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Calling all Dads


Jose Cabrera

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I haven't trained in a long time in preparation for the birth of my twin girls, they were born 12/7/19. How (if at all) have you guys found yourselves the time to train while being a good spouse/parent and being so ****ing sleepy? I know I'm probably pushing it but I dont want to completely give up something I enjoy and keeps me chillin mentally and physically.

Any and all advice will be greatly appreciated.

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Train anytime even if it's a few minutes, will be better than nothing in the beginning. Then I just bring them into the gym so they can play while I watch them and train. Helps to have a home gym, without that it's going to be real tough for the first few months

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30 minutes ago, Jose Cabrera said:

I haven't trained in a long time in preparation for the birth of my twin girls, they were born 12/7/19. How (if at all) have you guys found yourselves the time to train while being a good spouse/parent and being so ****ing sleepy? I know I'm probably pushing it but I dont want to completely give up something I enjoy and keeps me chillin mentally and physically.

Any and all advice will be greatly appreciated.

It can be tough. Especially in the beginning. I still can only carve out a couple of training times a week right now. One way to do it is with greasing the groove style work where there is never a big chunk of time needed. Only a few minutes here and there. Another way is to take appropriate implements to work and pop out to car or keep some grippers at the desk. I have done all of these and they have helped.

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Oh another important part is having an understanding partner. Make sure they know how vital training is to you and it's not just some leisure activity. Or you may find out it's not a priority for you. Either way communication is key. 

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I do grippers at least once a week at my desk, and expand-hand-bands while on train to and from work or while driving.

More importantly, CONGRATS, JOSE!  AWESOME!

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I found it to be pretty easy, if you want to make time you can. For me, I would typically go in the evening for 90min when the baby went down. Wife was fully capable of handling a sleeping baby alone lol 

A lot of people use life changes as an excuse to become lazy and stop. The majority of ppl stop going to the gym by the age of 40. That's just the way it is. 

 

Also, most commercial gyms have a daycare center at the gym. Ours is only 10/mo extra.

 

As far as doing grip at home? That's cake. Shouldn't be hard at all.

Edited by king crusher
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Jose! Huge congrats on the twins! Girls are lots of fun. I have 3 of them.

 

The whole key is making your training a very important, non-negotiable part of your life. If it is important enough to you, you will find a way to do it and won’t allow excuses, whatever they are, to get in the way. I train 3x a week. I have set days and times I train and I don’t move them or miss them. My wife knows these and is good with me doing what I love. She loves yoga and has her days during the week that she does her yoga no matter what. If my work is crazy or something happens where it is impossible to train the set days, I wake up early and do it before work. That is rare, because I make sure my set times are in stone.  I think it is easier to make training such a high priority if you are training for something specific. I am always training for a certain bending feat or competition so it makes it easy to be motivated to train. If I didn’t have the set goals, I think it would be much harder to stick on the schedule.

 

Bottom line to me is, if it is important to you, you find a way to make it happen. If it is not, you let excuses get in the way.

 

Good luck and enjoy those girls!

 

Don

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Congratulations!  I have a home gym and work out at 5 am, with two kids under 5 in the house.  If I don't do it then I never will.

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Congratulations on twins, that is very exciting.  

In the beginning, it will be very hard.  Especially when the children are less than a year old.  I found that once my kids reached about 1 year old, we were in a good routine and I found I had more and more time to train.  For now, you can only do what you can do.  I recommend spending as much time as you can with the babies while they are awake, and training when they are asleep.  As they start to get older and more self-sufficient (and sleeping longer), you will find you have more time to train.  When my first son was very young, he loved Baby Einstein and the swing.  So he would watch that and I would do band workouts and/or grippers.  Now that all my kids are older, I just take them to the basement with me when I train.  They get to do all the stuff they can't do upstairs like: running in the house, throwing things, yelling, and being silly.  I train 4-5 times per week and it ends up being good time with the kids and a nice break for mom.  

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Thank you guys. From what I'm seeing at this point I should just spread workouts throughout the day ala GTG. Maybe I'll run RRBT spread out + do a crap ton of pushups and pistols. I think our society tends to ignore the health of new fathers and fathers to be. Its important to get advice from those who have done it already and keep sharing it forward.

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I have two under 2. Or I did until yesterday anyway (the time goes fast).
I work in a gym which simplifies things a lot.

Before that I bought a few heavy kettlebells, several sledgehammers and some gymnastic rings.

The bells and hammers live on the porch, the rings are in the tree in the yard. There's also a pull up bar over the bedroom door.

Greasing the groove style workouts with all of the above got me through the first few months of each baby so I'd say you're onto a winner there.

Congratulations and good luck!

 

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As a father of 3 girls I can relate. Mine are a fair bit older now but the challenges are still there. 

The key for me has been doing odd sets here and there rather than longer workouts.

I have implements safely tucked into various corners of the house and literally whenever there is an opportunity I crank something out. Grippers are easy but I’m talking about sledge deadlifts, static holds, steel rod bending, Kettlebells etc. I even have a sandbag under my bed that I whip out for quick sets 😂

Are longer more traditional workouts better? For sure. But you can still gain a ton of benefit out of what I’m describing. 

For me, even though training is necessary it comes second in priority to my family responsibilities. However, the key is to not use that as an excuse to do nothing. I hope that makes sense.

All the best! 

Edited by Ogston
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Two of the most important things:

1) Home gym 

2) sleep train (as early as possible). We didn't with our two, and they still don't sleep well and require a lot of tending to before they fall asleep. Loved having them in the bed with us as little infants but when it's time for them to be in their own bed, let them cry it out. 

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An empty-nester here. Cherish this time when they are young as you'll be missing these days ahead of you sooner and far more than you could ever believe!  Maintain training goals but just remember to factor in longer time frames to achieve them. If training at home fully embrace training when-ever/where-ever and learn to not being frustrated when having to stop at mid-set/mid-rep. You'll soon learn to bounce back into training with many interruptions with very little ill effect.

Edited by Ricochet
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Not a dad but an excellent custodian of my time - the time you currently waste on the Internet, staring at your phone, and watching tv is all lost potential training time. You can arrange your day differently. The real question is do you have the will power to command your time? Excellent results can be made in short 15 minutes blocks. It doesn’t take much time to improve. 

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I agree completely, I dont use any social media (is this considered social media). I'm working on learning my fourth language. I cook most of the meals at home, including breakfast. I tend to work pretty long chaotic days and try to read several books a week. What I think is very important is a discussion on how other people have done it, and not necessarily a focus on the possibilty of making excuses. Obviously our families are the focus, shit, if you dont take care of yourself, what are you really going to offer them? Point being, what minimalistic/least distressful methods do Gents use to improve grip/overall strength?

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I like your attitude 💪💪💪

on your question of improvement vs time - you’re about to get a ton of feedback and it’s all probably true— grip strength as a blanket title is referring to a number of specialized areas of potential. The more specific you are able to define the outcome the easier it becomes to map the path. 

What do you want when you say a strong grip? The answer to this question is the master key to all choices to make to get it. 

 

Edit - I recommend spending some time looking over training logs as you will see some incred Individuals have shared their training here. You could learn a ton 

Edited by AdamTGlass
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What Adam said. 15 minute workouts, if done frequently, can really make a difference.

 

Congratulations Jose. I have two girls, not twins(!), and I hear you on the sleepiness. You may feel tired for a long time. Hopefully you are younger than I was when I had kids! Just stick with short and frequent sessions and let the work accumulate.

Also, you will be setting an example for your girls (in this and everything that you do). Sounds like you know how to use your time.

 

Al

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I created a home gym. I had trained that way growing up anyway when I got bit by the iron bug (basement gym).  I used to put my son Ryan in what's called a Johnny Jump up when I was training. He loved that thing.   

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Home Gym! 

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21 hours ago, Wannagrip said:

I created a home gym. I had trained that way growing up anyway when I got bit by the iron bug (basement gym).  I used to put my son Ryan in what's called a Johnny Jump up when I was training. He loved that thing.   

I used the same thing, Jolly jumper and a seated exersaucer in my home gym.  Got to the point where they were asking  me to workout so they could go play in the gym.  

 

Before I built my home gym, the club i was at had free day care for members, so that helped as well.

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Congrats!  Train when you can, if you can.  But never skimp on time with the family.  20 years from now, you won't be kicking yourself for not training to your max potential when they were young, but you might just be kicking yourself for missing out on a memory you could have had with them.  It goes by so fast. 

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Three sons here.  There's no one answer to training with little ones.  Every situation is different and every day is different.  I'll second the home gym advice - it's sooo much easier to find short (or longer) blocks of time to train when the gym is literally a minute away.  Crawling around on the floor playing with the little ones can actually be a pretty good workout. :)  Grip is by far the easiest to get in as the equipment can often be small and can sit beside your easy chair for use at any time.   If it's important to you - you will find a way.  Can you spend a couple hours a day training? Of course - but if it's not possible - one can make very good gains with several 15 to 20 minutes sessions per week.  You just can't mess around.  I (and many others) have had good short term results from a warmup and one set to absolute failure - it might be time to experiment with that - negatives - partials - or some of the other not quite so traditional methods of training.

Edited by climber511
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Congratulations Jose!  I remember the whirlwind well.  From my experience, I made it the one priority of mine that was non-negotiable.  It definitely helps to have an encouraging spouse, but it is equally, if not more important to have a home gym with everything you need right there.  I used to put my oldest in a jumper when I was bending or doing grip-work.  This worked for a few years until my youngest would refuse to be in it longer than a few minutes.  At that point, I began taking steel and grippers to work and would get in a session whenever possible.  My wife would watch the kids when I used to lift, as my garage gym wasn't heated and the elements were usually too much to bring them outside.  Now, I can actually take my oldest into my gym when I'm going heavy and he'll hang out while I'm training.  My youngest isn't quite ready for that.  

Also, I remember how much of a boost getting 15-20 minutes of training helped mentally going through those nights of 1-2 hours of sleep.  

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