Training Twice a Day

Training Bodybuilding
1

Some people strongly advocate training twice a day as a good way of increasing strength and hypertrophy but do they mean training different muscle groups in the respective sessions or the same muscle groups?

I mean would it be a big mistake to revisit not only the same body part but the exact same exercise in the latter session as you did in the first?

I was planning to do military presses in both the morning and afternoon, and as I am doing EDT at the moment that could mean a total of thirty or so sets for the day! Is this too much I will of course be resting a lot more before directly working my shoulders again.

2

You should look into HFT by Chad Waterbury. It for 2x a day training.

3

Training 2x/day doesn’t really allow greatly more total volume, either total or for any given thing, during the week. Somewhat more is acceptable, but nothing like twice. Given equal comparisons: of course, twice what would otherwise be a small amount may be fine.

When going to a 2x/day program, I basically take what would be a good 1x/day program, divide it among the two parts, and add a modest amount to each half if necessarily even adding anything.

Absolutely, the same bodypart or same exercise can be trained in each session.

Ordinarily 30 sets of one exercise in one day would be too much. However, as to how high you could go in the situation you describe, a “set is not a set,” in other words some don’t come at as much cost as others, and I don’t at all think that 15 sets of an exercise in EDT comes at the same cost of say 1 set of 15 exercises each performed maximally. Nothing like.

So in other words, one hasn’t already paid a cost of what 15 sets would in all or most cases be, having done what is technically 15 with the EDT. And thus more sets are still possible to do than from simply a full 15 from a reasonable total.

While I’m not saying that it’s quantitative, by illustration say 40 reps of one exercise might be done in EDT at a weight that 10 rep sets could be performed at (if enough rest.) It doesn’t match up with 15 sets which would be 150 reps. I’m not saying that these 40 EDT reps exactly match up with 4 “typical” sets, either; but the cost is somewhere in the middle, and absolutely not as high as other forms of 15 sets can be.

One can’t just judge by the grand total number of sets (not that you were saying one could.)

I’m not sure if you’re saying you want to do EDT with military presses twice per day? No knowledge on that on my part.

But if the question was, were “15 sets” EDT-style done in one workout, if the other had say another 5 sets of a differing kind of protocol, that wouldn’t necessarily be excessive. Nor would necessarily some amount modestly higher than that. Fifteen sets of most other protocols, though, on top of the EDT, all the same exercise, sounds excessive.

4

Thanks Bill and Ethan for your replies. Most helpful.

5

Not sure how much it will help, but I’ve tried lifting twice a day in a couple different situations. First, when I was competing in Olympic lifting I did a workout where I did my squats first thing in the morning (I was usually in and out in 30 minutes). I would then come back that night and do my Olympic workout (cleans or snatch with pulls, usually some overhead presses, and some RDL’s, hypers or hypers mixed in).

Just to keep from getting completely out of balance, I would do some bench such from time to time. Overall, I had pretty good sucess. My legs really blew up (this was during the only time in my life that I could touch a basketball rim).

Secondly, I went back to training twice a day after my football career was over and I decided to loose weight. I was still competing in Olympic lifting as well, so I would do a total body workout in the mornings with some cardio and then come back in the evenings and do my Olympic workout. I hit my highest weights during this time, but it was probably due to more experience and better technique as well.

Again, I’m not sure how much that’ll help, but I’ve had good experience with training twice a day if you have the time and you’re able to eat well enough to help your recovery. I might also note that I’ve never done this for more than probably 12 or 14 weeks.

6

Many strength coaches are in favor of 2 a day training. And yes, you can hit the same bodypart twice in a day- preferably heavy with low reps in the AM or early afternoon, and lighter with higher reps, and different exercises, after at least 4, but preferably 6, hours of rest.

Make each training session short and sharp obviously.

7

[quote]deanosumo wrote:
Many strength coaches are in favor of 2 a day training. And yes, you can hit the same bodypart twice in a day- preferably heavy with low reps in the AM or early afternoon, and lighter with higher reps, and different exercises, after at least 4, but preferably 6, hours of rest.

Make each training session short and sharp obviously.[/quote]

Thanks once again guys for your replies.
My intentions were as you outline deanosumo, a different weight and rep scheme entirely from one session to the latter.

8

As a thought wouldn’t working out twice in a day mean you can benefit regarding your post work out meal twice a day also?