Many people have the illusion that the more they give, the more they get, both in life and in the gym.
But have you ever wondered if you should double your efforts? Really Can you get double profits? Because these identical twins are.
British adventurers, brothers and fellow fitness buffs Hugo and Ross Turner decided to test this theory in a 12-week experiment, which they say produced “very interesting results”.
This is not the first time that the 36-year-old Exeter-born explorers have exploited the fact that they share the same genetic material in hopes of advancing science.
In 2021, the Turner family tried two different diets for three months: a plant-based diet and an omnivore diet to see what changes it made to their bodies.
Look at this:
But last year, the pair decided to do more research and find out whether spending twice as much time exercising is really worth it.
To do this, Hugo trained for 20 minutes over 12 weeks, while his identical twin Ross sweated out twice that amount for 40 minutes.
busy to Speaking to Men’s Health about his motivation for 2023, Ross said: “Aside from the road trip, I’m very interested in understanding what works best in the gym.
“Because we are twins, we can directly compare one fitness plan to another, or one diet to another.
“We wanted to see if doubling 20 minutes would be more efficient; would it be twice as effective?
“Interestingly, we found some very interesting results through our gym program that we think will cause a lot of people to question what they’re doing in the gym.”
The Turner twins tested their theory over 12 weeks (YouTube/Inside Edition)
experiment
They followed the exact same routine and started each workout together…but at the 20-minute mark, Hugo was able to “stop, stretch, and recover.”
However, Ross had to restart his watch and repeat the exact same exercise all over again. You’ll see who got the short straw here.
Training included deadlifts, squats, bench presses and stretching, and athletes typically hit the gym two or three days in a row before taking a rest day.
To track their progress, they got on Virgin Active’s Boditrax machine before each workout and recorded their weight, muscle mass, fat mass, and fat percentage.
“We had a blueprint for how our bodies would react at 40 minutes and 20 minutes each day,” Hugo said.
Although they did not track their diet, they believed they were consuming about 2,000 to 2,500 calories a day and ate pretty much the same thing.
Both men noticed clear gains in strength and strength over the three-month experiment, but their development was also monitored through body scans that measured their weight and body composition, while also tracking their cardiovascular health. .
Hugo worked out for just 20 minutes each session, but his brother worked out twice as much (Instagram/@theturnertwiins)
result
So, after working twice as hard over 12 weeks, did Ross outperform Hugo by a factor of two by the end of the experiment?
Although Ross was physically superior to his twin to some extent, they both think that doubling his time in the gym is “not worth it”, as if that were a small amount.
Hugo said: “The results show that the increase over 40 minutes is less than 5%. You would think that if you doubled your work you would see an increase of more than 5%, but in reality that’s not the case. It wasn’t worth it.”
“Initially, Ross started out weighing about a kilogram heavier than me, but throughout the 12 weeks we had exactly the same tracking and trends, so there was no significant difference in weight gain or loss.”
Dr. Ross added: “In this 12-week study, body fat was slightly better at 20 minutes; muscle mass remained the same, probably because we were eating fairly similar diets.” Ta.
“We weren’t taking in a ton of calories, which is always efficient for us, because one of the things we don’t want to do is go on a road trip and drastically reduce our calorie intake. is.”
The brothers believe that short, fun gym sessions may be the way to go.
Mr. Turner’s points
Hugo explained that because the 20-minute workout was “a very short amount of time,” he felt “always motivated.”
“Physically I was always motivated and I didn’t push myself too hard, but by the end of the 20 minutes I felt like I was pumped up,” he explained.
“The disappointing thing was that I never felt like I actually went to the gym.I always wanted to do a little more, so physically I felt good, but mentally I didn’t feel good. It was bad.”
But on the other hand, Ross found it extremely “hard” to work twice as hard.
“When he finished, I had a lot to do again. The 20-minute gym program was very dense, so there wasn’t a lot of rest time,” Ross said.
“It was a 40-minute period where I was like, ‘Yes, my head definitely worked, but my body was a little too exhausted.’
Despite working twice as hard, Ross only noticed a slight difference in his fitness (Instagram/@theturnertwiins)
So what did they get from the experiment?
Hugo believes the big lesson learned here is that consistency is key.
Additionally, “If you want to be more consistent and motivated, 20 minutes is much easier to do every day. 40 minutes proves to be much harder to motivate yourself to do it consistently.” ” he added.
Ross said, “For me, I was a little depressed knowing that I had worked twice as hard, put in twice as much effort, and I wasn’t getting results. Now that I’m done with the 12-week program, “Because I look at the results and know that there’s no point in working hard for 40 minutes.”
Despite their impressive efforts to conduct the experiment, experts warned that Dr. Turner’s study was too small and uncontrolled for the results to be taken as gospel.
Michael Graham, Senior Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Science at Teesside University. said Business Insider: “The relationships and differences discussed between Hugo and Ross have something to do with them as twins, or just typical variations and similarities found in any pair. We cannot make any confident assumptions.”
