My Review of The Bikini Body Guide by Kayla Itsines

After 3 years of actively doing PoPPilates, my body finally hit a plateau. My body wasn’t reacting to the workouts as well as it once was, leaving me unmotivated and lazy. Of course, that’s not uncommon when you repeat the same exercises for long periods of time. Your body becomes conditioned to the exercises and it takes even more work to make a difference.

For a few years now I’ve been seeing posts on Instagram and Facebook for this workout called “Bikini Body Guide” or “BBG” as it’s most commonly known. Not only was I seeing workout demonstration posts from founder Kayla Itsines, but I was also seeing ah-mazing before-and-after body transformations. I figured there had to be a catch. There’s no way these women could drop that much weight and become that toned by doing exercises through an app. A year rolled around, and then some of my favorite bloggers started promoting her program and sharing their results. Again, my curiosity peaked, but it still wasn’t something I was interested in doing at the time.

Flash forward until one month ago when I looked in the mirror and noticed that my body had resorted back to old ways: bloated, gassy, and untoned. I hadn’t done PoPPilates in a week and a half and really had no desire to anymore. I still went on daily walks, but they were 20 to 25 minutes per day, mainly just to get Luna out of the house and active.

I started browsing on the BBG website and reading some great posts about everyday women in the program in the “Forum” section. I broke down and decided to take advantage of the BBG sign-up special: 1 free week of BBG. I downloaded the Sweat app and begin creating my profile.

So, what is BBG all about? The original BBG program consists of a high-intensity circuit workouts designed to build your strength, fitness and bikini body confidence! Three times a week you will do a SWEAT workout- Mondays are legs, Tuesdays are arms & abs, and Fridays are full-body workouts. On the remaining days of the week, it’s encouraged to do a form of Low Intensity Training, like walking or biking, or a High Intensity Training, like circuit trainings or sprinting.

Each SWEAT resistance training workout is composed of two different circuits with four separate exercises targeting the area of the body you are working that day. For the first 7 minutes, you will complete the round of workouts in that circuit as many times as you can. Don’t worry, each exercise has a number of reps per round and a timer to help you through the circuit. After you complete the first seven-minute round, you move on to the next circuit. You will do each circuit two times for a total of 28 minute HIIT workout. Although 28 minutes seems like a short workout, boy is it intense!

At first I thought I was going to get very bored with the repetition and didn’t know how long I’d be able to keep up the motivation, but I’ve come to love the way I feel and look after completing the workouts, that those rewards alone motivate me to keep going. I also put on my favorite podcast and listen to it while I go through the circuits. It tends to make the time go by quicker.

As far as equipment goes, I use a yoga mat, 3-lb dumbbells I got at a garage sale and a chair for step-up / step-downs since I don’t have a bench. I also purchased a foam roller off of Amazon and it’s made a world of difference in my muscle recovery!

If you’ve seen the Instagram and Facebook posts, you’ll know the program is very big on progress photos. I took my first photo the right before I began the program. For reference, I took each photo the Monday morning of the corresponding week.

BBG 1.0 Week 1 ( Week 5 total): 107.5 lbs

Click here to get 1 free month of workouts!

I continue to take progress photos every week to see how my body changes. I haven’t noticed much of a physical change, but after two weeks into the beginners program I started noticing my clothes fitting better and my legs feeling smaller.

My endurance and strength has greatly improved! In fact, I did the Pyramid Challenge 1.0 over the weekend and did real push-ups the entire way through!

There is a meal plan element to the workouts, yet I am not following it. I normally eat healthy throughout the week and will just continue to make conscious choices. However, if I were to be following the meal plan, I’m sure I’d notice more drastic changes.

The one thing I miss about PopPiliates is that you can do all the workouts without having to sign up for a paid program. BBG is $20/ month, but if you commit to larger monthly packages, the cost is discounted.

Are you interested in giving BBG a try? Use my link to get 1 free month of workouts! I love the changes my body is making and how strong I now feel. Hopefully you will, too!