Elana Lyn Gross
The author, Elana Lyn Gross, and Kayla Itsines.
- Kayla Itsines is an award-winning certified trainer and entrepreneur whose Bikini Body Workout program and SWEAT app has a following of over 20 million.
- Kayla Itsines's Bikini Body Guide 12 week program includes three 28-minute HIIT workouts, three cardio sessions, and two recovery days each week.
- I decided to give Kayla Itsine's BBG a try - here's what has happened so far at four weeks in.
When Kayla Itsines, an award-winning certified trainer and entrepreneur, was running one-on-one sessions in Australia, she was booked for weeks straight and had no way of helping clients from all around the world who reached out to her online. "This really frustrated me," she told Forbes.
So Itsines and her partner, Tobi Pearce, founded Bikini Body Training in 2013. In 2014, they released the Bikini Body Guide (BBG), a 12-week workout program that users could purchase as a PDF and use wherever, whenever.
Next, Itsines and Pearce developed their program into a top-ranking fitness app, Sweat, where users can find Itsines's curated workouts and other features like a nutrition plan, cool downs, a place to save progress photos, and your weekly workout schedule. Over 20 million women use Itsines's app, workout plan, books, and fitness equipment.
The weekly schedule (which ramps up slowly at first) consists of three 28-minute HIIT workouts - one session focuses on legs, another on arms and abs, and one on full body - three cardio sessions, one recovery session with guided stretches, and a rest day. You can mix and match the workouts depending on what works best for your body.
I decided to give the viral 12-week BBG program a try to see if I would have results like the hundreds of thousands who tag their before and after pictures using #BBGtransformations on Instagram - here's how I'm feeling one month in.