Thread: Is it ok to workout twice a day?

Depends what you are doing. If it's a light cardio or something similar and a weight session sure. I wouldn't have two strenuous workouts in a day unless I'm taking in a lot of food and a lot of drugs...even then it's overkill.

Only 2ways to do so is if your on alot of AAS with proper nutrition or if you keep the workouts VERY shot but intense with great nutrition also.

Originally Posted by Usealittle

Only 2ways to do so is if your on alot of AAS with proper nutrition or if you keep the workouts VERY shot but intense with great nutrition also.

this. especially the first option. Arnold was famous for a morning and evening split routine, but he was obviously on most of the time.

Sure it's possible, but in terms of 99% of the population the last thing they need is more weekly opportunities to fuck up. I can confidently say, even without knowing anything about you, that you don't fall into that 1%.

see bulgarian olympic lifters... :P yes it is possible, but you need to be able to stick through the pain.. see my blog it has stuff about that on it

^^^^^ and boat loads of AAS! Hence... What I said at the start.

Shit those guys max out 2x ed! Every day.

CnP is pretty much natty.. only aas he advocates is a prohormone and he barely ever uses it.. so not necessarily

Bulgarians starting training in childhood and gradually built up to their demanding schedules. Also, they were all elite lifters. If you're not an elite lifter, it doesn't make sense to work that hard because not only are you wasting effort, you're likely doing counter-productive work.

Working out twice a day is fine, but your body is going to take some time to adjust to the demands you place on it. Pat Mendes talked about how for a few months he never felt like training due to his workout schedule (similar to that of the Bulgarians). He said that at first you feel completely drained, tired, and sore, but that eventually you don't really even realize any of those symptoms.

yes.. that would be the "dark times" as broz puts it.. it isn't wasted effort.. you work hard you will get what you put in.

Q&A

Originally Posted by jtterrible

yes.. that would be the "dark times" as broz puts it.. it isn't wasted effort.. you work hard you will get what you put in.

Q&A

A lot of intermediate athletes don't need to train that much in order to see the same performance improvements. Broz's athletes are fairly advanced and so were the Bulgarians - they are guys who are already very strong.

Also, there are a few reasons weightlifters can and do train with that frequency. First, there is really no eccentric portion to any of their lifts. The amount of time they spend under tension in their lifts is not nearly the same as the time spent under tension in a heavy squat or deadlift. Second, lifting weights is their sport, so their workouts are equivalent to a sports practice - they are aiming to improve technique through repetition. For a lot of guys lifting weights, the goal isn't to be better at lifting weights so much as to be strong. If you're not a powerlifter or weightlifter, you spend more time working on things related to your sport and lifting weights is more GPP than SPP. A sprinter doesn't need perfect squat form - he does squats for leg strength.

So the amount of workouts you do in the gym with a barbell is pretty specific to your training experience and training goals. If your goal is to lift weights, then you spend more time lifting weights. If your goal is to be a basketball player or a thrower, then you spend time playing basketball or throwing and lifting weights becomes a smaller part of your training.

I will say though - your body can adapt pretty quickly to things a lot of people will tell you is "overtraining."

First, it depends on the end result as far as absolute strength, power, or hypertrophy. I would say that for unqualified lifters it would be unadvisable to have multiple sessions per day for any end result. For qualified lifters multiple sessions are par in regards to strength training. Neuroendocrine factors adapt more quickly than increased mRNA synthesis as would be the case in hypertrophy training. They also decrease faster if maximal or near maximal loads aren't sustained. If you are interested in strength training, Zatiorsky's "Science and Practice of Strength Training" is a good start.

Another element you need to take into account when talking about the bulgarians and other eastern european countries is that their olympic programmes are basically a meat grinder. 200 go in, 1 champion comes out - the one that had the capacity to survive the training.

Applied to an individual you'll more than likely be one of the other 199 people who fell by the wayside at some stage. Whatever stage that is all depends on you. It's probably highly likely that if you progressed gradually enough you'd be able to work up to damn near any level of training, and i doubt anybody in here is really honestly aiming to be an olympic gold medalist or to squat 1000lbs.

Two sides to the coin. I still think you COULD train twice a day if you wanted to, and spent enough time building towards it. Like i said though, and others have pointed out, theres more chance of you fucking it up (especially if you're not an advanced lifter) and you could get exactly the same results training 3x a week like everybody else.