Today I wanted to talk about the Kayla Itsines 12-week Bikini Body Guide program – or more to the point, what equipment you need for the Kayla Itsines BBG program. I thought I’d do a full post on this because when I first looked at starting this program, I was a little worried about shelling out so much money, not just for the training guide but also for the equipment required to actually do the moves. So as I’m in the final week of the 12-week program, I thought I’d share my experience on this as well as what equipment I did and didn’t use!
All up, I think I paid a little over $100 for the program – first, $69.97 for the actual guide and about $45-ish for the equipment I needed. To be honest, I really could have done all my workouts at my gym which had all the equipment required… buuut I knew I was going to be waaay sweaty and falling apart midway through my workouts and dying all over the place and really I’d rather do that in the privacy of my own home than right next to the weights section in the gym where all the muscle men are working out and most likely judging me! Also, on the days where I’m feeling extra lazy, it made it just that bit easier to start working out when I knew all I had to do was throw on some workout clothes and stumble into my living room rather than make the drive to the gym!
All right – now on to the equipment! First, I’m going to list the equipment that Kayla recommends you use for her Weeks 1-12 Bikini Body Guide program. Then I’ll follow up with what I actually used as well as what substitutions I made.
So first of all, according to the FAQ on Kayla’s site, this is the equipment you will need for the program:
- A pair of dumbbells (3-5kg each)
- A medicine ball (6-12kg)
- A flat bench (or two)
- A bosu ball
- Skipping rope
After a little tweaking and adjusting, this is what I ended up with for the overall program:
Yoga mat: this is totally optional but I just got a cheap one so I could roll it out to do stuff like push ups, commandos and ab crunches, either in my backyard or in my living room. It’s great because it keeps me from getting grass sans while working out in the backyard or, worse, getting carpet burn on my elbows in the living room, especially when I do those truly evil move Kayla calls a commando! Also, it’s great for collapsing on when you’re done with your workout!
A towel: You will get super sweaty. Trust me on this.
A pair of dumbbells: I bought a pair of cheap dumbbells (3kg each) and also used them as a substitute for the medicine ball by holding one in each hand, as Kayla recommended in her FAQ.
Pacer Smart Workout Timer Phone App: In most of my workouts, I used my phone timer which works just fine. But then I found out about this free app which is great not just for timing my circuits plus rest time in between but also my HIIT runs when I’m out of doors and I’ve been a fan ever since!
1-2 steady chairs: I used the chairs as substitutes for the flat benches while doing moves like the knee ups, step ups and weighted wide squats on benches. Before you start your workout, make sure your chair is perfectly stable and will hold your weight as you step up and off repeatedly. Always be careful while doing your moves and make sure it’s not some super expensive chair that you can’t afford to break – just in case! Another possible substitute: Kayla suggests using a park bench if you have any in close proximity of your home!
Doorstep: I used our doorstep for the reversed lunges in Weeks 2 & 4. You could probably use a doorstep for moves like the step ups and knee ups too, though depending on how high your doorstep is, it might not give that extra height and challenge a chair would provide. For reversed lungs, however, I found a chair was way too high to step off and on safely so I switched to the doorstep. But if you don’t have a doorstep, you can also use…
A stack of magazines/phone books/any heavy books: I used this one for the split squat move which comes in the later weeks of the program. Just make sure the magazines/phone books are stacked properly and won’t slip from under your feet as you jump on and off. You may have to do a quick stop to adjust the mags midway through your reps. And you can also use this if you don’t have a doorstep!
Sofas/ottomans: Rather than shell out the money for a couple of gym benches, I pushed the sofas in my living room around so I could use them for any of the moves in the program that involved a bench/two benches. The reason I included sofas as well as the chair substitutes above was because sometimes a move involved me jumping off the ground and then landing with a foot on each bench. I felt more comfortable doing this with heavy sofas that won’t slip under my weight, rather than with the chairs. Again, be careful while using furniture as substitutes and make sure you’re not ruining your mum’s or housemate’s sofa springs while doing these moves! (Also, the sofa was great for lying down moves like leg raises on a bench!)
What I omitted: the medicine ball (see above – I substituted with dumbbells), skipping rope (you can just go through the motions and pretend you’re holding a skipping rope in your hands!) and the bosu ball.
Modify your moves: I modified some of the moves to suit what equipment I did and didn’t have. For example, I omitted the moves that required a bosu ball and substituted that with regular burpees instead. Also, instead of doing a burpee bench jump, I’d do a burpee and follow with a step up instead because I didn’t trust the chair to take the weight of a full jump.
Get creative: A lot of the substitutions I use are everyday items you can find around the house so just have a look and see what you can use. Just make sure your substitute is steady and able to take your weight plus all the jumping and moving around you will be doing. One of my friends uses a heavy, super stable esky to do her step-ups on!
Note of caution: I’ve mentioned this a couple of times already but it’s worth mentioning again – if you’re going to use home furniture the way I did in my workouts, make sure you test the strength and steadiness of the furniture first. And when you’re doing the workouts, just keep in mind to be extra careful when doing these moves just in case something snaps as these things aren’t made specifically for all that jumping and stepping up and down the way ordinary gym equipment are. Safety is always the number one issue and you don’t want to get hurt! Also, make sure you’re using furniture that you can afford to lose or replace – just in case something does snap with all that weight!
But really… what’s the minimum equipment required??? Looking back, this might seem like a lot and a tad bit overwhelming, but really a lot of it is, as previously said, just ordinary furniture or items you have lying around the home. To be honest, I recommend just buying a mat and a pair of dumbbells to start with. You can even omit the mat if you feel that’s not necessary. In the first few weeks of the program, all I used was a mat, the dumbbells and an old garden chair. Then, as the weeks go by, you can decide what other equipment you feel comfortable with investing in for the workout!
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