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Assuming that the entire workout is for one muscle system (pushing, pulling, legs), would there be negative effects if I perform one part of the workout in the morning, for example, and the rest of it at night? Thank you.

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    I lack the knowledge to answer this outright, but I feel like this would at the least impact endurance, because your body is getting a chance to recover in between.
    – Sean Duggan
    Jun 19, 2018 at 11:59
  • Is there any real reason why you can't be more specific? E.g. stating what exercises you would do in each session and perhaps your warm up routine and so on? Also, do you mean like once every now and then if you don't have time otherwise or every single time? Btw, one obvious negative effect is that you would have to sacrifice more of your time in total, are such things a concern for you? Also, what is your goal? Strength, fat loss, muscle growth, endurance, something else? It might help also to state what you think you would achieve by splitting it like that
    – Raditz_35
    Jun 19, 2018 at 12:11
  • I agree more info would be useful, i.e. how much time you have per session, what times you're looking at working out, an example of a day of training w/ the movements preformed. A bit off topic but I'd probably say if I was doing two workouts a day no matter the length i'd probably split it up like, heavy lifting in the morning, then accessory work, cardio, interval training in the afternoon (That's just my preference not saying that's the best split possible). Lots of people workout multiple sessions per day.
    – Matt Sides
    Jun 19, 2018 at 13:31
  • Sometimes I do not have enough time to complete my workout in the time that I allot on my workout days to complete it, but I may have time when I am waiting for someone, for example at a completely different time of day. I want to know if it would be a bad practice if I were to do what I can in that small time period, and then finish the rest later. I exercise for muscle endurance, and follow a push/pull/legs routine.
    – CMK
    Jun 19, 2018 at 15:52
  • Oh I see, hmmm you know this is an interesting question I'd wonder if many studies have been done on short recovery periods before exercises. Normally it'd be resting between sets or how long to fully recover. This gives a pretty good overview of the recovery process. The things I'd wonder is if you are tearing down the muscle enough in the first workout that it could recover before the second, or if you are somehow interfering the repair process by hitting it again once that has started.
    – Matt Sides
    Jun 19, 2018 at 19:22

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In my experience, splitting your workout into 2 parts actually gives you a more intense and detailed experience. Let's say I have a push workout scheduled for a certain day. Going in the morning when i'm sluggish and on a time constraint about work/school/meals etc., I can get a quick cardio/abs session in (up to you, cardio in the morning is a great way to start out) along with possibly a solid 3 sets of overhead press and another 4 of bench press within an hour. Keeping it under an hour allows me to train hard and intense with little time for rest. Later in the day or towards the end, I can come back and hit the other workouts without worrying about gym traffic for the bench or squat rack to do overhead presses. I can do some high rep work with machines/dumbbells. Again, giving yourself an hour keeps it intense and low on breaks.

At the end of the day, it's about tearing your muscle fibers and repairing them. Shorter workouts allow you to up the intensity. Just remember what you do outside of the gym has more of an impact than the timing of your workouts, so keep up a solid nutrition regimen.

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  • Thank you for this answer. So, you've found that your results are either the same or better when you split your workouts?
    – CMK
    Jun 21, 2018 at 22:42
  • Better but only when I had a solid 8 hours of sleep or so along with a finely tuned diet. Jun 22, 2018 at 2:53

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