Does anyone exercise twice a day?

[GymEnthusiast]

i exercise twice a day 7 days a week. I swim 2k or do a Pilates session in the morning. I then do a cardio session in the evening after work. I keep being told this is too much (mostly by people who never exercise) , but I spend the rest of my time sleeping or sitting behind a desk at work. I don’t have a specific goal, I only want to keep fit, healthy and slim.
Anyone else do twice a day sessions? Please share your routines with me.

Did OP say that she doesn't think of her 2km swim as exercise?

DD can swim 2km in 40 minutes. And DD is not fit at all. So I'd say.. if you think of it as a mere 40 minute swim, it's not a huge effort.

I need 45 minutes to do 1.5k swim. I probably walked to the pool too or cycle 8 miles roundtrip to work on the same day (52 minutes total). And maybe had a little walk at midday when in office (another 25 minutes of exercise). That's how exercise happens 2-3x a day for me.

@heartofglass23 , I do not have an eating disorder. My BMI is 24. Looking slim is important to me, but I eat well. You might think of 2k as not really exercising too if you had swam all your life. I swim 2k without feeling tied at all and I suppose I want to feel like I have made an effort.

I barely get to the gym to exercise twice a week, not alone twice a DAY! 😅

I don't know if it's been discussed all that much here, but for some of us, we need to exercise regularly for our mental health.

Absolutely. Better than popping anxiety pills by a mile.

It's also one of the reasons I make sure I have rest days. If I injure myself and couldn't train I would be devastated due to the impact on mental health, and because of the type of training I do that's more likely if I don't rest. But there are times when I go and have a sneaky session on a rest day cos I need it for mental health.

I was just thinking today that I might start doing 2 classes on some days. I currently do 5-6 classes a week, but some are less intense than others e.g. barre and pilates, and on those days I can definitely add a spinning class or swimming.

i LOVE exercise and what it has done to my body. 💜

I do always have one rest day a week though, sometimes 2.

To echo what others have said, if people get annoyed by the amount of exercise you do, spend less time with those people. They sound rather envious and not very nice.

I will only discuss exercise with people who also enjoy exercise. There’s absolutely no point telling my mother about my exercise regime, she rolls her eyes if I tell her I’ve just been to the gym when she calls and asks what I’m up to (I refuse to lie)!

@RayKray do you think there's much chance of injury with a gentle swim and a yoga session? I've been doing rest days in between strength training days, but I've been considering replacing them with a morning swim and afternoon yoga class.

Depends on your body and mindset. I'd probably try and race everyone swimming and be the bestest at the yoga cos I need help. I do walk and sometimes do mobility on my rest days. It's more the lifting I need the rest days from, and that's what gives me the endorphins. Other stuff doesn't do it for me in the same way.

You're doing great and don't need to justify yourself.

Mark Lewis from the Above Average youtube channel recently addressed less than supportive comments from friends and family, in summary, ignore them and carry on. You enjoy it and your body is obviously fully adapted from years of building a strong and healthy fitness foundation. Crack on!

and be the bestest at the yoga

There's a whole competitive insecurity-ridden side to yoga sessions, isn't there? I find it a little tedious, honest, when instructors go on about comparing selves or ourselves to others.

Some yoga classes are competitive, especially those in the city I found. Flexibility and so on. Who knew!

Though I inadvertently annoyed someone once because I think they thought I was showing off during a hamstring stretch by lying flat on my knee (seated). I didn't think that was a particularly big deal, but they audibly sighed and eye-rolled. I think that was rude in retrospect but I pretended I hadn't noticed.
Funny thing is that in that class they have a break, mid class, where we can stretch (I check my phone instead 😀) and some people try to do the splits. I can do the splits but never had in case it looked like showing off.

I'm not flexible enough to even attempt to be the bestest at yoga, which is probably for the best. I'll be very happy with myself when I manage to plant the soles of my feet flat on the floor during downward dog one day.

I'm the bestest at relaxation.
I'm pretty good at balance.
Terrible flexibility though!

It took me a long time of stretching (over a year) to get splits on one side! I don't think I'll get the others, and I'm not really trying to, but I'm content enough.

Despite my desire to be the bestest I'm actually shit at yoga. Bad at relaxation, not very flexible and don't like being in classes being told what to do. Hence why I'd be likely to hurt myself with my competitive streak.

Yoga has really changed I think - I find it impossible in London to find the sort of class I did years ago where you always came out feeling good about yourself, it's now all competitive.

I do my own practice in the garden now

I thought I was being paranoid when I first witnessed it, because surely not. In my experience hot yoga is worse, and larger city centres I think. I'm not being ageist, and it's just a tiny minority the rest are lovely or just fine, but it's younger people, possibly in their 20s who have been the worst for this. I've seen the same in dance-type and Pilates classes. In reality it's probably just a couple of obnoxious individuals. They will even hold classes up constantly asking for personal corrections.

I'm not into all that at all. As I said local classes don't seem to be like that. I will still go into the centre for classes but ignore anything like that and go to the middle or back. They're often at the front. I used to go to the front when I was new (to see the instructor better) but that's where the people in some of the classes I attended who thought they were best had their places!

There was a guardian article about this a little while ago

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jul/05/after-20-years-of-yoga-im-hanging-up-my-mat-for-good

There were then a few letters on the topic too. I also thought it was all in my head for a while

Swimming is very variable; it encompasses every pace from the equivalent of a gentle walk (possibly more like very leisurely roller skating as you can glide) to a hard sprint. Plus how efficient your technique is makes a much bigger difference than in most cardio exercise. 2k would take me about an hour but I know swimmers who could do it in half that time with the same or even less effort because their technique is so much better than mine (I'm working on it!).

Interesting article. Auditioning for prime classes though! Wow.

It does definitely seem to be a thing the competitiveness.

I just cant get into yoga....hard to relax when you have no bendability at all and it all hurts!
TBH I think you can exercise multiple times a day, just depending on what you are doing. So obviously you shouldnt weight train the same areas more then every other day and you probably shouldnt do high intensity exercise that often but there is a huge range of activities classed as exercise.

I sometimes do twice a day. I dont count dog walks anymore due to dogs being very old and walking so slow! but I generally have set exercise 5 days a week of 20 mins pilates/resistance and 20 cardio/mini stepper (my days off involve rushing around at work so fairly active there!).
Sometimes though I know Ive been sitting too long and my mildly arthritic hip is starting to ache so I jump on my exercise bike or mini trampoline 20 mins and it loosens everything back up. TBH given that everything I do is low intensity and low impact I could probably do most of it several times a day!