trogdortheterrible
New member
At the beginning of the year there were a few posts regarding the Busy Dad Program. It piqued my interest because:
Seemed like a perfect fit so I decided to run it for three months and see what happened. Progress photos are below if you wish to skip the rest of this.
I don’t have much of a fitness background. I’m not a former college or high school athlete of any kind, I’ve never consistently lifted weights (best I ever did was ~4 months some 3-4 years ago), but I stay relatively active and eat fairly clean. I’m 33 years old, stand a hairs width over six feet tall, and naturally hover between 155 to 160 lbs. Over the 9 months prior to starting this experiment I consistently stuck to light calisthenics 3-4 days per week using the RR as a loose guide. Also, I do currently have a new year’s resolution / bet going with a friend on who can log the most miles ran for 2024 (I average 14 miles a week) so keep that in mind when viewing my results.
My typical week looked like this:
Other than the running, I would perform one AMRAP set of pullups and dips on workout days (Mon, Tue, Thur, Fri.) and 3 sets of 12 ab wheel rollouts on running days (the creator of the program does suggest the pullups; I added in dips and rollouts because I enjoy them so much). I would knock out the Busy Dad workouts and running in the morning (4:30 am M-F, 5:20 am Sat. & Sun.). The additional work I saved for evenings (7:30 pm) so fatigue from the burpees and navy seals didn’t factor into anything else. Lastly, I ensured I hit a minimum of 10k steps by the end of each day; to help with this I would typically go for a 20 minute walk after my Busy Dad workouts.
I started this experiment at 190 burpees and 76 navy seals and set a goal of achieving tier 3 (250 burpees, 100 navy seals) by the end of the three months. Happy to say I was successful.
As you can see from the attached spreadsheet, I approached the workouts from a slightly different angle. Instead of going all out every single time I set an end goal for my 12 weeks and then approached said goal linearly. This worked out extremely well for me and – I believe – helped manage any compounding fatigue I may have otherwise experienced.
I didn’t have any hard-set goal going into this, other than leaning out to show a bit more definition. My intention was to eat as I normally do for the first four weeks and then gradually increase my calorie deficit as time went on to put myself into a cut. Fortunately, I never really had to do that as the increased activity seemed to shove me into an organic deficient. So long as my weight didn’t dip or increase too drastically, and I liked what I saw in the mirror I didn’t bother with a strict calorie limit. Though, I still kept track and a watchful eye on everything I was eating. My average per day nutrition/macro breakdown is as follows:
Other than the calories, I aimed for 150g/day for protein with creatine (5g/day) and a quality protein powder (140cals, 30g protein) being the only supplements I took. My carbs and fats I let fall where they did. Looking back over the My Fitness Pal entries, it seems I sort-of instituted a ‘splurge’ day (+500 calories over daily average) once every 2 weeks. Wasn’t my intention, just seemed to occur naturally.
Quick tip: frozen fruit is a god send when counting calories. And I mean actually frozen, don’t thaw it. I would munch on a blend of mango, strawberries, and blueberries (Kroger brand. 80 calories per cup) for my evening snack. Was very satisfying and keeping it frozen prevented me from simply stuffing it down in 30 seconds. You could ramp this up even further by only using strawberries (53 calories per cup) or watermelon (46 calories per cup).
Progress Photos
Comparison Photos
Each photo was taken as close to a replica of the Week 1 picture as I could manage: post workout, fasted, with the same mirror/lighting, and even wearing the same shorts. I also added my Withings scale measurements. I realize these aren’t accurate but included them because I had the data so why not?
It’s not perfect but, overall, I really like the program. The simplicity and straightforwardness are easily its greatest advantages. I feared boredom due to the lack of variety but that never happened to me. The workouts themselves are challenging but quick which alleviated the potential for said boredom and the tier system gave me something to strive toward. Definitely has its drawbacks though; if you are looking for hypertrophy or to add mass there are much more efficient programs available. If you’re looking to cut or improve your cardiovascular health, then maybe give this a try? Or don’t; that’s for you to decide.
Am I going to continue with the program? Yes, though I have no desire to push for the final level ‘Graduation’ (325 burpees, 150 navy seals. Seriously? WTH?). That’s just a bit more than I’m willing to bite off at the moment, so I’ll pick a groove to settle into that’s appropriately challenging while continuing to push my AMRAP sets of pullups and dips for some semblance of progressive overload. I am aware that this is far from the most efficient plan I could follow, but I’m enjoying this program for the moment.
I plan on bumping my caloric intake to my new maintenance (~2645 cals/day per a TDEE spreadsheet) for two weeks then increasing to a slight surplus (+200-250 cals/day) and running the program for another 8 weeks minimum to see if I’m able to pack on weight while maintaining my current leanness. From my initial estimates I should be able to gain between 3 and 5 pounds in that time so long as the diet remains in check. Not 100% certain about everything just yet, but I’ll figure something out and – if there’s interest – can post my results of that experiment as well.
Appreciate y’all.
- I’m a dad. (Father of two)
- I’m busy. (60 hour/week desk job)
Seemed like a perfect fit so I decided to run it for three months and see what happened. Progress photos are below if you wish to skip the rest of this.
Preface
I don’t have much of a fitness background. I’m not a former college or high school athlete of any kind, I’ve never consistently lifted weights (best I ever did was ~4 months some 3-4 years ago), but I stay relatively active and eat fairly clean. I’m 33 years old, stand a hairs width over six feet tall, and naturally hover between 155 to 160 lbs. Over the 9 months prior to starting this experiment I consistently stuck to light calisthenics 3-4 days per week using the RR as a loose guide. Also, I do currently have a new year’s resolution / bet going with a friend on who can log the most miles ran for 2024 (I average 14 miles a week) so keep that in mind when viewing my results.
Workout
My typical week looked like this:
Other than the running, I would perform one AMRAP set of pullups and dips on workout days (Mon, Tue, Thur, Fri.) and 3 sets of 12 ab wheel rollouts on running days (the creator of the program does suggest the pullups; I added in dips and rollouts because I enjoy them so much). I would knock out the Busy Dad workouts and running in the morning (4:30 am M-F, 5:20 am Sat. & Sun.). The additional work I saved for evenings (7:30 pm) so fatigue from the burpees and navy seals didn’t factor into anything else. Lastly, I ensured I hit a minimum of 10k steps by the end of each day; to help with this I would typically go for a 20 minute walk after my Busy Dad workouts.
I started this experiment at 190 burpees and 76 navy seals and set a goal of achieving tier 3 (250 burpees, 100 navy seals) by the end of the three months. Happy to say I was successful.
As you can see from the attached spreadsheet, I approached the workouts from a slightly different angle. Instead of going all out every single time I set an end goal for my 12 weeks and then approached said goal linearly. This worked out extremely well for me and – I believe – helped manage any compounding fatigue I may have otherwise experienced.
Diet
I didn’t have any hard-set goal going into this, other than leaning out to show a bit more definition. My intention was to eat as I normally do for the first four weeks and then gradually increase my calorie deficit as time went on to put myself into a cut. Fortunately, I never really had to do that as the increased activity seemed to shove me into an organic deficient. So long as my weight didn’t dip or increase too drastically, and I liked what I saw in the mirror I didn’t bother with a strict calorie limit. Though, I still kept track and a watchful eye on everything I was eating. My average per day nutrition/macro breakdown is as follows:
Other than the calories, I aimed for 150g/day for protein with creatine (5g/day) and a quality protein powder (140cals, 30g protein) being the only supplements I took. My carbs and fats I let fall where they did. Looking back over the My Fitness Pal entries, it seems I sort-of instituted a ‘splurge’ day (+500 calories over daily average) once every 2 weeks. Wasn’t my intention, just seemed to occur naturally.
Quick tip: frozen fruit is a god send when counting calories. And I mean actually frozen, don’t thaw it. I would munch on a blend of mango, strawberries, and blueberries (Kroger brand. 80 calories per cup) for my evening snack. Was very satisfying and keeping it frozen prevented me from simply stuffing it down in 30 seconds. You could ramp this up even further by only using strawberries (53 calories per cup) or watermelon (46 calories per cup).
Photos
Progress Photos
Comparison Photos
Each photo was taken as close to a replica of the Week 1 picture as I could manage: post workout, fasted, with the same mirror/lighting, and even wearing the same shorts. I also added my Withings scale measurements. I realize these aren’t accurate but included them because I had the data so why not?
Final Thoughts
It’s not perfect but, overall, I really like the program. The simplicity and straightforwardness are easily its greatest advantages. I feared boredom due to the lack of variety but that never happened to me. The workouts themselves are challenging but quick which alleviated the potential for said boredom and the tier system gave me something to strive toward. Definitely has its drawbacks though; if you are looking for hypertrophy or to add mass there are much more efficient programs available. If you’re looking to cut or improve your cardiovascular health, then maybe give this a try? Or don’t; that’s for you to decide.
Am I going to continue with the program? Yes, though I have no desire to push for the final level ‘Graduation’ (325 burpees, 150 navy seals. Seriously? WTH?). That’s just a bit more than I’m willing to bite off at the moment, so I’ll pick a groove to settle into that’s appropriately challenging while continuing to push my AMRAP sets of pullups and dips for some semblance of progressive overload. I am aware that this is far from the most efficient plan I could follow, but I’m enjoying this program for the moment.
I plan on bumping my caloric intake to my new maintenance (~2645 cals/day per a TDEE spreadsheet) for two weeks then increasing to a slight surplus (+200-250 cals/day) and running the program for another 8 weeks minimum to see if I’m able to pack on weight while maintaining my current leanness. From my initial estimates I should be able to gain between 3 and 5 pounds in that time so long as the diet remains in check. Not 100% certain about everything just yet, but I’ll figure something out and – if there’s interest – can post my results of that experiment as well.
Appreciate y’all.
- MFT