There’s a degree of temptation among athletes who are greedy for gains to train as much as possible.
One way of training more is to start working out twice a day, but it comes with both pros and cons.
Here’s a list of advantages and disadvantages that need to be weighed up.
Pro 1: Hormonal Benefit
It’s widely believed that training a second time in a day leads to a greater release of hormones that assist the adaptation process and enhance training benefit.
Pro 2: Increased Overall Volume
Increasing training load often leads to performance benefits and one way of achieving that is increasing the overall volume. Exercising twice a day is an easy way to do it.
Pro 3: Increased Protein Synthesis
A second daily workout has been shown to increase protein synthesis and therefore leads to enhanced muscle growth.
Con 1: Overtraining
Probably the biggest danger of working out twice a day is developing an overtraining complex. This will happen if your body is not ready for a higher load. To guard against it, make sure that you increase volume gradually.
Con 2: Injury
This overtraining complex, along with greater strain being placed on joints and muscles, can lead to injury which might force an athlete to take time out and therefore stagnate progress.
Con 3: Time
Particularly for those who work full time, trying to fit in a second workout is extremely difficult. It might mean you have to get up early before work to get it done. You should, of course, always make sure you’re training for the right reasons and not forcing yourself to do something that’s making you miserable. Also bear in mind that taking care of the little things - like sleep and nutrition - will become increasingly important if you are training twice a day.