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Busy Dad Training ideas

chrisnewbery said:
Just keep alternating them over the week. Rest days thinking mayne just go 5 out of 7 days. Take a days rest when busy in the week.
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I'm not super qualified to give advice here but I did just go through a similar paring down of my routines when my now 2 year old son came into the world.

Your strategy seems nice and simple which I think is critical in your situation. It makes sense to me to just alternate the sessions because that gives you flexibility for whatever unpredictability might arise. Definitely not a time in life for complicated splits and so on.

I think perhaps the only suggestion I might offer is to change your perspective about hitting 5 of 7 days and instead think about the minimum number of days you'd feel you need to hit to make progress. Say 2 or 3 per week. Personally I find it discouraging when I don't hit a goal number of sessions so I would get into a mental funk quickly if I was always trying to hit 5 days a week. But, if I set a minimum and then exceed it when I'm feeling good, then I feel more inspired.

However, ymmv, perhaps 5 days is easy for you to do and would be a good goal for you to shoot for. Good luck with those twins. I'm sure it's a handful!
 
One of the quick and simple routines I have done that got good results was an accidentally bastardized routine based on Marty Gallagher's Purposeful Primitive.
It might work for you depending on your training age (eventually it will chew you up too much because it can be a lot).

Basically you set a timer for 45 minutes for your total workout and do one lift a day 4x a week. (or whatever the split works out to for your schedule) Do your squat, then if you have extra time do 8/3 of an accessory movement (if your main squat is back squat, do a front squat, that type of thing) But keep a goal of getting in and out within 45 minutes.
So your week might look like this:
Monday: Back squat, front squat, lunges
Tuesday Bench press, close grip bench, db bench
Thursday Deadlift, RDL
Friday: Overhead press, skull crusher, shoulder raises

The progression looks like this:
Week 1-2 work up to a heavy set of 12
Week 3-4 work up to a heavy set of 10
Week 5-6 work up to a heavy set of 8
Week 7-8 heavy set of 5
9-10 Heavy triples
Week 11 heavy doubles
Week 12 work up to heavy single
Repeat.
You want to get close to a rep max each week for the main lifts. the accessories keep it a couple reps shy of failure.

It does a good job of adding size and strength in a pretty short and simple package that scales to what you can do that day. To do it the "right way" from the book you are supposed to calculate what each lift is going to be, but I missed that part, did it this way, and got great results.
 
The article on Bryce's EDT is a great one.

Hopefully some Dads reading this thread can get some good ideas to apply to their training.

Been thinking over what I originally proposed and Ive implemented some changes this week, it has already felt better...less stressful to get training in.

A few people have mentioned simplicity. So Ive dropped the snatch goal for now. Focusing on the press goals. Some prefer more intuitive training, i have always enjoyed following a schedule in training. For a more long term approach this week Ive started Geoff Nueperts KB Strong. Thats my main practice. So Ill hit that three days a week. After that session or the next day, depemding on time, Ill set a 20min timer and implement EDT with the strongman sandbag, this session will be dropped on the busier days. Just hit either Bear Hug Squats or High Pulls, alternating each session. Then after Ive saturated those movements Ill either gwt a heavier sandbag or do some variation of squat or pull.

Feels far more long term and simple then my first post. It feela much better.
 
John K said:
Bryce’s EDT is a great one for sure!
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I've done a lot of EDT and EDT-ish work with 2-5 exercises.

I find that (w. 2 exercises) 20mins is too long. 15 mins tends to be the sweet spot, but 10mins is sometimes more than enough and sometimes with the right combination of exercises (or if I'm trying to bias heavier work w. longer rest periods) then 15 or 20 mins. I thought Charles Staley prescribed 15 mins in his book "Muscle Logic", but I know he did some experimentation with it and wrote about it at T-Nation back in the day - I don't know if the book or the articles came first.
 
Boris Bachmann said:
I've done a lot of EDT and EDT-ish work with 2-5 exercises.

I find that (w. 2 exercises) 20mins is too long. 15 mins tends to be the sweet spot, but 10mins is sometimes more than enough and sometimes with the right combination of exercises (or if I'm trying to bias heavier work w. longer rest periods) then 15 or 20 mins. I thought Charles Staley prescribed 15 mins in his book "Muscle Logic", but I know he did some experimentation with it and wrote about it at T-Nation back in the day - I don't know if the book or the articles came first.
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I guess I "normally" bias it "too" heavy. I like 20-30 minute work periods, and usually start with some sort of "generous" rest and then come up with a goal to cut it down - e.g. sets every 2 minutes, cut down to every minute. Having a paired exercise, like Press and Squat, or Dips and Pull-ups, gives me ample time to keep working while also giving that other muscle group a rest. I might be doing it "wrong" in that it violates some of the principles, but its a convenient way to organize training.
 
What I do, if it helps. 2 kids under 3 an I work for the power company where overtime is required. Wife that works and trains. We set weekly minimums and try our best to help each other get there. 3x 30 mins a week for example. We also set weekly maximums to keep each other in check. This may seem silly but….also we try our best to not get frustrated when we can’t do the training we want. Being flexible helps. But I do the 5 rites every morning, my infant usually is laughing at me. A walk everyday with the kids and dogs. It’s a small check box but it’s something. Workout equipment is put in places of convenience. Work out clothing is whatever is on my body at that time. Programs I follow are simple, and something I can do with minimal warm up. I also set a timer. I don’t look at it, but it calms my mind and lets me focus on the training so I can ignore if my “allotted ” time is up or not.
 
Boris Bachmann said:
I've done a lot of EDT and EDT-ish work with 2-5 exercises.

I find that (w. 2 exercises) 20mins is too long. 15 mins tends to be the sweet spot, but 10mins is sometimes more than enough and sometimes with the right combination of exercises (or if I'm trying to bias heavier work w. longer rest periods) then 15 or 20 mins.
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I'm with you, Boris.

Most of the time, I prefer:

2 exercises - 15 minutes total
2 exercises - 10 minutes each
1 exercise - 10-15 minutes
 
Geoff Neupert said:
I'm with you, Boris.

Most of the time, I prefer:

2 exercises - 15 minutes total
2 exercises - 10 minutes each
1 exercise - 10-15 minutes
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I don't do 1 exercise with EDT anymore, but when I was doing a lot of KB snatches prepping for girevoy sport I'd often do EDT sessions of 10 or 15 minutes alternating sets of left and right.
 
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