Going for Two

Facing fourth-and-long on your quest to score more muscle? Borrow this tactic from the football playbook to hit each bodypart with maximum intensity.

- Michael berg, Nsca-Cpt

Two-a-days. If you were a high-school football player, you recognize the phrase as the morning and afternoon training grind of the preseason conditioning program. The gauntlet of running, calisthenics, tackling drills and scrimmages separated the prepared players from those not quite ready for the glare of the Friday night lights … and sometimes separated a queasy lineman from his lunch.

Those looking to build muscle and burn fat have their own version of two-a-days. While not quite as intensive as pigskin prep, it does provide a way to separate weak from strong — when it comes to body parts, that is.

The idea is simple: Instead of doing multiple muscle groups within one training session during the day, you break the workout into two. Also called a “double split,” it means you may be doing shoulders in the morning followed by triceps at night, or training back in the a.m. and bi’s a few hours later. As we’re about to explain, that modification  can make a huge difference in your intensity and results.