Full body workouts twice a day

mickc1965

mickc1965

Well-Known Member
Just wondered if anyone has trained full body twice a day for 5/6 days per week and how did they set it up, I am currently training full body once a day on a 3 day on 1 day off as follows

Routine A – Flat Bench / Bent over Rows / Landmine Press / Rear Squats (ATG) / Good Mornings / Calf Raise

Routine B – Military Press / Supinated Chins / Dips / Deadlift / Barbell lunges / Calf Raise

Routine C – Incline Bench / Landmine Rows / BTN Press / Barbell Hack Squat / SLDL / Calf Raise

Currently during 15s I do 1 set at 15 followed by a set of 5 approximately 20 to 30 seconds later, 10s are 2 sets and 5s are 3 sets (or clusters to 15 total reps) and was thinking of same routine with one set of 15 / 10s in the morning and one at night and probably 1 set of 5s am and pm followed by 1 set of 12 or so reps at 15rm - would there be any benefit / negative over current training?
 
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Yes, I've done 10-12x p/w. At present I'm doing 9 sessions p/w (one being cardio, session #2 on Saturdays).

- Lots of cals required. Even if you want to lose weight, you'll need a heap to function.

- Advantage is fatigue management. If you go all-out (relevant to context) twice a day for 45mins, compared to once for 90mins, the former will leave you with less fatigue.

- Connective tissue does not recover as quickly as muscles do, you need to bare this in mind.

- Isolations are counter productive. They're quite exhausting for the specific muscles you're isolating, and much harder on the joints (compare bicep curls effect on elbows to a chin or row).

- From your list above, I'd probably remove dips (I love them, but they're v.intensive w/regard to the joints), and definitely calf-raises. Fatiguing these will affect deads and squats.
 
Like Jester pointed out: it's your connective tissue/joints that will take a beating if you are going heavy with high frequency. Joints will toughen up over time if you build up gradually, but if you dive straight in with increased working volume you may end up with lots of annoying joint/tendon niggles. I got annoying knee and hip irritation when I experimented with squatting heavy (>90% 1RM) everyday for a couple of weeks. Every other day was/is fine for me. I can squat everyday without problems as long as I'm not going >85% 1RM every single day.
I love dips too. You can reduce potential shoulder joint issues if your shoulders are susceptible by reducing your ROM somewhat.
Stretching is a good idea too. That seems to help mitigate quite a lot of my joint issues.
 
Jester / Lol,

Thanks for your input, just to clarify the proposed routine is not really much more than I currently do but just split into two sessions per day instead of one, total reps per day as follows

15s - Current 20 reps (15 short rest 5 reps) - proposed AM 15 reps / PM 15 reps
10s - Current 20 reps (2 sets with clusters if necessary) - proposed AM 10 reps / PM 10 reps
5s - Current 15 reps (3 sets with clusters if necessary) - proposed AM 5 reps plus a metabolic set at 15rm weight / PM ditto - may not do the AM metabolic set

Calves are currently done in two sets of 15 or 3 sets of 10 depending on the load used and would have intended on splitting this to achieve 30 over the day

So the only rep range that actually increases in total reps at load is the 15s where I should really be doing two sets anyway, will be lifting less in the 5s at that load but will be more including metabolic set ( that's why may only do one metabolic set in the evening session). I accept that more weight will get lifted as will need to warm up twice a day.

I have been training on the full body 3 day on 1 day off for since mid March so I would imagine that connective tissue will have adapted by now or does that take longer still?
 
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I see no downside to what you are proposing Mick. It is a great way to manage fatigue if you have the time. I have done it many times with good results. Just remember with super high frequency there is no need to go all out or you will get more aches and pains than muscle growth. My personal preference is to do 15's one day, 10's the second day, etc.
 
Avoid the AM metabolic set during the 5's. In fact, you may not require them at all with a workout frequency of this nature. Your muscles will be chronically depleted of glycogen, to varying degrees (this is not a bad thing necessarily, just a state).
 
Jester, i will drop the AM metabolic set as had already decided that it will probably have a negative impact on the evening sets, will see how it goes when I get to the 5s regarding any metabolic sets in the evening session.
 
During 5s, if it were me, I'd take the opportunity to increase my volume from 15 total reps to 20 at the working load. After having had to warm up, two top sets of 5 each session sounds good to me. I would add a met set for the pm session as well. Just be sure to increase your cals (some extra carbs) enough to keep your glycogen stores topped up.
Doing this will see you incrementing work done over your cycle as well as incrementing load. I personally think that's a good thing for hypertrophy.
 
Lol, I do tend to agree in principle in incrementing work done as well as load over the cycle but not sure that my 48 year old body will cope with this volume on a full body 3 day on 1 day off (a/b/c) routine!!
 
Ah, I missed the age factor. I'm 49 so I know what you mean. :)
It might be worth doing the extra work only for muscle groups that you want to bring up.
Are you able to be flexible with your training schedule such that you can take an unscheduled day off if you feel fatigue is accumulating too much?
 
If anything it would be legs that need extra work as never really worked them that much in the past.

Train at home so can train whenever I want but always find once I start to take unscheduled days off it tends to lead to more days off so I try to avoid that but admittedly that hasn't happened since starting training at home last December.
 
Yeah, unscheduled days off have to be kept in check. But it's good to have the option if you start to feel completely hammered and your sleep goes to pot. Over-training is over-hyped in my opinion. We are more resilient than the general bb press would have us believe. As long as the volume doesn't increase massively in a short space of time, it allows time for our systems to get conditioned to the extra work.
With your set up, you have a great opportunity to increase your squat volume a bit without feeling too fatigued during the day. All the best with the legs.
 
I like this high frequency. Just make sure you are recovering properly. Id be eating a ridiculous amount of carbs too especially between my workouts. Full body routines are where its at man, so many benefits as opposes to this split training bullshit
 
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