Today's article is written by Xendurance Athlete Ciaran Parkinson, multiple Hyrox Winner and Elite Doubles competitor and coach.
It’s something I get asked about a lot from my clients and whether they should be doing them, so I thought I would list some simple pros ✅ and cons ❌
Pro ✅ - in a sport like Hyrox the bigger the aerobic and running base the better the outcome - It’s going to allow you to build more running volume…
Con ❌- with a higher Running volume you’re likely to be more susceptible to injuries due to the impact and fatigue on the body…
Pro ✅ - Gives you the ability to train multiple elements in one day - I.E strength training and functional work…
Con ❌- Your recovery, fuelling and timing needs to be on point to make sure you’re actually getting the benefits from session 2 rather than just slogging through for the sake of it…
Pros ✅- It can allow you to free up days in the week for a full recovery day
Cons ❌- Unless you have a very flexible job you are going to need to make some huge sacrifices to train twice - Family, social, sleep - All things that could end up having a bigger negative impact.
Some additional things that you may need to consider when deciding if you want to increase your training volume…
What is my training age?
By this I mean your experience with training - unless your someone with a large amount of experience with training it’s unlikely your going to better from training twice in one day!
What are your goals and where do you actually want to get to?
For the majority of people your just looking to be that little bit better and improve each time you compete - This can be achieved comfortably without training twice in a day!
Is your training effective?
If your having to increase the volume of training to twice a day is what you’re doing actually benefiting your performance or are you just adding junk volume for the sake of it! We want to get the maximum results from the minimum work we can ideally.
Is this something you can stick with?
For me this is almost the biggest one - if the volume of training isn’t something you can consistently adhere to and produce consistently positive results then quite simply your over training!
In short my personal opinion that for the majority doing Hyrox as a ‘purpose to train’ it isn’t something that needs to be considered and if more time is available to you this should be focused on mobility, sleep and nutrition.
Without the correct training plan and periodised programme this is also a recipe for disaster with volume shooting up way higher than your body can handle and injuries being inevitable.
Elite level athletes with all day to train, nutritionists, 1-2-1 coaches and prepared to have all recovery protocols on point is a different story..
I am happy to admit that when I hit 2 hard sessions in a day that my sleep that night is 💩 due to my body struggling to recover so I then need to make sure the following days of training are easy to account for this.
If your someone looking to add double sessions into your training - Always ask the question ‘why?’
Why do I actually want to do this and why will it benefit more - if the answer is because I see people on social media doing it - Then find yourself someone who can help educate you on the ‘why’ otherwise very soon your desire to train twice in a day will change to a desire to just want to train through Burnout or injury…
Train Smart 👊
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