Grab my eBook for one FREE week of BBG workouts! Subscribe to my newsletter to get free workout tips, nutrition and motivation. There are some errors in your form. Subscribe To Get Your Free BBG Workout Guide Today. Kayla Itsines has created this BBG-style plan exclusively for WH readers working out from home. ‘This 28-day workout challenge is designed for women of all fitness levels,’ the Aussie. BBG is available via the Sweat app which is super popular (and lots of you guys recommended it to me!) but, as mentioned in this post, for 1.0 I opted to buy the PDF and have it printed and bound so that I wasn’t on my phone and distracted during the workouts (except to keep time of the 7 minutes and play music). I also kept the PDF in my.
- Pre-Training Week 1 Friday FULL BODY (OPTIONAL) Squats 20 REPS Toe Taps Circuit One Circuit Two Burpees Lay Down Push Ups (On Knees) 15 REPS Tricep Dips Step Ups.
- Celebrity PT, Kayla Itsines, has released a new 8-week BBG workout through Sweat with Kayla; The workouts are designed for beginners to support new mums and those new or returning to exercise.
Ladies, I’m so excited for all of you doing my BBG workouts to be part of the SWEAT 12 Week Challenge again this year!
The 12 Week Challenge is a chance for all of us to come together and to support and encourage one another as we set out to reach our health and fitness goals. Whether you’re a devoted BBG girl or you’re reading this wondering ‘What is BBG?’, don’t worry!
If you’re planning on using BBG as your workout during the 12 Week Challenge, or in general, I’ve included some information on BBG and how it differs from BBG Stronger, my other workout program. Not only that but you can try out a BBG workout in preparation for the challenge too.
Find Out:
Grab a workout buddy and join us using either the Sweat app for all BBG workouts or with the original Bikini Body Guides if you are keen to make healthy lifestyle changes, to become fitter and stronger in 2019!
I hope you all plan to join me on the 14th of January so we can complete 12 weeks of BBG together.
What is BBG?
BBG stands for Bikini Body Guide, which is the original training program Tobi and I created in 2014. The original guide was a 12-week workout program, however, BBG has grown and grown! There are now more than 88 weeks of my workouts available.
You can head to my blog, What Is BBG, if you want to know more about the BBG program and what it includes. If you want to read some inspiring stories from previous challenges, make sure you check out some BBG transformation stories!
In 2017, I also released a new workout program for gym users. BBG Stronger is different to BBG because it uses some key pieces of gym equipment in the circuits. The resistance workouts are still only 28 minutes long (just like BBG) but that doesn’t mean they are easy. You can find both of my programs in the Sweat app.
Try a free BBG workout!
In celebration of the 12 Week Challenge starting soon, I’m sharing a FREE BBG workout with you all!
This workout is inspired by my BBG program, which means that you can do it anywhere, anytime. Of course, it wouldn’t be a Kayla Itsines workout if you didn’t get a little sweaty!
It’s not an easy workout but believe me, that feeling of accomplishment and the endorphin rush after you’ve finished makes it so worthwhile.
Let’s do this!
How to start a BBG workout
Did the free workout above encourage you to start BBG?
The great thing about BBG is you can do the workouts almost anywhere! Roll out an exercise mat on your floor at home, get outside in the fresh air or train in the gym — it is totally up to you.
Make sure you warm-up before you start training (you can select a warm-up if you are using the app). Keep a drink bottle handy so that you can rehydrate during a rest as well.
How to do the BBG circuits
Both BBG and BBG Stronger use the same style of circuit and take 28 minutes to complete (not counting a warm-up).
Each circuit includes four exercises and lasts for seven minutes. When the timer starts, you begin doing the first exercise and follow the number of reps (so for this workout, it would be 20 reps of a rebound lunge). Then you move on to the next exercise and follow the number of reps. If you finish all of the reps for each of the four exercises and there is still time left, you begin with the first exercise again.
Once the timer stops after the first seven minutes, you rest for 30 seconds and then reset the timer for another seven minutes and start circuit two. The aim is to complete both circuits twice each — which gives you a tough workout in 28 minutes!
As you become stronger, you might find you can complete more reps in less time, so you can push yourself to work a little faster. Just make sure you do the exercises with correct form to avoid injuring yourself.
Start BBG during the 12 Week Challenge
Are you feeling excited now? As well as trying this BBG workout, there are a few easy things you can do to be ready for the new workout challenge and hit the ground running!
You can follow along with the 12 Week Challenge whether you’re doing BBG or BBG Stronger.
If you missed this year’s 12 Week Challenge, don’t worry. You can start BBG at any time by downloading the Sweat app and following the program.
I’m excited for us all to focus on our goals and to get busy working to achieve them!
Love, Kayla xx
* Results may vary. Strict adherence to the nutrition and exercise guide are required for best results.
I follow fitness star Kayla Itsines on Instagram, so therefore I could pick her abs out of a lineup. They’re the perfect abs that built a fitness empire, with her Bikini Body Guide fitness plans and community of 4.8 million Instagram followers with dramatic #BBG before-and-after pics. Kayla’s abs are on display on her Instagram feed every seventh post, by my estimation, but I never thought I would get to see Kayla and her abs in person. This past December, however, I found myself in the back row of an NYC exercise class for journalists taught by Kayla herself.
This story is part of a group of stories called
I was in the room because my editor said she wanted 'a normal person' to try the entire 12-week BBG and write about what happens. That normal person was me, at least fitness-wise — I’m very average fitness-wise.
Over the past three years, I’ve gained about 10 pounds. It hasn’t been the end of the world, but my closet has taken the biggest hit. My boyfriend jeans became my skinny jeans. That’s especially a bummer because I justified more than one $180 pair of jeans as an 'investment purchase.' Those are the same jeans that currently live deep in the back of a drawer.
What was almost more impressive to me was how effortlessly she demonstrated the push-ups and jump squats.
So that’s how I got here to BBG, getting my butt kicked by Kayla Itsines in person. Because I’m sure you’re wondering, she is very teeny tiny but she doesn’t look scary thin. She looks like an elegant giraffe, all legs and arms and abs, and what was almost more impressive to me was how effortlessly she demonstrated the push-ups and jump squats.
The workout was 30 minutes at most (consisting of burpees, planks, ab bicycles, etc.) but it felt like an eternity. We stretched afterwards and Kayla came over and pushed my legs down while I was stretching, but I knew they wouldn’t go down any further. 'Tight legs,' she whispered. I felt a sting for having disappointed her.
Bbg Workout Pdf Noholita
Afterwards, I asked Kayla for burpee advice because I couldn’t do them at all, and she broke it down for me, which was so nice of her. I practiced burpees for the rest of December while waiting for the first week of January, when BBG would begin. Note: I did the old-school Bikini Body Guide PDF, not the app, and I didn’t do her meal plan.
Weeks 1 to 4
Kayla’s workout plan starts out with two to three sessions of her resistance training intervals a week, complemented by stretching and two or three sessions of LISS (which stands for 'low intensity static state,' as in 35 to 45 minutes of fast walking).
Those interval training sessions involve two circuits, each consisting of seven minutes of exercise with a rest of 30 to 90 seconds in between circuits. (I’ll) do each of the circuits twice.
A single seven minute circuit equals four exercises (for example: 15 jump squats, 15 squats, 24 walking lunges, 24 knee ups). If you get through all of that before time is up, start over and keep going until you hear the buzzer. You’ll need just a few pieces of equipment, like weights and a bench, and the gym in my apartment building had most of it.
A photo posted by goshgeegolly (@goshgeegolly) on
If you’re trying the PDF version of BBG like I did, an interval training app like Pacer for your phone really helps with this.
I finish my first resistance training at 7am on Monday, January 4th, and I feel close to throwing up. For me, this is a heart-beating-out-of-your-chest, totally-out-of-breath workout. I’ve only worked out this hard in the occasional boutique fitness class.
As the week goes on, I struggle with normal gym-style sit-ups and pushups. I take my time during the intervals and also took a lot more breaks than I would’ve in an exercise class, probably more than I should have. I start watching #BBG YouTube videos, where super ripped girls exercise in real time. My idol is SquatMango, who breaks down her BBG journey on her blog in a way that makes you feel this is possible.
Most of the time, no one else uses the apartment gym, as I humiliate myself doing these exercises, but one day I notice another girl bopping around doing intervals. Wrapping up my workout, she looks at me and says, 'Hey, were you doing Kayla’s workout?' A BBG friend in real life! She tells me that she’s done it before, it’s worth it, and it never gets easier. That sounds ominous.
Weeks 5 to 8
I started BBG at 146 pounds and so far the scale has hardly moved; I’m at 144 on a good day. In December, I bought these Lykke Wullf overalls at Racked’s LA market — despite the very important detail that I couldn’t zip the back zipper up over my butt. Now I can zip them up! It’s still not acceptable to leave the house in these (ahem, cameltoe). That will be something to work toward.
There are now more LISS sessions to do. The resistance workouts have ramped up, and I wasn’t even okay with how it was going originally. You now have to do 15 burpees in a row instead of 10. There’s a reason BBG folks call it #deathbykayla.
Every time I go to do resistance training, I study the workout plan in the elevator, looking at the hell that awaited me. In my head I always think, 'Oh my god, no.'
I show my husband, Joe, the week five plan, where you have to put your feet on a bench and your hands on the floor and do pushups. 'I don’t see that happening,' he says. 'That’s some Navy Seal shit.' I try it, to the best of my abilities, and my biggest accomplishment is that I don’t fall flat on my face.
It feels like I’m constantly doing these workouts, and although Kayla says they are 28 minutes, they take me about 50 mins door-to-door with the warmup and breaks. But I start to look forward to them more than LISS, weirdly, because walking on a treadmill is so boring.
I do the interval training religiously but find myself slacking on the LISS. I walk my dog, do Soulcycle on occasion, even go snowshoeing, but mainly I just walk on the treadmill, watching Lisa Vanderpump and her mini-horses on Real Housewives.
I feel like I'm getting fitter, for sure. Still, not seeing the scale move is super frustrating.
Bbg Beginner Workout Pdf
I felt like I’m getting fitter, for sure. Planks have been getting easier, burpees are still horrible but better, and my jump-roping skills are tops. Still, not seeing the scale move is super frustrating.
I wanted to do this while eating like a normal person — no crazy calorie counting or stick and leaf diets — to see what would happen, because some of the BBG transformations are so extreme. I’ve just been trying to eat healthier, although I have been slipping and eating pizza with my friends.
Besides cruising through #BBG hashtags and Kayla’s Instagram, I’m also obsessed with a Reddit thread on BBG. One Reddit-er says she could stick with her workout and eating plan as long as she didn’t spend any time with family and friends who might disrupt her schedule. I might be misinterpreting that, but that’s not how I want to live my life, BBG or no.
I know that diet is so important, but for me it’s even harder than doing these workouts. It’s time to knuckle down, eating-wise. I give up carbs for one day, then break down and start buttering a second piece of bread. 'Did you already have one? Don’t do it! Don’t do it!' Joe calls out from the couch. 'I’m doing it!' I yell in a panicked voice, smearing more butter on the bread.
Weeks 8 to 12
Time to ramp it up, and Kayla does not disappoint. Some of the exercises frighten me. I take a pass on the one that requires me to jump up onto two parallel benches into a squat. I don't think I will clear the bench, so I never even try this. During another exercise, I slam a bosu ball into my shin, resulting in a gnarly bruise.
I also add HIIT sessions, or 30 seconds of sprinting on a treadmill then 30 seconds of resting repeated over a period of 10 to 15 minutes. You’re not supposed to do this in the same session as resistance training, and I can see now why college students are so often featured on Kayla’s Insta. This workout requires lots of chunks of time.
A photo posted by goshgeegolly (@goshgeegolly) on
I share more photos to the #BBG hashtag to power me through the last weeks. BBG is so solitary, and it’s easy to bail on a workout, that I can see why a surge of likes for photos of salad and dumbbells would be helpful. I find out one of my friends asked another, 'What’s up with all the gym selfies Adele is posting?'
Like all things in my life, it takes me until the 11th hour to get serious about my diet. I start counting calories, which I hate doing. Truthfully, I didn’t want to let Kayla and her abs and her #BBG army down by not posting any results. I said I didn’t want to do this in an unhealthy way, but I’mso desperate to make the scale change that I suddenly became a ferocious calorie counter. I skip some meals. I know this is totally against what Kayla says in her guide, she doesn’t emphasize the scale at all, but I feel the pressure to get results, and I wonder if her followers do too.
Epilogue
It’s been two months since I finished BBG. I don’t think my 'before and after' results are going to get me on Kayla’s Instagram. They aren’t very dramatic, which is a tad disappointing. When all was said and done, I lost six pounds in 12 weeks of workouts; four alone in the last weeks when I was really pushing myself in terms of diet.
Plenty of BBG girls don’t stop the workout after 12 weeks — they keep on trucking, moving onto the 2.0 version or working through the app. Honestly, I couldn’t handle that, I was happy to be done. Something about workout challenges stuck with me though, and now I’m trying to do 20 yoga classes in a month at my studio, Corepower Yoga.
I learned the simple power of not quitting something hard, of just sticking it with it and seeing improvement day by day.
I can actually almost do a proper chaturanga now, and I never could before (my tennis game on the other hand is horrendous because I didn’t practice at all while doing BBG). I’m completely obsessed with the hardest, sweatiest workout at my yoga studio Corepower. 'You know what I say when my classes are looking tired?' the Yoga Sculpt teacher yells. 'Burpees!' And I start really flying through them, thinking back to that class with Kayla when I could barely do a single one.
In these 12 weeks of BBG, I learned the simple power of not quitting something hard, of just sticking it with it and seeing improvement day by day. Ok, so it was my job not to quit, so major props to the #BBG community for sticking with this killer program.
And even though this workout has a pretty retrograde name (uh, every body is a bikini body), it taught me something about body image. When I started, I really hoped I could finish this article by saying I lost 'X' number of pounds and got to my goal weight. That was going to be my idea of success and this is how my mindset about weight loss and health had always been. I feel like too many times in my life I’ve been obsessed by the scale and that number had the power to ruin my day.
Before starting BBG in January 2016 (L) and at the end of BBG (R) in March of 2016. Photos: Adele Chapin
In the end, I didn’t lose 10 pounds; I didn’t get back to what I weighed in college. Maybe some day I will, maybe not. But at the same time I’ve realized that I’m on track for what I really wanted to do when I started: fit into my clothes (including those damn overalls) and get stronger. I’ve accomplished that, and whatever the number on the scale is, it doesn’t have the power to take that away from me. You know what, I’m also proud of the little proto abs that I have now from all those 'arms & abs' days, the proto-abs that perhaps only I can see.
Editor: Meredith Haggerty
Watch: The History of the Bikini
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