INBA PNBA Bikini Divas natural bodybuilding champ Nicole Joy shifts to full body workouts after giving birth.
Any mother knows the changes her body undergoes after conceiving a child. And if you’re a woman who lifts too, you know it takes time to build your body back up to where it was before giving birth. International Natural Bodybuilding Association (INBA)/Professional Natural Bodybuilding Association (PNBA) Bikini Divas natural bodybuilder Nicole Joy switched to full body workouts postpartum. She recently gave birth to her newborn son, who is seven months of age as of February 2022.
Nicole Joy is a Bikini athlete and 3x Natural Olympia champion.
In an Instagram (IG) post on October 4, 2021, Joy stated:
“I’m no where near as strong as I once was. Not even at my starting weight. Post partem 2 months now. And slowly building my strength back up. I feel like it’s just as hard on the pride as it was on my body today.”
Since then, Joy has shifted gears from building strength to focusing on mobility and maintaining her strength. Joy said:
“I’m not lifting as heavy as I used to but when the time is right I’ll get back to that. Creating and birthing life takes so much energy that trying to pick up where I left off is just not going to happen.”
Nicole Joy plans to continue doing full body workouts until she regains her strength and stamina.
Nicole Joy’s Full Body Workout Postpartum
Below is the full body workout Nicole Joy uploaded to IG.
- Hip Thrust 4 sets x 10 reps
- Squat 4 sets x 10 reps
- Deadlift 4 sets x 10 reps
- Negative Controlled Pull-up 4 sets x 6 reps
- Shoulder Press 4 sets x 10 reps
- Bench Press 4 sets x 10 reps
You can see Nicole Joy’s full IG post and workout clip below.
View this post on Instagram
Full Body Workouts
Full body workouts may not seem as effective as split routines, but they can be, depending on your goal. Typically, full body workouts are best for giving you flexibility with your schedule since you’re working your entire body in one training session (opposed to splitting up your muscles into different days). But they’re also great for reaching your fitness goals. You’ll burn more calories from full body workouts than split routines (splitting muscle groups into different days) since you’re working more muscles.
Although to prevent overtraining and save time, you usually won’t do any more than 1-2 exercises per muscle group with full body workouts, which is why split training is superior for most bodybuilders. That’s because split routines allow bodybuilders to do more volume via completing more reps, sets, and exercises for a muscle group since you’re only focusing on targeting one or two muscle groups.
However, some bodybuilders do full body workouts regularly, and in the golden age of bodybuilding (the 1950s and ‘60s), many bodybuilders did full body workouts, including Leroy Colbert and Vince Gironda. If you do enough volume per workout, they can effectively progress bodybuilders. Just make sure you get plenty of rest between workouts to prevent overtraining.
Supplements
Nicole Joy knows that certain supplements are essential for aiding workouts, especially postpartum. She takes glutamine to help with post-workout recovery, branch chain amino acids (BCAAs) to keep her muscles hydrated, a pre-workout for energy during workouts, and a protein shake after training to build muscle.
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