Finding yourself short on time when it comes to getting in a solid training session? 

As a husband, new Dad, and owner of multiple businesses, I can tell you all about it firsthand - being Busy is the way it is as soon as you become a family man and / or business or BOTH!

With time being so precious, it can be tough to find a good hour or so to set aside to devote to hitting up an intense training session, but it's all about making it a PRIORITY.

Inside Dad STRONG - we go with 30 minute training sessions. If more time is available, we add an extra set to every exercise or add another exercise. But, for the most part, we go 30 minutes per workout for our Busy Dads.

Everyone is “busy” but it’s the men that actually MAKE the time to train that actually get the results they want.

However, if you’re looking to maximize the effort you put into your training,  just fitting in any type of workout here or there isn’t going to be the answer.

The big trend that’s been hitting the fitness world as of late has been that of “HIIT” workouts or short, circuit style training sessions.   These are noting new, but they’ve come back with a vengeance as of late and are certainly becoming more mainstream than ever.

When you only have 30 minutes or less to train, these types of fast hitting sessions are perfect. While these HIIT style workouts are great for shredding off body fat and getting you into awesome overall condition, a few things these “HIIT” style workouts miss out on  is that of helping you get stronger and more powerful.

YES, getting lean is a good thing (especially when your main goal is to lose weight), but what about strength?  What about power?

Do you want to be weak and skinny or do you want to be lean, powerful, and strong?

As a Dad, my focus is overall performance - strength and power.

In this short article I want to share with you a few of the ways I implement strength and power work into short, 24 minute or less workouts that will not only help you become more explosive and stronger.

To start off, we need to think about how to organize these training sessions when we only have 30 minutes or less to train…

If your focus is to get stronger and more explosive, the #1 thing you want to do first is to start off with an explosive, power based movement.

The reason we start a session off with a high-speed, power-based movement is so you can make sure you’re able to move with as much speed and explosiveness as possible.

We don’t want to train power when we're fatigued and run down at the end of a workout. You'll end up moving your body or the weights slowly. Train slow and you will be slow.  If you’re going to train for power, you want to be able to move at 100% effort and explosiveness.

Think about it…

When you get tired, you slow down. When you slow down, the amount of overall INTENSITY you’ll be able to put into your power movements will decrease, thus resulting in less effort being put into your power movements.

It’s sort of like saying you're going to do sprints, but end up doing a jog struggling to run as fast as possible.

It’s just NOT going to yield you the same results.

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Note: This sounds like common sense but I get daily e mails from people asking questions like this. I believe the overabundance of info as well as a bombardment of fads and gimmicks is confusing countless people.

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So, what are some of my favorite movement to use at the beginning of a training session for speed and power development?

I prefer jumps and various forms of plyometrics, Olympic based movements using kettlebells or dumbbells such as snatches, cleans, and swings.

For example, within the sample workout I supply for you below, I start the session off with a “step vertical jump” which has progressions to it that can be used to help either increase difficulty or decrease it based off of your fitness level.

Bottom line is to move with 100% effort each rep so the overall reps used within the workout below are kept pretty low at 2 per set.   If you go above that, your intensity might fall a bit.

Now, while this might seem “easy”, just note that when you’re training for pure power, your goal is NOT to absolutely destroy yourself.  Just don’t don’t be so quick to  think you have to breathe and gasp for air in order to get results or have a successful workout.  That’s NOT the focus here.

So, that covers how to implement Power, now let’s talk about Strength …

When it comes to building up more strength, the focus is very similar to what we do with our power work in that we want your strength focused work to be done within the first part of your session for when you’re fresh.  Unless you’re advanced, you’re not going to be able to lift heavy enough loads when you’re fatigued out from doing a full session.

For the strength focus, I typically follow up my power-focused work with some strength-focused work, which is an excellent 1-2 Punch.

So, instead of doing some type of interval set up, I always have a certain amount of reps selected for my movement that I’m trying to work strength with.

With the session I have for you below, the strength-focused movement I use is done with a kettlebell single arm overhead press. The reps we’ll use is kept at 5 per arm, but note that you can go lower with reps in the 4’s, 3’s, 2’s and even 1’s if desired.

Since we’re working with kettlebells, 5 is a good rep range to work strength in this specific exercise and training tool. Kettlebells are not the best tools for 1 rep max work. Sets of 5 will work great.

When you work strength, you want to think more about overall QUALITY than QUANTITY. Since you’re doing a lower amount of overall reps, you want each rep to be done as efficiently as possible.  To assist in this, you’ll want your rest periods to be a bit longer so that you can give yourself a descent amount of recovery so you can go near 100% each set.

To give you a full example, I’ve got a sample workout below in full detail.

This shows you exactly how I’ve managed to implement strength, power, and conditioning focused work all into one highly effective training session that can be completed in 24 minutes or less.  All you need are a few kettlebells (or dumbbells) to suit your needs.

1) Jumps (3 Reps Every 30 Seconds x 4 Minutes)

Choose any jump variation:

• Squat Jump
• Box Jump
• Seated Bench Vertical Jump + Broad Jump

2A) Double KB Clean & Press 3 x 5

2B) Double KB Squats 3 x 5

2C) Double KB Rows 3 x 5

3A) ANY Carry / Farmer Walk 2 x 100 ft

3B) KB or DB Hammer Curls 2 x 8 - 12

3C) Clapping Push Ups 2 x 5

3D) Band Face Pull 2 x 15

Finish with dead hangs and foam rolling x 3 - 4 minutes

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Note: These workouts look very similar to what I am doing with many of my athletes but with lower volume - in season, this is the volume we use but we use more barbell work.

Power and Strength focused yet we also include some short conditioning sessions with sleds, jump rope, med ball throws, KB swings, etc.

Minimalist Training for Athlete / Busy Men / Dads

Whether you're a busy Dad or a busy athlete - you must NEVER stop strength training. 

Keep the excuses to yourself. This is a non-negotiable.

Make it happen and get after it.

Zach Even - Esh