Training twice a day, also known as two-a-day workouts, can make dramatic improvements in your fitness if done correctly. Unfortunately for many, two-a-day workouts just add another factor to the injury equation, as many athletes are not ready for such physical demands. Should you, regardless of your current fitness level, work out more than once a day? In this article, I’ll discuss why I think more can be better if you do it the right way.
Should You Train Two-a-Day Workouts if You’ve Been Training Less?
The idea behind two-a-day workouts is to get in shape (or back in shape) as quickly as possible, usually in time for some competition. As most collegiate sports teams have an event in late August, their mission is to get their athletes ready to perform. This “get fit quick” fitness program can work well if approached one way, but backfire if various training intensities and durations are implemented faster than the athlete can adapt to the demand. After all, as you may know from many other Sock Doc articles, it’s all about adaptation to demand, which improves performance.
During any athletic downtime period (such as a school break for students or the end of a competition season), most athletes quickly lose motivation and fitness when they are no longer in a structured team-training environment. Adults lose a lot of fitness when they go on vacation and don’t train for a week or more. It only takes a matter of weeks away from training to lose substantial amounts of strength, power, and endurance. Specifically, it’s said that after just three weeks of practically no training, aerobic enzymes drop by almost 30%, the lactate threshold drops by 7%, and heart stroke volume drops by 10%.
You can only develop fitness so fast. Forcing fitness is a great way to get injured. A deconditioned, unfit individual or an athlete just off the sidelines due to an injury or inconsistent training can’t hop into high-intensity, two-a-day workouts and expect to excel. Yeah, the ones who do might appear to be making gains in various fitness attributes, but aside from the few genetically gifted, these athletes are the ones whose season is often cut short early due to injury.
More Time Training, More Time Recovering
Since training is as dependent on rest and recovery as it is on actually working out, training too often and too intensely is a great way to get injured, or at best, quickly plateau with fitness gains. Simply put, a hard workout in the morning session followed by another in the afternoon for several days in a row is often asking for trouble. Can it work? Sure, but only if some recovery time is factored in after such a crash course in training. The problem is, most athletes are going from high-intensity, two-a-day workouts right into high-intensity daily workouts and/or competition (which is always intense, or at least should be). Ideally, for this to work and work well, there needs to be some recovery period after two-a-day, high-intensity or long-duration workout days.
A better approach to this fitness catch-up program is to alternate the high-intensity workouts with lower-intensity training and/or skill and drills. An athlete already in decent shape can often handle a high-intensity workout approximately every 36 hours. So an intense training program, perhaps consisting of some HIIT or intense plyometric exercises on Monday morning, could be followed with a skill/technique training session that evening, an aerobic endurance conditioning session Tuesday morning, and then another HIIT or power-type session Tuesday evening. Again, this can really work well for an athlete who has maintained a fitness base, or even better, they’re trying to take their fitness to the next level. For someone unfit or just getting back into the swing of things, then reducing the time and intensity of the two-a-day workouts can still work, as long as these workouts are within the confines of their present fitness level.
An endurance athlete with a well-established aerobic base can experience some dramatic gains by implementing a two-a-day program. This doesn’t mean that you simply double up on your workouts. Though that can work if you’re trying to increase mileage and overall aerobic capacity, there’s a whole lot more to fitness than just duration. But if you’re short on time and can’t run more than 30 minutes in the morning, doing just that and running another 30 minutes at night can be a great thing. Actually, running 30 minutes twice a day may improve your fitness and health more than just one run of 60 minutes. Often, any activity that is even moderately intense (including a truly aerobic run) will bump up cortisol levels as that one-hour mark approaches. If you’re already dealing with high cortisol levels due to excess stress elsewhere in your life, then breaking up that workout might not just be the ideal way to improve your fitness, but also improve your health, as the aerobic activity can help reduce your stress hormones. And of course, exercise is often a great way to lower mental and emotional stress. So the more you’re active, the better off you’ll be.
Improve Fitness by Mixing Up Your Training
Remember, as with any training program, you never want to increase duration, intensity, and complexity at the same time. So if you’re trying to get in some added miles or distance, this is not the time to also increase interval training or strength training, and vice versa. If your training involves more complexity, for example, various jumping skills or even moving toward more minimalist shoes (or going barefoot more often), this is not the time to increase volume or intensity. Be smart about your training.
Mixing up the two-a-day workouts can be very effective. As noted above, if you’re already rather fit and you want to take your training to the next level, some higher-intensity training every 36 hours can work well (or even a shorter period for a few days in a row). Give it a try a few times a week for a good three weeks, as long as you’re seeing progress. It’s a time commitment, and you’ll have to make sure you’re resting and eating well for it to work in your favor. But you don’t have to always train with high intensity or volume when it comes to an effective two-a-day program.
Consider the benefits of movement skills. Running in the morning and taking an evening movement class, such as yoga or a class focusing on body awareness, is a great idea too. If you’re not focused on one sport and looking for overall fitness improvements, then aerobic conditioning at one time of the day and strength later in the day may be the way to go rather than doing them back-to-back. For a well-conditioned athlete, two-a-day workouts can be a great way to get off a fitness plateau and make some fast gains, provided the plateau isn’t because of overtraining. Moving more is almost always a good idea, as long as you’re moving well. If you’re injured or your form (economy) is poor or compromised, then the more you’re moving in such a manner, the worse off you’ll be—it’s rather obvious.
Move More for Improved Health and Fitness
So give the two-a-day workouts a shot when you’re ready. Actually, you can say that you’re ready now, as long as you’re not suffering from an injury limiting your movement. Walking in the morning and working on some balancing exercises in the evening is something that almost anyone can do, provided they have the time. If you do, these two-a-day workouts can be huge for your overall physical and mental well-being. Once fitness develops, tossing in some two-a-day workouts, even once a week—either to improve a certain skill, aerobic endurance, or strength—can really bring your fitness to a level you thought impossible. Our bodies are meant to move and move a lot. Maybe it’s time to ditch the idea that since we got our daily workout in, it’s okay to sit around the rest of the day, or that we should only train more when we’re preparing for a race.
