These twins did the same workout for 3 months — but 1 exercised for half as long each time. By the end, they saw almost exactly the same results.

• Ross and Hugo Turner are identical twins who conduct fitness experiments on themselves.

• For 12 weeks, Hugo worked out for 20 minutes and Ross did twice as much, exercising for 40 minutes.

• Their physiques, strength, and fitness improved almost exactly the same amount.

Identical twins Hugo and Ross Turner — known as the Turner Twins — are no strangers to a challenge.

The professional adventurers have done all sorts of things in a bid to explore every corner of the world. They have rowed the Atlantic, climbed Mount Elbrus, and trekked Greenland’s polar ice cap. They’re currently trying to reach the most remote locations on each continent and ocean on the planet.

But they are equally fascinated by the human body. In between their expeditions, the twins, 34, carry out experiments on themselves to understand how two genetically identical people react to different diets and workout regimes. Their latest challenge is designed to test whether working out for longer is more beneficial than short spurts of exercise.

Hugo worked out for 20 minutes at a time and Ross worked out for 40 minutes, comparing their strength, fitness, and body composition over 12 weeks.

Ross told Insider that their results were “eye-opening.” Despite working out twice as much as his twin brother for three months, Ross saw next to no difference between their physiques or physical performances at the end of the experiment.

They did the same strength-building workout, but Ross did twice as many reps

The twins, who are based in London, UK, followed their usual identical diet — they are together most of the time so know they eat practically the same thing. They didn’t track their food but estimated they were eating about 2,000-2,500 calories a day.

In each session, the twins would do a 20-minute workout together, which typically involved four exercises. When Hugo finished, Ross would repeat the whole workout again. They generally worked out for two or three consecutive days before taking a rest day.

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The twins used the same weight and performed the same number of reps. They performed four sets of each exercise in the higher rep range (14 to 16) as this builds endurance, which is important for their expeditions (rather than lifting heavier weights with fewer reps, which aids strength-building).

How they measured the experiment

At the start and end of the experiment, Ross and Hugo weighed themselves. Ross was about three pounds heavier than Hugo to start with.

They also noted their one-rep-max for a deadlift and bench press (the heaviest weight they could perform for one rep) and how many push-ups and pull-ups they each could do.

Next, they measured their “VO2 sub-maximal” (a measure of cardiovascular fitness), by cycling on an exercise bike with the same level of resistance for 15 minutes at a set speed while measuring their heart rates.

Lastly, they took a body scan to measure their weight and body composition, and did this each time they went to the gym.

A shorter workout was just as beneficial, they concluded

“The biggest finding was that we didn’t really find a huge amount of performance difference between 20 or 40 minutes, if at all,” Ross said.

Each twin was able to do one more pull-up than usual by the end of the experiment, despite not doing any specific pull-up-focused training. They lifted the same amount when they compared deadlifts at the end, too.

Hugo — who was on the lighter workout regime — managed 13 more push-ups at the end compared to when he first started, while Ross only did two more, despite exercising more for three months. Ross, however, increased his max bench press 5 kilograms (11 pounds) more than his brother.

As for their cardio fitness, Hugo’s heart-rate at the end of the experiment was higher than Ross’s, who worked out for longer. A lower heart-rate is a sign of greater cardiovascular fitness, so Ross thinks the longer workouts did make him fitter than his brother.

Their muscle mass increased at the same rate but Ross gained slightly more weight overall.

Ross — who did double the work — couldn’t believe it

After working out twice as much, with nowhere near twice the results, Ross was frustrated.

“I’ve put in double the work,” he said. “I’ve lifted 16 hours extra over the 12 weeks. Am I seeing any results that I would say are worth doing? Not at all.”

But he doesn’t regret the challenge — in fact, he thinks everyone should experiment with their workout regimes. “You’ll learn far more for the rest of your life and be far more informed than if you did five years of just doing a gym program because somebody told you to,” Ross told Insider.

He’s decided that for him and his brother, they would probably get the best results by working out for 20 to 25 minutes but perhaps upping the weights — in the experiment, they lifted weights based on what Ross would be able to do for 40 minutes, and so in a 20 minute workout they would be able to lift heavier without fatiguing.

A sports scientist said the results align with some larger studies

Dr. Michael Graham, senior lecturer in Sport and Exercise Science at Teesside University, UK, told Insider that people should take the twins’ results with a pinch of salt.

As Hugo and Ross acknowledged, the study was too small-scale and uncontrolled for the results to be deemed concrete.

“We can’t confidently assume any of the relationships or differences discussed between Hugo and Ross are anything to do with them as twins or simply typical variations and similarities we would see in any pair of individuals,” Graham said.

However, their findings do tally with some scientifically controlled research on twins, he said.

Graham believes the main takeaways should be around the importance of individualizing exercise programs, and also that you can gain huge benefits from less time in the gym than many people might think.

Read the original article on Insider