Applying scientific knowledge about fitness and nutrition in general can sometimes be difficult – the genetic conditions are too different, so that comparability is no longer given. Identical twins don’t have this problem. That’s why Ross and Hugo Turner – known on YouTube and Instagram as the “Turner Twins” – started another experiment.
The twins have already tried out the effects of vegan and meat-based diets, as well as bodyweight and weight training. This time they addressed the question of whether more fitness training really brings more. Her goal: to find out what difference it makes whether you exercise for 20 minutes or 40 minutes a day.
Hugo completed the 20-minute workouts for three months, his twin Ross was only allowed to stop after twice the time. The workouts consisted of four exercises of 14 repetitions each, and Ross went through the program twice. In total, they completed 60 units. After this time, they not only compared their appearance, but also various values such as weight, body fat percentage and muscle mass. Of course, nutrition also plays a major role: Both consumed around 2500 calories a day in order to have almost the same conditions here as well.
The hypothesis that those who train twice as long also achieve the better results seems reasonable. But the Turner twins came to a different conclusion in their experiment. The differences are only minor. At the end of the experiment, the 40-minute workout resulted in a benefit of just five percent. The parameters weight, body fat percentage and muscle mass developed very similarly for both, only small differences could be determined. Both increased in terms of strength and endurance, but there was no clear advantage for Ross, who trained for 40 minutes. On the contrary: Hugo, who only completed half the training, made greater progress in the push-ups.
“One thinks that the double work should bring an increase of more than five percent – but it didn’t,” Hugo Turner summed up in an interview with “Men’s Health”. “That `s not worth it.” For him, the advantage of the 20-minute workouts was that they always stayed motivated because of the short duration. Ross, on the other hand, struggled when Hugo was allowed to call it a day and he had to go through the program again himself.
The experiment cannot be regarded as a scientific study, but the results indicate that even shorter sports units have an effect that should not be underestimated. That’s why Hugo Turner also emphasizes that the most important thing is to keep at it: “It’s much easier to train regularly and motivated for 20 minutes.” His brother adds that it’s important to try different forms of training and find the right one for you.
Sources: Turner Twins on Instagram / “Insider” / “Men’s Health”
