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Doing Cardio Twice A Day

We all have heard the saying that exercise is good for your health, and science backs this up. Studies have shown that physical exercises have many benefits for your body. This includes better mental health, improved heart health, and better sleep.  Even when you are old, it is never too late to start doing exercises. You can slowly start doing some small exercise and grow through it.

One of the best ways to start doing exercise is through cardio. There is nothing complex about doing cardio exercises. You won’t need any complex gym machines or study techniques. All you have to do is find a huge open space and go around for a loop. If you want, you can stay indoors and do some cardio on a treadmill. Examples of cardio exercises are cycling, jogging, and running.

Cardio has many benefits, and this includes better cardiovascular health, better sleep, expands lung capacity, and helps losing weight. Among all the benefits of a cardio workout, weight loss is its most fancied benefit. So you may find people intensifying their cardio workouts to lose weight quickly. Even going to the extent of doing cardio twice a day!

Twice-a-day cardio is a norm for a training regimen for high-performance athletes. For us, regular people, once-a-day cardio is already hard enough as it is. It can be hard to schedule a proper training program for an exercise. After all, many of us are busy with our lives, work, and family. But, if you have the time to schedule doing cardio twice a day. Should you do it? Is it worth it doing that much cardio?

Doing Cardio Twice A Day

Results of Doing Cardio Twice A Day

No matter the exercise, increasing the quantity and the intensity will yield results. So does this apply to doing cardio twice-a-day? This depends on how you go about it. It is either you double the amount of cardio you do in a day, or you split your daily cardio in half. 

Let’s first discuss the first option, doubling the amount of cardio you do in a day. The premise is straightforward; doubling the amount of cardio done in a day also doubles the calories spent! 

Say, for example, you typically do 45 minutes of cardio every day. You then decide to do another 45-minute cardio in the afternoon. This results in having equivalently spending calories worth 90 minutes. Doubling the amount of cardio you do in a day will accelerate your goal of weight loss!

Realistically speaking, it can be hard to achieve doing 45-minute cardio twice a day. Especially so when you are a beginner yourself. But even if you don’t achieve another 45-minute cardio in the afternoon, it still accelerates your weight loss. 

Now the second option, splitting your daily cardio in half. This is also very simple; you spent the same amount of calories but half the struggle. What do I mean by this?

Say, for example, you typically do 30 minutes of cardio every day. You then chose to split your cardio workout by half due to time constraints in the morning. So you start doing 15 minutes of cardio in the morning and another 15 minutes in the afternoon. The overall result is you spend 30 minutes worth of doing cardio. 

The advantage of splitting your cardio in half is that you won’t have to struggle to reach the 30-minute mark. You can be comfortable with doing the 15 minutes twice but still lose calories equivalent to 30 minutes. This is only applicable if you maintain the same intensity as the 30-minute cardio. 

As your body adapts from doing cardio, increase the intensity of the cardio as well. This will accelerate your weight loss and improve your performance!. 

Scheduling Your Cardio

So how should you schedule your cardio workout? You schedule your workout according to the time you are most motivated to do it. If you force yourself to a schedule that is are not motivated to do it. You will only burnout yourself and stop doing cardio.  

Make a schedule you are comfortable with and stick to it. If you are not consistent and stop doing cardio, you will regain the weight undoing your hard work. 

However, you might want to consider doing the first set of cardio in the morning. There are many benefits of doing cardio in the morning, and this includes a better mood,  feeling energized, and a sense of accomplishment. Cardio in the morning will also help you avoid eating a bad diet that day since it will be a waste if you eat unhealthy foods. 

Doing Cardio Twice A Day

Potential Risks

You must maintain balance and not overdo it for the sake of weight loss. Keep in mind what your body is capable of doing and not push it too far. Your weight loss journey will not happen overnight. It takes patience. 

There is a good reason as to why twice a day cardio is primarily done by athletes. Firstly, is that they are fit enough to do it and their bodies are very much capable. Secondly, they have the discipline to continually stick to their program. Finally, they are mindful of what they are doing, and they have instructors that teach them.

This is not to dissuade you from doing twice-a-day cardio, this is to help you do it right. If you overextended yourself, you will only do more harm than good.  Too much cardio can also result in muscle loss and increases your risks of muscle injuries. Muscle loss will lead to fat gains. This is because the less muscle mass you have, the fewer calories your body burns while at rest. 

Should You Do Cardio Twice A Day?

If you have the time to do it, why not? Doing it twice a day will accelerate your weight loss! Doing cardio will even improve your overall health as well! 

But just make sure that you don’t overdo it to the point of injury and burnout. Start at small increments and work your way up. 

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