Snowman
Level 6 Valued Member
I was thinking about the evolution of my training over the 9 months since my son was born, and thought it might be a worthwhile thread to bring up some things like:
Maybe I can even get a little info from more experienced folks on here and stay ahead of the curve...
I'll start by saying that I was pretty fortunate that during the first 10 weeks of our son's life, my schedule as a college student could easily accommodate an irregular sleep schedule, and I'm very thankful (as is my wife) that I didn't have to do it with the job I have now where I work 12 hour shifts. Since I could still work in 6+ hours of sleep per day, my recovery, while not ideal, wasn't too bad. However, I still kept my training time very low, since I felt that most of my time was better spent trying to lighten the workload for my wife.
Around the 6 week mark our sleep started to steadily become more regular, and the boy was still pretty easy to watch, which meant that I could take 30-40 minutes in our extra room to focus on training. As the little guy has become more and more mobile, he has required more and more supervision.
Currently, I store the kettlebells behind the rocking chair in the living room, and do all my training there (or the adjoining hallway with regard to loaded carries). I make sure the boy is well clear of heavy, swinging objects, and while he doesn't get too close while I do swings and presses, any time I get on the ground he sees it as an invitation to play (which it usually is, to be fair). My "20-40 minutes of intense focus" has gone out the window. I usually wouldn't be able to take more than 15 minutes alone before it was a burden on my wife, which means I'm usually playing, cooking, getting firewood, etc between sets of presses and other strength movements. However, I can usually still get 5-10 (mostly) uninterrupted minutes for S&S style swings.
- How has your training changed since becoming a parent?
- How has you training changed as your kids have gotten older/how has it affected your relationship?
- Any tips or tricks for improving training/recovery/diet while meeting the demands of parenting.
Maybe I can even get a little info from more experienced folks on here and stay ahead of the curve...
I'll start by saying that I was pretty fortunate that during the first 10 weeks of our son's life, my schedule as a college student could easily accommodate an irregular sleep schedule, and I'm very thankful (as is my wife) that I didn't have to do it with the job I have now where I work 12 hour shifts. Since I could still work in 6+ hours of sleep per day, my recovery, while not ideal, wasn't too bad. However, I still kept my training time very low, since I felt that most of my time was better spent trying to lighten the workload for my wife.
Around the 6 week mark our sleep started to steadily become more regular, and the boy was still pretty easy to watch, which meant that I could take 30-40 minutes in our extra room to focus on training. As the little guy has become more and more mobile, he has required more and more supervision.
Currently, I store the kettlebells behind the rocking chair in the living room, and do all my training there (or the adjoining hallway with regard to loaded carries). I make sure the boy is well clear of heavy, swinging objects, and while he doesn't get too close while I do swings and presses, any time I get on the ground he sees it as an invitation to play (which it usually is, to be fair). My "20-40 minutes of intense focus" has gone out the window. I usually wouldn't be able to take more than 15 minutes alone before it was a burden on my wife, which means I'm usually playing, cooking, getting firewood, etc between sets of presses and other strength movements. However, I can usually still get 5-10 (mostly) uninterrupted minutes for S&S style swings.