Full Body Gym Workout: Deadlifts, Hip Thrusts and Squats

Nikkiey: We're about to go crush a full body workout today. We're going to do some deadlifts, some hip thrusts, some goblet squats, some... I don't know, I've got to look at the rest of the plan. But I'm excited because full body has been my go-to for a while now.

I steered away from it for a month and tried to just do bro splits on top of running, because I implemented running in my routine about a month and a half ago. That was just so silly of me, because after a leg day my recovery, which I think I've shared with you guys many times, is always so poor after a focused leg day. That's why I originally switched to full body workouts. Full body workouts allow you to focus on one exercise for legs over the span of five days, so you can go in and you can increase the weight and you can really push it in that one exercise, knowing that you have ample rest in between each day.

A full-on leg day just trashes me out. I can't walk the next day. I'm bending over when I have to use the toilet and I need to hold on to the walls or the handicap bars, and I'm walking like a penguin. I don't know why I decided to do bro splits again for a month. However, I learned my lesson, because then I couldn't incorporate the running that I wanted to incorporate. I had a goal of doing just low mileage, nothing crazy, like eight to 10 miles a week. And I couldn't uphold my goal for two weeks because I did a leg day, and then I was so sore for three days that I couldn't run in between, because I would just make it worse.

So here we are, full circle, coming back to a full body split. And I've learned my lesson. We're going to keep it that way. So I'm going to finish this Lemon Poppy protein bar from Condition One, which is bomb. Great protein bar, easy, made with good ingredients. And we're going to head in and crush this full body workout. Let's go.

All right, here we are. I'm going to get started and do a little bit of a warmup first before I actually get into all of the exercises. Warmups are really important. If you don't warm up beforehand, you're more likely to injure yourself, get hurt, and that's just going to put you back on being able to train and get the results that you want.

So what I'm going to do, since we're doing full body, is a full body warmup with the barbell. I'll do some stiff-leg deadlifts, some rows, some squats, some overhead shoulder presses, good mornings, and some side lunges, lateral lunges, and just get the body warm. So let's get into it.

Oh yeah, that's nice. That stretch. Wake up those hamstrings. My hamstrings are so tight. Throw in some barbell rows. I feel my body waking up. Let's do some squats.

My body is a little sore today. I actually had a rest day yesterday too. By the time this video is live, I will share with you guys my full plan for 2024 and my goals. But what I've not been paying attention to is getting enough steps on my rest days. The other day I was at 3,000 steps at like 5 p.m. in the afternoon, and I was like, this is not okay, this is not good. So I got up to like 7,000, and then I was at 7,000 yesterday on the rest day. I really need to hone in on that goal again. Even myself, you know, we preach to our clients to do these things, but even after eight years, sometimes I fall short on things. I need to be reminded: hey, I need to do this, I need to get this back into action. So that's what's going to happen.

These are shoulder presses.

Oh, those hammies. We're starting off with some deadlifts. These guys need to get woken up a little bit more.

Let's do some lateral lunges. This may feel like a full-on workout right now. This is just a warmup, and I take warmups very seriously lately, especially with incorporating running. But it's only one set. I'm not going to do this multiple times.

Okay. I want to warm up a little bit more, given that they're a little tight, it's a little cold outside, and we're doing deadlifts to start. So I may do some walking lunges, some walking lunge and twists, and maybe some butt kicks to start over here.

It's a very good dynamic warmup, everybody. Take it. Implement it. Do it. Make 2024 the year of warmups. Oh, yeah. There we go. Quads are responding. Now let's get these hamstrings.

Microphone malfunction. I actually felt so silly. All right, let's get into it.

I'm not just going to start racking the weights and go zero to 100. I'm going to do probably one to two warm-up sets with lighter weight that are not included in my overall working sets. So we'll do two sets. I'll start at 135, maybe get it to 185 for five to six reps, and then we can get it up for the working sets. We're going to do three sets... no, four sets of five reps for the working sets. So in total, with the warm-up sets, that'll be six sets of deadlifts.

There's a fly. There's a fly and it literally almost just flew into my mouth. And immediately I was like, oh, okay, whatever. One, it'll be good for the video. Two, it'll be extra protein. So, win-win.

I'm going for six reps here. 185. Warm-up.

All right, all right, all right. What I'm thinking about in my brain right now is, one, how I'm feeling after that warm-up set, gauging how 185 felt, and contemplating what my starting weight is going to be for my working sets, keeping in mind that I have four working sets to do. I don't want to fatigue, crash and burn, and go too heavy in my first set and have to back down. While that is okay, I don't prefer to do it that way. I want to start a little bit lighter and then work my smart way up, so that the last working set... they all should be challenging, but that one will probably be the hardest for me. So 185 felt good for six. If I have four sets of five reps next, I'll probably start at 205. Sounds pretty reasonable.

So now math is next in my head. 185, I need 20 pounds. That's 205. Also, racking and re-racking weights is an exercise in itself.

Now I'm getting into the working sets. I'm going to put on my belt to help my back, and I'm going to strap up using my straps for my wrists, for my grip. People have mixed feelings on using these. People look at them as a clutch or a crutch: a clutch in the sense that it helps, a crutch in the sense that it hurts. I look at it as a clutch. It helps. Let me know in the comments what you guys think about these two accessories. My go-tos for these are the Versa Gripps. You can get them on Amazon. I just put them on backwards.

First working set, five reps. We've got 205 on the bar.

Light work, light work, light work. All right, 6:20 on the time. I'm going to take about two minutes to rest in between. My friends, take your rest period seriously. You break down the muscles in the gym, so the rest in between is helping to recover them a bit before you hit them again.

We'll go to 225. This is where racking and re-racking is literally an exercise.

Suzanne: I saw it and it came up on my feed. I'm like, I know her. I don't know her name, but I know her.

Nikkiey: That's me.

Suzanne: What is your name?

Nikkiey: Nikkiey.

Suzanne: Nikkiey, I'm Suzanne.

Nikkiey: Suzanne, nice. That's so funny.

Suzanne: I'm like, wait a minute.

Nikkiey: Nice to formally meet you.

Nikkiey: I was so worried about my rest time, the fact that I put these on backwards, and getting into my next set. I don't know if you guys can notice, but the bar was all centered, so my feet were all centered, and that set felt a little weird. But it got done.

So going into the third working set, this weight feels so easy right now. And this is where it can get a bit tricky, because it's like, oh, I could put on another 50 pounds, and then it could be doomsday for the fourth set. But I think I've got it. I think I've got it today. Let's do it. 50 more pounds. That's 25, 25.

That was exactly what I didn't want to happen. Okay, well, all good. Four reps. So I'm definitely going to pull it back. We'll stick to the original plan of doing 225 for the last set.

Last set, working set, fourth set. We've got 225 on the bar.

All right. Well, that was the last set.

Barbell hip thrusts: three working sets, ten reps. I need a pad. Forgot mine. God bless the gyms that have these, and the people that put them back.

That felt great. That felt really good. Felt nothing in my back. Oh my god, I don't want to make the same mistake that I made on my sets of deadlifts. I'll probably just increase it 50 pounds. It's different for this exercise. It's a different motion. Should I do 50 pounds? I would go to 185, which is totally doable for me on hip thrusts. I can do like 225. Okay.

Okay. That felt good. We'll keep it there for the last set. Third set will be 185, 10 reps. We'll take two minutes for recovery.

I'm going to be pretty sore tomorrow. Yeah, it's a good thing. But don't use being sore as any type of indicator, a good indicator or a bad indicator, of whether or not you had a good or bad workout. It's like, you got in here, you challenged yourself, you did the best, you pushed some weight, you went near failure in some of your sets, you increased your weight, whatever. That's good. Ask yourself that. That's a good meter to go by, not whether you're sore, sweating or feeling like you're going to die afterwards.

Okay, 30 seconds. Man, two minutes flies by. Last working set.

Yeah. Am I really doing full body right now? It surely feels like it's the whole lower half at the moment. And I keep doing the spitting thing.

All right, this is the last legs, and then we move into pullovers, shoulders, triceps. Okay, I need to get a dumbbell. I need to re-rack my weights.

They only go up to a max of 45 up here. So we'll turn it up a notch. We'll do heels elevated. And instead of your normal three sets of 10 reps, we'll do three sets of one minute, then a minute off, then a minute back on, a minute off, and a minute back on. So three sets.

Oh my god, I'm so going to regret this. One minute, one minute, one minute.

Holy... This is brutal. This is brutal. Five, four, three, two.

Oh my God. Eight. Six. I'm getting sloppy. Four. One.

Sorry, Bill. Sorry.

All right. Okay. I should have stuck with the fact that there are only 45 pound dumbbells up here and just gone with that. Why'd I have to make that 10 times harder?

My friends, up next we've got cable lat pulldowns. Or this is a cable lat pullover, I should say, or pulldown. Pullover, pulldown, one of those. Cable lat pulldown. They all do pretty much the same thing. Okay, anyway, we're going to do three sets of 15 reps. Let's get to it.

That was some light work. That was way too light. I was going to stop midway, but 15 reps sneaks up on you, so I decided to just keep going with it. But I'm definitely going to increase my weight for these next two sets. I'll probably only increase it by five pounds. A minute of rest in between. It's Christmas music.

All right, second working set, 15 reps.

Okay, five pounds was the perfect amount of weight to increase. That one burned.

My form's getting too sloppy, so I'm going to drop. Now we're done with those lat pulldowns.

We're going to move into triceps, and we're going to do tricep rope pushdowns, three sets of ten reps.

My god, you'd think that was the first time I've hit lats and triceps in like five months. I feel like I'm about to explode out of my skin with these suckers right now.

Last set here. Oh my god. My triceps always get pumped so quickly. They feel like they're the size of my head right now. They're such small secondary muscles, I just do not prefer to train them. I used to be your typical arm day girl, but I don't like to do that anymore. No more.

Okay, let's move on to shoulders. Last exercise of the day. We're going to hit shoulders, and I'm going to do side laterals at a weight I can do for an entire five minutes. So I'm going to pick probably 10 pounds, and I've got to do side laterals literally for five minutes straight. I can break for five to ten seconds, but I have to keep going to fill in five minutes. So let's go get some dumbbells and end it. Ten pounders. Don't underestimate them.

My brain is just like, you have five minutes, you have five minutes to do this exercise straight.

Holy Hannah. I think 10 pounds is too heavy. It's been a minute and 10 seconds.

This is insane. Yeah, I didn't get fives. There are 7.5s. It doesn't matter, though.

Oh my god, there are three minutes left. Can I just do body weight?

This is becoming failure. This is becoming absolute failure. This is so hard. You know what, Connor? This is a great realization, because they literally are the same size. It's probably just the density. There are no fives. My shoulders are in pain right now, like literal physical pain. Literal pain.

I've taken one too many 10 second breaks. However, I prefer good form over bad form, and I prefer to keep my shoulders intact rather than cause an injury. 50 seconds.

All right, that's a wrap. Five minutes done. I feel like they're going to fall off my arms right now. Let's go.

All right, you guys, that's a wrap. I hope you enjoyed coming along for the whole workout. We kind of hung out the entire time. If you like this style, comment below that you do, and we'll film more like this in the future. Peace out.