Home Exercices - Twice A Day Workouts

Even though the newest training methods most frequently used by trainers today are full-body workouts or upper/lower-body splits, some guys still believe that a body-part setup is the way to go.
These men feel that just doing a bench press for their chest muscles isn’t going to get the job done, and they insist on performing a number of exercises for each body part they want to work on.
However, because you obviously can't do three to four exercises for every single muscle group in a single workout, the body workout needs to be split over a number of days. Typically, a body workout split would look something like this:

• Monday: Chest
• Tuesday: Legs
• Wednesday: Shoulders
• Thursday: Back
• Friday: Arms
  

If this looks like your weekly workout schedule, then you'll be happy to know there is a better way, and that way is with twice a day workouts. Read on for more information on how you can get more out of a single day of exercise.

Problems with workout splits

The biggest issue with training in this manner is lack of rest. While you are, theoretically, allowing much more than the recommended 48 hours between training a particular muscle group, if you look closely, you’ll notice you really aren’t. In the workout split schedule above, for instance, when you work your back you’ll inevitably be working your biceps as well, therefore, working them specifically the next day isn’t recommended. Plus, while you may prevent muscular overtraining with this type of setup, you will not be doing anything to prevent central nervous system (CNS) overtraining.
The CNS is going to be stimulated any time you pick up a weight, regardless of whether it’s during a squat or a bicep curl. If you're lifting weights too many days in a row, the CNS is going to falter to recover and this is exactly where the problems begin.
So, how can you get around this? Answer: Twice a day workouts.

Why twice a day workouts work

The primary reason why twice a day workouts are going to be beneficial is that they will free up more days during the week where you will have total rest. It cannot be stressed enough that if rest is not playing a solid role in your program, you aren’t going to get results. Working a muscle before it’s had a chance to build back up and become stronger is just going to further break it down. Do this often enough and you will actually begin to get weaker.
While light workouts do help with this problem, they do not provide the same effect as a day of complete rest does.
So, by doing two workouts a day you get a day off in between. This could mean the difference between you gaining 10 pounds of muscle this year instead of only gaining two.
The No. 1 reason many guys out there cannot build muscle is not a lack of training, it’s the opposite; it's too much training. The second reason why twice a day workouts are good is because they will still allow for more volume than a full body workout does.
The body can only handle so many sets during any given session, so by splitting your session up you literally almost double this number.

Factors to consider with twice a day workouts

There are some important factors that you will need to consider with these twice a day workouts: First is going to be the timing of your workouts. If you are going to opt for twice a day sessions, you should be scheduling one in the morning and the other in the evening, or at the very least later on in the afternoon.
Asking your body to give 100% for both sessions when they are only a couple of hours apart is asking for a whole lot of trouble.
Remember that you need to provide down time in between.
Secondly, during this time in between it’s going to be important that you are resting. If you have a job that keeps you moving around at all times this may not be the best set-up for you as you likely won’t have recovered enough to go for a second round.
After that, it’s also going to be incredibly critical that you pay careful attention to nutrition. Immediately after the first session you need to eat and eat well; this means a high volume of carbohydrates (both fast and slow digesting), along with a good solid source of protein.
At this time, not only are you replenishing your muscles from the workout you just performed, but you’re also preparing your muscles for what lies ahead. Skip out on this and your later workout performance will, without a doubt, decline.
You also want to ensure that you get in a good pre-workout meal before the second session takes place. Again, this should be composed of carbohydrates and protein. Fat in both of these meals should be left out as it will just slow down the delivery of the carbohydrates and protein to the muscle tissue.
The meals in between the pre- and post-workout should be a mixture of protein, carbohydrates and fat or in accordance with whatever dietary approach you happen to be following. Be sure that on your twice a workout days that you increase your calories so you are providing the energy needed to complete both sessions.

Twice a day workout setups

Now that you understand the principles and benefits of the twice a day workout it’s time to look at the specifics. Most men will choose to do the lower-body workout first, since it is the most demanding. However, if you find that you don’t perform well in the morning, you may opt to reverse this. It really will be an individual preference, so don’t get too hung up on the specifics.
This is still going to work best with an upper/lower or a push/pull type of split as this will allow you to work each muscle group three times a week, while still having three days off.
This may be your choice of a twice a day workout setup:

• Monday: Lower a.m.; upper p.m.
• Tuesday: Off
• Wednesday: Upper a.m.; lower p.m.
• Thursday: Off
• Friday: Lower a.m.; upper p.m.
• Weekend: Off or cardio training
  

Note that you should try as much as possible not to do any cardio training on Tuesday and Thursday as you will really need that recovery time. If you do decide to do some, be sure to keep it light. As for choice of exercises, again focus on the compound movements of squats, deadlifts, military press, row, and chest press, but also allow for more isolated exercises that would normally be left out of a full-body program. This would include movements like bicep curls, triceps extensions, lateral- and side-shoulder raises, reverse flies, leg extensions, hamstring curls, pec flyes, and calf raises.
You will want to keep the rep ranges for each exercise performed at around 25, keeping the total set number performed at around 20 if you're using mostly compound movements or 30 if you're combining compound and isolation exercises.

double up on results

So, if you’re game to try a new approach to your workouts, give twice a day sessions some thought. Moving from a five-day-a-week body-part split to something like this could produce significant gains in the gym as a result.