Are you curious about the Kayla Itsines workout routine?
Do you wonder how Kayla organizes her “bikini body” workouts to stay in perfect shape year-round?
Then you’ve come to the right place.
In this comprehensive guide, I will show you how to use the Kayla Itsines workout routine to take your physique to the next level!
Introduction
- Part 1: The Kayla Itsines Workout Routine
- Part 2: The Kayla Itsines Diet Plan
Kayla Itsines is one of the most popular female fitness influencers in the world today.
She originally rose to fame when she started posting helpful workout videos on YouTube. Today, she has more than 15.2 million subscribers on YouTube!
Kayla is more than just a fitness influencer, though! She is also a successful business owner, having co-founded the Sweat app and the High Impact with Kayla workout routines.
Kayla says that you don’t have to go the gym and lift super heavy weights to get the figure you want.
Instead, all you have to do is perform bodyweight workouts a few times per week from the comfort of your own home!
Kayla Itsines Stats
- Date Of Birth: May 21st, 1991
- Height: 5 Feet 5 Inches
- Weight: 125 Pounds
- Bust: 34 Inches
- Waist: 24 Inches
- Hips: 34 Inches
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The Kayla Itsines Workout Routine
So what does the Kayla Itsines workout routine look like?
Kayla is famous for her “Beach Body Guide” workouts, or BBG for short. She is all about helping women get in shape and lose pounds of body fat, without having to be slaves to the gym.
Kayla works out about 3-5 times per week using her high-intensity bodyweight routines. You don’t need any equipment to perform these workouts!
Instead, all you need is an open space in your home to perform Kayla Itsines’ special exercises.
Kayla uses many different training splits. However, one of her favorites is to train her entire upper and lower body twice per week. For example:
The Kayla Itsines Training Split
- Day 1: Lower Body
- Day 2: Upper Body
- Day 3: Off
- Day 4: Lower Body
- Day 5: Upper Body
- Day 6: Off
- Day 7: Off
Kayla says that 4 hard workouts per week is all you need to look and feel your best!
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Kayla Itsines Leg Workouts
Let’s start by looking at some of Kayla Itsines’ favorite leg workouts!
Kayla likes to train legs using high-intensity circuits. She performs 3-4 exercises in a row, takes a short break, and then performs the entire circuit 2 more times!
Kayla says that these circuit workouts are a great way to get more work done in less time.
Here is one of Kayla’s circuit leg workouts that you can try. Check it out:
Kayla Itsines Leg Workout #1
Warm up
- Rocking chair to abs: 3 x 30 seconds
- Standing X crunch: 3 x 30 secs
Circuit #1
- Exercise #1: Reverse lunge: 3 x 30 seconds
- Exercise #2: Push-up on knees: 3 x 30 seconds
- Exercise #3: Ab bicycles: 3 x 30 seconds
Circuit #2
- Exercise #4: Squat and high reach: 3 x 30 seconds
- Exercise #5: Caterpillar crawl to cross plank: 3 x 30 seconds
- Exercise #6: Glute bridge: 3 x 30 seconds
Cool down
- Hip flexor stretch: 3 x 30 seconds (each side)
- Hamstring stretch: 3 x 30 seconds (each side)
Talk about an intense workout!
This routine consists of a warm up period, a cool down period, and 2 high-intensity circuits using bodyweight leg exercises like squats, glute bridges, and reverse lunges.
She also performs some upper body exercises on this day including push ups on knees and ab bicycles!
Here is another one of Kayla Itsines’ glute-focused leg workouts that you can try. Check it out:
Kayla Itsines Leg Workout #2
Circuit #1
- Exercise #1: Squats: 3 x 30 seconds
- Exercise #2: Half burpees: 3 x 30 seconds
- Exercise #3: Side crunches: 3 x 30 seconds
- Exercise #4: Bent leg raises: 3 x 30 seconds
Circuit #2
- Exercise #5: Raised leg sit ups: 3 x 30 seconds
- Exercise #6: Lay down push ups on knees: 3 x 30 seconds
- Exercise #7: Mountain climbers: 3 x 30 seconds
- Exercise #8: Reverse lunges: 3 x 30 seconds
This workout is much simpler than the previous one. Kayla simply performs 2 bodyweight circuits with 4 exercises each.
For the first circuit, Kayla performs 4 leg and ab movements: squats, half burpees, side crunches, and bent leg raises.
The second circuit follows a very similar pattern: Kayla performs raised leg sit ups, push ups on knees, mountain climbers, and reverse lunges.
These leg workouts are perfect for anyone who wants to get toned glutes and legs like Kayla, but is afraid of “bulking up.”
The bodyweight exercises won’t build that much muscle, so you don’t have to worry about getting too bulky!
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Kayla Itsines Upper Body Workouts
Now let’s look at some of Kayla Itsines’ favorite upper body workouts.
Kayla says training the upper body is important, even if your primary goal is to build toned legs and glutes. After all, you don’t want to have a well developed lower body but still have wiggly arms!
Here is one of Kayla’s favorite upper body workouts that you can try. Check it out:
Kayla Itsines Upper Body Workout #1
Circuit #1
- Exercise #1: Push-ups, 3 sets of 10-15 reps
- Exercise #2: Straight leg sit-ups, 3 sets of 10-15 reps
- Exercise #3: Triceps push-ups on knees, 3 sets of 10-15 reps
- Exercise #4: Straight leg raises, 3 sets of 10-15 reps
Circuit #2
- Exercise #5: Mountain climbers, 3 sets of 10-15 reps
- Exercise #6: Toe taps, 3 sets of 10-15 reps
- Exercise #7: Shoulder taps, 3 sets of 10-15 reps
- Exercise #8: High plank, 3 sets of 10-15 reps
This is a very simple but effective upper body workout.
As usual, Kayla Itsines focuses on using different bodyweight exercises in a circuit format. She performs 4 exercises in a row for the first circuit, and 4 exercises in a row for the second one.
All of these exercises, including push ups, leg raises, planks, and shoulder taps can be performed from the comfort of your own home with zero equipment.
Here is another one of Kayla Itsines’ upper body home workouts that you can try. Check it out:
Kayla Itsenes Upper Body Dumbbell Workout
- Exercise #1: Alternating dumbbell overhead press, 3 sets of 10-15 reps
- Exercise #2: Dumbbell bicep curl, 3 sets of 10-15 reps
- Exercise #3: Dumbbell side and front raise, 3 sets of 10-15 reps
- Exercise #4: Dumbbell overhead extension, 3 sets of 10-15 reps
- Exercise #5: Dumbbell bent over row, 3 sets of 10-15 reps
This workout is a little bit different from the previous few ones.
Kayla actually uses light dumbbells in this workout to train her arms and back. If you have access to some light dumbbells (like 1-5 pounds each) then this routine is a great choice!
For this workout Kayla performs 5 total exercises: the dumbbell overhead press, dumbbell bicep curls, dumbbell side and front raises, dumbbell overhead extensions, and dumbbell bent over rows.
These exercises work almost every muscle group in your entire upper body!
That makes this workout a great “short on time” workout that you can perform in just a few minutes.
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Kayla Itsines Cardio Workouts
Now let’s look at some of Kayla Itsines’ favorite cardio workouts.
Kayla says that you don’t need to go for a jog or use boring cardio machines to get in a good cardio workout.
For most people, she believes doing bodyweight cardio exercises is a better idea.
Here is one of Kayla’s high-intensity cardio workouts that you can try. Check it out:
Kayla Itsines Cardio Workout #1
- Exercise #1: Skipping (20 seconds)
- Exercise #2: Plank dips (20 seconds)
- Exercise #3: Skipping (20 seconds)
- Exercise #4: Bent-leg jackknife (20 seconds)
- Exercise #5: Skipping (20 seconds)
- Exercise #6: Side plank and crunch (15 seconds per side)
- Exercise #7: Skipping (20 Seconds)
- Exercise #8: Ab bikes (20 Seconds)
Talk about an intense workout!
Kayla says that you should perform all of these different exercises as a circuit. This means you perform the first exercise, then immediately perform the second exercise, and so on until you have performed all 8 movements.
If you are feeling good, then you can perform the entire circuit up to 3 separate times. However, if you are new to Kayla’s workouts then you may want to try just 1 circuit at first and slowly build up from there.
Here is another one of Kayla’s high-intensity cardio workouts that you can try. Check it out:
Kayla Itsines Cardio Workout #2
- Exercise #1: X Hop – 20 reps
- Exercise #2: High Knees – 40 reps
- Exercise #3: Reverse Lunge & Hop – 20 reps (10 per side)
- Exercise #4: Jumping Jacks – 40 reps
- Exercise #5: Skaters – 20 reps (10 per side)
- Exercise #6: Mountain Climbers – 40 (20 per side)
This workout follows a very similar format to the previous one.
As usual, Kayla wants you to perform all of these different exercises as a circuit. After you are done the last exercise, you can rest for a couple of minutes and then repeat the entire sequence!
As usual, Kayla does a great job of selecting a variety of exercises to train your legs, glutes, and abs. Some of these exercises (like the reverse lunge and hop) are combo exercises that work many different muscle groups at once!
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Kayla Itsines Ab Workouts
Finally let’s take a closer look at some of Kayla Itsines’ favorite ab workouts.
Kayla doesn’t always train her abs on a separate training day. She says if you are following her BBG workouts, then you don’t necessarily need to perform them on their own day.
However, if abs are one of your weak points, then Kayla says that it’s a great idea to train them 1-2 times per week on their own day!
Here is one of Kayla’s bodyweight ab workouts that you can try. Check it out:
Kayla Itsines Ab Workout #1
- Exercise #1: Abs to child’s pose, 3 sets of 10-15 reps
- Exercise #2: Thoracic rotation, 3 sets of 10-15 reps
- Exercise #3: Hip flexor, 3 sets of 10-15 reps
- Exercise #4: Jumping jacks, 3 sets of 10-15 reps
- Exercise #5: Side plank, 3 sets of 10-15 reps
- Exercise #6: Plank jacks, 3 sets of 10-15 reps
- Exercise #7: Bent-leg jackknife, 3 sets of 10-15 reps
- Exercise #8: Criss cross, 3 sets of 10-15 reps
- Exercise #9: Straight leg raise, 3 sets of 10-15 reps
- Exercise #10: X Mountain climbers, 3 sets of 10-15 reps
- Exercise #11: Russian twist, 3 sets of 10-15 reps
- Exercise #12: Half burpee and plank jack, 3 sets of 10-15 reps
- Exercise #13: Alternating X crunch, 3 sets of 10-15 reps
- Exercise #14: High plank, 3 sets of 10-15 reps
Talk about an intense workout!
Unlike the previous few workouts, this routine is NOT designed to be performed as a circuit. Instead, Kayla wants you to perform 1-3 sets of each exercise, rest for a little bit, and then move onto the next movement.
During the workout Kayla uses a wide variety of ab exercises like straight leg raises, X mountain climbers, and Russian twists.
If you are following one of Kayla Itsines’ workout routines, then you know you are in good hands!
Here is another one of Kayla’s ab workouts that you can try. Check it out:
Kayla Itsines Ab Workout #2
- Exercise #1: Planks, 3 sets of 10-15 reps
- Exercise #2: Mountain climbers, 3 sets of 10-15 reps
- Exercise #3: Side plank and hip lift, 3 sets of 10-15 reps
- Exercise #4: Deadbug, 3 sets of 10-15 reps
- Exercise #5: Bent leg jackknife, 3 sets of 10-15 reps
- Exercise #6: Russian twist, 3 sets of 10-15 reps
This workout is much shorter and simpler than the previous one.
Kayla wants you to perform 6 bodyweight exercises for all the different muscles in your core, including your upper abs, lower abs, and obliques.
By the time you finish this workout, your abs will be on fire!
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The Kayla Itsines Diet Plan
Kayla Itsines knows that you need more than just a great workout routine to look and feel your best! You also need to follow a great diet plan.
So what does the Kayla Itsines diet actually look like?
Kayla Itsines eats about 5 times per day. She has breakfast, lunch, and dinner, plus a couple of snacks throughout the day to help with hunger.
Kayla focuses on healthy foods like lean proteins, complex carbs, and plenty of fruits and vegetables at her meals.
Unlike a lot of fitness influencers, Kayla does NOT count her calories each day. Instead, she focuses on making healthy food choices to give her the energy she needs to complete her intense workouts.
Here is the exact diet that Kayla follows:
The Kayla Itsines Diet
Breakfast
- Greek coffee
- Two pieces of toast
- Olive oil
- Anchovies
- Tomatoes
- Olives
Snack
- Tuna on crackers
- Fruit
- Yoghurt
Lunch
- Tuna
- Brown rice
- Tomato
- Cucumber
- Onion
- Olive oil
Snack
- Turkish coffee
- Veggie sticks with dip
Dinner
- Chicken or salmon
- Salad
- Green vegetables
- Bread or rice
Kayla says that she follows the Mediterranean diet, based on her Greek heritage.
She likes to eat lean proteins like chicken and salmon, healthy fats like avocado and olive oil, plus plenty of complex carbs from rice, bread, pasta, and different fruits and vegetables.
“I always make sure I have a side salad with my meal because I want to get my vegetables in.”
This may seem like a lot of food, and it is!
However, Kayla lives a very active lifestyle, so she needs all these healthy foods to fuel her day to day life!
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Conclusion | The Kayla Itsines Workout Routine!
Kayla Itsines is one of the biggest fitness influencers in the world today, and it’s easy to see why.
She performs high-intensity bodyweight workouts that are appropriate for women of all experience levels!
She also focuses on doing fun, joint-friendly workouts that you can perform from the comfort of your own home.
If you are looking for a new workout plan to whip your body into shape, then you have to try the Kayla Itsines workout routine.
It may be just what you need to take your physique to the next level!
