HAVEYOUJOINED #THEKAYLAMOVEMENT?
(BECAUSE 3.6 MILLION OTHER WOMEN HAVE…)
QWhat do Hollywood star Jessica Alba, the reigning Miss America Kira Kazantsev, and Olympic gold medal winning swimmer Stephanie Rice have in common (aside from knockout bodies)? They all follow Kayla Itsines on Instagram. They,along with around three and a half million other women, have placed their physiques in the virtual hands of a 24-year-old Australian girl who, not so long ago, was just another personal trainer, living a quiet life with her partner and their two dogs in her home town of Adelaide.
Today, Kayla is the rock star of the fitness world, travelling the globe to meet her followers (dubbed #KaylasArmy on social media) and host free boot camp sessions everywhere from Melbourne to Manhattan - attracting the sorts of swarming crowds more often seen at live gigs in the process. Spots at an event in London over the summer were snapped up within 39 minutes of registration opening, and one fan recently flew 4,000 miles from Singapore to Sydney solely to roll out her exercise mat alongside her idol.
So what changed? Unlike famous fitness gurus who made their name thanks to celebrity endorsements, Kayla didn’t start out as a trainer to the stars. She reaches all of her clients around the world in the same way: online.
Kayla was still working at a studio in Adelaide when she began posting photos of clients’ progress on Instagram. They say a
Apicture speaks a thousand words, and these snaps spawned a few thousand reposts too, with visual evidence of the effectiveness of her workouts spreading across social media like wildfire - along with passionate testimonials from newly honed Kayla converts. “I think my programme has achieved so much positive feedback because the results are from real women who have all achieved real results,”she says.
Kayla was inspired to develop her 12-week Bikini Body Training Guide, which advocates working out three times a week for just 28 minutes at a time, after hearing clients in Adelaide repeat the same goals time and again (slim thighs, a flat stomach and toned arms) and realising the methods she’d been instructed to teach often fell short of getting them there. Convinced she could do better, Kayla set about devising a workout that specifically targeted the areas women tend to worry about most.
“It’s not about a quick fix,”she says.“It’s not a fad, it’s a healthy, maintainable lifestyle change that is adaptable and realistic for women of all ages, body shapes and fitness levels. The workouts are designed to help girls achieve the results they have been seeking for so long – toned thighs, flatter stomachs, and strong, slim arms - without having to spend hours a day in the gym,”she adds.
On the subject of toned thighs and flat stomachs, the other source of visual inspiration on the trainer’s Instagram feed is, of course, Kayla herself. In addition to progress pictures, recipe ideas and motivational quotes, she posts regular gym selfies, all in her daily uniform of a sports bra and shorts, ponytail and beaming smile. A single snap of this girl’s sculpted abs is enough to inspire the most avowed gym-o-phobe to take up crunches, and Kayla says they’re down to the exact same BBG workouts her fans follow.
“I train exactly like my amazing BBG girls – by following my guides,”she says.“My training method consists of 28 minutes of resistance training sessions. I generally do three to four