SHOULD YOU WORKOUT TWICE A DAY
By Noelle Walker at New Fitness Personal Training
So is it safe to workout twice per day or is it overexercising? Many people will tell you or think that working out twice a day is overdoing it. That this somehow has a link to anorexia or some other disorder. In fact there is an actual disorder where someone might be exercising too much. They exercise so much that they pass out or get really sick. It’s called Anorexia Athletica. But is it fair to imply that by working out twice per day that this is an eating disorder?
EATNG DISORDERS
People need to realize that there is more to an eating disorder than simply not eating enough, puking your guts out or over exercising. It’s a mental thing. Your life is out of control so you use food as a way to have some control in your life. You obsess about it, you think about it 24 hours a day, seven days a week. There is no day off when you have an eating disorder. I know, because I had Anorexia. I used food or the lack of to feel better about my life, which in turn made my life worse and made me feel worse. I tell you this , not to get sympathy but to simply give you a small idea of what an eating disorder looks like.
IS WORKING OUT TWICE A DAY DANGEROUS
So back to the question of is it safe to exercise or workout twice a day. Is it an eating disorder? Are you going to hurt yourself because you workout twice a day four to six days a week? My answer is it depends. It depends on how long each workout is. How much rest you are getting in between and how much you as the individual, need recovery.
If your first workout is an hour and a half and then you workout again a half an our later and do another hour and a half and you do this six days a week,this probably is too much exercise. If you are constantly sore or physically tired from working out twice per day then that is also too much exercise.
TWICE A DAY WORKOUT PLAN
The ideal way to utilize two workouts a day to your advantage would be doing a thirty minute run or cardio HIIT session in the morning and then in the afternoon or evening do some type of resistance training for another thirty minutes. This is in no way too much exercise.
IS WORKING OUT TWICE A DAY RIGHT FOR ME
So when would I recommend not doing two workouts a day? How would I figure out if this is right for you ? First of all if you are new to exercise or have been sedentary for quite a while and are just getting back into exercising regularly, I would not recommend two workouts just yet. You and your body need to get used to working out regularly. I usually recommend three times per week initially with one 40 minute workout each day.
If you are not new to exercise and have been doing it for a while and you think you would like to try two workouts a day just make sure you pay attention to your body and what it needs. If you feel excessively tired, almost exhausted after doing both workouts or you feel dizzy and light headed during either one of the workouts, you need to reassess and maybe think about going back to once per day for a bit or work your way up. Try doing two workouts in a day just once per week and keep the rest of the week the same and build up from there.
What could be a good reason or benefit of working out twice per day? If you have been on a weight loss program and you have hit a plateau, this could be the very thing that gets you past your plateau. It’s not like you will be working out more but splitting it up into two workouts instead of one will make your body feel like it’s doing something drastically different and tada, the fat will shed again.
So what do you think about working out twice per day? Is it for you? Have you tried working out twice a day? How did you feel? Let me know in the comments!
