Can You Train Twice a Day

People who come into Garage Strength tend to be pretty motivated -- they might be lifelong elite athletes who are programmed to achieve, or they might be the Monday morning quarterback looking to get their act together quickly. In both cases, we often get this question: “Can I train twice a day?”

This is a complex question and a lot depends on circumstance. The short answer is, yes absolutely. The long answer is, only train twice daily if you are coached by someone who knows what they are doing. Too many people add two-a-days as a shortcut to their goals, and often it does more to derail someone who doesn’t have an expert coach involved. If you’re reading this and think you want to train twice daily but fit into that category, click here now and order a program. It will help you achieve your goals more quickly and safely than adding haphazard two-a-days.

I personally have trained twice a day when I was training for football, and also as a competitive olympic weightlifter at one point. There are also 4-5 olympic weightlifters that train at Garage Strength twice a day. Note that in each of these cases, a professional, knowledgeable coach -- or coaches -- was involved and overseeing training.

The first step in deciding whether or not you should train twice/day is to establish your goals. Do you want to get stronger and put on weight? Do you want to lose weight? Do you want to improve in a certain sport? Depending on your answer to this will depend on the layout of your program. Remember, two-a-days are not an everyday thing even for elite athletes.

Here’s a real-life example of twice-daily football strength training::

Start off the week with a lower body workout to prep your hormones and your body ready for the rest of the week. Second day, two upper body workouts. These hit different muscle groups. For example, morning session focuses on chest and back, evening session focuses on shoulders, biceps, triceps. Third day, two lower body workouts, again hitting different muscle groups. Morning session is olympic lifts and single leg movements. Evening session is squats and accessory movements depending on weaknesses. Fourth day, one session, upper body. This is a longer workout hitting almost all upper muscle groups, then afternoon off to let your body recover more. Fifth day, two lower body sessions, but again different goals for each training session. Morning session is olympic lifts, squats, and accessories. Evening session is all plyometrics, building on the explosiveness from the olympic lifts and speed relating to your sport. Sixth day was one upper body, more of a bodybuilding day with high reps and lots of biceps and triceps. Day seven is a rest day, focus on stretch and recover and get ready for the next week of training.

If you just glanced at that table above it likely seemed like a simple process, but reading the explanation you can understand that a lot goes into it. Twice-daily training does not necessarily mean twice as much training. It means two very targeted sessions that complement each other. Your goals and weakness will determine what exercises you need and what accessory lifts are needed. Not only is the programming very important, but stretching, nutrition, and supplementation are very very important in this process. If you do not stretch and eat properly, you will not recover to the best your body can and then you will lose out of gains you need! Bottom line: if you want to train twice daily, get a coach, get a program, and do it right!