Does doubling your workout time double your earnings? These twins put it to the test

For Hugo and Ross Turner, aka The Turner Twins, a test of whether you can double your earnings by doubling your workout time is relatively little. Previous challenges the duo have faced include reaching many of the world’s poles of inaccessibility, climbing Europe’s highest peak, Mount Elbrus in the Caucasus, as well as more discreet studies such as whether a meat of the vegan diet is optimal.

Their latest study may be small, but trust us, its results are no less impactful.

Over the past three months, the twins have undergone about 60 workouts. They each started with Hugo and Ross working their way through a 20-minute session, but when Hugo stopped, stretched, and recovered once the clock struck 20 minutes, Ross continued, repeating the exact same workout. for another 20 minutes. minutes. The question is, at the end of three months, did Ross have double the earnings to prove?

By measuring their progress using Virgin Active’s Boditrax machines and keeping other variables, such as diet, to a minimum, this is what they found. It might just change the time you spend at the gym.

Men’s Health: We’ll get into the 20 minute versus 40 minute challenge in a minute, but want to start by giving us a rundown of some of the challenges you’ve done in the past?

ross turner: Outside of our expeditions we are very curious to understand what works best in the gym. Because we are twins, we can directly compare one fitness regime to another or one diet to another. In the past, we’ve tested high-fat vs. high-carb diets and meat vs. vegan diets, which some of your readers may have seen. It was a really, really interesting study. Many people were saying x when in reality the results were y and vice versa, so we just want to see through twin studies what is more efficient, what is less efficient and highlight the difference between two programs.

MH: What were you trying to achieve by comparing 20 and 40 minute workouts?

Hugo Turner: For the past three months we’ve been comparing a 40-minute exercise program to a 20-minute exercise program, so I did 20-minute exercise sessions and Ross did 40 minutes, basically doubling what I did.

Reds: We wanted to identify if doubling 20 minutes is more efficient, would you see earnings double? Interestingly, through our gym program we have uncovered some epically curious results that I think will cause many people to question what they are doing at the gym.

MH: Wow, we’re intrigued, but what was the idea behind doubling your workouts rather than just doing a deliberate 40 minute workout?

Reds: Since we are twins, we eliminate all prejudices. If we did a 20-minute workout versus a completely different 40-minute workout, there’s no point in doing it as twins, so there’s a bunch of different areas that we’ve had to isolate and eliminate bias.

MH: Ok, so after comparing 20 minute and 40 minute workouts over three months, what did you find?

Hugh: The results show that there is less than 5% increase for the 40 minutes. You’d think that twice as much work would see an increase of more than 5%, but that wasn’t the case. It’s not worth it.

Ross started out about a pound heavier than me at first and throughout the twelve weeks we followed and trended exactly the same so there wasn’t a huge difference in our weight, neither an increase nor a decrease.

Reds: Body fat for this 12-week study was slightly better in the 20 minutes. The muscle mass has remained the same and this is probably due to the fact that we ate a fairly similar diet. We weren’t eating a huge amount of calories, which is always efficient for us because the one thing we don’t want to do is go on an expedition and drastically reduce our calorie intake. It’s important to us to stay around 2,500 calories a day, so when we’re on expeditions that calorie reduction isn’t a huge shock.

MH: Outside of results, what do you think are the pros and cons of 20- and 40-minute workouts?

Hugh: As for the 20 minutes, I’ve always had the motivation to do it because it’s such a short amount of time. I found it was very easy to hit the gym knowing you only had 20 minutes to do.

Reds: Doing 40 minutes was tough because once he was done I had everything to do again, and our 20 minute gym schedule was pretty packed so there wasn’t much rest time.

Hugh: I always felt physically motivated and didn’t exhaust myself that much, but by the end of the 20 minutes I felt charged. The downside is that I never felt like I actually hit the gym. I always felt like I wanted to do a little more, so physically it felt good, but mentally it felt bad.

Reds: The 40 minutes for me was almost the opposite. It was 40 minutes of “yeah, my mind definitely worked, but my body was a little too exhausted.”

MH: What are your key takeaways from the studio?

Hugh: The big plus for us is consistency. 20 minutes is much easier to do every day if you want to find that consistency and motivation. 40 minutes you’ve definitely found it much harder to motivate yourself and do it consistently.

Reds: For me, knowing I was working twice as hard and making double the effort and yet the results weren’t there, felt a bit deflated. I think now that we’ve done the twelve week program and seen the results, I’m going to struggle to do 40 minutes because I know there’s no point in doing it.

The Turner Twins Training

Wondering what workouts Hugo and Ross have undergone? Here is an example session. Like them, complete once for a 20 minute workout and twice for a 40 minute muscle builder.

Deadlift 14 reps, 4 sets

Start with feet in line with hips, grip the bar shoulder-width apart. Maintaining a flat back, pull your shoulder blades back and down and engage your core. Push the floor away from you as you stand up straight holding the barbell. Hinge at the hips by sending them behind the heels with a strong flat back and reverse the motion so the barbell returns to the floor. Repeat.

Cable rotations 14 reps, 4 sets

Starting with the cable set at hip height, pull the attachment with both hands a few feet apart so you’re sideways on the machine. Support your core and swing your hands up your body as if you were “swinging a baseball bat” as you twist your torso. Slowly release the cable to the starting position under control, ready to repeat.

Cable Arm Press 14 reps, 4 sets

Start with the bar attachment on the cable machine, set at chest height. Grab the bar shoulder-width apart and take a few steps forward so there is tension on the cable. Pull the bar away from your chest and squeeze your pecs. Return the bar to the starting position under control, ready to repeat.

Bodyweight Hanging Ab Lifts 14 reps, 4 sets x 2

Grab the pull-up bars shoulder-width apart. Engage your core and lift your legs so they are horizontal to the floor. Slowly release the legs under control back down to the starting position. To avoid swinging slow down the exercise. To regress the movement, complete with bent legs.