Best Exercises to Lose Your Mom & Dad Bod
Adding another member to your family can be the single most rewarding part in any healthy marriage. However, with your new addition, it brings with it a respectable amount of changes as well. Family, friends and colleagues will all provide you (sometimes) with useful advice. Some will briefly discuss time and how we simply won’t have enough of it moving forward once your little blessing arrives. But, few if any will go into great detail about that.
With various time commitments needing to go towards doctor appointments, scheduled feedings, nap times, disrupted evenings, and more, sometimes as a new parent, you will easily forget to honestly feed yourself or even take a shower! The funny thing is, I’m not kidding and I’m not the only parent I’ve spoken with that this has happened to! Due to this disrupted sleep, frequently skipped meals, high levels of stress, and consistently seen changes in overall food quality, it’s not hard to see why the vast majority of moms and dads gain weight in their first year of parenthood.
When I became a brand new dad, I quickly learned that if my health was going to remain a priority in my life and if I wanted to lose my “dad bod,” I had to make many considerable changes in my life. Sunday’s that I used to spend in the kitchen with my wife meal prepping all day after church was over. Spending several hours every night binge watching YouTube videos instead of sleeping was done. Third and the biggest change for me personally since I’m a fitness junky was realizing how I simply didn’t have the time to go to the gym every day nor spend 90 plus minutes working out. I had to learn HOW to maximize my minutes. Thanks to some amazing coaches and mentors I have in the industry, I was able to learn how I could reduce my previous 4-6 90+ minute exercise routines each week into just 3 30-45 minute routines while seeing greater (and faster) results overall.
IMPORTANT NOTES
Now, it goes without saying hopefully at this point that you’ve realized that you cannot out train a bad diet. You can have the greatest exercise routine in the world but if you aren’t in a caloric deficit, you will struggle to lose weight. It’s also important to note that if you are in a chronically stressed or under-recovered state, it will be a struggle to lose weight as well since our body’s, physiologically, need to be in healthy ranges.
With that being said, it’s important to also include that this article is being written with the understanding that parents have limited time on their hands so regardless if you can visit the gym or workout from your home, the selected exercises are those that you can do anywhere as long as you have a few dumbbells nearby. You’ll also notice that there will not be too many mentions of exercises that are cardiovascular based since cardio exercises (as beneficial as they are) are useful for burning calories when you are actually performing the movements whereas strength-based exercises do the same but also help develop lean muscle tissue, which when increases, increases your metabolism with it and the rate of calories you burn even while in a rested state. In a previous article I’ve broken down the differences between cardiovascular training and strength training that you can read here.
With all of our bases covered, let's dive into the specifics of the exercises that will help you lose your mom bod or dad bod.
“The Big 5”
These are the compound exercises that should be included every week in your programming due to their ability to engage multiple muscle groups at once while improving posture, joint health and overall daily performance or “functionality.” I'll typically perform at least 2 of these in my routines, one upper and one lower, while adding in a few accessory exercises or "honorable mentions" that I listed below, time permitting.
Squats - Front, Back, Zercher, Kang, Cossack and Overhead
Deadlifts - Stiff-Legged, Traditional, Sumo, Romanian, and Suitcase
Standing Press - Overhead, Military, Z Press, Behind the Neck, and Push Press
Horizontal Press - Bench Press, Incline Press, Decline Press and Push Ups
Horizontal Pulling - Bent-Over Rows, Inverted, Batwing, Renegade, and Pendlay
Honorable Mentions
These are exercises that truly add a lot of value to our overall aesthetics as well as daily performance but don’t necessarily create the same impact that “The Big 5” creates. Time permitting, I’ll try to perform 2-3 of these in the back half of my routines.
Dips
Farmer Carries
Lunges
Step-Ups
Pull-Ups
Ab Rollouts
Snatches
Turkish Get Ups
Glute Bridges
Hip Thrusts
Planks
Woodchoppers
Final Thoughts
When it comes to developing your own workouts, it can be incredibly intimidating, especially if we don’t have anyone to guide us. You may have questions about sets, reps, rest periods and more. However, don’t allow these questions and intimidations stop you from simply starting. For a more detailed guide on programming your own workouts, please click here. And if you’ve been struggling to achieve a healthier lifestyle for a while now, we encourage you to join our free Facebook support group for parents.
"Coach Taz" aka Taylor Rodriguez is the owner and head coach of Taz Fitness & Nutrition. He is a Personal Trainer & Nutrition Coach located in Deltona, FL that coaches individuals online and in person. Taylor was a former partying pro wrestler turned fitness enthusiast after the economic downturn of 2008-2010. After losing almost 70 lbs, his new passion is to help struggling individuals find new confidence within themselves to achieve any goal that they see possible. To begin coaching with Taylor or to request a free consultation, contact us today.