It’s safe to work out twice a day as long as you follow a well-structured program. If you don’t take enough time to rest between workouts, you may end up with an injury. There’s also the chance of getting burned out by working out twice a day. Still, twice-a-day workouts are completely safe if you take time to recover, eat a good diet (with enough protein and calories), get enough sleep, and stay hydrated.
By going to the gym twice a day, you can build and strengthen your muscles over time. You are also providing your body with the signal to develop and get stronger twice as often.
Cardio twice a day
There are several advantages to doing cardio twice a day. One advantage is that it helps burn more calories than you would with only a single workout each day. This may speed up weight loss.
Cardio also has many health benefits, including reducing your blood pressure and levels of bad cholesterol, increasing your levels of good cholesterol, and improving your insulin sensitivity. Doing cardio twice a day also helps increase your energy. An early-morning workout can help you feel energized and prepare you for your day. An evening workout can help relieve stress at the end of the day.
Lifting weights twice a day
Lifting weights twice a day can be more beneficial than lifting once a day because it can give you better strength and muscle gains while decreasing body fat. By working out twice a day, your protein synthesis and anabolic output are greatly increased. You might also find that you are able to do the workouts with more intensity when lifting twice a day.
Working out twice a day reduces your sedentary time. Research studies have proven that a sedentary lifestyle increases the risk of cardiovascular disease and developing a larger waist circumference. By working out twice a day, you are increasing your physical activity, which may also help you maintain a healthy weight and increase your fitness level.
Working out twice a day also improves your overall performance. Training twice a day triggers accelerated growth of muscle mass and strength. Training volume is a vital factor for all goals related to fitness. To put it differently, when you create a good two-a-day workout plan, you can reach your goals a lot faster.
Working out twice a day is also a good idea if you have a busy day full of social obligations and work. After your workout, the levels of hormones in your body rise and make you more productive and alert, and your body is able to fight fatigue.
If you don’t have enough time for one long workout, you might find it easier to divide it into two shorter sessions: one in the morning and the other in the evening.
Although there are many benefits of working out twice a day, it also has some drawbacks. The primary disadvantage of two-a-day workouts is that you risk overtraining. While exercise supports overall good health, excessive exercise can cause problems.
It can strain your neuromuscular system and increase the likelihood of injury. It can also disrupt your sleep and cause aches, pains, lower performance, menstrual cycle abnormalities, and numerous other problems if you don’t give your body enough time to recover. You may also experience mood changes.
Overtraining due to twice-a-day workouts can also suppress your immune system, making you more prone to developing seasonal infections such as cold or flu. On the other hand, regular exercise can help stimulate your immune system if you don’t overdo it.
Follow these tips to stay safe and healthy while working out twice a day:
- Do intense workouts such as strength training or high-intensity interval training during the earlier part of the day. Save the low-intensity exercises such as light cardio for the second session.
- It’s important to take enough rest between your sessions. According to health experts, it’s important to wait at least four to six hours between workout sessions, and rest different groups of muscles between days. Take at least one day off every week. Moreover, if you experience any symptoms of fatigue or soreness in muscles, increase your rest time.
- Stay hydrated between workouts by drinking lots of water.
- Get lots of sleep. Getting enough sleep is critical to your performance when you are working out twice a day. If possible, try taking short naps during the day to help rest your muscles and promote recovery.
- Start slow. If you’ve just started working out twice a day, don’t do two 2-a-days in a row, and make sure to follow each with a day of rest. You can gradually increase the number of twice-a-day workouts in a week as your body adapts to this new routine.
- Balance your workouts. While you may be tempted to make both workouts super intense, this isn’t a sustainable or healthy approach. Combine exercises or workouts that complement each other. For instance, combine jogging with weight lifting or yoga with swimming.
- Do longer exercise sessions during the earlier part of the day and shorter exercise sessions during the later part of the day.
- Increase your nutrient and calorie intake on rest days to promote recovery. Also, make sure to get lots of sleep and manage your stress. You can add meditation or massage therapy to your rest days.
- Watch out for overtraining. If you feel fatigued, tired, discouraged, hurt, or bored, this may indicate that you are overworking yourself and need a break from working out twice a day.
- Make sure to do stretching exercises after a workout session.
Two-a-day workouts can be a good idea, but only if you stick to a structured workout plan with enough time for rest. There are many benefits to working out twice a day. It reduces your sedentary time and improves your overall performance. But twice-a-day workouts also carry a risk of overtraining and injury.
It’s important to take plenty of time to rest in between sessions. Focus on eating nutritious meals and staying hydrated. Balance your workouts by combining exercises that complement each other. Watch out for overtraining, and take a break if you feel tired.