Hitting the Gym Twice a day?

[Stix12]

I generally like to go to the gym twice a day ... once in the morning/early afternoon and once later at night ... between 8-10 ... should I be touching up on my earlier days workout ... or focusing on different muscle groups? ... should i even be going twice. ... i also take 2 to 3 days off during the week

[thegame99]

My thoughts:

I wouldn't workout a muscle and then come back that same day and work it again. It could have a negative effect. It sounds like you're dedicated which is awesome, but in this case if you laid back I think you'd be better off.

I'm not saying for sure you are overtraining, but I think you might be. Try cutting out the night workouts for a month and see if that helps. Sounds like you give yourself enough rest during the week, but your muscles might not be getting enough time to replenish, rest, and regrow.

If you workout the same muscle (tear the same muscle), you're basically just tearing what's already torn and you're more than likely putting in more work and getting less results.

In a way it seems counter intuitive, but getting stronger and bigger has a lot to do with rest and nutrition and not all about the time you put in the gym.

Try out single days if you feel like seeing if there are better results out there for you. It may work, may not, but probably won't hurt you.

If you do have 2-a-days, I would definitely say work another muscle group.

[batmuscle]

yeah......if you do that.....you need to do different muscle groups am and pm

[Stix12]

awesome, thanks a lot guys,
i'll give it a shot for sure

[Awnold79]

I wouldn't be going twice a day at all. You need time to rest, recover, and grow.

[mwatg]

i agree - ectomorphics benefit from longer rest periods - AND MORE TIME EATING.

[DBOTW]

Yeah, that's really true. You need a lot of time to rest, because muscle grows only when you rest a lot and of course eat properly well!

[R.T.B.]

if you're going to workout twice a day, you need to eat a ridiculous amount of food, seeing how you're probably an ecto

[mquang]

I've been going twice a day, but in the afternoon, I concentrate on cardio, and then then I work on abs, but I'm really exhausted...I am trying to cut back

[dBubis]

I agree with the other memebers.... From my experience I wouldnt recommend working out twice a day for anyone but if your going to I would atleast do different workouts...Nothing wrong with trying something new, everyone is different so hopely it works out for you...Good Luck!

[John Prophet]

totally depends. On something like a sheiko powerlifting program I used to split it up and go 2x per day because otherwise it was like a 3 hour workout.

the workout would be like this perhaps

bench
squat
bench again (lol)
flyes
Good mornings
etc

and it was HIGH volume...so generally id do the first bench and the squat and then come back later and do the 2nd half. That 2nd workout was almost ALWAYS a good strong feeling workout.


It has been shown that for STRENGTH workouts it is better to split the workout into halves and do it in 2 sessions rather than all at once...but remember that we are talking more about powerlifting or olympic weightlifting where they are not going to failure. If you are going to do the normal bbing thing of busting a nut to get one more rep then maybe 1x per day is enuff.

Thats why i said "it depends". I think 2x per day on the same muscles or exercises is fine but dont go to failure...just stay 1-2 reps short of failure. I think youd gain a lot of strength quickly that way.


Another thing I have done is to split a workou tinto halves for instance taking this workout:

chest
delts
tris

and splitting it into this:

AM-chest

PM-delts, tris


again though...we are talking about SPLITTING a certain amount of exercise into 2 halves...we are NOT talking about DOUBLING up the amount of exercise.

You have to be careful a bit because if u split it into halves u can really be more intense and focused on each half so its easier to really push the body harder and u might have to watch for overtraining after a few weeks

[Grant73]

Hitting the same body part 2x a day can be an effective way to break out of a training rut. I would only recommend training 2x a day for some one who is advanced and has already put on some size.

[Moraphiend]

According to the resources I've found, my BMR is 1,777 calories a day. I'm having trouble meeting this, some days I struggle to even hit 1,000. It's not intentional, I just feel like I can't eat anymore. If I increased my workouts to twice a day... without doubling muscle groups, is this an effective way to increase appetite, or is it dangerous because my caloric intake is so low? Would this benefit or hinder fat loss? I know my caloric intake estimations are accurate because I measure everything on a scale and use software called Diet Analysis +9 which is software I used for my advanced nutrition classes.

I currently do cardio every day and then rotate my muscle groups, what if I just did cardio twice a day and my weight training once per day?

[ironwill2008]

According to the resources I've found, my BMR is 1,777 calories a day. I'm having trouble meeting this, some days I struggle to even hit 1,000. It's not intentional, I just feel like I can't eat anymore. If I increased my workouts to twice a day... without doubling muscle groups, is this an effective way to increase appetite, or is it dangerous because my caloric intake is so low? Would this benefit or hinder fat loss? I know my caloric intake estimations are accurate because I measure everything on a scale and use software called Diet Analysis +9 which is software I used for my advanced nutrition classes.

I currently do cardio every day and then rotate my muscle groups, what if I just did cardio twice a day and my weight training once per day?

You should seek professional help. At 1000 cals/day, you're starving yourself, and then adding all that exercise on top of an already huge deficit. Your problem is beyond the scope of an Internet forum to deal with.

[Moraphiend]

I don't have an eating disorder, if that's what you're implying, because I have no aversion to food at all. I love food! I think my choices are just not "caloricly-dense" enough. It's also not EVERY DAY that I am unable to meet 1000 calories. Yesterday I did 1900 easily. It's only sometimes. I'm looking to stimulate my appetite a bit and I think it can be done through exercise, I just need to find the right balance.

[MrMuscles2012]

I generally like to go to the gym twice a day ... once in the morning/early afternoon and once later at night ... between 8-10 ... should I be touching up on my earlier days workout ... or focusing on different muscle groups? ... should i even be going twice. ... i also take 2 to 3 days off during the week

You don't always have to go to gym just for massive muscle mass gain. There can be other objectives in attending gym IMO, and that's for a pleasant experience, chat with others, hang out for a laugh, enjoying yourself. My goal is to do very light weight training and hang out at the gym 3-4 hours every day, doing light weights, walking, rowing etc. My goal is to enjoy myself and chat to others in between sets and cycling, rowing etc.

And look at some of the guys who work full time as brick layers, they lift bricks and weights 8 hours every day at work, 6 days per week and most of them are muscle and fit looking. Same applies to the African villagers, they look lean, ripped and muscly and they work 10-12 hours every day lifting objects and things. You don't hear of a brick layer or African villager saying "Wait a minute, I been here for 1 hour lifting weights, I am going home now to rest so my muscles can grow!" LOL. And professional fighters also train many hours every day, in morning, afternoon, evening and do weights, cycling, etc. Olympians also, they train at least twice per day doing weight training, exercising etc.

So what is your objective? To compete and get huge? If so, then only do weights short time and rest most of the other time so your body and muscles can repair itself and grow. But if your objective is like mine, to just hang out, enjoy being there, chat to others, do some light weight training etc, then go twice per day and hang out for 3-5 hours in the gym 6 days per week and take 1 full day off for rest, take it easy, attend Church, or whatever else you want to do on that 1 day off per week.