Working out twice in one day is something commonly heard among body builders, those with a massive fitness goal, athletes, and celebrity super fits. But, why? I have been wondering what the benefits of working out twice in one day are, and if they outweigh whatever the consequences could be.
Truth is, when I am trying to get in shape for an event or training, I will workout twice per day without giving it a second thought. In college, my roomie and bestie was on a massive two-a-day workout schedule in preparation for Carnivale and the itsy bitsy outfit that she was wearing for it. Both her and I and a few other friends have found that two amped-up, shorter, workouts in one day does get us toned and svelte in record time.
Research has been showing for a while now that high intensity, shorter workouts, say 30-minutes, is better for us than some long and average intensity sweat session. The calorie burn, muscle growth, and overall fitness is much higher with these shorter spurts. For this reason, working out twice a day can actually work.
Depending on your goal and how you go about it, working out twice a day can help you gain muscle, lose fat, lose weight, gain weight, and become the Hulk of your competitive fitness group. Those in the health and fitness profession have found nothing wrong with working out twice per day, as long as you are doing it right.
How to Workout Twice per Day
If you are going to workout twice in one day, best to do it by the book to avoid injury and exhaustion. First, vary the workouts. Two workouts in 24-hours is fine as long as they are not the same thing. Two of the same workout can lead to muscle exhaustion and injury. Switch it up with a cardio session for one and a more calisthenic workout like yoga or Pilates for the other. Just be sure that you are working different muscle groups in each workout.
Second, space your workouts 4-6 hours apart. This will leave enough time for the body to rest and rebuild itself. A great way to make sure that you are waiting long enough between workouts is to complete one workout in the morning and one at night. This will also give you a great workout back-up plan if something happens to stop you from your nightly workout... One workout is better than none.
Next, keep each workout short. Short intervals of high energy output will do more for your body than 90-minutes of average or high intensity exercise. An hour+ of high intensity exercise at one time can very easily lead us down the road of overtraining and no results, or worse, results opposite to what we want. Two workouts of 30-45 minutes each twice a day is enough to get results but will not lead to injury or plateau... As long as they are the right workouts.
And finally, treat your body. You will need better food and more rest if you are working out twice in one day. This does not mean candy bars and thin mints, but it definitely does mean eating withing 40-minutes of each workout and eating foods high in protein and complex carbs. It will also be a smart idea to kick up your pre and post stretches and get all your vitamins. Eight hours of shut-eye will help as well.
Be sure that you are also taking at least one day a week off. Our bodies need this 1-2 day recovery time to rebuild muscles and avoid injury.