New Dad exercises

Devils chair with an opened poonami nappy at arm's length. Hold as long as possible as when it drops, you will be wearing it. Does arms, shoulders, legs and your resolve!

Good god is this what it’s come to? 😂
I will say as well i’m sure I’m getting stronger slowly all the time, holding him/picking him up/down and swinging him around but I think exercises that work the back and core and arms are the ones I’m looking for

This may be very timely; I seem to have put my lower back out last night trying to get up from a slouched position on the sofa with 9kg of six month old on my chest. Probably not the best move on my part but my fitness/strength levels are probably as low as they have ever been so anything to help turn that around would be worth me paying attention to.

Ginge yes that’s the same as me! So I find to protect my back I have to wriggle right to the front of the sofa and make sure my legs are taking all the weight and not my core. Keep them close to you too I think.

But aside from that that’s where my suggestions end

You're aware you can hire somebody to do this stuff for you?

Wait until they start to ride a balance bike, my back still smarts just from the thought of pushing my two.....

General manual handling techniques are useful.

https://rlsdhamal.com/six-steps-for-safe-manual-handling/

Or just leave the childcare to the wife 😎

It's just a forced progression of weight training! Start on the shoulder rides as soon as possible! Suppliment with arm exercises where you reach up above your head to get your arms used to that position for long periods of time while wearing a weighted vest to simulate a balance bike strapped to your back. I was tempted to start practise throwing but managed to resist throwing the balance bike off the cliff in the end!

For me it was this:

focus on using the legs to ground rather than getting up using my back muscles

plus exercises targeted at core strength (such as those here). I also rechecked all the fittings (bike, car, office chair) that could have an adverse effect on my lower back.

Just seconding good manual handling practice.
Coming from a physical role I've really paid attention to it after some back injuries and I seemed to get through the early years fine and now just starting to tell them they are too heavy.

Reflex training is what you really need for when they get mobile and find the ability to roll off the sofa or changing table, or trip headlong towards a door edge.

Thanks so yes I totally do this already, I have to do it sounds like I just need to warm up and then get on the kettlebells and build up to doing heavier weights

There are also some challenging scenarios to watch out for. The most tortuous that springs to mind (if you have back problems) is putting your child in a fixed rear-facing car seat - where you’re lifting your child away from your body and twisting at the same time.

Yeah that’s a sod is that one! Especially into an A3! I believe i started another convo about that a while ago being so disgusted that the car I wanted for such a long time even as a 5dr was a terrible choice for having a newborn my poor lass who’s 5’3 doesn’t even have enough relax in the seat to fall asleep comfortably!

Anyway back on topic, part of the battle is while he’s now sleeping upstairs I could do with warming up and then doing some weights work, on top of a Gousto and a bread and butter pudding!

I think I should just re-subject my post to say “how do I actually fit in the exercises I should be doing” when I end up watching tv instead 🙃

My kids can still remember the game I used to play with them until they were toddlers.
Baby Drop. It’s exactly what it sounds like. They don’t quite know when it’s going to happen, but “1,2,3…. baby drop” gives them an idea.

Obviously you catch them before they reach they ground. Effectively you’re deadlifting the weight of the kid and they’re laughing a lot.

Kids these days. Just wait until they get a reaction from the first time they punch you in the nuts. And keep at it until they're own nuts drop. And then their kids rinse and repeat. Trust me, picking them up is the least of your worries.
Father of 1x rugby player, one dancer and grandad to a footballer and a gymnast.p

What killed me was the 'toddler on hip carry'. Trashed my back. Incentive to get them walking quickly.

This is why Bluey's dad Bandit sits on a yoga ball not an office chair.

I get the feeling that sharp movement wouldn’t be good for my back right now!

I do throw him up and catch him, which he loves!

After my second was born I started doing daily yoga. I use the 15 min sessions on the Wahoo app but there's a few free ones on youtube that are baout 15mins long. It initially took a bit of time to make the habit but for me it certainly helped keep things from falling apart and I still do it now he's almost 2. I just do it when everyone else is in bed instead of looking at strava feeling jealous.

Totally agree, I was doing a yoga with Adriene hips and lower back yoga last night at 11pm and I felt great afterwards and still do!

I’ll just carry on like this!

Nice one! Abi carver does some 15 min yoga stuff as well if you feel the need to change things up at some point. She's the one on the wahoo app but she also does her own stuff on YouTube.

Oh wow yeah I’ve done one of hers before, the pinkbike one and got benefit from it!

Thanks for that, I didn’t know she had her own channel but that looks really beneficial! Whenever I do it I tend to just do the same Yoga with Adriene ones over and over as don’t want to push my back too much!

Can’t beat a sun salutation though!