📝 Staying healthy as a Busy Dad
I wanna take the opportunity to be publicly proud of myself, but first I have to share a bit of backstory.
A couple years back, I had my first ever encounter with pneumonia after a throat infection spread to my lungs. I was barely able to move without going out of breath, and my conditioning completely tanked after having steadily gone downhill for a couple of years already. I had a bad cough for over a year afterwards after the infection, and I got pretty damn sick and tired of being sick and tired.
Then one day, I was randomly recommended a YouTube video that struck me as a very honest and simple approach to physical fitness for people who want to be healthy but still want to keep training as minimal and unobtrusive as possible in their everyday life. As a fellow dad who is also getting increasingly busy, and fed up with the time-devouring and mundane necessities of everyday life, I was intrigued.
The Busy Dad Training program consists of 4x 20-minute sessions per week, using only two exercises which you alternate between each session. That's right, just two! These two exercises are both variations of the burpee, called the Six-Count and the Navy Seal.
Now, don't be scared off by the word "burpee". Some of you may be familiar with the common version of this exercise, but this program does not use the burpees that most people know (and dread). I won't go into the details of each exercise here, but in short; The Six-Count burpee is primarily for conditioning, and the Navy Seal burpee is for hypertrophy/muscle growth.
The first week is referred to as your "test week", so to start you only do two sessions instead of four, trying to max out your reps for each exercise in order to get your bearings and figure out where you're at. Personally, I started out at 48 six-counts and 25 Navy Seals. These initial numbers will help you determine what level you're at in the program.
I'm now ending my 14th week on the program, and just to underline how effective this workout is; On Tuesday I managed 66 Navy Seals, and on Thursday I did 170 Six-Counts. This is roughly triple overall of what I was capable of less than three months ago. I've even missed a couple of sessions here and there for various reasons, so I may have been even further ahead at this point if I'd been slightly more disciplined.
This program has done absolute wonders for my body! My resting heart rate has gone from ~65 to ~55, and I've grown quite a bit of muscle, especially around the chest. Even though I've personally gained weight from the muscle growth, my body fat is visibly lower, and I feel way better doing everyday things like walking, chores, and other stuff that Busy Dads need to do. A few of my friends started this program not long after me, and they're also experiencing swift improvements in their own strength and conditioning. As long as you have a timer and enough physical space to do push-ups, you can do it too! No payment, subscription, or work-out equipment required!
Spend five minutes of your time right now, and check out the program and its simple tutorials at Busydadtraining.com. Then, do the test week. You might just get the ball rolling on improving your own physical health in record time. I promise you, you'll most likely see steady progress between each single session. Try it in earnest just for a month, see how you fare! All it will cost you is some time and some sweat.
My personal goal is now to hit 200 Six-Counts and 80 Navy Seals within the same week, also known as Level 2 in the program. I'm confident that I can reach that goal within the next two months. Wish me luck! ✌️😁
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If you do end up trying the program, let me give you some beginner's tips:
Start a 20 minute timer and spread your desired amount of reps out per minute. That means every minute, on the minute, you should do 1/20th of your goal reps within that minute. So let's say if you wanted to do 100 six-counts, you would do 5 reps a minute, which is one rep every twelve seconds.
If you become too fatigued during a session, give yourself 30 to 60 seconds to catch your breath, then keep going. Always finish the entire 20 minutes if you're physically able! You should be heaving and sweating at the end of every single session. You'll usually have at least 24 hours to rest before you go again, so make every second count.
Your first five minutes should be fairly easy, and your last five should be fairly rough. You should almost always be going to failure during the last minute of a session if you've paced your total amount of reps correctly.
If you're a bit ADD like me and tend to lose count of reps, quickly note down your reps for every whole minute on a small sticky note or piece of paper while you're working out. It gets much easier to get the total amount of reps correct at the end of the session. Either that, or get an interval timer app that can help you keep track of the timings and the amount of reps for a session. Keep a simple log in a notebook, on your phone, or on your computer, and watch your numbers grow. It's great for motivation!
Although the program is killer for your upper body and conditioning, it does not target your upper back or your major lower body muscles like your quads and glutes very well. If you want to round out the workouts somewhat and you have the necessary equipment, squeeze in three sets of chin-ups after doing Six-Counts, and three sets of squats after doing Navy Seals. There are also some suggested accessory movements within the program itself. It's not strictly necessary, but if you care about your overall physique, it will certainly help to even out some muscle growth and get you looking jacked from head to toe. 💪