Grit Fitness and Performance Podcast · Chris Sanchez

#69 Managing Your Health and Fitness While Navigating the Hardships of Parenthood

March 29, 2024·47 min·4 clips

Chris recounts a night of food poisoning with his wife while caring for their eight-month-old baby.

This episode of the Grit Fitness and Performance Podcast offers advice for parents of babies and young children on maintaining personal health and fitness. Host Chris Sanchez, a fitness professional and father of a five-year-old and a two-year-old, draws from his own parenting experiences. Sanchez outlines six key areas for navigating this life stage, beginning with accepting that parenthood is a 24/7 job that permanently reorders priorities. He shares a personal story of a night when both he and his wife had severe food poisoning while still needing to care for their eight-month-old son. The host explains that parents will face a universal lack of time, likely experience sleep deprivation, and see their motivation for personal hobbies like exercise plummet. He stresses the need to shift one's mindset and set realistic goals, suggesting that aiming for a six-pack or a new deadlift personal record shortly after having a baby may be setting oneself up for failure. He advises altering fitness goals for the first three to six months, such as reducing workout frequency from five days to two or three days a week. Sanchez introduces the concept of "punch the clock" workouts, where a parent might only have time for a single compound lift like trap bar deadlifts before leaving the gym. He recommends involving children in fitness activities, like doing inverted TRX rows with a child on your chest or going for walks together. For nutrition, his strategies include relying on frozen vegetable medleys, pre-cooked proteins like rotisserie chicken or salmon fillets, and protein shakes to minimize cooking time. He recounts a specific craving battle where he stared down a packet of Oreos during a sleep-deprived period, ultimately eating just two. Sanchez emphasizes building a support system, coining the phrase "it takes a village," and suggests asking family to help watch children so parents can exercise or nap. The final point addresses the inevitable mental hurdles, stress, and feelings of overwhelm that come with parenting young children. The tone is highly conversational, candid, and peppered with profanity and humor as the host shares blunt, personal anecdotes. The style is educational but delivered as friendly, experienced advice from a peer who has "been there." This episode is ideal for new or expecting parents who feel their health routines are slipping away and want practical, no-nonsense strategies. Listeners who prefer purely scientific, data-driven content or who are not parents may find the specific anecdotes less relevant.

As heard by us

A practical reset for parents trying to keep training alive when life gets messy.

It speaks directly to parents of babies and young kids, and it works because it does not pretend life still runs on a tidy training schedule. The advice stays plain and useful: make time when you can, use a full session if you have one, or cut it down to one heavy lift or a bit…

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You need training advice that works when your kid has already wrecked the day.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Grit Fitness and Performance Podcast