Does anybody have tips on Two-A-Day training?

[Infamous Gabriel]

This whole week starting tomorrow, I have to come in 2 hours later (7AM) than usual. I figure since the gym's open at 5AM, I could get in an early morning work out and sometime after work in the early evening get in a 2nd.

More than likely I can predict that I'm gonna be worn out by the time this week's finished, but I just have that hunger and urge right now to grind even harder.

Is it a good idea to focus on cardio for one of the workouts and resistance training on the other? Up the food intake, etc? Any feedback's appreciated.

[Diggy_Dat_Niggy]

This whole week starting tomorrow, I have to come in 2 hours later (7AM) than usual. I figure since the gym's open at 5AM, I could get in an early morning work out and sometime after work in the early evening get in a 2nd.
More than likely I can predict that I'm gonna be worn out by the time this week's finished, but I just have that hunger and urge right now to grind even harder.
Is it a good idea to focus on cardio for one of the workouts and resistance training on the other? Up the food intake, etc? Any feedback's appreciated.

Alot of people will separate the cardio from resistance training, so you can do that if you want. Cardio in the morning, 2x a day resistance training isnt necessary, I dont see the need for it really, you're not a pro bodybuilder. Sometimes 2x resistance training may cause you to over train.

copy from a site

http://www.elitefitness.com/forum/weight-training-weight-lifting/work-out-2x-day-626786.html

Secrets of Twice-a-Day Training

I am firmly convinced that athletes can get more out of their training if they have the luxury of training twice a day. Unfortunately, many of us have career and family commitments that prevent us from partiting in such an extensive training schedule. But if you do have the time to train twice a day, I'd like to share with you the methods that work the best.



First, when adding an additional workout it's important to keep both training sessions short. Excluding warm-up time, your workouts should initially be no more than 40 minutes in length - training longer than that would be counterproductive. Eventually, as your body's recovery ability increases, you can increase your workout time to 60 minutes, but no more.



Next, the training must be sequenced properly. I've found the best results are achieved when the same bodypart is trained twice on the same day. There are several options to accomplish this, such as the following sequence:



Option A: Hypertrophy

AM: Compound exercises

PM: Isolation exercises



If you are working the pectorals, for example, the morning session could consist of incline presses and dips, and the evening session would be devoted to isolation exercises such as dumbbell flyes and various cable exercises.



Powerlifters can also use a similar approach when they desire to move up a weight class post-competition, as follows:



Option B: Hypertrophy

AM: 4-6 reps

PM: 12-20 reps

From experience, I have found that working heavy in the morning and higher reps at night works quite well; for example, performing sets of 4-6 reps in the morning and sets of 12-15 at night.



Option C: Hypertrophy/Strength

AM: Low Reps, Fast Tempo

PM: Low Reps, Slow Tempo

You could also do the same reps bracket during both workouts but use a different tempo; for example, performing 4-6 reps on a 20X0 tempo in the morning and 4-6 reps on a 4210 tempo at night. The explosive work in the morning tends to facilitate the evening workout; thus you can use greater loads than normal in the evening. The nature of the exercise can take care of that. One practical way to apply this system would be to perform power cleans in the morning and deadlifts with chains at night. Or, for an athlete whose primarily goal is to improve their jumping ability, the sequence would be plyometrics in the morning and squats in the evening.



Option D: Rapid Strength Gains

AM: Relative Strength Methods

PM: Functional Hypertrophy Methods



If you are more interested in strength development, your morning workouts should be in the 1-3 rep range; whereas your evening workouts would max out at 8 reps.



Option E: Rapid Strength Gains

AM: Relative Strength Training

PM: Eccentric-Only Training



I really like this method, in which you train heavy in the morning and then perform eccentric-only training in the evening. For example, heavy front squats for 6 sets of 2-3 reps on a 5010 tempo in the morning, and eccentric back squats of 7 sets of 1 rep on a 10:0:1 tempo at night. For these squats, I recommend using the eccentric hooks known as "Power Recruits" (contact Bob Kowalski at 814-378-7108 ).



Option F: Olympic Weightlifting or Powerlifting

AM: Competitive lift or derivative

PM: Assistance work

For an Olympic lifter it could be snatches in the morning and front squats in the evening. For a powerlifter, it could be deadlifts in the morning and reverse hypers at night.



Regarding exercise selection for both workouts, you may want to do the same ones if strength is your primary goal, or change them completely if hypertrophy is your main concern. Thus, weightlifters would do back

squats twice a day, while a bodybuilder may perform bench presses in the morning and incline dumbbell presses in the afternoon. Or you could even just do a slight variation; for example, back squats, heels flat, in the morning, and backs squats, heels elevated, at night.



Putting Time on Your Side

You have to be wise when introducing twice-a-day training in that the volume should be increased gradually. I have developed the following great formula to accomplish this. (Note that when I say workout, it is a workout for a given body part, such as legs.)



Workout


Morning session
Evening session

1
40 to 50 minutes
20 minutes

2
50 to 60 minutes
20 to 30 minutes

3
40 minutes
none

4
50 to 60 minutes
25 to 35 minutes

5
50 to 60 minutes
30 to 40 minutes

6
40 minutes
none

7
50 to 60 minutes
40 to 50 minutes

8
50 to 60 minutes
40 minutes

9
50 to 60 minutes
none