A follow up after I quit Kayla Itsines’ Bikini Body Guide (BBG) and why I went back to BBG a year later.
In June 2017, I wrote about all the reasons why I quit Kayla Itsines’ BBG. It’s gained a lot of traction on Pinterest and Google search results, and I thought I should follow up with it. Ya ready?
I’m just gonna dive right into it: I’m back to doing BBG. Yep, after all of that
First, let’s talk about what I learned since my last post.
Why BBG Didn’t Work For Me Before
I Was Repeating the First 12 Weeks Only
I realized that I was bored mentally and physically by repeating the same 12 weeks over and over again. I only had the workout PDFs and even though she released her Sweat app, I didn’t think I needed it. Wrong. (More on that later).
Your body builds muscle memory and when you do the same moves over and over you’re not going to see much improvement. You start skipping things because you’re bored, omitting moves, and you slowly fall off the bandwagon without even realizing it.
I Needed More Cardio
There are so many schools of thought and opinions on how much cardio versus how much weight-lifting you need. And, there are many Instagram fitness accounts where women prove they need very little cardio in order to stay trim.
Unfortunately, that’s jut not the case with me.
I was afraid that I wouldn’t gain enough muscle to help me burn fat if I did so much cardio. It’s taken me two years of trying different exercise regimens and plans to finally realize that my body truly does need more cardio than weightlifting in order to stay trim.
By doing Anna Victoria’s FBG (Fit Body Guide Program), another series of PDF workouts, I was exposed to a more structured format of cardio. Both BBG and FBG have three days of strength-training and three days of cardio, but FBG is specific.
In the FBG plan, you do four weeks of walking in the pre-training, then four weeks of LIMIT, four weeks of MISS, and the last four weeks you have one day each of walking, MISS and HITT. This was exactly what I needed since it’s way too hot to do anything outdoors in Florida, and I have a treadmill at home.
I Needed to Improve My Form
The pitfalls of BBG for me personally were that, yes I did not do all the cardio, but I also was a little clumsy in my form. For example, burpees usually hurt my knees. I realized that I was not landing on my heels when I pulled my knees in. Instead, the brunt of the impact was absorbed by my knees. Ouch.
A similar thing happened when I was doing weighted bench step ups, jumping lunges, and other jumping moves.
Now I know that the goal is not plow through the moves. I take my time to ensure my form is correct. For some reason I was competing with myself to see how many times I could repeat a circuit in 7 minutes. Isn’t that dumb?
Why I Went Back to Kayla Itsine’s BBG
What Changed
It’s been a whole year since I last did BBG. Over the course of the year, I’ve cycled through different workouts. I’ve done mostly cardio, mostly weight-training, and even a workout schedule of my own creation.
I’m not a personal trainer, so the workouts I created weren’t the best. I tended to get overwhelmed and it wasn’t fun. I knew I had to go back to where I started my fitness journey.
Also, I learned to give myself grace. I gave myself grace when I could only get in one BBG workout a week. Or only one cardio session. Fitness is a lifestyle, and if I miss one workout, guess what? I can continue where I left off.
I Downloaded the SWEAT app
The best thing I could’ve done
I started with the PWR workout on the SWEAT app. It was great, and I actually had a gym membership for a few months. On the SWEAT app, BBG has about 90 weeks of workouts so you won’t get bored. I now understand why some women say they’re on BBG 4, BBG 5, BBG 6, etc.
It Works
It just works. Plain and simple.
I like to think of BBG as tough love. You can do it, you can get through it, but it’s not a 100% fun time while you’re doing it. In fact, I’m sure I’ve had a few choice words for Kayla in the heat of it all. However, I have never once regretted a workout.
I’m going to end things here before this turns into a novel, haha.
Have you ever tried BBG?
Sharon says
Lisette,
I want to know what your suggestion would be to starting BBG as a beginner. I don’t want to waste my money by buying something that won’t work for me. I don’t belong to a gym (want to exercise at home) I can do burpee’s and squats and lunges but can’t do push ups to save my soul
Thank you for your help.
I love your blog and your honesty.
Priscillasmama says
Thanks for this. I read your previous post about quitting. It was all the reasons I was thinking about quitting too. I also was looking for something cheaper and not so much jumping. I also try to do the circuits at least twice around or I feel like a failure. Grace, yes is much needed. I think you just saved me 2 yrs of frustration. I’ll just stick with it and think about pwr. I wish that all was cheaper tho haha.