This is a guest post by Chris Lopez from Fit and Busy Dad.

It’s all happened to us before. It’s late at night. You just get home from one of those crazy parties with the in-laws. The kids are asleep in the back (for me, all 4 of them are asleep) and you don’t want to wake them. So now, you have the task of picking them up out of their seats, laying their heavy heads on your shoulder and carrying them from the car into bed. Sound familiar? I do it almost every time we have a family get together. Sometimes I take two of them at a time. Thankfully, I’ve never had the experience of pulling my back or twisting anything in a painful fashion.

Sadly though, it happens a lot. A weird twist here, a wrong step there and before you know it you’re at the chiropractor’s office or popping Advils for the rest of the week.

I’ve made it a point to help as many busy dads as I can get back in shape and lose weight. In this two-part article series, I’ll show two types of dads that come to me for help and what I do for them.

The first dad, let’s call him “Joe,” is not overweight by any means. He’s got a slender build, a little bit of a paunch belly and has very low energy. Joe either works in an office or runs his own business, he’s got a couple of kids, comes home late from the office and passes out on the couch after dinner.

Joe’s weight is under control. He just needs to gain some energy and feel better about himself. Joe just wants to “get back in shape.” Joe is the “Skinny-Fat Dad.”

In my training practice I espouse a philosophy that if you can’t handle your own bodyweight, then you shouldn’t be lifting any external resistance (like dumbbells, barbells, machines, etc). So in my practice, I have certain benchmarks that everyone must achieve before even touching a weight.

For example, for a male between the ages of 30 and 45, you must be able to do 10 full range push-ups, 3 chin-ups, 20 bodyweight squats (where your rear end goes below parallel) and 20 lunges. If you’re unable to make these numbers, then we work to get you up to standard. You’ll notice that as we work up to the benchmarks, you’d be getting stronger and will start feeling better as well (more energy, better overall sense of well-being).

So the bottom line is that you don’t need a gym to stay in shape and you can do so in as little as 20-minutes per day with just your own body weight. After you’ve achieved the benchmarks stated above, there are a myriad of progressions and variations you can add to the above exercises to make them more challenging.

The second dad, Tim, is overweight. He was probably an athlete in high school or college. He has tendency to overeat because he still feels like he has the same metabolism that he did when he was playing football. After having a couple of kids, Tim takes a look in the mirror one day and says, “what the hell happened.”

Tim, believe it or not, should avoid cardio altogether…at least for now. I know that may come as a shock and now Jeremy is probably thinking twice about having me contribute a piece on health & exercise, but allow me to explain.

Although cardio seems like the most logical and the easiest form of exercise to drop the pounds, it actually has been proven (I can cite the studies for you if you’re a science nut like me) to be counter-productive. Even Dr. Kenneth Cooper, the pioneer of aerobic/cardio exercise and founder of the famous Cooper Institute, said that he may have been mistaken about its benefits.

***Now keep in mind that if you’re a cardio or bust type of person then doing something is far better than doing nothing at all. If that’s the case, then treadmill, elliptical or bike away! Just remember though, if you’re going to do something, why not do it the RIGHT way the first time around instead of wasting your time.***

Your body sees all strenuous exercise as stress. We use exercise to stress the body and then gain the physiological benefits of exercise as our body recovers from the stimulus. It recovers by either A - building muscle, B - burning fat or C - both. Only in that recovery phase are we actually gaining anything positive.

The actual act of exercise produces cortisol (a stress hormone directly related to storing body fat primarily in our mid-section). Therefore, the longer we exercise, the more cortisol gets produced. The more cortisol in our system (remember cortisol also gets produced by ANY stress in our lives, not just physical), the more belly fat we store. Ever notice that guy at the gym who hops on the bike for an hour everyday and looks the same as he did when he first started a year ago?

So what’s the solution then? Resistance training. The amount of “work” you are doing when you train with resistance is a lot less than that of a cardio session lasting 30, 40 or 60 minutes in length. Resistance training consists of you completing a set of an exercise and then resting. More often than not, a set will last no more than 60 seconds in length. When you add up the total amount of sets that you perform in one workout, the actual “work” time really only ends up being anywhere from 18 to 24 minutes. If you’re doing aerobic training, you’re performing the same movement for the FULL DURATION of the workout…non-stop!

When we’re exercising, we need to STOP looking at what we are gaining while we are doing the actual activity and START looking at what we gain while we’re recovering. This all boils down to the QUALITY of work we do when we’re working out and NOT the duration of the activity (QUANTITY). Training hard for 20 minutes for example, will always trump sitting on a stationary bike reading a magazine going about 20% of your maximum capacity.

The other downside to traditional aerobic training is that it’s repetitive. You are using the same muscles, performing the same movement for usually over 500 to 1000 repetitions in one session. Because there is a lack of variation, you are risking over-working some muscles and completely under-working and shutting down others. This leads to overuse injuries primarily in the ankles, knees, hips and lower back.

Also, the impact of running on your joints is very damaging. The average runner puts 3-5 times his bodyweight on one leg for each stride he takes. As mentioned above, you’re taking anywhere from 500 to 1000 strides per session. Now imagine that you’re 10 or 20lbs overweight and you’re putting 3 to 5 times your bodyweight on your poor ankles, knees, hips & low back and I can almost guarantee that you’ll get some form of overuse or impact injury in a matter of 2 weeks.

So, whether you’re a Tim or a Joe, there are smarter and effective ways to get you back into it. The thing to remember is that using repetitive movements, as intuitive as it seems, really doesn’t make much sense. And that’s exactly what riding a bike, running on a treadmill or pedaling an elliptical machine is…REPETITIVE.

Now that you’ve got the urge to get back in shape, Part 2 of this series will actually show you some of the strategies that I use to help my clients and friends get back on the road toward living a healthy and active lifestyle.

Chris Lopez, BSc HK, CSCS is a fitness expert, writer and personal trainer. He is an occasional contributor to the Globe and Mail, Maximum Fitness and Men’s Fitness Magazines and has been helping get Busy Dads in shape for 10 years since the birth of his first child. He and his wife live in Toronto, Canada with their 4 daughters. Visit Chris’ blog at FitAndBusyDad.blogspot.com or sign-up for your free report & workout at www.FitAndBusyDad.com.

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