Two-a-Day Workouts Might Be the Key to Losing Those Last 5 Pounds

When people get serious about losing a little bit of weight, they often take extreme measures, as they want those last 5 pounds off as quickly as possible.

Two-a-days might be your go-to if you’ve stepped on the scale recently and found yourself just a bit heavier than you’d like. But, is it safe to do this? Experts weigh in.

Splitting it up or staying steady.

Perhaps you’re used to hitting the gym for an hour once a day and then going on with the rest of your responsibilities, or maybe you’re the type of person who prefers splitting your hour up into two 30-minute sessions. And maybe you’re a fan of the super short 12-minute HIIT workouts (for over 115 hours of real time HIIT workouts, check out SweatFlix℠). Plenty of studies have compared the benefits of all.

But as far as adiposity, or body fat lipids, and your psychological well-being goes, it’s not clear whether it makes a difference. But our bodies are more responsive to the intensity as opposed to the length.

The differences of each.

If you’re going twice a day, perhaps one of those sessions isn’t focused on sweating it out. Instead, it might focus on stretching and light calisthenics, in which case there’s nothing wrong with that. The bottom line is, what is your intensity and intention per each session? John Mandrola, MD, a cardiac electrophysiologist, says “Two-a-day workouts can be especially useful, and if used wisely, might lead to safer, more effective training.”

And Jason Edmonds, a biologist and weightlifter, says “A highly conditioned, world-class athlete would be able to safely handle multiple training sessions in one day. But a middle-aged person of average athletic ability with a full-time job and family probably wouldn’t want to plan a regimen that involved multiple daily sessions at the gym doing heavy strength training.”

But unless you’re an elite athlete, Edmonds recommends just sticking to one a day.

Still, it’s OK to do if you’re smart about it.

Balance is essential.

You’ll want to make one workout is high intensity while the other is low to avoid overtraining syndrome, which someone who runs 10 miles in the morning and then hits up a cycling class later might experience. Your body needs time to recover, so be good to it.

Make sure to space it out.

Often times, people who prefer two-a-days complete a workout in the morning and then another in the evening due to their schedules. And though there’s no exact rule book on this one, some trainers recommend both of those workouts involving the same muscle group. If your performance is lacking, cut it back a bit.

Fuel yourself up.

If you’re opting for two-a-days, you’ll want to make sure you give your body the nourishment it needs to perform at its best. Eat pre- and post-workout snacks and make sure you hydrate well! For some advice on balancing your diet and some great snack ideas, check out the BodyRock Meal Plan!

Sleep tight.

Not sleeping enough? Studies say this is a no-no, as it can make it much harder to recover as well as perform during your next workout.

Make recovery a priority.

You’ve got to treat yourself, so take a day off if you’ve logged in a lot of hours of running and weightlifting. And if you’re not keen on kicking up your feet, use your rest time to go for a walk with the dog or stretch it out at the park.

All in all, how much you workout doesn’t matter, but be mindful of the signs of overtraining.

Do you ever do two-a-days?

Source: Elite Daily

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