We’ve all heard people talking about it. The dad bond is real. Here’s is the Dad Bod Workout!

Most men that take on fitness as a personal hobby and lifestyle choice are going to one day have kids. Some may already have kids.

Sadly, when it comes down to it we often allow ourselves to let go of our personal gains so we can spend time with the child and make enough money to put food on the table.

Over time we lose more of our gains until finally we are left with the dad bod.

No man ever wants this to happen, but it does.

Even as a trainer, I allowed myself to slip into the phase of missing training days and eating complete junk food.

But let’s not focus on the past. Instead, let’s get started with making a personal goal to achieve the true body of a man once again.

What Is A Dad Bod?

This is a popular term that basically revolves around men who have children and have lost their physique due to being busy with daily life events.

It could also simply be used to describe a man with excess body fat that lacks muscle.

There’s not really an implication of obesity, but rather a guy who is developing a potbelly. No man really wants to be referred to as having a dad bod. The term can definitely crush the ego of a man who was once healthy and fit.

But you have to accept that this applies to you, and start taking action instead of staring in the mirror wondering what happened to your physique.

Let’s take a look at the events that cause this sudden change in your body and find a solution that gets your body clean and fit once again.

Your Metabolism Has Slowed Down!

As we age, our bodies begin to slow down in various processes such as testosterone production and how quickly we break down foods into energy for cells.

This leads to fat gains since all of the extra sugar that was consumed and wasn’t used needs to go somewhere. Your fat cells love this when it happens. You don’t have to be aging for this to occur.

When we eat sugar our bodies release a hormone known as insulin.

This is used to carry sugar and other nutrients to cells found within your liver, muscles and fat storages (adipose tissue). This is also the order of nutrient distribution. But, when we consume too much sugar, our body releases higher amounts of insulin to counter the new intake.

Over time, this becomes quite bad for you. If insulin is routinely being elevated due to sugar intake, your body begins to develop a resistance to its effects. This is called insulin resistance.

Once this happens, your body is unable to process sugar fast enough because the simple carbs you received it from are causing blockages in your bloodstream.

This is how you gain fat quite quickly. The process only gets worse because your brain is confused and thinks you need more sugar even though you already have it in your bloodstream.

The end result is an addiction to sugars from additives, preservatives and simple carbs in general. Please note that constant insulin resistance over a period of time may lead to diabetes, so it’s important to start a better diet now.

How To Get Rid Of The Dad Bod Fat Gains

Nutrition makes up any fundamental training program and the first step to getting rid of the dad bod is eating better.

Calories have something to do with it.

Why?

If you eat 4,000 calories without working out, then fat gains obviously occur. But, when we talk about the average person they’re not reaching that high of a calorie intake. Instead, they’re eating foods that aren’t good for them.

These foods have a lot of sugar as either an additive or naturally occurring.

Significantly reducing sugar intake helps lower your insulin spikes and puts your metabolism back on track with burning sugar for energy without any leftovers for your fat cells.

This type of a diet is referred to as a low glycemic load diet. But you aren’t going to be focusing on the glycemic index chart for eating healthy.

Simple carbs can be white bread, rice, starches, soda and anything that comes in a package with a ridiculous ingredient list. You’ve seen the list. It’s full of words no one understands. Not all, but a vast majority of them are probably high in grams of sugar content not deriving from fiber.

Instead, you should eat more protein and foods containing dietary fats and fiber opposed to carbs.

Eat Protein, Fats, And Fiber

Protein is a favorite among most healthy eaters.

It makes you feel full longer.

It suppresses your appetite. Protein also assists with skeletal muscle growth. Along the way, it’ll help keep your muscles from being sore.

As an added bonus, the slow digestion rate causes more calories to be used. A lot of people don’t get it, but quality dietary fats are good for you.

Why?

They provide energy.

They also keep your heart healthy.

Quality fats can help your body burn unhealthy fats. As well, quality fats increase testosterone and growth hormone production.

Finally, there’s fiber. The body is unable to digest fiber, meaning it has no calories. It also assists with digestion. It many ways it resembles a sponge by soaking up fluids in your stomach making you feel full longer.

Physical Training To Reduce The Dad Bod

The dad bod can’t be released back into the wild unless you exercise routinely.

You’ll want to train all muscle groups at least once a week.

This means targeting a five-week training program that consists of big lifts supported by isolation lifts, which is supplemented by a training day that focuses on abs training and cardio.

That’s how a true man exercises his muscles and turns them into lean mass with little fat. Strength training is definitely your best friend in this situation. This type of training has been proven to help boost strength and development in your bones, muscles, joints, and ligaments while also increasing muscular endurance.

Doctors even recommend this type of training over cardio nowadays because they now know how much more important it is for our bodies.

Cardio is great for conditioning your heart and burning calories but is not enough to keep your body in good standing without some type of strength training making up most of the week.

This is why you’ll see us focus on it for one day of the week. Abs training just makes them well defined and gets rid of the dad bod appearance.

Big Lifts And Isolation Lifts

Our purpose is weight training to get rid of your fat and turn it into lean muscle mass.

To accomplish this, the two lifts known as big and isolation come into effect. Big lifts are also called compound lifts.

This is the type of exercise that focuses on multiple joint usages for movement and balance. An example would be deadlifts. These use spinal erectors, hip joints and knee joints to move the body for muscle contractions from the top of your body down to your legs.

They’re usually done at the beginning of a workout since you want to have full energy to complete the sets.

Isolation lifts generally focus on one or two muscle groups with only one joint being used. An example would be biceps curls. These use the elbow flexors to create the movement that cause your biceps to contract.

They come after big lifts because they’re great for focusing on specific muscle groups, but not necessarily required when you have big lifts to use.

Dad Bod Workout 

Are you ready to get rid of the dad bod?

This workout program focuses on all muscle groups with, for the most part, the use of resistance training.

Make sure that you ease into each workout with low-moderate weight settings until you get used to the movements again.

Research shows that you can lose over 40% of your strength gains in only two weeks of not training.

That’s not to mention your body’s joints probably have poor range of motion as well. Because of this, five minutes of static stretching should be used prior to all training workouts. But, that’s up to you.

The training days for the program will begin with chest and triceps.

The next day is for legs and glutes.

Your shoulders and triceps receive attention the following day.

Then, it’s a back and biceps day. The next day is cardio and abs work. Use the next two days to rest. These training days shouldn’t be interchanged. Chest starts off the week, and legs follow to give your shoulders time for rest.

Shoulder training is before back training because you don’t want to wear out your shoulders before doing a specific training day for them.

Equipment is required for this training program, and a gym might be the best place to do it because they have all the equipment that will be used. All exercises are done with moderate weight settings.

This means you shouldn’t be failing on a set in the second month until towards the end of your workout. Also, this is the reason why 8 to 10 reps are being used.

This is Week 1!

Day 1 is for chest and triceps.

Exercise                                                           Sets     Reps

Barbell Flat Bench Press                                 5          8-10

Dumbbell Incline Press                                   5          8-10

Dumbbell Flyes                                               4          8-10

Forward Weighted Dips                                 5          8-10

Close-Grips Barbell Bench Press                    4          8-10

Flat Bench Ez-Bar Skull Crushers                  4          8-10

Day 2 is for legs and glutes.

Exercise                                                           Sets     Reps

Squats                                                             5          8-10

Lunges                                                            5          8-10

Leg Curls                                                        4          8-10

Leg Extensions                                               4          8-10

Calf Raises                                                      5          12-15

Leg Press                                                         4          8-10

Squats                                                             5          8-10

Lunges                                                            5          8-10

Leg Curls                                                        4          8-10

Leg Extensions                                               4          8-10

Calf Raises                                                      5          12-15

Leg Press                                                         4          8-10

Squats                                                             5          8-10

Lunges                                                            5          8-10

Leg Curls                                                        4          8-10

Leg Extensions                                               4          8-10

Calf Raises                                                      5          12-15

Leg Press                                                         4          8-10

Day 3 is for shoulders and triceps.

Exercise                                                           Sets     Reps

Military Press                                                  5          8-10

Seated Arnold Shoulder Press                        5          8-10

Wide-Grip Upright Rows                               5          8-10

Dumbbell Lateral Raise                                  4          8-10

Standing Overhead Triceps Extensions          5          8-10

Cable Rope Pull Downs                                  4          8-10

Weighted Vertical Dips                                  4          8-10

Day 4 is for back and biceps.

Exercise                                                           Sets     Reps

Conventional Deadlifts                                   5          8-10

Barbell Bent Over Rows                                 5          8-10

Lat Pull Downs                                               4          8-10

T-Rows                                                           5          8-10

Barbell Biceps Curls                                       5          8-10

EZ-Bar Preacher Curls                                    4          8-10

Reverse Curls                                                  4          8-10

Day 5 is for cardio and abs.

Exercise                                                           Sets     Reps

Elliptical Run                                                  1          15

Minutes Crunches                                           3          25

Floor Oblique Crunches                                  3          25

Reverse Crunches                                           2          30

Hanging Leg Raises                                        3          20

Weighted Decline Sit-Ups                              3          15

Russian Twists                                                2          30

Climbers                                                          1          1 Minute

Day 6 & 7 is for rest. No training allowed.

This is Week 2!

Day 8 is for chest and triceps.

Exercise                                                           Sets     Reps

Barbell Incline Press                                       5          8-10

Dumbbell Flat Bench Pullovers                      5          8-10

Weighted Vertical Dips                                  4          8-10

Single-Arm Dumbbell Floor Press                  5          8-10

Decline Barbell Bench Press                           4          8-10

Decline Dumbbell Triceps Extensions            4          8-10

Day 9 is for legs and glutes.

Exercise                                                           Sets     Reps

Front Squats                                                    5          8-10

Leg Presses                                                     5          8-10

Leg Curls                                                        5          8-10

Leg Extensions                                               5          8-10

Calf Raises                                                      5          12-15

Day 10 is for shoulders and triceps.

Exercise                                                           Sets     Reps

Overhead Dumbbell Press                              5          8-10

Barbell Shrugs                                                 5          8-10

Narrow-Grip Upright Rows                            5          8-10

Dumbbell Front Raise                                     4          8-10

Kneeling Triceps Kickbacks                           5          8-10

Cable Rope Overhead Pull                             5          8-10

Day 11 is for back and biceps.

Exercise                                                           Sets     Reps

Sumo Deadlifts                                               5          8-10

Kneeling Single-Arm Rows                            5          8-10

Seated Rows                                                   4          8-10

Reverse Dumbbell Flyes                                 5          8-10

Dumbbell Hammer Curls                                5          8-10

Arnold Isolation Curls                                    4          8-10

Reverse Single-Arm Cable Curls                    4          8-10

Day 12 is for cardio and abs.

Exercise                                                           Sets     Reps

Elliptical Run                                                  1          15

Minutes Crunches                                           3          25

Floor Oblique Crunches                                  3          25

Reverse Crunches                                           2          30

Hanging Leg Raises                                        3          20

Weighted Decline Sit-Ups                              3          15

Russian Twists                                                2          30

Climbers                                                          1          1 Minute

Day 13 & 14 is for rest. No training allowed.

Conclusion

Repeat this two-week program for 12 weeks (3 months). In that time, you’ll notice the differences on your body.

Feel free to change exercises and equipment when possible to keep things from getting boring. Enjoy your dad bod-free look and keep the momentum going.

By Brian Pankau, CPT