But if you donвЂ™t prioritize your recovery, you could overtrain and get injured. Two-a-days work by stressing your body more than itвЂ™s used to, forcing it to adapt faster. Is Working Out Twice A Day Bad for Building Muscle? вЂњBreaking up your workouts can be an effective way to piece together a training plan for busy professionals and parents.вЂќ You could take the amount of training you were doing in one-hour sessions and simply split it in half, performing 30 minutes of training in the morning, and 30 minutes after work, if that better suits your schedule. вЂњTwo-a-days are also a good approach for people who are busy and constantly racing the clock,вЂќ says Bach. None of this should give you the impression that bidaily wokouts are only for the most dedicated athletes. For instance, do your heavy squats and deadlifts in the a.m., and light dumbbell pressing and rows in the p.m. He adds that lifting twice a day is fine for those who want to bulk up, but you should train heavier, lower-rep exercises in the morning, and higher-rep, bodybuilder-esque accessory work in the evening. вЂњTraining twice per day by separating resistance training from a cardio metabolic workout allows you to perform better during each individual workout, without sending your body conflicting training signals,вЂќ says Eric Bach, C.S.C.S., a Georgia-based online performance coach ( ). The evening sessions complement the morning ones, and vice versa. You never hit any one area of the body or style of training (such as HIIT or long-duration cardio) more often than you can handle. One energy system or group of stressed muscles rests while another works, maximizing training efficiency. This works because it вЂњbuilds recovery in,вЂќ says Maximus. For example, weights in the morning and cardio at night, pushing exercises in the morning and pulling exercises at night, or lower body in the morning and upper body at night.вЂќ вЂњOn days you train twice, train opposite energy systems or opposite movements.

The key is to up your workload gradually, and in a way that balances out your training. Research in the British Journal of Sports Medicine revealed that training-related injuries are largely due to excessive and rapid increases in work performed, but noted that high training volumes can actually help protect against injury as long as you ease into them. If you work too hard, too soon, and recover too little, you can hurt yourself. Be warned: вЂњIf you have trouble recovering from one-a-days now,вЂќ says Maximus, вЂњyou shouldnвЂ™t be doing two-a-days.вЂќ Nutrition, sleep, stress management, and active recovery practices (foam rolling, massage, cold therapy, meditation, etc.) are hugely important for anyone to see gains, but they become even more so when doing two-a-days. If youвЂ™re putting in so much work that you canвЂ™t recover from your sessions, youвЂ™ll become overtrained, and you wonвЂ™t see progress. When subjected to higher training volumes, your body can adapt, but it needs time to do so, and there is a tipping point. Two studies ( 1, 2) showed that training twice a day can increase your endurance, and help your body burn fat and glycogen (stored carbohydrate) more efficiently.Д«ut remember: too much of a good thing is bad.

Other research has found that training twice a day may better help your central nervous system adapt to exercise, and in turn improve your strength. The researchers discovered a вЂњdose-responseвЂќ relationship, where more sets led to greater improvements in muscle mass. According to a recent study in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, training volume is the make or break factor that determines gains. That usually holds whether youвЂ™re studying for an exam, or trying to build muscle with strength training (but not always, as youвЂ™ll see below). It makes sense that the more work you put in, the better the results. With the help of Bobby Maximus, owner of the Maximus Gym in Salt Lake City, and author of The Maximus Body ( on Instagram), weвЂ™ve put together the quintessential guide to two-a-day training. The fact is, training twice per day can help you reach your goal faster. By packing in extra physical preparation, you can push your body to the next level, whether you want to perform better during a sports season, or just look your best naked. While the process may have been grueling, the concept might not have been so crazy after all. The phrase вЂњtwo-a-daysвЂќ may bring back traumatic visions of repeated high school football practices in the blazing summer sun, or times when you tried to get your body into peak shape in a few weeks before a beach vacation.

Rest time for strength training