Full Body Workouts vs Bro Splits: Which Is Better After 40?

Nikkiey: Real quick, the only ask I could ever have of you guys is to help spread the word so we can help more women lose body fat, build muscle, reach their goals and feel insanely confident. The only way we can do that is if you rate, review and share this podcast. So the single thing I ask you to do is leave a review. It will take you 10 seconds, it will mean the absolute world to me, and it may change the world of someone else.

But even if I lowered my weight, somehow I was still taking way too long to recover. I'm talking three, four days max of trying to recover from a leg day. And I was like, dude, I have to find something different.

What is going on, my friends? Welcome to The WarriorBabe Show with Nikkiey Stott, co-founder of WarriorBabe. On this podcast we talk about the mindset, methodologies and tactics that will help you lose body fat, build muscle, be strong and feel insanely confident. I am your host, Nikkiey Stott, and welcome to episode number 64, where I am going to answer a common question I get all of the time.

As a matter of fact, almost a month ago, on May 3rd, I jumped on my Instagram story and put up a question box asking what you wanted to hear on the podcast. Give me questions that are worthy of long answers. The one I'm going to dive into today was one of the most common questions in that box, and like I said, something I get all of the time: Nikkiey, what is your workout split? What does your training look like? How many days a week do I work out, and what do my workouts look like the four or five times I go to the gym?

So I'm actually really excited to bring this podcast to you, because if you've been following me for a long time, you know that I come from the bodybuilding world. You know that I've done the bro split, the one-muscle-group-per-day ordeal, for a very long time. But something has changed in the last year with my training, and that's what I'm going to talk about today.

Now, I specifically sought out this type of training because of the fourth reason, the fourth strategy I'm going to talk about today. So make sure you stay all the way until the end of this podcast, because that fourth one is really the reason I adopted this methodology and this workout tactic.

So first and foremost, like I said, you know I've done bro splits, and our WarriorBabe community has done bro splits as well. We just introduced the type of training I'm going to talk about today to our WarriorBabe community last week, and it's something we are going to continue to evolve over the next few months.

Now, before I jump into the four strategies of why I do this type of training and what the training is, I first want you to know that the overarching concept of this workout still falls heavily on progressive overload, making sure you are progressively overloading through blocks of time with the way you do your sets, your reps, your RPEs, and mixing up advanced ways of doing an exercise, like drop sets, tempo, all of that stuff. The things I've talked about on previous podcasts about progressive overload are still so heavily incorporated in the type of training I've been doing for the last year. And no matter what type of training you do, I want you to make sure you are progressively overloading.

If you don't know what that is, or you want to dive deeper into the progressive overload world, go look through the previous podcasts. I've done a couple up to this point around progressive overload, and we dive deep into it there. It's worthy of an entire podcast: what it is, why to do it, the techniques involved and all that stuff. So in this type of training, I still heavily incorporate progressive overload while I'm in the blocks of training.

Okay, so now, drum roll please. Nikkiey, what is the workout? What training style am I doing? Right now, and for coming up on a year now, I have been doing full body workouts. I'm going to talk about why I choose to do full body workouts and four specific strategies around why I do them as opposed to the bro splits I used to do.

If you don't know what I mean by bro splits, it's like this: Monday is chest day, national chest day. Tuesday is back. Wednesday is legs. Thursday is shoulders. Friday is arms. Or you incorporate different splits within that. Maybe Monday is hamstring and glute day, Tuesday is chest and bicep day, then there's a back day. You can mix and match these muscle groups together.

And I want you to know that it has some merit. Bro split training is freaking bomb, man. There's nothing wrong with it, and I'm going to say why I switched in the fourth tactic, so make sure you hear that, because it's a big reason why I switched to full body. But bro splits are amazing. You can incorporate big muscle groups and small muscle groups, you can isolate the movements, yada yada, all that stuff. It's great. It has merit. There are studies showing it works for all the goals of building more muscle and all that jazz.

I want you to understand that this podcast is about something I have personally switched to, the reasons I switched, and the reasons I will probably continue to promote this full body workout. And there's nothing wrong with switching back to bro style every once in a while. That's the amazing thing about finding the love for training, learning different methodologies that you love and incorporating them.

What I mean by that, though, is that for me it will always be strength training, period, end of story. I'm not going to be doing Tabata runs or going out and running specific miles. That's just personal to me. I know there are amazing women and coaches who run and love incorporating that type of training into their style. But for me, it's all about strength training, because I know how important building muscle and strengthening your bones is for your later years of life.

So I love finding different styles of workouts. I love powerlifting. I was doing a CrossFit thing once a week at the beginning of the year. I love all things that incorporate strength training. And this style is something I've started incorporating in the last year or so, and I've really fallen in love with it. That doesn't mean that in a couple of months I won't do a block where it's back to bro splits. But the majority of my training has been built around full body workouts. There are four reasons why, and again, stay for the fourth one, because it's the big reason I made this change.

Hey, I just want to drop a huge appreciation to you guys listening to the show. It means a lot. I hope you're enjoying it, and there's so much more to come. If you are enjoying it, hit the subscribe button. I'd appreciate that tons, and it would help this podcast reach others who need to hear these messages too. Thanks so much, guys. Let's get back to the show.

The first one is time efficiency. Full body training sessions are generally more time efficient compared to bro splits. If you've never done a bro split or a leg day, you probably don't know what I'm talking about, but I can speak to this. My leg days when I've done bro splits were sometimes an hour and a half long, or an hour and 15, or an hour straight of just doing straight freaking legs. I'm going to get to that in a second when I talk about point number two, but that's somewhat intense.

You can be so efficient with your workout and your time by doing full body workouts. You can accomplish a comprehensive workout in a shorter amount of time, which is especially beneficial for anyone listening to this podcast who has a busy schedule or limited time for training. So that's point number one, the time efficiency. I can smash through each of my muscle groups in 45 to 50 minutes, and that's my training session for the day.

Now, the second thing I want to speak to is increased frequency and volume. This is strategy number two for why I picked up full body workouts. A full body training session allows for a higher frequency of training each muscle group throughout the week. By training the entire body four or five times a week, you provide a greater stimulus for muscle growth and strength development. This increased frequency leads to higher training volume per muscle group over the course of a week.

Think about it like this. You have a dedicated bro-split leg day, and you're in the gym smashing legs for an entire hour. Your volume is going to decrease throughout the duration of that training session, because you're going to fatigue faster. You start out with squats, going balls to the wall with some weight, and by the time you get to leg extensions at the end, you're probably pushing 20 pounds because your muscles are so freaking fatigued. I'm using leg day as the example because, again, it's a main reason, when I share point number four, why I switched to full body.

So now think about it like this. When you just go in and do one exercise...

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...one exercise of legs, four to five days a week, you're spreading the volume out over those four to five days, hitting one leg exercise per day. So in that one exercise on that one day, you're able to increase the training volume for that muscle group. You can go balls to the wall. You can go beast mode, because it's literally just one exercise: three to four sets, maybe five sets max, of legs in one day. And then you're spanning that volume across the four to five days.

This is the way I want you to think about it. You're still hitting the same volume per week with bro splits as you are with full body. You're just spreading it out, which allows you to lift heavier weight. I don't want to go into my last point right now, so I'm going to put a pin there, but it allows you to lift more weight.

Let's say, for example, you're squatting 135 pounds on your bro-split leg day, and you put squats in the middle of your workout. You're not going to be able to effectively lift the weight you're capable of if you have a shit ton of other exercises to get to on leg day. Now think about full body: you have one exercise to put in as much volume as you can push and challenge yourself through. Keep good form, obviously. But you're going to see that you're able to increase your weight, and everybody loves that. That's a training performance goal right there that you just crushed.

It's hard not to speak to point four right now, because it would drive my point home. But I want you to fully grasp this podcast and understand how I'm breaking down the differences between the two. Instead of going balls to the wall for one full leg day, or even two because you split them up in a bro split, you're hitting legs almost every single day. But your volume and your ability to push yourself with challenging weight dramatically increase, given that at the end of a bro-split leg workout you're just kaput because you've been hitting legs for the last hour.

Okay, so that was point two, increased frequency and volume. It helps contribute to greater gains in strength and hypertrophy when you're able to increase the frequency and volume of the sessions and exercises you're doing.

The third point is enhanced metabolic response. Full body training sessions have the potential to provide a more significant metabolic response compared to bro-split workouts. What I mean by this is that engaging multiple muscle groups simultaneously during compound exercises increases your body's overall energy expenditure.

I am not very big on the calories on your watch or really attaching yourself to those numbers. But what I have noticed through doing full body workouts for so many months now, and that's why I feel I can speak to this, is that the energy expenditure in one of those sessions has been through the freaking roof for me compared to a normal bro-split workout.

Think about it like this: on a shoulder day, you probably don't burn that many calories. It's okay though, don't worry. Muscle is active tissue; it's always burning calories. But think about having that intensity with a full body workout every single day, and that metabolic response and energy expenditure increasing every time you do that full body workout. It's almost like, four to five days a week, you're consistently at a higher overall energy expenditure, as opposed to an arm day or a shoulder day where the overall energy expenditure just isn't quite there. That's the one I really want to drill home, and I hope it made sense to you, because I have noticed it dramatically in the training sessions I've done with full body. My energy expenditure is on point.

Let me explain what I mean by engaging multiple muscle groups simultaneously during compound exercises, because I think it will help you see what full body looks like day to day. Our WarriorBabe community just got introduced to this as well. If you're somebody who wants to just go into the gym and do the workouts, we have an app inside our WarriorBabe Blueprint program. Check out the information below this podcast and you can apply to see if you're a good fit for our community. Inside, you'll get an app that tells you exactly which workouts to do on a regular basis.

But anyway, what I was saying is: a shoulder day is a shoulder day. But if you're doing training sessions four to five times a week, typically you're starting out with a compound exercise at the top, and every single day you're incorporating legs. You know that legs are a dominant muscle group that requires a lot of work and also puts out a lot of energy expenditure, just because it's a big muscle group. Same thing with back. So you're hitting that relatively similar energy expenditure on a daily basis, which is what I just explained.

It'll make sense when I get to what these workouts look like day to day. You'll see you're moving through all of the muscle groups each day and not just honing in on shoulders, arms and chest, which are smaller muscle groups that won't put out as much energy expenditure as legs and back. Now you're hitting legs and back four, five times a week. I hope this is making sense to you guys. I'm really passionate about this because it's something I've been doing for almost a year now, I've seen the benefits, and these are the specific benefits I'm speaking to.

Now, the main reason I switched to full body workouts. I don't know if you've followed me for a while, and it's hard because a story pops up for 24 hours and then it's gone. But last year, man, I was struggling with my recovery time. My recovery time from session to session was getting longer and longer and longer, and I was miserable, particularly around legs.

When I trained legs, I could only do it once a week. I couldn't even break it into quads and hamstrings like I always had, because I wasn't recovering enough between those sessions. I would get to my next freaking leg day and still be sore from the previous one, and that's not good. And it didn't matter. Sure, I'm a beast in the gym, but even if I lowered my weight, somehow I was still taking way too long to recover. I'm talking three, four days max of trying to recover from a leg day.

I was like, dude, I have to find something different. It got to the point where I was asking, do I need to break up with strength training? I can't do that. That's my life. I fucking love strength training. But I needed to figure out how to make training work for me. So I started dabbling in this full body world.

One of the most drastic things full body workouts have done for me is improve my recovery time tenfold. I am not nearly as sore as I used to be after a leg day. When I train legs with only one exercise per day, I can feel it the next day, but I'm not having to use the freaking handicap bars to get down onto the toilet. Some of y'all are like, damn, that means a good leg day. But man, this was three to four days later. It's cool if you experience DOMS a day or two after. No, I was going three to four days, man. It was not fun.

So full body has helped me recover so much better, and that's because full body allows more rest time between training sessions for each muscle group. You're hitting legs, but it's only one exercise, three to four sets. You can go beast mode, but it's one exercise, and then I wait 24 hours until I hit another exercise. What's been wild is my ability to increase the volume, like I spoke to in point number two, across those four to five days of legs, and I'm not nearly as sore. I'm able to lift more with legs than I could a year ago, now doing full body, because of the rest and recovery time between these sessions.

You're allowing a longer time period between these training sessions to recover those muscle groups. It's not like you're doing a leg day and then have to wait three or four days to recover before you hit another leg day. You hit legs almost every single day, but it's only one exercise, and you're allowing more rest time until you hit it again.

That's what I wanted to add when I was speaking to increased frequency and volume. You're not only increasing your ability to challenge yourself with more volume over the four to five days you're doing these training sessions, you're also giving yourself more recovery time between those four to five sessions for those muscle groups, which is just incredible.

And another point: say you train chest, then back, then shoulders, then legs and arms. You train chest and you're so sore from chest day, then you go into back, and your chest is still used as a secondary muscle group for back. Maybe you're not able to lift as heavy because you're so sore from chest day. For me personally, when I used to do chest, then shoulders the next day mixed with biceps, I was so damn sore from chest day that my shoulder exercises suffered.

So again, this was the main thing, personally, that made me switch to full body. I don't want to steer anybody one way. Bro split, full body, all the things related to strength training: find what you love the best and incorporate it. But make sure the overarching North Star for you is progressive overload, and that you are progressively overloading through those phases and blocks, six to eight weeks, and all of this stuff.

Find what you like. If you love bro splits, amazing. If you've got good recovery time, amazing. This was something I personally switched for myself. And I know that women who are 45, 50, 55, 60 years old need more recovery time, but they also need to push themselves in the gym with volume and challenge themselves with weight. So I feel like this is just huge.

Personally, I still have five clients I work with who I feel will never leave me, and I love them so much. They make my life as a coach so much easier because they just do the work. I've been putting them through these full body workouts for probably the last six months, since the holidays, and they have been loving it. I remember when I first dropped it on them, they were like, oh my God, Nikkiey, I am obsessed with these workouts. These workouts are amazing. Then we rolled it out to our WarriorBabe community just last week, and so far the feedback has been very solid.

So this is something personal, but I'm obviously also educating you on this style of training. There's nothing wrong with bro splits, powerlifting or CrossFit. It's what works for you, okay? I actually did a podcast way earlier where I broke down the different types of training, like powerlifting, lifting, CrossFit, strength training and all that, and helped you understand the overarching goal of each, and if your ultimate goal is X, what I would recommend.

But so many of you asked me, what is your training split? What does your workout look like? Blah, blah, blah. And it's not as easy as me saying I work out four to five days a week and I do full body. I love to educate, give the why and share my experience with it. You know I'm big on experiencing things before I share them. So I thought this was worthy of an entire podcast, and here it is.

Now, before I hop off, I wanted to let you know what those workouts look like on a daily basis, broadly speaking, because I'm not going to get into the RPE I use or the percentage of my max here. That's all progressive overload, and it's in other podcasts I've shared if you go back into the old ones.

Let's start with what I did yesterday. I did an exercise for chest, then an exercise for triceps, then an exercise for legs, an exercise for back, an exercise for shoulders and an exercise for biceps. Up at the top with chest, I'm playing around with percentages and RPE, trying to progressively overload, so that next week I can see, okay, I did this here, so I'm going to try to go heavier. I play around with sets in each block, and that's more of a progressive overload technique.

On other days, let's say I'm doing squats first. Then I'll move into chest, then back, then shoulders, then biceps, and then triceps. Did I say that right? So we start with legs, squats, then go into chest. Yeah, I said that. Then back, then shoulders, then biceps, then triceps. And at the end, sometimes I'm hitting some abs or some calves. That's generally what it looks like on a daily basis. Another day I'll start with back, and then do legs and chest. And this is all one day, okay? That's what full body looks like. I'm moving through the muscle groups.

And you can see, when I spoke to enhancing your metabolic response: when you're moving from squats into a chest press and then into a barbell row, that is some serious overall energy expenditure on your part. Those are compound exercises, you're pushing your body to do them, and you're pushing the volume in those exercises as well. Man, I just love talking about this.

Then there's a shoulders-first day. It's an overhead barbell press, then you move into a leg exercise, a chest exercise, a back exercise. You already did shoulders, so then a bicep exercise and a tricep exercise. So you're encompassing legs, back, chest, shoulders, biceps and triceps.

So that's a little bit to answer the question I get all of the time about how many days a week I work out and what my training split looks like. There you go, that's the answer explained in full, and why I've transitioned to full body training throughout the course of my week. I hope you found that educational and informational, and I hope you enjoyed it. I'll catch you guys in the next podcast. Peace out.

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