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Video11 minWith Nikkiey Stott

45-Minute Full Body Gym Workout: Bench, RDL, Lat Pulldown

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This video is part ofStrength Training for Women266 lessons · where to start, common questions and more

In this video

This is a full body strength session Nikkiey Stott pulled straight from the new phase in the WarriorBabe app, so she didn't have to think about what to train. She works through a barbell bench press, barbell Romanian deadlifts, lat pulldowns, a light shoulder exercise and a triceps and biceps superset, with coaching notes along the way.

She starts with bench press: two sets of 5 to 7 reps, then one all-out set for max reps. She hits 135 pounds for 7 reps after about eight weeks away from it, and she credits being 100 percent consistent with her protein, and about 85 percent consistent with the rest of her nutrition, for that strength. On the max set, she breaks the reps into twos to get through mentally.

You'll also hear why the app changes reps, sets or tempo each week for progressive overload, how she swaps in lat pulldowns for banded pull-ups, how she admits tight shoulders hold her back because she skips stretching, and how to superset your arm work if you need to finish in about 45 minutes and get on with your day.

Key takeaways

  • Warm up before you lift, even if you'd rather get straight into your working sets.
  • For barbell bench press, do two sets of 5 to 7 reps, rest about two minutes, then do a final set for max reps.
  • On a hard max-rep set, break the total into small chunks, such as sets of two, so the number feels manageable.
  • Do barbell Romanian deadlifts for 3 sets of 12 to 15 reps, and make sure the last three reps genuinely burn.
  • If you don't have or don't want banded pull-ups, swap in lat pulldowns for 3 sets of 10, and try wide, reverse or close grip variations.
  • Nikkiey says protein is king: staying consistent with it helps repair and build muscle tissue, and she credits it for her bench press strength.
  • Tight shoulders can limit how much weight you can push, and regular stretching is the fix Nikkiey says she should be doing more.
  • If you're short on time, superset your triceps and biceps exercises to keep the workout to about 45 minutes.

Questions answered

How many sets and reps should I do for bench press in a full body workout?

In this workout, Nikkiey does two sets of 5 to 7 reps on the barbell bench press, rests about two minutes, then goes all out on a third set for max reps.

How do I push through a max-rep set?

Nikkiey breaks the reps into smaller chunks. To hit 10 reps she counted in twos, so in her head she only had to get to five.

What can I do instead of banded pull-ups?

Nikkiey swaps banded pull-ups for lat pulldowns, doing 3 sets of 10 reps. She also mentions wide grip, reverse grip and close grip variations.

How can I shorten a full body workout when I'm busy?

If you need to get to work or other commitments and want to keep it to about 45 minutes, Nikkiey suggests supersetting your triceps and biceps exercises.

Why does protein matter for getting stronger?

Nikkiey says she is about 85 percent consistent with her nutrition overall but 100 percent consistent with protein, which helps repair and build muscle tissue. She credits that for being able to consistently push 135 pounds on the bench press.

Ask Nikkiey

Questions this video helps answer, with what Nikkiey says across everything WarriorBabe teaches.

  • Strength Training for Women

    What should training to failure feel like?

    Training to failure should feel like you physically cannot complete another rep with control. Nikkiey describes it as the last rep or two of a set, when you can't pull, push or keep control of the movement. It shouldn't look pretty. If you can breeze through the set, the weight is too light.

    Read the answer →

  • Strength Training for Women

    How can I work up to doing a pull-up?

    Work up to a pull-up in stages. Nikkiey recommends starting with inverted pull-ups until they feel comfortable, then jumping up to the bar and slowly lowering yourself (negatives), then banded or machine-assisted pull-ups, and finally full bodyweight pull-ups. Each stage builds the back, arm and core strength the next one needs.

    Read the answer →

Full transcript

Nikkiey: What's going on, you guys? Welcome back to a full body workout. That is what we are about to smash today. And you know what the amazing part about this workout was for me? On my way here I was like, what am I going to train? I didn't want to have to think about it. I didn't want to have to put a whole workout together. So I grabbed my phone, I opened up the WarriorBabe app, and today we just dropped a new phase for our community, and we're doing bench and full body.

What I love about this app, you guys, is that for our entire community we run through a bunch of awesome notes to help them know how to go into their workout and what to focus on. Then each week we change it up for them, whether we're changing reps or sets or tempo or all of the things. That's a big key to progressive overload.

So we're going to start off today with barbell bench sets. The first two sets are five to seven reps, and then the last set I'm going to go all out for max reps. Let's go.

But before we do that, let's warm up. I can't forget about your warm-up, my friends. I honestly prefer to get right into it, but I know that I have to warm up. Please warm up. Don't ignore your warm-ups.

Man, we got kgs. All the plates are in kgs. Mad love to all you powerlifters, but my brain does not work in kgs. My brain works in pounds. And I know all you keyboard ninjas out there will be like, there's conversion calculators, it's really simple. For this brain, it's not that simple.

See how much I love the powerlifters? This is how you rack your plates. You put this one on front facing this way, and then any plate that goes behind this one needs to be facing this way.

Not bad, not bad.

You know this song? Oh, f***, I f***ed up. Let's fix my mistake, guys. Okay.

I feel pretty damn proud of myself for that. That's like 135, and I haven't done that in probably eight weeks, and I just did that for seven reps. I chalk it up to how I eat on a regular basis. I may not be 100 percent with my nutrition all of the freaking time, but I am for sure at least 85 percent consistent. And the one macronutrient that I am 100 percent consistent with is protein. The reason why I'm able to so consistently push 135 on a barbell bench press is because of the way that I keep up with my protein intake, which helps to repair the muscle tissue and helps to build the muscle tissue. So protein is king.

Let's go. Feels good. I'll do two minutes and I'll go for max reps. That was challenging. Seven is challenging. I'm going to try and get to ten. I think I can get to ten.

Oh, yeah. You know what helped my mental with that set was breaking up the ten into twos. So every two, I hit one. Every second two, I hit two. And then at five. So really in my brain I was like, yeah, five. That felt good.

This is one of my favorite booty and leg exercises, a barbell RDL.

Not bad, not bad. Okay, so here we are, barbell RDL. We're doing three sets, 12 to 15 reps each. Whenever I see 12 to 15 reps, I'm like, that is cardio.

If the last three reps don't burn and you don't feel like your muscles are going to tear through your skin, what are you even doing?

So I probably could have done at least 15 reps there, but my grip was slipping. Even this is cardio.

I'm going to swap this exercise. I don't see it on here, but I'm going to do a lat pulldown instead of a banded pull-up, just because personally, before coming here, I was like, I want to do a back day. I miss doing lat pulldowns. So we're going to replace a banded pull-up with a lat pulldown. We're going to do three sets, 10 reps.

Wow, I miss this. Wow. This feels so good. If I had one favorite back exercise, it would by far be the lat pulldown and all of the multiple variations that you can do with it: a wide grip, a reverse grip, a close grip, all of the things. You know it's good when you feel like your skin is going to rip because the pump is just that nasty.

10 to 12 reps, so I'm going to go for 10. 12 reps is cardio again. Let's see what this feels like first. That's heavy. Little five-pounders.

I'll be honest, as nice as my shoulders are, because they're definitely one of my favorite muscle groups, they are the most tight and the most tense, which limits me from being able to feel like I can push heavy weight. And the fix to that is I should be stretching, and I should be stretching, and I should be stretching. But it's one thing that I suck at doing. If I did it more, I would definitely be able to lift a little bit more with my shoulders.

Okay, see, even I underestimated myself. I could probably go a little bit heavier there. That was a total case of my mind caving, which made my body cave.

All right, next up in our app. This isn't a superset, but I am going to superset it because I got work to do. If you're in the same boat and you've got to get out, you've got to go to work, you've got other things, and you want to keep your workout to 45 minutes, feel free to superset a triceps and biceps exercise.

Oh, shit. You know, I haven't posed in a while. I wonder what that would look like. Damn, still got it, still got it.

Done. Boom, bang, diggity, full body workout in the books. If you're somebody like me, like I shared with you at the beginning, and you don't want to have to think about your workout or your program, and you want to be able to open up your phone to an application, check out WarriorBabe. We have a whole application that you can follow for all of our workout phases, but it's so much more than that. It's the community, it's the mindset, it's the macros, it's nutrition, all encompassing a sustainable lifestyle toward your fitness goals. Link in the description. Peace out.

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