TL;DR
- Pick a training program that can be done at home (workout generator or KB)
- Pick a training program that be done quickly
- Try and think long term
- It will get better
- Community support helps
- Take care of yourself
- Sleep will be compromised, try to tighten up nutrition
This will be the final update for this section to go over training for the past 3.5 months. Having a newborn has been interesting. The biggest thing is the ability to be flexible. Newborn stages are short and things constantly change. You lose sleep, celebrate when they sleep more, then get upset with the normal sleep regressions that happen. This is with the blessing that the child and mother stay healthy. I didn’t feel much of a bond for the first two months. I started to turn the corner once sleep improved, my wife could get a modicum of sleep, and our son started to smile. Two months isn’t that long in the grand scheme of things, but it was not a quick turn around. The biggest thing I learned through this process is that I was stressed before we had the kid and having the kid pushed me over the edge. I think I wanted to keep doing everything that I was doing before and I resented the reality that priorities had to change. I put the kids’ needs first, my wife’s needs next, the dog still has to go outside and once all that is done I could pray for a moment of silence. The biggest thing I’ve taken from this is how good it feels to sit down, read and think with a cup of coffee. Our gym offers childcare, and I think we should have done a better job utilizing that. Unlike a dog, which you can crate, the kid needs a human to look after them. My in-laws got home from snow birding about a month in and this has made a world of difference. It’s allowed my wife to get out of the house and have more support. The value of having family around cannot be understated.
Training:
First 6 weeks I did an easy strength template. I would not choose this again as the five day a week training ended up being a pain from a logistics perspective. In hindsight I would have elected for something like the 10k swing challenge as this could be done from home and is efficient. Using the workout generator to do a program that could primarily be done from home would also be a reasonable solution. Around the 6 week time frame is when sleep started to improve and I wasn’t miserable. I trained in the morning prior to when my wife and kid got up and this was fine when my wife was on maternity leave. This had to shift again once my wife went back to work. I’m typically able to train in the morning, except when my wife is on nights. I don’t have a great solution for that yet. After 6 weeks I did the average to savage program for the next 6 weeks. Took the new format diagnostic ACFT and got a 590. I maxed all the tests, but the run. I did not put in the work with my long runs and tempo runs and it showed. It was the worst 2 mile run performance I think I’ve ever had. The 3:30 plank was more annoying than anything else. The for record test is in 6 months and I need to put more of a focus on the run. Once my wife went back to work I had to cut back on BJJ because I had to be home with the kid. Once he sleeps a little better I can probably bring him and just leave him in the car seat for the hour. One of my training partners did that before and it worked.
My training template is going to be as follows for the next 12 weeks. It’s a hybrid between tactical barbell and CHP’s 5k and powerlifting program. A lot of the general conditioning I’ve traded out for BJJ because that’s what I like to do. In between main movements I do correctives – band pull aparts, hangs, bw pull ups, 6 point rocks. Warm up I just do Jacob’s Ladder for 5 min. Sets and reps are going to be based on the tactical barbell black program. I’ll probably consider doing the green program the 12 weeks leading up to the ACFT to improve my running conditioning as that’s my weak point.
M: recovery, maybe light BJJ session or recovery run
Tu: SSB Squat, Bench, WPU, SA Farmers, tempo run
W: BJJ
Th: Squat, OHP, Clean, Interval Run
F: BJJ
Sat: Front squat, Incline Bench, Deads (sumo, convo)
Sun: long steady state run, BJJ
I had been doing the deads on Thursday and was finding it challenging to recover for the training session on Saturday.
Seeking Progress 