How to Stay Active at the Gym as a New Dad

By Dave · Gym & Active · showingupdad.com

Staying active as a new dad starts earlier than you think. My first workout after Leo was born didn’t happen until five weeks in.

I had a treadmill at home and we did a lot of neighborhood walks. That was it. I’ve never worried about counting macros or setting PRs. I stay active so I can enjoy my life and not feel guilty eating whatever I want. We were just trying to get through each day in one piece.

But getting back to the gym that first time felt good. Really good. And figuring out how to stay consistent since then has been one of the more practical problems I’ve had to solve as a new dad.

Here’s how I’ve made it work.

The thing that changed everything: finding a gym with childcare.

Before Leo, my wife and I both had our own gym routines. After he arrived, that got complicated fast. You can’t both just disappear to go work out. Someone has to be home.

My wife was the one who found a gym with childcare. That single thing changed the math completely. Now we can both go, sometimes together, sometimes separately depending on the week. Leo’s taken care of, we both get our time, and nobody’s keeping score about who got to go and who stayed home.

If you’re a new dad trying to stay active and you haven’t looked into gyms with childcare, start there. It’s not a luxury. It’s a logistics solution.

The schedule looks different now, and that’s okay.

Before Leo I was in the gym 5 days a week, sessions running 60 to 90 minutes. I had time, I had energy, and I always had time to hit the sauna after a workout. Now I can only fit the sauna in after a 20 minute HIIT session, or sometimes I go to the gym just to hit the sauna. No shame in that.

Now I’m still getting to the gym 4 to 5 days a week, which honestly surprised me. The difference is the sessions. I’m in and out in 45 to 60 minutes. No long rest periods, no wandering around between sets, no 20 minutes of stretching at the end. Just work.

My wife is a nurse practitioner so her schedule changes week to week. Some weeks mornings work, some weeks I go around lunch. We figure it out as we go. The gym with childcare gives us enough flexibility that we can usually make it happen without it becoming a whole thing.

How the workouts actually changed.

I wasn’t going to keep training the same way with 45 minutes instead of 90. So I adjusted.

Lifting is full body with supersets now. Pair two exercises back to back, cut the rest time down, get more work done in less time. It’s actually a pretty efficient way to train and I don’t feel like I’m leaving much on the table.

Cardio is either HIIT or longer endurance work depending on what I’m after. HIIT when I want something done in 15 to 20 minutes. Endurance when I have a bit more time and just want to move. Both fit into a shorter session without much trouble.

The honest truth is that the workouts are better than I expected. Shorter doesn’t have to mean worse. It just means more intentional.

The first five weeks.

I want to come back to this because I think it matters.

There was no gym for the first five weeks. There was a treadmill in the house and there were walks around the neighborhood. Some days I got on the treadmill. Some days I didn’t. Some days we just walked around the block because getting outside was the only thing that felt manageable.

If you’re in those early weeks right now and you haven’t been to the gym in a month, that’s not a failure. That’s just what the first stretch looks like. The routine comes back. You find your version of it. It just takes a little longer than you think it will.

What actually makes it sustainable.

A few things that have held up since I got back into a real routine:

Shorter sessions are fine. You don’t need 90 minutes to get a good workout. Set a timer, stay focused, get it done.

Find a gym with childcare, I can’t say this enough. It removes the negotiation and makes going to the gym a family decision instead of something you have to justify. The same principle applies to golf, if you want to keep that in the rotation too, it starts with the same conversation.

Plan it with your partner. My wife’s schedule changes every week so we look ahead and figure out who’s going when. It takes two minutes and it means nobody gets blindsided.

Don’t wait until you feel ready. The first few weeks are survival mode and that’s fine. But at some point you have to just go. The first session back is always a little rough and always worth it.

Leo’s almost 9 months old now. Staying active as a new dad isn’t always pretty, but I’m training consistently. It took some adjusting to get here. But it’s working.

If you’re figuring out how to stay active as a new dad, subscribe below. I’ll keep writing about what’s actually working.