What was your experience with two a day workouts?

[cherimac]

Well...both times I tried this I was overly fatigued and gained weight. I do get up and walk my dog between.5 miles and 1 mile but it's not overly vigorous. Sometimes I add on a 10 minute workout in the afternoon, if I am in the mood to do so. Usually I get another .5 mile walk in later in the day. I try to move more during my day instead of doing two "formal" workouts.

[donnamp]

Hi,

I do try to do a couple of workout sessions a day most (4-5) days of the week, but my second session is generally restorative yoga or stretching or CS (if I am not doing CS as my "main" workout in the morning, I will do a gentler CS in the evening)

So, in general my day may look like this -

Main Workout in the A.M. (whatever I'm focusing on at the time, right now I'm in a Jessica Smith phase where I'm doing her weekly schedules and adding on a little yoga and Pilates)

Afternoon - I try to go for a walk - anywhere from 15-30 min. I work at home 2X per week so on those days I will walk my dogs, when I'm in the office I try to take a loop around town to Starbucks, or to run an errand or to pick up a library book. I also try to take the stairs whenever I can.

P.M. - Gentle yoga, stretching or a gentle CS if I'm not doing CS in the morning (right now I'm not doing CS as part of my a.m. routine but I'm putting some of the gentler practices in during the evenings -but this week I have slacked on that for various reasons - busy, tired, appointments, etc)

The caveat to all of this is none of my workouts are over-the-top hard, so this is sustainable for me.

Donna

[neatski]

I started doing two workouts a day about a year ago. I used to do hour-long circuits but parenting a baby by myself and working full time meant I was just too tired at the end of the day to motivate myself to do them. I started by just doing Barre3 streaming workouts at lunch, figuring that if I at least got a workout in at lunchtime, I'd feel better about not working out later or just doing a short and sweet workout later. I started doing 20 minute HIIT and/or kettlebell circuits in the evenings.

A year later... it is the most sustainable workout routine I have ever had, and it has given me the strength AND aesthetics I want. In fact, today I'm wearing my "landmarK" dress from when I was in college. There's something magical about the term "20 minutes" for me. I can pretty much always get myself to do my evening workout. Aside from a few weeks ago (I had mono and was very ill), I have been consistently working out 5 days a week for an entire year, and I rarely skip workouts. For me, it was giving myself permission to do short workouts that made all the difference. On days when I don't have time to do the second one, I just don't worry about it, because I still get in a good 20-30 minutes.

[FitBoop]

Originally Posted by Jeanne Marie

I have also done 2 workouts a day for many years. My focus and interest has changed over time, but the 2 a days still work for me.

My week looks like this now:

Monday: Weight train am, Bootcamp class pm
Tuesday: Bootcamp am and Bootcamp pm
Wednesday: Weight rain am, Bootcamp pm
Thursday: Run 4 miles am, Bootcamp pm
Friday: Bootcamp am, Weight train pm
Saturday: Bootcamp pm
Sunday: Run 4 miles am, DVD of some sort pm. (Usually Cathe HIIT or weights)

* My class is officially branded by my gym as "Bootcamp", but we change it up every single class with most of the moves being crossfit inspired. They offer 7 classes a week at this point and I attend them all. If you see this post, Michelle, I wanted to clarify that. We had a discussion on another thread about crossfit (which I know you do and are awesome at doing), and I called my class crossfit. I have since realized the class isn't actually branded as crossfit!

Jeanne Marie, how many times per week do you train each body part?

[AsSweetAsSugar]

If I'm really challenging myself in my main workout, there is no way I could do a second challenging workout later. The only second workouts I have been able to add (here and there) are flexibility workouts and/or very gentle cardio (walk/dance) workouts, more than that and I would feel extremely tired. I also need a day off every week.

[Jeanne Marie]

Originally Posted by FitBoop

Jeanne Marie, how many times per week do you train each body part?

Not counting whatever weight training might be in the bootcamp (it's brief based on the interval timing, and not as heavy as usual), I train each body part once a week.

I'll do something like Bis and Tris on Monday, Chest and Back on Wednesday, and Legs/glutes and Shoulders on Friday. A lot depends on how much time I have when I weight train. If I'm able to stay at it longer, I might end up doing some body parts twice a week, but if so, they are separated by a few days at the very least.

[bubbles76]

Oh, I forget I also did the Firm Express workouts twice a day. I heavied up on the Firm Express workouts and never felt like the workouts weren't challenging enough. When I first got back to working out after Tiny Bubble was born, I did the Powerfits twice a day.

Neatski, do you still do barre? What type of HIIT and circuit workouts do you do?

[kariev34]

I do two a days twice per week. I used to workout 6 days in a row straight with 1 day rest for one hour a day. My boyfriend suggested I need more rest and to double up 2 of the days so I can have more complete rest days. So my schedule now is:
Monday: cardio am weights pm
Tuesday: rest
Wednesday: cardio am weights pm
Thursday: rest
Friday: cardio am
Saturday: rest
Sunday: cardio, yoga, or weights depending on what I want to do
I feel so much better with more rest days. I like this schedule a lot. I find that it's very important that I have a rest day the day after a double day. I could not do several double days in a row. Try it out and see how you feel.

[FitBoop]

Originally Posted by Jeanne Marie

Not counting whatever weight training might be in the bootcamp (it's brief based on the interval timing, and not as heavy as usual), I train each body part once a week.

I'll do something like Bis and Tris on Monday, Chest and Back on Wednesday, and Legs/glutes and Shoulders on Friday. A lot depends on how much time I have when I weight train. If I'm able to stay at it longer, I might end up doing some body parts twice a week, but if so, they are separated by a few days at the very least.

Jeanne Marie, that sounds like a good schedule.

[Debbie S.]

Prior to my back surgeries in the mid 90s, I did work out twice a day; cardio in the mornings, and strength work in the afternoons.

I re joined the gym this past spring after a 20 year hiatus, and about the same time, I discovered Ashley Horner's workouts. This has me back to doing workouts twice a day, and depending on the trainer that I'm doing it's either 2-3 days a week for extra leg work, or 4-5 days a week to finish that day's workout.

I personally have been enjoying getting back into the gym. I say a quick hi to a group that usually works out the same time that I do, and then I hit it. No talking or BS-ing while I'm working out.

As far as results go, the muscle gains have been crazy!!!!!! I posted pictures here before (my back, and pics when I turned 54), and my physique is even much more muscular. Crazy since I turned 58 last month.