Are you a busy dad who doesn’t have time to work out?

Insert a solution and remove the excuse with these X short home workouts for dads like you who are looking to burn fat and look great.

Welcome to Audience of One Fitness, where we teach everyday men how to eat right and find the time to prioritize their fitness. Who said you had to spend hours in the gym each week to lose weight, build endurance, and become the best father.

Below are some short at-home workouts for dads you can do in under 30 minutes easily!

What are short home workouts?

Short at-home workouts are considered on-the-go exercise routines that can fit any father’s calendar. When it comes to working out, most men have the misconception that it must require hours of heavy lifting or long cardio sessions.

In reality, the quick workouts 4-5 times a week add up very quickly and help you manage your weight better than inconsistent body split lifting or occasional jobs around the block. The workouts below can be modified any way you would prefer, and the only equipment you need is a solid pair of shoes and a timer on your smartphone.

Quicker workouts help dads with motivation, and just moving early in the morning or after a long day at the office can ease stress hormones and replenish energy!

A few pro tips:

• Always use timers to be efficient and keep your heart rate up
• Warm-up before with dynamic movements
• Stretch after (cool-down)
• Walking 10,000 steps a day will give you a huge health advantage
• Sleep at least 7 hours per night

1. Cardio routine that doesn’t get boring.

Let’s improve your physical fitness with this simple-to-use cardio routine that doesn’t suck. Start a timer and perform 30 seconds of each below without a break:

1. High Knees
2. Mountain Climbers
3. Skater Jumps (lateral movement)
4. Burpees

At the end of the above round, take a 30-second break. Repeat this process 4-6, completing your workout in 10-15 minutes! For each round, be sure you aim to hit the same number of repetitions. Aerobic exercise will help you with your heart health and stress hormones and activate fat-burning in your body.

2. Improve your health with Tabata!

Do you know what Tabata is? The name comes from the Japanese sports and health science coach Izumi Tabata, who figured out that a max effort of 20 seconds of any exercise with a 10-second recovery repeated 8x will absolutely wear you out in a positive way.

Follow these steps:

1. Use your smartphone to search for “Tabata Songs”.
2. The music structure walks you through when to exercise and when to rest (20 on, 10 off)
3. Pick 1 Exercise and complete 8 straight rounds, then pick 2 more and repeat.

Exercise ideas include:

• Round 1 Pushups
• Round 2 Air Squats
• Round 3 Core of any kind

You will be taxed after just 12 minutes! Feel free to sub any exercise from mountain climbers to strength training for any of the above!

3. Go hard for just three minutes

You will look crazy, but this works. The Sprint Interval Training method is similar to HIIT training, just with a higher intensity. You will literally sprint for busy men with no equipment, but you can also do a version where you complete burpees, bike sprints, and rower sprints.

Here is how it works:

1. Pick an area to sprint
2. Start your watch and go as fast as possible until you can’t go anymore (seems crazy)
3. Stand there and let your heart rate come down to below 100
4. Repeat 4X total

This sounds a bit wild, but it works. If you have the time, you can really amplify the workout by letting your heart rate come down and rest before repeating. Also, this is for those with a solid fitness level already; we always recommend warming up before!

4. Combine strength and cardio to get jacked!

Here at Audience Of One Fitness, this is one of our favorites. This requires a dumbbell, which we recommend is 30 to 50 lbs. You will increase your physical fitness, weight loss, and build endurance with this one all while getting jacked!

20 Minute AMRAP (As Many Rounds As Possible)

1. Run 400 Meters (or a max distance of two minutes)
2. Perform 10 single-arm DB snatches per arm (they’re really not hard, just YouTube it here)
3. Perform 10 lateral burpees over the DB

Repeat this cycle as many times as you can in a 20-minute window. Aim to get at least four rounds complete, men who are in great shape can get 5 rounds done, and elite performance athletes 6 rounds.

5. Activate fat-burning with this quick routine at home.

Try this full-body home workout (No Equipment Needed) that targets your entire body in just 20-30 minutes, and you don’t need any equipment. Here’s the workout structure:

• Perform each exercise below with 10 high-knees in between. For example, you would do pushups, high knees, pushups, high knees, pushups, and high knees, then move to squats. The idea is that your break is a light cardio that helps spike the metabolism while you focus on muscular endurance.
• Warm-Up (2 minutes): Jumping jacks, leg swings, windmills, and arm circles.
• Push-Ups – 3 sets of 10-15 (minimum r
• Squats – 3 sets of 15-20
• Lunges – 3 sets of 10 per leg
• Plank – Hold for 30-60 seconds
• 10 High-knees in between each set

This quick workout hits all the major muscle groups and gets your heart pumping!

6. Six-minute arms at home

All guys love to have nice biceps and triceps, and you can do that with some dumbbells and this arm finisher! Simply follow this quick arm routine:

1. Perform 10 bicep curls per arm in an alternating fashion
2. Drop the weights and hit 10 perfect push-ups
3. Pick up one dumbbell, hold each side, and perform 21 curls to your chin
4. Drop the weight and hit 10 bench dips
5. Finish with 10 overhead tricep presses

You will feel your arms pumping after this massive superset, and aim to repeat the process two more times for a total of three rounds. This is a great finisher set to help you with your arms but also when you are short on time!

7. Lower body shred exercise routine

Who said you have to lift heavy to get your legs toned? Actually, proper form and HIIT-style intervals can shred your legs. Try this:

1. Perform a max set of unbroken air squats with great form
2. Hit 10 side lunges per side right after
3. Complete 10 step-back lunges and pause at the bottom
4. Complete 10 pulse lunges
5. Do 10 jump squats
6. Rest for 1 minute and repeat 3 to 4 rounds

Do this and tell us how tired your legs feel… because they will be screaming!

8. Total body killer HIIT for Busy Dads in just 10 minutes

HIIT workouts are perfect when you’re short on time but want to get your heart rate up and burn fat. Here’s a short 15-minute HIIT routine you can do at home:

• Jump Squats – 30 seconds
• Rest – 15 seconds
• Burpees – 30 seconds
• Rest – 15 seconds

Repeat this circuit 5 times, and you’ll be done in just 10 minutes! Push yourself in the 30-second windows and remember this is a short workout with minimum downtime, so after 2-3 rounds, you will start to feel it!

9. Other No-Equipment Workout & Exercises:

Here’s a list of 15 effective no-equipment exercises you can do at home—no gym, no problem:

• Jumping Jacks – Great for warm-ups and getting the heart rate up.
• Push-Ups – Builds upper body strength (modify with knees if needed).
• Bodyweight Squats – Tones legs and glutes.
• Lunges – Works your legs, balance, and core.
• Plank – Strengthens core, shoulders, and back.
• Mountain Climbers – High-intensity cardio that targets the core.
• Burpees – Full-body move that’s great for endurance and strength.
• Glute Bridges – Tones glutes and hamstrings.
• Wall Sit – Burns those quads and builds lower body endurance.
• High Knees – Cardio exercise that activates the core and legs.
• Leg Raises – Great for your lower abs.
• Triceps Dips (using a chair) – Strengthens the back of the arms.
• Bicycle Crunches – Works obliques and core.
• Superman Hold – Strengthens the lower back and core.
• Side Plank – Targets obliques and improves balance.

Bonus: How to Eat Right (Increase the protein!)

If working out and eating right were a math equation, 80% of the results would come from the kitchen! Put another way, what you eat before and after workouts can have a compounding effect on your fitness.

Nutrition matters.

We recommend that all our clients consume at least one gram of protein per day to achieve their desired body weight, with a goal of 1.5 grams. For example, if you wanted to weigh 180 pounds, you would need to eat at least 180 grams of protein daily to reach 270 (yes, that is a lot).

Combining some of the quick bodyweight workout options from above with meal planning will allow you to still enjoy those pizza nights with the family and dinners out. We recommend the following options when looking to improve your overall physical fitness:

• Egg whites in the carton
• Greek yogurt instead of mayo or sour cream
• Grass-fed whey
• Lean meats
• Eggs
• Black beans
• Cottage cheese (blend it with foods)
• Low carb tortillas
• Hot honey
• Avocado
• Sweet potatoes
• Rolled oats
• Citrus (helps burn fat)
• Baked cinnamon apples

🌶️ Hot Honey Beef & Sweet Potato Power Bowl

Lean Ground Beef (4 oz cooked 90% lean)

• Protein: ~23g
• Fat: ~9g
• Calories: ~200

Sweet Potato (1 medium per meal)

• Carbohydrates: ~26g
• Protein: ~2g
• Calories: ~110

Avocado (⅓ avocado per meal)

• Fat: ~8g (healthy fats)
• Carbohydrate count: ~4g
• Protein: ~1g
• Calories: ~80

Hot Honey (2 tsp per bowl)

• Carbs (sugar): ~10g
• Calories: ~40

The Verdict –

There is nothing wrong with going to the gym and crushing heavy deadlift sets or hitting the bench press hard and focusing on bodybuilding. However, most men don’t have the time for long, drawn-out gym sessions, so they stop working out when they have kids. Men over 30 will lose one pound of muscle mass per year, and unsurprisingly, only about one-third of men over 30 regularly exercise.

So, for every guy who hits the gym, two do not. This will impact their metabolism and health, cause injuries, and many other issues. Your key takeaways from this article should be this:

1. Interval training works and keeps you efficient. Most men’s goals are weight loss, and you have to increase your heart rate to do that!
2. You can easily infuse quick workouts like these into your lifestyle
3. Be sure to always modify any of the above for injury or other issues
4. Track your workouts to increase your accountability
5. Substitute any exercise from above with whatever you want; these are just suggestions!

If you have questions about our workouts or weight management or are looking for a personal trainer, we can help! Book a consultation or contact us below so we can help you with your physical fitness and weight loss!