Bodyweight/low equipment routines for the time-strapped? (hexbear.net)

submitted 7 months ago by Doubledee@hexbear.net to c/fitness@hexbear.net

27 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Hey comrades. I'm not trying to build a crazy body or get jacked or anything, but I'm getting older and want to ensure I'm not neglecting my body so it keeps up as I go. I've been doing pushups 3x a week (got from being unable to do them on level ground to doing a set of 30, 25, 20 with 5 minute gaps, nothing too crazy) but that's all I'm currently doing. I got dip bars to try and add inverted rows to my routine, so here's my questions:

is there a reason I shouldn't just do rows as part of the same 3x a week pushup thing I do?
will it be bad if I alternate, assuming I can't do them both the same day, in terms of maintaining a baseline level of fitness?
are there very easy/no equipment exercises that do not take much time you would include/add for someone in my situation? My partner and I work alternating shifts, and we have children, so it's not really realistic for me to plan to have even an hour where I can do intense exercise away from the kids/go to the gym, part of why I've been doing basically just pushups is that I can drop and do them while I'm in the same room as the kids without leaving them unmonitored.

I know if I was really committed to building muscle mass I would be doing a bunch of other stuff but I can't devote that kind of time, I'm basically asking for the bare minimum "reasonably healthy" routine.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] z3rOR0ne@lemmy.ml 4 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

There's a lot of good advice here. I recently went from doing the Busy Dad Burpee Program to a more well rounded (but admittedly far more time consuming) routine using rings and bodyweight.

The Busy Dad Program was 20 minutes, as many 6 count military style burpees as you can muster, alternate with Navy Seal burpees, same deal. Very time efficient, and it trains your pushup to failure, and also your cardio and legs somewhat well. But no pulling, and no intense legs nor core. Hence why I went for a more well rounded routine.

My current routine is:

Warmup with L sits/Handstand practice, Hollow Body, bridging work.
5x5 Ring Pullups
5x5 Ring Dips
5x5 Ring Rows
5x5 Ring Pushups
5x5 Hamstring Curls on Rings
5x5 Nordic Curls
5x5 Bulgarian Split Squats
5x5 Dumbell Squats or Deadlifts

Plus 1 to 2 hours of stretching upper and lower body following Tom Merrick videos on YouTube.

I do this 2-3 times a week, and on off days I still stretch and do jump rope and core work/handstand/lsit practice.

Its still very time consuming, but perhaps you could find some movements or ideas here that you could scale down in terms of volume.

I actually do think the Busy Dad Program was a good program for time efficiency, but it is very incomplete in terms of various aspects of health and fitness IMHO.

Anyways, hope this gives you some ideas.

this post was submitted on 01 Aug 2025

33 points (100.0% liked)

fitness

21954 readers

7 users here now

We are not a crisis service. We can't guarantee an immediate response. This does not mean no one cares. If you need to talk to someone at once, you may want to take a look at this directory of Hotline Numbers.

Rules

Absolutely no fat-shaming, skinny-shaming, or shape-shaming.
Be positive about people’s bodies but don’t be fetishistic.
Don’t shame or disparage people for their fitness level.
Do not offer unsolicited criticism.
If you post a selfie, make special care that identifying marks are removed.
No doomposting about your body.

Quotes

A fascist worked out today, did you?

“I’m an ardent believer in equality, and being in the Communist Party is a way to spread this form of socialism and freedom for all the people”-Jeff Monson

“Every worker sportsman must be a soldier of the revolution”-Spartakiad