This week’s article will be discussing a different way to train for both muscle and strength gains. Occasionally you’ll hear of people who go to the gym twice a day. Most of the time, they’ll do two separate muscles. In this case, we’re going to talk about training the same muscle twice in one day. It may sound crazy, and hard on the body, but actually, the results can be quite positive. First, let’s try to understand how you can train the same muscle twice a day, and discuss the best way to do it in order to maximize results.
First off, this isn’t something someone who has just started training should consider. It’s a technique only advanced gym goers should use. Marc has just begun using it himself.
Now, as an example of how you’d go about training the same muscle in a day… Say you’re looking to accelerate the growth of your chest. In the morning, you would go to the gym and do compound movements with higher weight and lower rep ranges, so between 4-6 reps. For chest, this would mean maybe flat bench press, and incline bench press. Then you could do abs. Your workouts should be no longer than 30-40 minutes. Then, in the evening you could return to finish off the workout with more isolated exercises, such as flies, or cable exercises, but 10-12 reps. Not only will this help you build mass, but also it’s been found to also improve strength and power.
It is important you make sure your workouts are short, but intense. Also, they should always be separated by 6-8 hours of rest. When you start your second workout, you will actually have more power output than if you were starting a normal, first workout of the day. By the end of the second work, you will have less energy on the last rep than if you were just finishing a normal workout. Forcing your muscles to go through such rigorous and different patterns of training can be really beneficial for them.
Marc often speaks of keeping your body in adaptation mode; well this new style of training is an incredible way to throw your body off. The only problems with this technique are time, and nutrition. Not many people have the time to go to the gym twice a day. Work and school will always be first. This is just for people who are advanced and looking for a new way to train. If you do have time, and decide to try this technique, you will have to drastically increase your calorie count to deal with this new workload. Your body will be burning a lot more than usual, so tailor your diet with that in mind.
In conclusion, if you’re willing to do the work, and think your body can handle it, go for it! The results could be worth it. Don’t over train yourself. Only do this for muscles like back, chest and legs. Good luck, and if you decided to do it, let us know how it goes.
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