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

We discovered why traditional cardiovascular exercise is a waste of time if you “don’t have the time” and why resistance training is actually a more efficient option for weight maintenance, metabolic control and overall conditioning.

So what now? What can we do specifically, that accomplishes both our goals of attaining more energy so that we don’t collapse on the couch as soon as we get home from the office AND shrinks our bellies so that they don’t uncomfortably hang over our seatbelts when we’re driving?

The “Gymless” Workout

There’s some ongoing myth out there that you need a bench press, a bunch of dumbbells and an endless number of machines if you want to get a good workout in. NOT TRUE. If you think about our military personnel and even martial artists and gymnasts, one common training method among them standouts. BODYWEIGHT TRAINING.

Male gymnasts, especially, seem to have the most well-defined and functionally sound physiques in all of these past Olympic games. This wasn’t accomplished by running on a treadmill at their local 24-Hour Fitness. In fact, I don’t think gymnasts, male or female, are even allowed to do cardio. It didn’t happen by bench pressing and working their “chest” on Mondays, their “legs” on Tuesdays and splitting up every other body part and working each individually on a separate day each week. And I can guarantee that no fancy machine or gadget has ever carved out abs like the ones you saw in Beijing.

Gymanasts, and most athletes, train by moving their body in space and using their own bodyweight as resistance. Granted the age difference, time dedication and genetics are different for gymnasts than us busy dads, but the principles still remain the same. We may not be doing iron crosses hanging from suspended rings, but we still can get the physical benefits from training like gymnasts/athletes.

First, I think it’s incredibly important to address our midsections. Addressing our “core,” as it is fondly called in the popular media these days, is the first step. Our core musculature, consisting of our abdominals, mid and low back, hip and glutes are often never trained the way they were meant to be trained – do sit-ups or crunches come to mind when I mention “ab exercises”?

Our abdominal muscles’ primary function isn’t to bring our chest into our thighs (like the movement of a traditional sit-up), it’s to hold our body upright and keep our spine stable. Therefore, the best movement to train our abdominals is really NO MOVEMENT AT ALL.

I use a series of Isometric Holds to introduce my clients to abdominal or “core” training. The circuit that I have outlined below is, by far, the best way to get your core strong, activate and use your core muscles the way they were meant to be used and fix you posture all at the same time. You can watch this circuit in action below:

After our cores get stronger, it’s time to start incorporating some basic movement exercises. To get both strength and cardiovascular results, try using a bodyweight circuit like the one outlined below…

1) Bodyweight Prisoner Squat x 10-15 reps (prisoner squats are done with your hands behind your head and your elbows pulled back so that your shoulders are squeezed together)

2) Push-ups x 10 – 15 reps

3) Prisoner Step-Ups x 10 reps per leg (put your left foot on the second step of your staircase, place your hands behind your head. Push through your left heel and step-up. Bring yourself back down in a controlled manner and perform all repetitions on one leg before switching to the other)

4) Stick-Ups x 10 (this is a great postural exercise. You can find the description HERE).

5) Jumping Jacks x 20 (yes, basic can also mean “old school”. Truth be told, JJs are a great way to get your heart rate racing to make your workout more “fat burning”)

If you’re slightly overweight, start off by using a circuit like the one I filmed below. This circuit will be less of an impact on your joints and can ease you into more intense movements like jumping jacks and step-ups.

So here’s the progression for both of the above bodyweight circuits…Time yourself on your first time through the circuit and record the time. Each successive attempt through the circuit, try to beat your time. Perform the circuit 3 times per day, 3 or 4 days per week. There’ll obviously be a point when you can’t go through the whole thing any faster. When you reach that point, it’s time to change things up.

Like I mentioned in Part 1, there are an infinite number of variations and progressions on these exercises. You can YouTube or Google “bodyweight exercises”, check my blog at FitAndBusyDad.blogspot.com (I’ve done a lot of Q’n’A and have an “Exercise of the Week Feature”) or you can check out my e-Book, “20-Minute Workouts for The World’s Busiest Dads” which contains a few circuit variations as well.

The take home message here, guys, is that not being able to get to the gym is no longer an excuse. All you need is your bodyweight and some creativity. As much as technology is propelling us into the future, man was never built to sit on a machine and move our thighs in and out against resistance. We need to be on our feet moving, lifting, pushing and pulling ourselves into better shape. No one has ever created a gym better than the one we were born with – our bodies. We just have to know how to use it the right way.

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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