep and tuck into the cookie jar it is crass to consider replacing it with some paleo superfood, just be aware of what you are doing and make the decision not to reach for the comfort food option. And feel good about it. Empower yourself by addressing your son's sleep pattern and that you have control over the situation, the sleep issue and the diet. Get the sleep resolved.....or at least improved.....everything else will be so much easier to plan for.
 
Grab 2 of those jugs and do some carries on your lunch break. If you don't mind sweating at work.

What are your weekends like? You should definitely pencil several hard training sessions in if possible. It would ease the load during the stressful work week.
 
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Hi James,

Having two young children myself and I can relate to the disrupted sleeping pattern. I agree with Ali. The first priority should be getting your son's sleeping pattern normalised. You didn't state how old he is but I presume that he is quite young if he is getting up 4 or 5 times a night. 10pm is way too late for a young child to be going to bed. They need a good 10-12 hours sleep a night and he is not getting that. There may be other factors too affecting his sleep but ultimately you'll need to modify his bedtime ritual. This will be painful initially but I guarantee you it is worth it in the long-run. My oldest boy who is 3 1/2 was waking up a 04:00am every morning and he wanted to get up for the day! He would cry and scream if we tried to put him back to bed. We placated him for a short while but the lack of sleep was a killer. In the end I had to block his door so he couldn't get up and let him cry it out. He did that for two nights and then stopped. Now he is sleeping from 19:00 to 06:00 or later most days. Once you have your sleep sorted it will be easier to make other modifications to your lifestyle.

For fat-loss it is really your nutrition that you need to look at first ahead of training. It is very easy to miscalculate how much you are consuming on a day to day basis. I found that keeping a food log for a week and logging every single drink, snack and meal gave me a good insight as to how much I was actually eating. It might surprise you. As Iron Tamer used to say "You can't out-snatch a donut" so if you don't get your nutrition on point you could end up spinning your wheels and not making any real progress. I personally found having one 24hr fast per week as per Brad Pilon's Eat, Stop, Eat' book very useful and I have been doing it for over six years now every Monday. The trick is to not try to change too many things at one time. Make one change, stick with it for 4 weeks. When you're comfortable that you can maintain that change, then add another one. That way you won't get overwhelmed and you will make slow, steady progress.

For training, things will be a lot easier once your son is sleeping better. You might find that you don't have to train in the kitchen any more is he goes to bed earlier which would enable you to start doing TGUs again. If that isn't an option then maybe buy a yoga floor-mat for the kitchen. I had to do that previously when there wasn't a lot of floor space for training in an apartment I was renting and it saved me getting carpet burns on my knees which is never nice. I'd keep things simple and go with S&S three times a week and maybe add in some C&P's with the 16kg after your main training session.

Sorry for the long, drawn out post but I've been there man and know what you're going through. Best of luck. Keep us all posted on your progress and if you need any more advice or have any queries just PM me. I'd be glad to help.

All the best,
Pól.
 
@James Welcome! I went from 107kg(Over 30% bodyfat) to 78kg(13% bodyfat) in 2013. For first steps I agree with the above advice: increasing sleep and dealing with stress are you first priorities. Both lack of sleep and stress cause your body to store fat in a big way. Swings are a great place to start. They will help your body deal with stress (literally by getting the blood and lymph moving so that the chemical byproducts can be cleaned up) and tucker you out so you sleep more deeply. Think of your swings as a daily practice. It's important to move eveyday at this point. You might also google sleep hygene. If there is room for improvement there at least the interrupted sleep you get would be of better quality.
 
Keith Parsley, MD is a good reference for Sleep Hygiene. You can find talks/interviews on YouTube. I first heard if him when the guys at Barbell Shrugged interviewed him.

Sleep, Nutrition, Strength, ....

If your are counting, then put me in the Swing camp.

All the best as you unpack this!
 
I got up a lot with my oldest daughter, and she was used to playing in the middle of the night even after she was big enough to not need a night feeding. One of the hardest things we ever did was stay up all night and listen to her cry when no one came in to play with her at 3a.m., after reading Dr. Spock on the subject. She cried a couple hours the next night, a few minutes the next, then slept the whole night consistently after that. More and more, people are realizing lack of sleep is very unhealthy- fix that and it will go a long way towards less stress chemicals, easier to control appetite, and then swings will really help you. Might not be so good if they're adding to your stress because you're not getting sufficient recovery. Remember, it's not the exercise that does us good, it's the recovery it stimulates.
 
Everyone has touched on resolving sleep and diet. I agree, do that. It will make all the difference in the world for you.

As far as your training goes, yes GTG can be effective. I run a small training studio holding mostly early morning and evening classes, and several months ago my wife and I decided to pull our just over a year old son out of daycare and now I keep him during the day since I had the flexibility with schedule. It can be quite a challenge. My training has definitely been altered a bit, though I still have the ability for a couple uninterrupted sessions per week. I take opportunities such as when he is napping or eating in his high chair to get in mini sessions of 10-20 minutes. I also will do sets of swings, snatches, etc. while playing with him such as sit and play legos for a minute or two, get up and do a set, go back down to play, repeat. The brief moment I am up he is occupied and doesn't get in the way. I have even gone outside and put in him the swing hanging from our tree and am able to do timed sessions using EMOM protocol, swinging him between sets as active recovery. He loves it.

Whenever my son seems to want to get in the way of my training by playing on the bells, which he does because he is climbing and running all over the place, I will play chase with him; chase him away, run back and do a set, repeat. You just may have to get creative. If all else fails, just aim to get 3-5 sets of 10 swings in the morning as you are getting ready and the same when you get home. Do a set, go about your business, come back to another set, go about your business.

One other big thing I have been doing is pushups. Back in August I did a challenge with my gym members of doing 50-100 pushups per day, depending on ability level. Some did them in one session, while others like myself spread them out into many sets over the day, GTG. I did a conservative 10x10 for the first 10 days, 10x15 for the next 10 days, then finished the rest of the month doing 10x20 for 200 total daily those last 10 days. I tried to do 1 set every hour till I hit my 10 sets. My one set max at the start was 40, and at the end was 50. I was happy with that.

This eventually evolved into me wanting to see how far I could go with this. I set a goal to try and take a walk in Herschel Walker's shoes for at least a week, aiming for 1000 per day. I stuck with sets of 25 with a goal of doing 10 sets per day. Somedays I did more, somedays less. I went every hour at least, working up to every 30 minutes to try and get 20 sets of 25 for 500 total, which I achieved. Once I did this, 25 had become relatively easy, so I bumped up to sets of 30. Those 5 extra reps made a difference. My daily volume shot back down, but eventually worked its way back up to where I was doing a minimum of 300 daily (minus a day occasionally) and a week ago this past Monday I hit 600 in a day. Sets of 30 are now becoming easier and less taxing, so I started trying to do them every 15 minutes to work on increase the density. I now get 360 in just under 3 hours. I will soon move up to 35, maybe next week, and begin the process again. This has been a fun experiment and honestly my body has appreciated the horizontal pushing work as I have been doing pretty much all overhead kettlebell work for the past several years. I have also added mass to my arms and chest because of the overall volume. Diet of course plays the biggest role with your body composition goals.

Now this is a lot of volume and I am responding well to it. You may not. I am not saying you follow my training template. The main point I am making is that YES, you can make effective gains with GTG style training. Plus the pushups may be a better option for you when working. Maybe throw some squats in there as well. The constant movement and exercise "snacks" will help to keep that fat burning furnace going. You just have to find what works for you with the time and energy you have.

It can be difficult at first, but is very doable once you get into the habit. I had a hard time adjusting at first because I was use to doing 30-90 minute sessions solo and uninterrupted, 4-6 days per week. The method I use now keeps me fresh and allows me to recover when not getting much sleep. I have not seen that much of an affect, if any, on improving conditioning, breathing, and heart rate during timed sessions such as S&S using GTG method. Thats where the 10-20 minute mini sessions play there part.

I am able to get in 3 scheduled sessions per week; 2 at my gym with a training group, 1 at home using the tactics I described, and the rest GTG style. Do what you have to do.
 
Completely sympathise but it appears something major is missing here... I have a young son but I'm fortunate to not suffer the issues you do...

Does your son have a bedtime routine?
Do you have a partner?
Do you have to commute for a long time every day? Move house? New job?

Sorry for the blunt questions but it appears completely unsustainable
 
Jody Beasley said:
Everyone has touched on resolving sleep and diet. I agree, do that. It will make all the difference in the world for you.

As far as your training goes, yes GTG can be effective. I run a small training studio holding mostly early morning and evening classes, and several months ago my wife and I decided to pull our just over a year old son out of daycare and now I keep him during the day since I had the flexibility with schedule. It can be quite a challenge. My training has definitely been altered a bit, though I still have the ability for a couple uninterrupted sessions per week. I take opportunities such as when he is napping or eating in his high chair to get in mini sessions of 10-20 minutes. I also will do sets of swings, snatches, etc. while playing with him such as sit and play legos for a minute or two, get up and do a set, go back down to play, repeat. The brief moment I am up he is occupied and doesn't get in the way. I have even gone outside and put in him the swing hanging from our tree and am able to do timed sessions using EMOM protocol, swinging him between sets as active recovery. He loves it.

Whenever my son seems to want to get in the way of my training by playing on the bells, which he does because he is climbing and running all over the place, I will play chase with him; chase him away, run back and do a set, repeat. You just may have to get creative. If all else fails, just aim to get 3-5 sets of 10 swings in the morning as you are getting ready and the same when you get home. Do a set, go about your business, come back to another set, go about your business.

One other big thing I have been doing is pushups. Back in August I did a challenge with my gym members of doing 50-100 pushups per day, depending on ability level. Some did them in one session, while others like myself spread them out into many sets over the day, GTG. I did a conservative 10x10 for the first 10 days, 10x15 for the next 10 days, then finished the rest of the month doing 10x20 for 200 total daily those last 10 days. I tried to do 1 set every hour till I hit my 10 sets. My one set max at the start was 40, and at the end was 50. I was happy with that.

This eventually evolved into me wanting to see how far I could go with this. I set a goal to try and take a walk in Herschel Walker's shoes for at least a week, aiming for 1000 per day. I stuck with sets of 25 with a goal of doing 10 sets per day. Somedays I did more, somedays less. I went every hour at least, working up to every 30 minutes to try and get 20 sets of 25 for 500 total, which I achieved. Once I did this, 25 had become relatively easy, so I bumped up to sets of 30. Those 5 extra reps made a difference. My daily volume shot back down, but eventually worked its way back up to where I was doing a minimum of 300 daily (minus a day occasionally) and a week ago this past Monday I hit 600 in a day. Sets of 30 are now becoming easier and less taxing, so I started trying to do them every 15 minutes to work on increase the density. I now get 360 in just under 3 hours. I will soon move up to 35, maybe next week, and begin the process again. This has been a fun experiment and honestly my body has appreciated the horizontal pushing work as I have been doing pretty much all overhead kettlebell work for the past several years. I have also added mass to my arms and chest because of the overall volume. Diet of course plays the biggest role with your body composition goals.

Now this is a lot of volume and I am responding well to it. You may not. I am not saying you follow my training template. The main point I am making is that YES, you can make effective gains with GTG style training. Plus the pushups may be a better option for you when working. Maybe throw some squats in there as well. The constant movement and exercise "snacks" will help to keep that fat burning furnace going. You just have to find what works for you with the time and energy you have.

It can be difficult at first, but is very doable once you get into the habit. I had a hard time adjusting at first because I was use to doing 30-90 minute sessions solo and uninterrupted, 4-6 days per week. The method I use now keeps me fresh and allows me to recover when not getting much sleep. I have not seen that much of an affect, if any, on improving conditioning, breathing, and heart rate during timed sessions such as S&S using GTG method. Thats where the 10-20 minute mini sessions play there part.

I am able to get in 3 scheduled sessions per week; 2 at my gym with a training group, 1 at home using the tactics I described, and the rest GTG style. Do what you have to do.
Click to expand...

Such an awesome post, thank you! I must admit I'm inspired

Fatherhood Does NOT Make You Fat - RossTraining.com
Training With a Newborn - RossTraining.com

Read this. :):)
 
Hi James. As everyone has mentioned resolving your son's sleep pattern is key. Can I ask if he co-sleeps with you? We tried putting my eldest in a cot for her first few months and experienced what you are going through. At that point we thought about things and realised that it is totally unnatural for a child to be separated from its parents at any time, but particularly at night. As soon as we began co-sleeping she slept through the night. Subsequently we co-slept with our next three children without any problems. Perhaps this is the route that you might consider.
 
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@taedoju Those are great articles, thanks for sharing! Everything he says is pretty much exactly how I feel and on point with the way my current situation is. My son really is the best thing that has ever happened to me. I do feel I am having an early influence on him also because he is VERY active. He likes to lean and try to climb on me while I do pushups. A little added weight doesn't hurt ;)

@Steve Freides Thank you sir!
 
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