If you’re looking for specific fitness results, you may wonder if working out twice a day will help you achieve them twice as fast. Once a relic of high school sports training, two-a-day workouts are now all over social media and even included in some popular lifestyle programs. But should it be part of your two-a-day workout routine? Does working twice a day double the reward or the risk?
Is there any benefit to training twice a day?
As for the benefits of two-a-day workouts, “there really aren’t any unless you’re an elite athlete,” says Trevor Thieme, CSCS. “If you have enough gas in the tank to get you through two daily workouts, you probably won’t be going hard enough in either to optimize your progress toward your goals.”
To be clear, this does not mean that you should train more than once a day. “If some days you’re too busy to complete your entire workout at once, go ahead and break it up,” says Thiem.
You can also do some moderate intensity cardio on the same day as strength training, or vice versa, although you’d probably be better off doing it on separate days if you’re serious about endurance and/or strength gains.
But “divide and conquer” isn’t your only option when you’re pressed for time. “You should also consider doing a higher-intensity, shorter workout instead of splitting it into two,” suggests Thiem. “When you get down there, the intensity of the training trumps the duration of the training.”
What are the downsides of two-a-day workouts?
Unless you split a workout into two parts to accommodate your schedule, doing it twice a day is more likely to delay your progress than speed it up.
1. It increases the risk of overtraining
In order to adapt to the training stimuli provided by the workouts, your body needs enough time to recover between them. “Pushing yourself too hard too often can put you on the fast track to overtraining,” warns Thiem. “Not only will this put you in a workout, but it can also increase your risk of injury.”
2. Decreases physical performance
Burnouts caused by excessive training a decrease your performance in training. Even worse, the effects of overtraining can spill over into your daily life and include mood swings, insomnia and loss of appetite.
3. It negatively affects muscle growth
Building muscle mass is a process of creating micro-damage in your muscles, which triggers repair and adaptation processes that leave you stronger and fitter than before. But overtraining prevents it muscle repair, recovery and growth. If you’re not building muscle efficiently, you’ll have a harder time reaching your goals.
Should beginners train twice a day?
In general, it is not recommended for beginners to train twice a day. “There’s almost no reason to do it on day two,” says Thiem. “Also, most people have trouble finding time to do one workout in a day, let alone two.”
When you’re just starting out, focus on being consistent, not overzealous. Adding a second workout to your day can hinder your goals.
Thiem explained that beginners are at the same risk of overtraining as everyone else. Therefore, overtraining is “when you push yourself too hard, too often for your physical condition, whatever it is. No matter what your fitness level, overtraining will stunt your gains and increase your risk of injury.”
3 ways to achieve your goals faster
“When it comes to physical fitness, more is not necessarily better,” says Thiem. Instead of training twice a day, consider the following workout ideas so you can train smarter, not harder, to reach your goals faster.
1. Focus on quality of training, not duration
how long It’s much more important than what you do how you work “If your workouts align with your fitness goals and you challenge yourself more than once a week, you’ll reach your goals,” she says.
2. Default to rest
Rest days are just as important as your workouts, and you should prioritize them. Even if you’re taking days off from the gym, you should watch for signs of overtraining, such as increased fatigue, lack of sleep, reduced athletic performance, mood swings, and decreased motivation.
If you notice any of these symptoms, it’s time to change your training volume and intensity and schedule post-workout recovery until your performance is back on track.
3. Increase your daily activity level
Daily exercise does not contradict an otherwise sedentary lifestyle. That is why it is essential to be more active in general.
“Focus on increasing your non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT), which is all the calories you burn during the day outside of exercise,” says Thiem. “Whether your goal is to lose weight, or to be healthier in general, NEAT should be given as much attention as training.”