Ahh… the end of another workday.
It’s 5 O’ clock somewhere, so you decide to sneak out a little early because, as a busy dad who is committed to staying fit, you are looking forward to hitting the gym for a quick workout before you head home to join your family for dinner.
But before you leave the office, your wife calls you to remind you to pick up the kids from soccer practice, drop into the supermarket to get something for dinner, and to pickup her dry cleaning which is “on your way.”
Oh, the life of a busy dad. Which means your workout has been blown once again, and this isn’t the first time.
So you think, “How in the hell can I stick to even a simple 3 day a week workout plan?”
Well, thanks to The Dad Fitness Weekend Workout, you won’t have to.
For those busy weeks when there don’t seem to be enough hours in the weekday, The Weekend Workout is all you need to be the fittest father around.
Rather than suggest you “tell your wife to do it” when she hits you with unexpected errands, I have a better solution… and it won’t cost you your marriage!
Why don’t we design your workout schedule around YOUR work schedule, opposed to trying to fit it into the common Monday-Wednesday-Friday routine (which are the busiest days of the week for a lot of us).
Bring on The Weekend Workout, which is a 2 day a week workout plan that only requires 2 back to back workouts on Saturday and Sunday. This program requires that you are willing to dedicate time on your weekends to 2 intense workouts.
Yes… I did say intense because what you miss in QUANTITY, you will make up for in QUALITY. These workouts will not be your 10 minute fluff workouts using soup cans.
These 2 workouts will take at least an hour each and require some real-man hard work and intensity, so don’t complain or make excuses, after all, you have all week long to get over it!
I also recommend that you workout in the morning if at all possible, for mainly two reasons:
#1 . You won’t have any chance of blowing off these workouts if things come up during the rest of the day. These are your only scheduled workouts for the week so you have to make them count.
#2. You want to take advantage of maximizing your metabolism early in the day so your body will be primed for burning fat and building muscle all weekend long. So if you are going to be a weekend warrior, you have to save your energy for your weekend workouts. Staying out late at the bar with the guys from work when you finish up on Friday isn’t going to put you onto the path to being the fittest dad on the playground .
A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do. So it’s time to step up to the plate and knock out the excuses with the Weekend Workout…
Out of all the different workout routines I have done over the years there is one that I keep coming back to–the one that never fails me no matter how many curve balls life throws my way.
It’s called the AB Split.
It’s simple and effective and best of all it is easy to work into any busy dads schedule. You can even use this split for 3 and 4 day a week workouts.
You just have two different workouts where you train half of your body one day and the other half the next.
Now the beauty of The Weekend Workout is that you can workout on back to back days, in this case Saturday and Sunday, because you are not annihilating and isolating specific muscle groups.
You will be using the classic compound exercises that work many of your body’s largest muscle groups revving up your metabolism to burn fat and increasing testosterone to build strong dad muscle.
Saturday: Workout A
The Barbell Squat, 5 sets of 5 reps
Flat Dumbbell Bench Press, 3 sets of 8 reps
Bent Over Barbell Row, 3 sets of 8 reps
Close Grip Bench Press, 3 sets of 6 reps
Front Abdominal Plank, Hold for 30-60 secs
*High Intensity Interval Cardio:
Use a treadmill and perform intervals for 6 rounds of 30 secs sprint, 60 secs walk
Sunday: Workout B
The Barbell Deadlift, 5 sets of 5 reps
Chin-Ups, 3 sets of 8 reps (Substitute close grip pulldowns if you can’t complete 8 chin-ups)
Standing Barbell Shoulder Press, 4 sets of 8 reps
Standing Barbell Bicep Curl, 3 sets of 6 reps
Standing Calf Raise, 3 sets of 10 reps
*High Intensity Interval Cardio:
Use a stationary bike and perform intervals for 6 rounds of 60 secs fast, 90 secs easy
*The Mid Week Bodyweight Booster Workout
Yeah I know this is supposed to be a TWO DAY a week workout plan. You CAN make great progress on this plan if you only have 2 hours a week to dedicate to some serious lifting.
BUT, if you can find another 15 minutes sometime during the week, do this Mid Week Metabolism Booster Workout with just your own bodyweight to boost your metabolism and get the blood flowing to your recovering muscles that you trashed on the weekend. I would recommend you do this short workout on Wednesday preferably to allow for maximum recovery from your weekend workouts. This bodyweight workout can be done anytime, anywhere, so it’s hard to find a reason to not squeeze in this little workout that can make a big difference in burning off that gut and building some strong lean muscle despite your busy schedule.
Prisoner Squats
T-Pushups
Lunges
Cross Body Mountain Climbers
Burpees
Do 10 reps of each exercise without rest. Then rest for 1 minute and repeat the circuit 3 times.
As for the rest of the week, try to stay as active as possible, even if it’s an evening walk with your wife or wrestling around with your kids in the backyard, because being a strong dad is more important than how much you can bench. 
Image credit: Eric McGregor
Sean Barker is a busy dad who finds time for family, fitness and fun. He likes pumping iron as well as producing it, as a heavy equipment
operator in the iron ore mines. He is ALSO a nationally certified personal trainer who writes for Fit Parent and Inside Fitness magazines and is the author of The Dad Fitness System at www.DadFitness.com. Sean also has a Dad Fitness Blog with tips, thoughts, and humor on being a fit dad at DadFitnessBlog.com.