If you do Kayla Itsines’ workouts at home alone, there’s a Charlotte social group for you

The Bikini Body Guide (hate the name, love the workouts) is available as a PDF ($69.97) or as an interactive app ($19.99/month) and consists of 12 weeks of workouts you can do at home (with minimal equipment) or in the gym.

I know what you’re thinking: What does this have to do with Charlotte? Turns out lots of Charlotte women follow the guides (there are three 12-week plans as well as nutrition guides) and I met up to work out with 30+ of them a few weeks ago.

I started doing Kayla’s BBG workouts in December 2014. I’d carve out my own little corner at the Dowd Y and knock out the 28-minute routine for the day. I love that it’s short, effective and all laid out for me. Before long, I started to recognize when other women – heads down, headphones in – were moving through the same signature 4-round, 7-minute circuits.

I eventually flagged down one of my workout comrades, introduced myself, exchanged Instagram handles and made a friend. And we’re not alone in forging connections by way of this online workout guide. In fact, she introduced me to KI BBG NC (Kayla Itsines Bikini Body Guide North Carolina), a Facebook page where women all over the state connect and plan group workouts.

After more than a year of doing the Kayla workouts on my own, I finally met up with the Charlotte BBG crew at their last workout in Freedom Park.

Despite usually being a lone wolf, I’ve found the last year of solo workouts to be excessively isolating even for me so I was excited to ride the energy of the group.

A byproduct of Kayla’s enormous online reach is that some followers of her guides become insta-celebs in their own right, especially if Kayla features one of your transformation photos on her feed. And they go on to plan live events in their home cities all over the world.

The Charlotte workout was hosted by two local Charlotte BBG girls with big followings of their own: Erin (@queencitybbg, 24.5K followers) and Macy (@macys_fitlife, 40.2K followers).

Here’s a look at the workout from the last Charlotte meetup:

I did BBG 1.0 and 2.0 back to back last year for 6 months straight and felt (and looked) like I was in the best shape of my life.

I took some time off to do other workouts after that but have just recently started the full six months over again, mostly inspired by the Charlotte BBG meetup group.

The pros of Kayla’s workouts for me are: cost (I paid for the PDF guides once and just keep using them), flexibility (I can work out when and where I want), effectiveness (I feel like I really get stronger doing this). Cons are: lack of professional guidance (you’re on your own), motivation (again, you’re on your own), repetitiveness (all the workouts are different but they start to feel the same) and isolation.

If you’ve been doing the BBG workouts all alone and are feeling bored, the Charlotte meetup group is for you. Request permission to join the KI BBG NC Facebook group for details on the next Charlotte meetup on April 17.