Kayla Itsines is getting her arms ready for summer. In a new social media post the fitness trainer and influencer flaunts her amazingly fit arms while demonstrating an effective at-home workout. “Exercises to get your arms burning!!” she captioned the post. “Girl!! You killed it!!” commented one of her followers. “Amazing arms work but also core strength loaded🔥” added another. How does the fitness pro approach diet, fitness, and self-care? Here is everything you need to know about her lifestyle habits and all the details about her arm burning workout.
Kayla’s eating habits are consistent. “My diet hasn’t really changed much over the course of my career,” she recently told Women’s Health. She doesn’t count calories, restrict herself, or follow a specific diet plan. “I do not recommend trying to follow ‘diet trends’ that you don’t enjoy, I don’t think that restricting what you eat is a sustainable way to live. Once I tried to cut down my carbs to support Tobi (he was on a diet for a bodybuilding competition) and… it did not end well lol. I was craving sugar and junk food that I never usually like to eat!!” she added in an Instagram post.
Kayla eats according to the Mediterranean diet – lots of fresh fruit and vegetables, meat, fish, pasta, olive oil, lemon juice, and oregano. “I grew up in a Greek family in which food is the most important thing in the whole world,” she told Women’s Health. “As a rule, I don’t think about what I need to eliminate from my diet. Rather than cutting things out, I would add good things in.”
Kayla doesn’t advocate a no-carbs diet. “Complex carbs like wholemeal bread, brown rice, quinoa or wholemeal pasta can provide your body with great nutrients and keep you fuller for longer. So you need to find what works for YOU, but don’t be afraid to include carbs as part of your diet!” she wrote on Instagram.
Kayla doesn’t skip her morning meal. “I usually wake up hungry, so the first thing I want to do is eat, not train,” she told Women’s Health. “I want to make sure that I have enough fuel in my body to be able to work out.” Her first meal of the day is “probably going to sound disgusting,” she said. It is “two pieces of toast with olive oil, anchovies, tomato, and olives on them.”
Kayla eats home most of the week but dines out on the weekend. “I go out for breakfast every Saturday morning with my family and I order this dish every. single. time,” she told Women’s Health.
Kaylla’s method, High Intensity with Kayla Itsines program, consists of short but effective workouts. “I designed High Intensity with Kayla to help women everywhere achieve their fitness goals in workouts that require minimal equipment and only 28 minutes of your time — I wanted my program to be FLEXIBLE for women who have busy lives,” she says on her website. There is lots of research backing up the benefits of HIIT workouts, including body fat reduction, improved cardiovascular function, and mental health. It is also time effective. She also abides by progressive overload: As you progress and your fitness improves, the workouts become more challenging so that you can continue to achieve results.
Here is Kayla’s arm workout, which she recommends doing three rounds of:
✔️ Push Up – 15 reps
✔️ X Plank – 15 reps
✔️ Commando – 15 reps
✔️ Shoulder Tap – 15 reps