Daaaaaang, working out is hard. I don’t think I’ve ever sweat as much, ached as much, or grunted as much as I did for these 12 weeks.
For those who don’t know, Kayla Itsines is a pretty well-known Australian personal trainer. She has her own app and work out guides, and has a tonna Instagram followers (tonna = 11 million). Her app called Sweat has work out guides and plans to help gals achieve their fitness goals. And well, as you guessed it from the title of this post, I tried Kayla Itsines’ 12 Week BBG Challenge.
The 12 Week BBG Challenge is basically a 12 week long fitness journey. BBG stands for Bikini Body Guide which is what she called her guide. So, really it’s just 12 weeks of work outs to follow on her app. Usually it would be something like: Monday- Legs, Tuesday- LISS (Low intensity), Wednesday- Arms & Abs, Thursday- LISS, Friday- Full Body, Saturday- LISS. There are recovery days, rest days, HIIT, and even plans by other fitness girls you can try out.
Now, if you’re a cheapy like me, you’d think: $4.61 usd a week for the dang membership to use the app or $119.94 usd for a year?! Ya, heck no. But she actually has a promo towards the beginning of the year that’s $1 usd for 3 months of membership. This is what I’ve done the other times I’ve tried the app, and it’s been great - you still get access to everything on the app.
I first tried out her app in 2016 and got up to week 5 or so before ditching after a week long sleepover with my sister. I didn’t work out that whole week and just completely fell off the wagon and didn’t even try to hop back on. Lame, I know. Then, in 2018 I got the app again and was ready to sweat, but then I had all my heart issues and just couldn’t work out.
Cut to February of this year, and I was like, you know what? I need to strengthen my heart and my body so I’m just gonna get the app and do my best!
I thought I’d talk about my journey doing the 12 week challenge because it’s been interesting, haha. I decided to do 4 weeks of her “beginner program” because I was really afraid of my heart not reacting well so I wanted to ease myself into it. The beginner program is still not easy easy, but it is easier than the actual program.
Anywayyyy, because of my heart rate weirdness, I had to take breaks whenever I felt that my heart rate would get too high. Maybe I should wear a Fitbit or something to see how high my heart rate goes up to, but honestly, I know that If I saw the number it would freak me out. So, when needed, I’d take time to steady my breathing and lower my heart rate. I also didn’t do any skipping. Some weeks have skipping, and I couldn’t even do 10 skips before my heart would freak out. So for my own safety, I just cut it out. For those that know the work outs, you know she includes other jumping type exercises like jump lunges and burpees, but I just took my time with them. I’d do a couple, then take a break, do a couple, take a break, etc.
to be completely honest.. during these 12 weeks, I didn’t change my eating habits at all and i didn’t actually do the liss days! my main goal was to slowly build up heart strength, not necessarily lose weight.
I’ll be adding in some progress photos, so let’s all be kind here. I guess just as most people want when they start working out is to see that progress right off the bat. I tried not to think about that too much, so I just stuck to taking progress photos after every 4 weeks.
So my first set of progress photos is from after I completed the beginner program. I was actually so surprised by the change in my body already. My waist was the first thing I noticed and lemme tell you, it gave me hope. It encouraged me to keep going even though it was so difficult.
(the pictures below are day before bbg, after 4 weeks of beginner, day before bbg, after 4 weeks of beginner)
Jumping into week 1 of the regular program was a bit of a shock because it was definitely more difficult than the beginner, so I was really glad I started with beginner first. I know that there’s people that do the beginner program multiple times before they feel confident enough to start the regular program. I would probably always do the beginner first.
(the pictures below are day before bbg, after 4 weeks of beginner, after 4 weeks of bbg in each set)
After taking the next set of progress pictures, I felt like I hit a wall. I didn’t notice a difference in my body. I was bummed. Maybe I hit a plateau or something… After researching about plateaus, I’ve been trying to take less breaks during my work outs. It was EXTREMELY difficult, and sometimes I could barely lift my self up, but I fought through it and stayed determined.
(the pictures below week 4 versus week 8)
Even looking at all these progress pictures now weeks later, I can’t help but feel a bit bummed. You always see these girls posting crazy progress and looking super fit after the 12 week challenge. But you know what, I really did as best as I could considering I have a wonky heart.
Even though the outward progress isn’t too obvious, I physically feel really good.
I’m so proud of myself for sticking to it!
My heart feels stronger now, and I can actually go up a couple flights of stairs without gasping for breath. I can do jumping jacks without my heart flipping out, I can do jump squats - I couldn’t do these things before! (I’ve yet to try skipping lol, one step at a time man)
(the pictures below are day before bbg and after 12 weeks of bbg * remember i didn’t do any cardio at all)
I’m seriously so proud of myself for sticking to the 12 week challenge and completing it even if I had to do modifications. I even did the 4 weeks of beginner, so thats 16 weeks in total! Wow, I’d never have thought I had it in me to do it. The 12 weeks started out with me in tears because it felt like I wouldn’t be able to build up my strength and that my heart would be the reason why I had to quit. Determination is really something.
Here’s a little props I had to give myself after a difficult workout lol. Sending you all the high fives and flex arm emojis to encourage you through your own fitness journey. If a quitter and wonky hearter like me can do it, you can most definitely do it too!
If you’ve tried out BBG or any other program on the Sweat app, plssss lemme know!
And lemme know about your own fitness journey, I’d love to hear about it!
x Melissa
p.s. i decided not to flex in my before and after pictures because i wasn’t really working out to change my body. i just wanted to be able to commit to working out and building strength.