Thread by @Rob_NBF

How I consistently gained muscle and strength as a busy parent with a 9-5 job (more like 7-7 with commuting) without giving up much of my precious time.

THREAD

So these pictures were taken when I was working 5 days a week and had a very young son.

You can still make progress, but you've got to be smart about it

Read on to find out what I did.

1. FIND A TRAINING FREQUENCY THAT WORKS FOR YOU.

Spending 90 minutes in the gym 4 times a week probably isn't going to happen.

With dad duties and work pressures, my usual routine was totally obliterated....

I realised the best way for me to CONSISTENTLY get a workout in, was to go to the gym during my lunch break.

10 minute walk to the gym, 10 minutes back, time for getting changed, showered & also eating meant I had 25-30 minutes to train BUT I could do it 5x a week.

2. TRAIN INTELLIGENTLY TO GET MAXIMUM RESULTS IN THE MINIMUM TIME

I ruthlessly cut from my routine.

Everything except the essentials had to go.

I ended up doing 2 compound exercises per session, for 2 or 3 work sets each.

That was it, session done. Run back to work!

I had to get clever about this to get the most out of each session.

Exercise selection was key, and for the first time ever, which exercises came after others was vitally important 👇

For example, I could cut set up and re-racking time if I put romanian deadlifts and barbell rows together on the same day.

After my 3 sets of RDLs, I could take a couple of plates off, and do my barbell rows. No time wasted moving stations, fighting for a barbell, or setting up

I avoided popular equipment (busy central London gym)

It was hard to get a bench & someone would always be "using" 6 pairs of dumbbells, including the ones I wanted.

I couldn't afford to waste time.

Instead of dumbbell rows, I did T-bar rows on the unpopular landmine Station (their loss, this is great!)

I also used it for shoulders (landmine press, another great one). This also saved me time setting up, re-racking etc.

3. CUT VOLUME, INCREASE INTENSITY.

The main thing that will extend your gym sessions is lots of exercises and lots of sets.

I had no time for that.

I did 5 or 6 work sets in my whole session.

I started with the heaviest set, the reduced the weight by 10% for each subsequent set.

Each set was taken close to failure so I was getting the best possible workout done in the time.

Set 1: 4-6 reps
Set 2: 6-8 reps
Set 3: 8-10 reps

This is called Reverse Pyramid Training.

I could go into more detail on this and I probably will at some point, but I don't want to digress.

You don't need to do what I did.

Perhaps what will works for you is just 2 sessions per week, where you end up getting the same amount done as I did with 5

That will work too.

Training like this, I was able to progress from session to session, first adding reps to some or all of the sets.

Once I was hitting the top end of the rep range, I went up in weight.

I was able to put on muscle and gain strength, despite having the worst sleep in the world.

Don't do nothing because you think you need to do everything.

This shifted my belief as to what was truly necessary.

You probably think you need way more than you actually do.

I'm now a dad to two (one 2 year old, one 3 month old), and I'm sticking to these principles with home workouts.

With me trying to grow my business, my own training often gets pushed to the bottom of the list

These principles still work.

Of course you need to be eating properly to gain muscle, lose fat - whatever your goal is - but I talk about that all the time, no need to repeat it here.

I'm helping several people with this at the moment.

Everyone is always surprised that I'm not programming them 90 minute workouts with 5 sets of Lateral raises and biceps curls.

Let's drop that inefficient rubbish!

If you want to learn more, check out the book I wrote on the principles of building muscle, which has a section on efficient workouts and some example routines 👇

Learn.nothingbarredfitness.com/simplybuildmus…

And get on my email list.

Select one of the free resources here and you'll be added 👇

nothingbarredfitness.com/start-your-jou…

@threadreaderapp unroll - going to turn this into an email for my list