Week four consisted of sunburn, trouble sleeping and packing in too much for Tessa and Tina. Photos / Supplied, Instagram
A quarter of the way through Kayla Itsines' 12 Week Bikini Body Guide, Tina learns the hard way why you can't pack all your workouts into one weekend and Tessa has a new battle: Insomnia.
Here's how our challengers are coping in Week Four of #thekaylamovement:
Weekends are for catching up: Catching up with friends, catching up on sleep and catching up with Kayla workouts.
Maybe not so much the last one, as I learned this past weekend.
Last week, I didn't get a Friday workout in. I wanted to tie up loose ends at work before we met friends for some delicious Japanese takeout, so the time I would have spent working out was taken up by the bus commute. So I figured: I'll just do two-a-day on Saturday and Sunday.
Saturday's two-a-day was fine: Arms and abs first (involving many, many ab bikes), then a brisk walk around Auckland's Kohimarama. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday.
On Sunday, I had a full body workout and some cardio, but, I didn't factor in that I wanted to try out this one-off 600 rep leg challenge. (OK, I didn't want to try it, but I did want to experience #thekaylamovement and the Sweat app as much as I could.)
So that left three workouts for me to finish on Sunday: 600 leg reps, a full body workout, and a low-impact cardio one.
Three workouts in one day is idiotic. I should have never let them pile up. Here's why:
That 600 leg rep workout is basically another 30-40 minute strength workout. It entails a wider variety of old-hat moves and the introduction of a bunch of new plyometric moves - moves that require me to summon all my energy, body weight, and will to complete another rep. Oh, yes, I would love to jump and move all my bodily kilos to a new location and land in a squat - multiple times.
I wonder if the 600 rep leg challenge is the way Team Kayla is introducing how tough the workout is going to get in February. With the number of tuck jumps and squat jumps involved in the challenge, I had to take a several breaks to walk around the backyard - otherwise my legs would collapse like melted jelly. The workout definitely made me pant, and the main motivation I had to finish it was the cold shower I was to going to have once I was done.
After the 600 awful-rep awful-challenge, I mentally prepped myself to do the other strength workout that afternoon and some yoga at night. I didn't enjoy the second strength session, but at least it didn't have any crazy jumping moves. And yoga at the end of the day was a nice way to wind down.
As I write this blog post from bed the morning after, I can report that my limbs feel like lead bars and that I'd like to lump in bed for the rest of the day. Let me share this now: Multiple workouts a day will lead to burnout. I'll consider my lack of energy to move as a reminder and a lesson to take #thekaylamovement one workout at a time.
How I'm feeling: Like a lump. A stationary lump. I mean, I'll be able to take on this week's workouts, but I'd rather not think about them right now.
Favourite tunes: Hot 8 Brass Band on Pandora (Google Hot 8 Brass Band, Sexual Healing. It'll blow your mind)
Favourite exercise: None. I'd like to stay horizontal in bed for a while, please.
Least favourite exercise: Ab bikes. Or really, all the exercises.
Week four. I've really made it this far. In all honesty, it's been no mean feat. As I've mentioned previously balancing work, part-time studies, social life and exercise is not an easy task. Oh and then TRYING to get a good night's sleep. Say hello to this week's issue of What Tessa's Complaining About.
Please try and take this lightly, I know there are new mothers out there running off 33 minutes of undisturbed sleep, and shift-workers whose body clocks are so messed up they don't know they're Mi Goreng from their Maggi instant noodles. But no sleep is such a struggle!
After an intense long weekend - which included severely frying myself in 29-degree heat (no SPF sunblock on. Yes, I deserved it), numerous alcoholic beverages and a large helping of brioche French toast - I thought come Monday evening my body might have given up. Um, nope. There was no way it was letting me get to sleep before 1am.
Apparently 11.45pm is a great time to start thinking about all the things you have to do for the week, including week four of Kayla Itsines' BBG. Which, may I add, has approximately 200 jump lunges in the three HIIT sessions - what!? You cannot tell me that, THAT is not enough to keep you from sleeping. At least the pins (a cool name for legs) will continue to tone and hopefully get me that little bit closer to having a replica of Gigi Hadid's butt.
So come 5:30am this morning when my alarm went off, I couldn't simply pull myself out of bed. By 7am, disappointed and bleary-eyed, I rose and sadly packed my gym bag for a 9pm torture session, after dinner at Nana's. All the while keeping in mind that I'll be up at 5:30am tomorrow morning for my first LISS session of the week.
Moral of the story: Take the next long weekend lightly, stress less, sleep more and get up when your alarm tells you to.
Last week, my LISS sessions consisted of two "om" sessions, a.k.a yoga, at Studio Red and leisurely swimming at Tawharanui beach. Some of you may like to suggest that doggy paddling around the beach isn't actually a low-intensity steady state workout. Well, I'll have you know I'm probably one of the only 20-year-olds in New Zealand that cannot swim properly. And by that I mean I almost failed Year 10 P.E because I couldn't swim laps in under six minutes. So yep, it's a LISS session for me.
I don't have a mid-workout photo this week, my mind has obviously been too "in-the-game" during work out sessions. However, you may appreciate that photo of my sun-severed body after four hours in the Kiwi summer heat.
How I'm feeling:Tired. In case you weren't aware. But I've lost four kilos after finding some scales on the weekend - woo! I'm not one to weigh myself as I think it can be slightly unrepresentative (due to putting on muscle which weighs more than fat) but hey, I'll go with it.
Workout music: Fast Car Radio Edit by Jonas Blue LISS sessions and 212 by Azealia Banks for HIIT sessions.
Favourite exercise: Sumo squats, because you actually feel like a sumo.
Least favourite exercise: Ab bikes, like cycling but I'm on my back - which is better than being on my feet.
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