@grandslam Thanks! After I wrote that I was like fuhhhhhhh. This guy is only getting four hours and I’m telling him to get his butt to the gym haha. That’s great things are on the upswing! It’ll get better and honestly I’m amazed at your dedication even with the health problems you mentioned with the kids. Do your best and you are already doing great, Dad. Those kids are lucky to have you!
Help a busy dad stay sexy?
- Thread starter grandslam
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nothingtoknow
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@grandslam Not to discount the value of calorie counting, but I think the value is misplaced. You will never get an accurate “down to a single calorie” count for any given food or meal. Instead, it can give you a good luck at the bigger picture.
So when time is the premium, and I can relate on that part…meal prep is your best friend. The difference in time required to cook one serving vs, say, 5-7, negligible at best. Standardize your diet. Yes, you will still (at least loosely) “count calories”, but once a week vs every single meal. And the cooking/prep time is significantly lower by doing all the cooking on Sunday (or whatever one day per week).
So when time is the premium, and I can relate on that part…meal prep is your best friend. The difference in time required to cook one serving vs, say, 5-7, negligible at best. Standardize your diet. Yes, you will still (at least loosely) “count calories”, but once a week vs every single meal. And the cooking/prep time is significantly lower by doing all the cooking on Sunday (or whatever one day per week).
@nothingtoknow Thanks, this is really good advice that I’m not going to take. Because we have a toddler, we don’t meal prep. Instead, we try and eat as wide and varied a diet as possible to encourage food adventurousness. But you’re right! Of fitness was my real priority this is what I would do. We use a rotating, two week menu of fresh cooked, veggie heavy meals
nothingtoknow
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@grandslam Completely fair. I have vastly different priorities as my kids are nearly out of the house. I still wish you the best, however it works out.
texaseyes7
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@grandslam V9 boulderers are fit af! No advice to give ya except that wow v9!
@texaseyes7 Thanks, but I cheat; my town is full of comp climbers so there’s always a nine year old around to give the creaky old guy some beta
@grandslam Fellow dad and boulderer! V9 is freaking beast. If I was as vicious as that, I’d get back to the gym asap.
Honestly I don’t count, I’m too busy — I eat intuitively and just scarf down protein, veggies, fruits and carbs (when I really get cardio in). Whole food, no processed foods and no sugars
Get back to the dynos and v9 bro. Crush those v3s to give that boost of confidence and start shredding
Honestly I don’t count, I’m too busy — I eat intuitively and just scarf down protein, veggies, fruits and carbs (when I really get cardio in). Whole food, no processed foods and no sugars
Get back to the dynos and v9 bro. Crush those v3s to give that boost of confidence and start shredding
@grandslam My bad, what I said is not completely accurate. Meant to say *minimally processed foods. Stuff like cheese is processed, I still go hard on parmesan
It’s all about calories in and calories out. It’s a trade off when you say yes to Oreos — just know that you’ll have to sacrifice calories elsewhere
It’s all about calories in and calories out. It’s a trade off when you say yes to Oreos — just know that you’ll have to sacrifice calories elsewhere
@grandslam Your goal is sexiness. And you talk about diet, so I'm guessing you think you need to lose fat to be sexy. We'll talk about diet shortly.
If you have 3 hours a week for exercise, and that's it, I would structure a very dense workout, that uses a majority of compound movements, antagonist or agonist/peripheral supersets. Aiming to hit all major muscle groups with 6 hard sets per week (not including warm up), and ideally have about 20 minutes per session to do some vigorous intensity steady state (or HIIT) conditioning. Since your time is so limited, you will want to structure your workouts to use the highest stimulus exercises, regardless of the fatigue, because it's unlikely you'll be able to train enough to exceed your recovery ability. Of course just make sure to use good technique and don't just add weight all the time at the expense of range of motion and proper tempo.
If you're interested in learning how to design your own program check this out:
It can take some time to design the perfect arrangement of exercises, it depends on your equipment, your gym layout, your preferences, and how you fatigue throughout the session, but just remember the problem you're optimizing for is maximal stimulus in the shortest possible time.
So the exercise piece is an essential part of sexiness (looking more brawny than scrawny), but you will get a lot if not the most effect from losing fat.
If you have money, but don't have time, meal prep services might be the best way to get you on track to fat loss. But in order for the changes to stick, without tracking your food, you will likely need broad changes in your eating environment, food environment, eating patterns in general, and your behaviors around food.
Even if you did decide to track food, you likely need to make broad structural and behavioral changes in order for this to be a sustainable lifestyle. If you're not sure what I'm talking about, I can elaborate.
If you have 3 hours a week for exercise, and that's it, I would structure a very dense workout, that uses a majority of compound movements, antagonist or agonist/peripheral supersets. Aiming to hit all major muscle groups with 6 hard sets per week (not including warm up), and ideally have about 20 minutes per session to do some vigorous intensity steady state (or HIIT) conditioning. Since your time is so limited, you will want to structure your workouts to use the highest stimulus exercises, regardless of the fatigue, because it's unlikely you'll be able to train enough to exceed your recovery ability. Of course just make sure to use good technique and don't just add weight all the time at the expense of range of motion and proper tempo.
If you're interested in learning how to design your own program check this out:
It can take some time to design the perfect arrangement of exercises, it depends on your equipment, your gym layout, your preferences, and how you fatigue throughout the session, but just remember the problem you're optimizing for is maximal stimulus in the shortest possible time.
So the exercise piece is an essential part of sexiness (looking more brawny than scrawny), but you will get a lot if not the most effect from losing fat.
If you have money, but don't have time, meal prep services might be the best way to get you on track to fat loss. But in order for the changes to stick, without tracking your food, you will likely need broad changes in your eating environment, food environment, eating patterns in general, and your behaviors around food.
Even if you did decide to track food, you likely need to make broad structural and behavioral changes in order for this to be a sustainable lifestyle. If you're not sure what I'm talking about, I can elaborate.
... oh yeah, and if you want to track food and body weight, I recommend Macro Factor.
Sometimes people start with the analytical tracking piece, and eventually come around to the behavior / environmental changes. Or they go the other way around. And if you can implement these broad changes you may never need the food tracking.
From personal experience, I've done it both ways. I've done the "if it fits your macros" eat whatever, and had ok success. I've done broad eating pattern changes with tracking and had massive success. And I've done broad eating pattern changes without tracking and had pretty good success. There are a ton of factors here. Not least of which is how lean you want to be. Probably an even bigger factor is how much control you can reasonably exert on your food environment (i.e. keep junk out of the house, out of sight, away from your desk or breakroom at work). All of these things draw down on your reserve of willpower. People like to say and think that it's just about being strong vs weak-willed, and it's largely complete bullshit. Unfortunately, we don't have much control over our urge and response to consume highly-palatable foods. Person A might need to exert far more willpower than Person B given the same stimulus, so it's definitely NOT an equal experience for everyone. Person A in our modern food environment will naturally be heavier than Person B. To put a fine point on it, this is largely how Ozempic works. (Turns down the "food noise" in people's brains, effectively making Person A's response to food stimulus equal to Person B).
Anyway, long rant. Cleaning up your food environment is a big deal. If you can do it, things get a lot easier, but it still might not be enough to get where you want to be.
Sleeping 4 hours a day is another big one to try to tackle.
Good luck !
Sometimes people start with the analytical tracking piece, and eventually come around to the behavior / environmental changes. Or they go the other way around. And if you can implement these broad changes you may never need the food tracking.
From personal experience, I've done it both ways. I've done the "if it fits your macros" eat whatever, and had ok success. I've done broad eating pattern changes with tracking and had massive success. And I've done broad eating pattern changes without tracking and had pretty good success. There are a ton of factors here. Not least of which is how lean you want to be. Probably an even bigger factor is how much control you can reasonably exert on your food environment (i.e. keep junk out of the house, out of sight, away from your desk or breakroom at work). All of these things draw down on your reserve of willpower. People like to say and think that it's just about being strong vs weak-willed, and it's largely complete bullshit. Unfortunately, we don't have much control over our urge and response to consume highly-palatable foods. Person A might need to exert far more willpower than Person B given the same stimulus, so it's definitely NOT an equal experience for everyone. Person A in our modern food environment will naturally be heavier than Person B. To put a fine point on it, this is largely how Ozempic works. (Turns down the "food noise" in people's brains, effectively making Person A's response to food stimulus equal to Person B).
Anyway, long rant. Cleaning up your food environment is a big deal. If you can do it, things get a lot easier, but it still might not be enough to get where you want to be.
Sleeping 4 hours a day is another big one to try to tackle.
Good luck !@amn Hey this was very helpful. I’ll try macro factor and there’s a lot else to consider. Our food in the house is pretty good; I eat a little too much of it. There are probably too many snacks around but my wife is triple feeding twins, and almost died 3 months ago. I’m gonna let her have all the Oreos and just work on myself. But your points are good!
In general I accomplish a lot with mindset, maybe that’s the angle of attack here. The best way you can tackle the “food environment” portion of this
In general I accomplish a lot with mindset, maybe that’s the angle of attack here. The best way you can tackle the “food environment” portion of this
@amn Hey thanks! Love the username!
I’m gonna check out those video, but this is my bad, I should’ve said this. I don’t think I need help designing workouts. I’ve worked with several coaches on program design, regularly brainstorm with some trainer friends, and have a shelf of books on the topic, tried stuff from Simple&Sinister to Rock Prodigy. I think on this case I’m gonna try 5/3/1 (reading it now) with accessory grip training, weighted pull-ups, 20mm deadlifting, and some nail bending and grippers first fun. That’s my plan anyway. Just to mix it up. But thanks!
I’m gonna check out those video, but this is my bad, I should’ve said this. I don’t think I need help designing workouts. I’ve worked with several coaches on program design, regularly brainstorm with some trainer friends, and have a shelf of books on the topic, tried stuff from Simple&Sinister to Rock Prodigy. I think on this case I’m gonna try 5/3/1 (reading it now) with accessory grip training, weighted pull-ups, 20mm deadlifting, and some nail bending and grippers first fun. That’s my plan anyway. Just to mix it up. But thanks!
@grandslam Fwiw, (run this through your neural nets and your friends) but if maximizing hypertrophy is key to sexiness, I would posit that 5/3/1 is probably not optimal for a number of reasons. It’s Biased towards movements that are all very systemically fatiguing. Training volume will be relatively low per unit time, and maximally fatiguing. If you used a more hypertrophy centric approach, more machines, more isolations, more supersets, I think you could do a lot better, given all your constraints.
You also seem to have a strong focus on grip strength for rock climbing? I’m not an expert on all the different type of grips you need. But I would guess if you’re going to be doing captains of crush gripper work (or similar), and program it normally, you don’t need to worry about using deadlifts for grip strength. The grippers will let you train through a big range of motion, concentric, eccentric, and isometric. Deadlifts are just isometric and at a specific, short, muscle length. Just something to think about.
Again, not that deadlifts would be a bad idea for glutes, hamstrings and back. And this may sound wild to say, but you may even want to train them using straps or versa grips if your posterior chain would otherwise be limited by your grip.
You also seem to have a strong focus on grip strength for rock climbing? I’m not an expert on all the different type of grips you need. But I would guess if you’re going to be doing captains of crush gripper work (or similar), and program it normally, you don’t need to worry about using deadlifts for grip strength. The grippers will let you train through a big range of motion, concentric, eccentric, and isometric. Deadlifts are just isometric and at a specific, short, muscle length. Just something to think about.
Again, not that deadlifts would be a bad idea for glutes, hamstrings and back. And this may sound wild to say, but you may even want to train them using straps or versa grips if your posterior chain would otherwise be limited by your grip.
@amn Hey, you must have a good head for program design. Couple of thoughts. 1) I find the compound lifts help with my functional and sport specific strength the most, but I think you’re right about hypertrophy. I put a power rack in my office, so big lifts are what I can do. Further, in my experience (although o recognize other folks have a different experience) breaking workouts into many targeted movements is time consuming and soul crushing. Deadlifts, on the other hand, make me happy. 2) I do a lot of grip stuff (love it)! But grippers are terrible training for climbing. I just do them as a hobby, they don’t help sport specific goals at all. You would think that grippers train through a big ROM but that’s not true. It’s barbell finger curls that hit rom and help forearm hypertrophy. Because grippers have a steel spring, the resistance curve spikes almost exponentially at the last few centimeters of the range of motion, meaning that at the level I’m training, they don’t help with hypertrophy or with other lifts. 3) I have trained deadlifts with straps! It works for me when I’m climbing a lot and my grip is shot. In this case, because my grip is stronger than my posterior chain, I’ll train deadlifts with FatGripz as a time saving tool which admittedly does not represent ideal training. 4) for fingers, I’ll train by deadlifting a 2cm edge on a block connected to a weight. It’s not ideal (I prefer hangboarding) but it can be superset into other workouts.
Thanks for brainstorming with me!
Thanks for brainstorming with me!
@grandslam Calorie counting apps really only need to be used for a week or two unless you have a really really varied diet.
You need a look at how much you are over eating. You don't have time to exercise much (right now, it will change, this is all temporary), but you're gonna eat either way. Make sure you aren't eating too much. Try to identify the highest calorie stuff and swap it out for fruit or lean protein (fruit is more convenient)
I just got this app Chronometer which will give you a ballpark goal for calories and macros. You just need a $5 food scale and you can scan the barcodes of what you are about to eat
Don't go nuts, just get an idea if you are 200 or 500 calories/day over your needs. Maybe you're eating lots of fat and don't realize it. You need a snapshot and if you let it slid until your waist is 40 inches you might not recover so just invest the few. Minutes now for your kids' sake!
You need a look at how much you are over eating. You don't have time to exercise much (right now, it will change, this is all temporary), but you're gonna eat either way. Make sure you aren't eating too much. Try to identify the highest calorie stuff and swap it out for fruit or lean protein (fruit is more convenient)
I just got this app Chronometer which will give you a ballpark goal for calories and macros. You just need a $5 food scale and you can scan the barcodes of what you are about to eat
Don't go nuts, just get an idea if you are 200 or 500 calories/day over your needs. Maybe you're eating lots of fat and don't realize it. You need a snapshot and if you let it slid until your waist is 40 inches you might not recover so just invest the few. Minutes now for your kids' sake!
@grandslam There is a balance. Track until your portions become second nature. It will probably be tough for a while but eventually you're in the best of both worlds