Should you spread your workouts throughout the day? I tried it!

Spreading your workouts throughout the day seems to make intuitive sense. it's easier to fit training in that way, and seems a more "natural" way to train. This is how we would have moved in the wild! This post examines the potential pros and cons of this approach.

The bottom line? I've tried it the last few months and had some great results! Not only that, but the science seems to back it up. There are some caveats (LISS is hard to do if you're trying to spread your workouts throuhgout the day), but there are potentially more benefits.

Enjoy!

[jimmyrussell]

"I recommend that you all work from home" This man is a prophet

[jean-philippepoirier]

The Bionner on March 6th : "I recommand that you all work from home."

Literally one week later : Global pandemic. More people work from home than ever before.

[nottyseel]

I've actually done this because of dealing with depression. It was easier and healthier to accomplish small tasks frequently than build up to accomplish long marathons. As a result, not sure if you mentioned this, you have endorphin spikes throughout the day as well that I think is healthy for your brain and body and stress levels, but that's purely my experience not any science.

I actually apply this to just about everything in life, especially studying, and it has had really fantastic results that I won't TLDR here, but glad to hear someone who probably knows more of the science than I do analyze and promote the concept. Short side note: I would love to see the effect of shorter schedules on productivity in the workplace at large. It has really improved literally everything I do in life in multiples, most importantly the joy from things I thought I hated.

[DevinDTV]

as a calisthenics guy, i've tended to spread my workouts throughout the day. the most obvious benefit is that you recover between exercises and can therefore use higher intensity and get more volume

[monstersmomma]

I’m am at home mom and have used this for years to keep in shape. Lunges across the house to deliver the clothes to rooms. Leg lifts and skaters when cooking dinner. Picking up all the baby toys in the plank position. It’s fun and it keeps me from taking too much time away from my home and family

[motsm]

The Bioneer: putting the science back in strength. Oh wait that slogan is already taken

[jessiewalker]

I do this at work constantly, drop and hit 50 pushups, Jump up on a branch do some leg raises, I work on a golf course so I just squeeze training in throughout my day

[travisellison]

This reminds me strongly of the “grease the groove” method of training Pavel Tsatsouline advocates.

[KaelDenna]

have you heard of martial arts coach, Firas Zahabi, and his training philosophy?
he says you should only work out in a way that elevates your energy level. so basically pick something up, play with it, put it down, repeat as soon and as often as you are able to do it without getting tired.

try this: get a couple of 5 lbs dumbbells, shadow box till you're no longer having fun, put them down, have a cup of tea, now hold a 20lbs kettle bell and practice your dance moves. rest when you're not having fun anymore and only return once you're completely relaxed ~10-20 mins~ then try dunking in basketball! great workout! etc. etc.

build lots of strength, raises your caloric requirement by like 2000~ because you're essentially working out 100+ times a day

[oliverhadfield]

I like the idea, it makes sense, the only thing is I don’t like hanging around in smelly clothes or showering and changing after each session... so I think splitting the day into two workouts is ideal.

[Avoidnow]

I’ve been training this way during lockdown here in Ireland and I’ve gone from being able to do no push-ups to 10 sets of 8, it’s brilliant

[MrMrmcook]

I have always known you can get huge and strong from short regular workouts. People at the gym I used to train laughed when i said id just popped in for a 20 minute chest workout. In 20 minutes you can do around 10 sets of chest with short rests. If it was chest day and you were short of time you could easily do 5 or 6 heavy sets of chest in 20 minutes. Convenient if short of time or energy and sometimes benefiical not to do loads of sets and waste too much energy.

[Arroway]

It's like I found an amazing cheat code. I work in a grocery store, so already active. I knew as a 44 y/o, I needed to build strength. The loading dock and breakroom have become my gym. Greasing the groove all day w/ pushups for now, about to add a kettlebell in our outdoor picnic area.

[NateP]

I’ve been thinking about this kind of training for long time and always wondered if it would works. Thank you!!!

[sunsonothers]

Hello, I want to share my experience about this topic :
I spread my workout through the day for 2month now, in the morning I wake up(at 5 am), do some set of push ups, pull ups and stretches, then after 2hours (take my breakfast then take a moment to digest) I go to gym bench press/rows/deadlifts 5 set of 5-8(depends on the day), then I go to work.. And I do a last workout of 30min at the end of the day(mostly calisthenics)
I started doing this for 2 months now, I was an absolute beginner in fitness, I did not do thar on purpose, did it just because this was the best way to do enough sport with my schedule.
The results are so fucking awesome, I progressed a lot in strenght and calisthenics skills.
Even my friends was impressed, I'm so happy!

[throwzilla]

Best results I've ever had when doing o me exercise every few hours. I was in scho and didn't have 2hours at a time to work out. I'd do 5 sets of squat, in 30 minutes and hours later maybe deadlift. I could not believe how much bigger and stronger I got as compared to the conventional method

[dmdcykey]

I was hoping you'd cover this subject at some point. I've been using a twice-per-day routine for about one year now and I've never had so much increase in strength, size, overall fitness, and this considering I am a 57-year-old hardgainer. While the entire routine is a bit complicated to go into here, the short version of my two-per-day is:

- Each workout tops out at around 40 minutes.
- I exercise only two muscle groups during both workouts, using supersets so the workout stays under 40 minutes.
- I perform no more than 8 sets for each muscle (two different exercises of 4 sets each), per workout.
- The morning workout is heavy weight/low reps. The evening workout is light weight/high reps.
- Morning workout is straight non-nonsense reps, not to failure. Evening exercise is very slow eccentric, always to failure.
- Although I exercise the same two muscles in a day, I always use different exercises from morning to evening, i.e. hit it from numerous angles.
- I do two days on, one day off for two complete weeks, then deload on the third week with VERY light weights, lots of brisk walking, stretching, and some easy bodyweight exercises.
Rinse/Repeat.

[matthe]

I've always worked out like this. I don't have the attention span to work out for a whole hour straight lol, so instead I break it, so I'll do 20 pushups here, a few dips there, etc. and by the end of the day I've finished my workout.

[dontpanicitsorganic]

I always hate that intensity in one hour and sitting in the other hours
The idea of spreading workout popped up this morning And I remmeber that I have read something like that on your channel, and here we go

[michaelhaungooah]

This is actually what Tom Hardy did for his roles as Bane and Bronson. Bodyweight workouts 4 times a day. I also did this while at work with Pushups and bodyweight squats, really brought my chest and quads up.