Kayla Itsines Bikini Body Guide Review and Laminated Workouts

Hey all! Sorry it's been so long since I've posted. Things have been kind of crazy recently and I haven't been doing too many projects. I just finished up a few weeks of Internal Medicine in Willard, OH (pop. 6000) as part of a rural medicine rotation. You know you are in the country when your attending has a dog box in the back of his pick-up for hunting and the clinic has a hitching post that gets used on a regular basis. It was a great experience though - my attending was great, the patients were so nice and I learned a lot! The only drawback was the fact that it was reliably under 10*F (one day it was -12 without windchill) and the hotel gym didn't have the equipment that I needed for the BBG workouts. Which brings me to the topic of this post - the BBG!

I started Kayla Itsines' Bikini Body Guide after finishing surgery where I ran around the hospital a lot  (upwards of 10miles while on 30hr call at Riverside) but didn't have much time for formal workouts. I was still recovering from patella-femoral pain syndrome (an overuse injury) and was wildly out of shape. I have been involved in organized sports essentially year-round since I was 6 (swimming, diving, soccer, basketball, tennis, lacrosse, ballet... you name it I've done it) so having to take time off and baby my knee was annoying to say the least, but it's not a good sign when you get shooting pains with any kind of impact activity. My friend Anastasia told me about Kayla's Instagram and after seeing the amazing before and after pictures I was inspired to take the leap and join her army of fit, confident women. The other thing I love about the program is the Instagram community - everyone is so supportive and cheers on everyone else!

So the Monday after my Surgery rotation ended I began... I'm not going to lie - that first leg day was killer and I felt so terribly out of shape but I knew that it was something that was going to challenge me and I wouldn't get bored with. And it only required 28 (circuits) - 45 (LISS) minutes a day 6x/wk! So I powered through and stuck with it and by the third week (when you repeat the same workouts as in week 1) I could see how much I had improved strength and cardio-wise. The workouts were still challenging (every BBG girl has a love-hate relationship with leg day) but I was able to get through more rounds in each circuit and able to do the exercises with better form. I think that I started to notice visual results at about week 4. Kayla suggests taking progress pictures every 4 weeks but being me, I took them every 2 weeks. I did the first 5 weeks during Neurology (hours weren't too bad), weeks 6-7 while on Winter break (I still did all of the workouts but indulged in christmas cookies which showed on the scale) and then did weeks 8-12 during Psychiatry (lovingly called "psych-cation" by many students because of the cushy hours). I made a spreadsheet of course to track all of my workouts (numbers in parentheses are the frequencies per week suggested by Kayla in her original version of BBG which is the one I used. If I do it again I may follow her new recommendations): 

(I didn't do any of the pre-training because it was only included in her updated version which came out after I started.)

So as you can see, I did all of the resistance workouts (circuits) and the usually the maximum number of LISS and HIIT workouts. Kayla says LISS can be 30-45 minutes but I always did 45 minute sessions. For HIIT, I started out doing swimming for the first 2 weeks because I was afraid of totally messing up my knee again. After that I started doing HIIT by running but made sure to listen to my body/knee to prevent injury.  I also made sure to ice after every leg and HIIT session. I should note that although I have the H.E.L.P. eating guide I didn't use it since I already eat healthfully and honestly I was scared to eat the 2000 calories that the guide suggested since I'm used to eating 1200-1400. I used MyFitnessPal app (free) to make sure I was balancing fats, carbs, fiber, sugar, salt, etc. and to make me a more conscious eater. You are less likely to eat something bad if you know you are going to have to log it! Over the course of the 12 weeks I lost about 11 lbs (probably should have been more but those holiday treats got me) and many inches off of my waist, hips and thighs. Aside from the visual change, I became obviously more fit, and noticed that I was happier and confident than before. As Elle Woods would say, "Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy!"

After finishing the first guide I started the next week with BBG 2.0. Here was my schedule for 2.0. As I mentioned above, I had to play catch up through week 17 because I did not have access to a gym/equipment for weeks 14-16 except for a treadmill. In the end though I did catch up and have completed ALL of the workouts (including the optional Sunday circuits and challenges.) Through my rotations in school my hours have been pretty crazy (6am-6pm at the hospital then studying after work for my exams that happen every 5 weeks) so I adjusted my workouts so that I may not always do Legs on Monday or Abs on Friday but I always get them done. Some workouts are easier than others to do without a gym so on busy days I'll do a workout that requires less equipment/space since I live in a small apartment and the neighbors below me probably wouldn't be a fan of my doing broad jumps down the hall haha. As the weather has gotten nice I've been able to make my LISS into walks with friends at the park instead of having to stick to a treadmill. I've also been doing some Rollerblading (breaking a sweat like it's the 90's) which is great for the inner thighs, bum and for strengthening the muscles I need to to correct my Patello-femoral pain syndrome. 

I have uploaded my workout calendar to Google Drive for others to use. You can find it here! If you have any issues downloading it let me know! I made it in Numbers and in uploading it, it is not quite as pretty but it does the job. If you have trouble downloading, just message me and I can email it to you!

I saw someone on IG made laminated workout cards and thought I would make my own. Here is a step-by-step:

 I started off by printing off the workouts 2 pages per sheet (you have to print them yourself not at Kinko's/ Fed Ex etc because they are copyrighted). I then cut off the edges and the cut the pages apart.

Next I glued the pages together to make them double sided. 

Then I fed them through a laminator (I used a Xyron 900). I was going to have them laminated at Kinkos but I was going to set me back $40 so I just borrowed my friends laminator. 

 They come out as a long sheet of pages so once again I cut them apart, leaving enough room around the edges so they wouldn't delaminate. Ta Da! 

I tried to include all of the things I could think people would want to know about BBG, but if you have any questions please comment below and I will respond as soon as I can. If I get the courage I may post my before and after pics when I'm done with all 24 weeks.


UPDATE:

So I've received a lot of questions from friends about this program so I figured I would just answer them here in case anyone else is wondering the same things...

Q: I am really interested in buying them and trying them. Have you found that they are worth the price? I'm still hesitant because of how expensive it all is. 

A: I have really liked the guides a LOT. Kayla has a week of workouts free on her website if you want to try them out first. If you are hesitant that may be the way to go.The workouts are so quick (30min) that they are easy to fit into my busy schedule and you feel so satisfied/ proud when you finish them (some of them are really tough - like 300 calories or more in 30 minutes!)  Another perk is that you don't necessarily need a gym to do the workouts if you have some hand weights so you don't have to pay for gym access. I have the nutrition guide but haven't used it - I just try to eat healthfully. I don't know that it's necessary... You could just get the first guide. I don't know if you have Instagram or Facebook, but I follow her on there and that's how I got hooked. There is a whole IG (#BBG, #BBGProgress) and Facebook community and everyone is very supportive and positive. It is really motivating on those days when you don't really feel like working out. Plus there are tons of before and after pics. Kayla also has a blog where she posts pictures, nutrition advice, etc. If you aren't sure if you want to commit yet I would suggest checking out her IG and blog. I'm super happy that I started and have seen great results. If you have any other questions feel free to ask!

Q: Do you feel like the workouts have made a difference in your strength and weight? Do you find that the workouts have been good for getting into shape?

A: I have always been in decent shape from doing sports and such but this is a different type of strength. I thought I was going to die when I did Week 1 Legs on day 1! When I repeated the workout on Week 3 Legs I noticed that it wasn't as hard as it had been the first time. I noticed the same thing with other workouts. What had once been torture was now bearable and sometimes enjoyable (mostly after it's done haha). My cardio level has definitely improved through both LISS (walking, swimming, rollerblading) and HIIT (jumprope intervals, swimming sprints and running intervals). This program has been great for getting into shape.As far as weight goes, I have lost some weight but not a ton (~10lbs). The visual difference is there though! I have gained muscle (which weighs more than the fat I lost) and toned up. I took pictures throughout my journey and those have been a better measure of change than a number on the scale. I also used a tape measure every now and then to check in. I lost inches off of my waist, hips, thighs (which have always been my trouble area - muscular but big) and my arms are very toned now!

Q: How can I get your BBG Workout Planner?

A: A link to the google doc is above (here it is again:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nmE09yrmMDoXV9gZ_29DK92pEKcBC3xVA4GcL8iHeQo/edit?userstoinvite=julia.raleigh0@gmail.com&ts=568f0d4d&actionButton=1#gid=1574871949 ) It cannot be edited on my google drive because everyone would be editing over one another so you will have to download the doc and then edit on your computer or re-upload to your google drive :)

Please let me know if you have difficulty downloading and I will be happy to email it :)

Best of luck to all my BBG girls starting #TheKaylaMovement January 11th!