Working out More then once a day??

[djnewb]

Hi, i'd like to know if its alright to work out more then once a day?
That is, if I work on chest say at 12:00 pm and then do Abs around 6:00 pm??
Or say I do Cardio at 8:00am when I wake up and then later on in the evening do a full workout??

Does anyone know if there are any problems with doing something like this??

Thanks

 

[Ice Cold]

ROFL

I'd think you're nuts. Unless you wanna do BB professionally, you don't have to be in the gym for more than 4 times a week.

 

[Shiftkey]

That depends on what you want to accomplish.

 

[Templeton]

Like Shiftey says, it depends on your goals but also circumstances. I would find it difficult to train more than once a day on a regular basis, four times per week is my max. However, if your circumstances allow or dictate there is no harm in training more then once a day - although I certainly wouldn't do it daily. But a 20 min ab session in addition to another 45-60 min workout won't do you any harm. Sometimes I may have a quick 20 min calf workout for example.

One benefit to this is that you can take advantage of the post-workout nutritional window twice in a day. If I were to train twice a day regularly I would ensure each workout is shortened. Probably 45 mins max. Bulgarian research found that two sessions of 45 mins was ideal for their weightlifters although they were only breaking about 90 mins between workouts.

For the average lifter though it isn't necessary.

 

[madgame]

I dont think youre nuts like all the other guys here. Actually I guess you could split up a 60 minute work out (30 mins chest 30 mins shoulders or whateva..just an example) into two 30 minute workouts and do one of the two in the morning, the other one in the evening or so (if u work out at home it wouldnt be a waste of time..if u go to the gym it would). If you do cardio you could do this too i guess. Do cardio in the morning and workout in the afternoon for example. When somebody says you dont need to work out more than 4 times a week, I think they should take into account whether you work out for 30 mins or 2 hours or whateva.....However if u gonna work out more than once a day (including cardio) make sure you still have some days during which u dont work out at all so ur body gets some rest.

Besides u should only do cardio during a cutting phase, otherwise its counterproductive and I think its easier to just work out once a day instead of twice a day for half of the time.

 

[victor von doom]

Originally posted by djnewb
Hi, i'd like to know if its alright to work out more then once a day?
That is, if I work on chest say at 12:00 pm and then do Abs around 6:00 pm??
Or say I do Cardio at 8:00am when I wake up and then later on in the evening do a full workout??

Does anyone know if there are any problems with doing something like this??

Thanks

Personally, I only do the split workouts when I am cutting.

I like to lift really early in the A.M. before going to work (around 5:30) then do cardio after I come home from work (around 7:30).. it works out quite well.. I am able to do hard intensity on both - something I think that would suffer if I tried to do them both in the same workout.

caveat: I never do cardio on leg day. Rather I'll do an easy session (non-HIIT) post leg day to get blood into the quads/hams/glutes to speed recovery.

 

[djnewb]

Hi Everyone

Thanks for the great comments

For alittle bit more information, the reason I ask this is that I currently have a bodybuilding class at my local community college, I usuaully can only get a good 30-40 minute workout before I have to gotto another class, so I was thinking if I could just do heavy weights during the period of time (Around 11:00am) and then lateron in the day around the evening say 6:00pm I'd do abs at home.

So that would be Heavy stuff pre-afternoon (Chest, Shoulders what not) then Abs or light cardio during the evening

I think it might work out, but what do others think?


Thanks!

 

[victor von doom]

Originally posted by djnewb
Hi Everyone

Thanks for the great comments

For alittle bit more information, the reason I ask this is that I currently have a bodybuilding class at my local community college, I usuaully can only get a good 30-40 minute workout before I have to gotto another class, so I was thinking if I could just do heavy weights during the period of time (Around 11:00am) and then lateron in the day around the evening say 6:00pm I'd do abs at home.

So that would be Heavy stuff pre-afternoon (Chest, Shoulders what not) then Abs or light cardio during the evening

I think it might work out, but what do others think?


Thanks!

That's actually a good idea.. you are able to hit the abs with really good intensity, and not as an afterthought in your a.m. session - presumably you'd be thrashed after the heavy lifting.

 

[Shiftkey]

djnewb, what are your goals? Cut or bulk?

 

[MetalFortress]

Originally posted by djnewb
Hi, i'd like to know if its alright to work out more then once a day?
That is, if I work on chest say at 12:00 pm and then do Abs around 6:00 pm??
Or say I do Cardio at 8:00am when I wake up and then later on in the evening do a full workout??

Does anyone know if there are any problems with doing something like this??

Thanks

Shouldn't be a problem. Lots of powerlifting routines, such as the very formidable Sheiko routine, are based around 2 weightlifting workouts per day 3 days per week.

 

[djnewb]

Hi

Shouldn't be a problem. Lots of powerlifting routines, such as the very formidable Sheiko routine, are based around 2 weightlifting workouts per day 3 days per week.

Thats good to know =P

My goal is to probably get a mixture of bulk and cut. I'd like to get bigger but retain a good degree of movement and flexibility because I might move into Martial Arts or mess around with Gymnastics.

Also I heard that to get big/bulk you should only work on one body part a day per week?

For me right now i'm doing body parts twice a week, IE chest twice a week, shoulders etc.

Abs are 3 times a week though


Thanks for all the help!

 

[Shiftkey]

If you're trying to bulk, work body parts once a week and stop doing cardio. Abs and calves are ok to work out 2 or 3 times a week if they're not sore. Muscles are built with rest and diet, not by moving weights. Working out only rips your muscles up, literally.

I'm not really sure what affect splitting up workouts to multiple times a day will have. I don't see the need either. You only need to work out a total of 3 hours a week to make optimal gains.

 

[Bonhomme]

Shiftkey's right on

If you're trying to bulk up, definitely avoid overtraining. I was stuck at 160lb until I went from lifting 3 times per week, 8-12 reps per set, to 1 time per week, with heavier weight, including 1-2 rep max sets.

To maximize recovery, I usually do one full-body workout per week. This has been woking best, now I'm up over 180 lb. I still do some cardio, but not too much too often. Just whatever I do in my karate class, plus drumming most days and dancing sometimes when I go out.

If you want to trim down & cut up, go more often, with lower weight and more reps, and more cardio.

 

[Triangle Choke]

I am doing three a day workouts right now. In the morning I hit the weights, noon is boxing and kickboxing, and the evenings are for jiu jitsu and wrestling.

It's not easy, but it's not killing me either. It all depends on your goals.

 

[madgame]

why is everybody saying you can only work your muscles once a week?

Why is everybody saying that you can only work out each body part once a week if you wanna bulk (I doubt itd be any different if you wanna cut by the way...). Have you tried to work each body part twice a week or are you just saying this because DIESEL says that / cause youve read it elsewhere?

I work out each body part twice a week (6 sets for "big muscles" 4 sets for "small muscles") and Ive been getting good results over the years. Ive also tried the once a week split thing and the 3 times a week full body workout thing. From my experience they all work though I get the best results by working each muscle twice a week.

Besides I think its really ridiculous to say that you can only work out a muscle once a week if you wanna get perfect results, because it takes a muscle a whole week to recover. Im pretty sure it depends on the intensity/ number of sets you work the muscles out with. If I only worked my muscles out once a week Id do like 8 -12 sets for them instead of 4-6 sets (and from my experience I can tell that I cant improve by only doing 4-6 sets once a week...this is just enough to retain my strength/mass) and thus needed to rest about a whole week for them to recover. If you take a walk of about 15 minutes you used your leg muscles too but still dont have to rest for half a week in order to have them recover...

Moreover a lot of bodybuilders use a 3-1 split hitting each muscle 2 times in 8 days and it seemed to work for them (and probably would for most other people too like it does for me and no Im not taking no stereoids so my muscles recover more quickly...)

 

[madgame]

I am doing three a day workouts right now. In the morning I hit the weights, noon is boxing and kickboxing, and the evenings are for jiu jitsu and wrestling.

How many hours a day do you practice boxing/kickboxing/jiu jitsu/wrestling and do you practice those sports every day? If so and you dont seem to gain mass/strength by working out you probably dont eat enough cause you gonna have to eat like at least 1000 calories (probably even more) more a day if you practice martial arts so much.
(I dont suggest u stop practicing martial arts, just letting you know you might have to up your calorie intake a lot..just a thought though)

 

[Mr.Hash wid da Stash]

madgame, if working each muscle group two times a week is working for you then do 2 times a week. Most people get better results from a split where they do 1 muscle group a week. Although you REALLY gotta hammer those muscles in that time... If you work out too lightly then your not gaining from the split system..

 

[Triangle Choke]

madgame - I'm not a bodybuilder. Believe me, I and my trainers know what we are doing. I'm a (admittedly new) pro fighter and I have a fight coming up in about 2 months.

As far as mass/strength goes, I weighed 229 this morning and I don't have problem throwing people around.

 

[madgame]

Aight..I just thought you might be making the mistake of playing lots of other sports than weightlifting/bodybuilindg without eating enough carbs/calories, but if you weighed in at 229 you're most likely not making that mistake ;-)

You did have to eat a lot more calories because of practicing martial arts so much to still be able to get to 229 pounds or am I wrong? (just wondering)

 

[Triangle Choke]

I'm just a big guy. I come from a big family. I'm 6'1" and 229. I cut to 205 pounds for fights. But of course I have to maintain an above average daily caloric intake to maintain size when I'm not training for a fight, but it's not that bad. I like eating.