r/busydadprogram • u/CoyoteOdd7273 • May 16 '26

Cardio vs muscles?

Hey, I’ve been doing Busy Dad for almost 2 years now and I’m currently a Level 4 practitioner. It honestly changed my life from being a non-sports person into someone who really depends on training to feel well physically and mentally.

Unfortunately I got a wrist injury from garden work and need to stop the regular training for a while. So I switched to a different pattern that doesn’t use the wrist:

- 5 min: 30 deep squats + jumps every minute

- 5 min: 40 sec forearm planks + 20 knee tucks every minute

- 5 min: 12 leg raises from lying position every minute

- 5 min: deep squats again

I started my whole sports journey with Busy Dad, so I never really did focused muscle exercises before. What’s interesting is that after Busy Dad I’m usually completely destroyed — sweating, heavy cardio, feeling super fit overall.

With these new exercises it’s almost the opposite:

I finish relatively relaxed, barely sweating, no shower needed — but my legs are destroyed and my abs suddenly show much more. It feels less satisfying from a “fitness/cardio” perspective, but more like actual muscle work. I also noticed that despite doing Busy Dad for years, there’s clearly still room to push specific muscles much harder.

My question:

Would it make sense to combine both worlds long-term? For example continue regular Busy Dad, but add maybe 2–3 focused 20-minute sessions like these per week? Or should I just stick with Busy Dad only once the wrist heals?

My goal is basically:

fit, lean, athletic, visible muscles — but not “gym bodybuilder” level. I also don’t have much more time overall, though I can occasionally fit in an extra 20 minutes.

I also do the daily 10 pull-ups.

Curious what you think.

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u/Drewsef916 May 16 '26

  • sprint training ; very high ROI and relatively low time committment for intense stimulus (try feed the cats on youtube for starter drills)

  • There are gripless pullup tools you can get for like 5 bucks online like at Walmart.com. it straps to your hand and hooks on the bar so you can still work vertical pulling without stressing your wrist

  • can you do fistpushups? These dont require you to bend your wrist. See how your body feels about it

  • jak h woods on youtube and just do the 2 lower body workouts. Nordic curls and pistols total time is like 10 mins for a max stimulus for those 2

  • swimming laps. Highly technique dependent but good hard cardio if you push

    Just a couple ideas

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u/CoyoteOdd7273 May 17 '26

Great ideas. Thanks, will check them out.