While I was busy running a marathon, trying SoulCycle, and falling in love with Yoga Sculpt, my friends Arushi and Hannah decided to take on Bombshell Fitness’s Transformation Workout Plan for 12 whole weeks this summer. Optimized to help women get ready for bodybuilding competitions, the Transformation Workout Plan has been featured on Muscle and Fitness and a number of other fitness outlets. I loved hearing about their experience this summer.
My name is Arushi, and I am incredibly excited to write for Rosana’s blog! This summer, my friend, Hannah and I tried The Transformation Workout Plan. This is a workout plan lasting 5 days a week for 12 weeks. It has a carefully designed lifting schedule for each week, as well as two cardio workouts (biking and running). It also comes with an optional Transformation Meal Plan that assigns set meals for everyday.
Hannah and I decided to use our summer to follow these intense workout and meal plans, especially because we would have significantly more free time for the three-hour-long daily workouts, and significantly less stress to tempt us to break the diet.
Week 1:
Beginning this crazily regimented meal plan was harder than we could have imagined. Every meal was dull and excessively filling. Breakfast, my favorite meal of the day, had been reduced to four egg whites, fruit, and oatmeal without any fun toppings. As the week went on, we realized that none of the meals were exceptionally exciting to eat for either of us, because we had to eat the same meals every single day with just one cheat meal each week. Nonetheless, this was only the first week, and we were determined to stick to this meal plan.
Before starting this week’s workouts, we discussed what changes we wanted to see in ourselves by the end of the 12 weeks. Both of us wanted to become stronger, of course, but we were specifically interested in toning our arms, core, and legs.
Hannah and I started off week 1 with soreness and pain. Lifting on Monday (leg day) and Thursday (plyometrics) was brutal, and we were new to almost every machine at the gym.
Cardio was even worse. The 50-minute workouts were already more than what we were used to doing on a daily basis, and this was before accounting for the 90 minutes of crazy lifting that preceded our daily cardio.
We were sore everyday, and only dragged ourselves to the gym because we didn’t want to let each other down. My arms hurt when I woke up to brush my teeth, they hurt when I tried to tie my hair up, and my legs hurt when I climbed even the shortest flight of stairs. I was almost convinced this 12 week plan would not be sustainable, and I went into week 2 with much uncertainty.
Weeks 2-4:
Somehow, the workouts became easier.
We were increasing the weights we used, but we felt significantly less sore than we did in week 1. We didn’t have to forcefully drag our sore butts to the gym anymore or feel as tempted to stop halfway. We didn’t feel like dying after doing cardio anymore either. Leg day still sucked, but it hurt a lot less.
We made it fun for ourselves too- we treated ourselves to music while lifting, used our mid-workout 1 minute intervals to update each other on our lives, and started listening to audiobooks or watching Netflix during cardio. Sometimes, when the treadmill would bring us down, we’d run to Lake Michigan instead and enjoy the beautiful view. Bottom line is that each passing week made the workouts easier.
The meal plan went the other way, though. Mid-cardio, we started to text each other things like “Want to go eat out after? FOR SALAD, I PROMISE!”. The thought of eating the meal plan’s white fish and asparagus spears after working our butts off at the gym was just upsetting.
I could blame Fourth of July weekend for making us indulge in cheat meals more, but in reality, we were tired of eating the same, unforgiving meals everyday. We realized by the end of week 4 that following the meal plan only made us cheat more because we hated it so much. So, we decided to let go of this optional component of The Transformation Plan, and decided to eat healthy in our own way.
Weeks 5-8
After our realization in week 4, we successfully modified the meal plan to make it suit our personal needs. As a result, we were happier and were also eating better. Cheat meals were still a thing, but they were a lot less frequent now.
We tracked the weights we used for each exercise from our first day up to this point, and noticed that we were lifting by several more pounds now. We also didn’t have to look up “narrow stance hack squat” or “dumbbell kickbacks” on our phones anymore. Our bodies looked and felt better, and anything less than our current workout wouldn’t feel like a workout at all.
We realized, however, that the workout plan did not include ab exercises, probably because the cardio is rigorous in itself. However, one of our initial goals was to work our cores, so we added our own little component to our routine. Our college gym holds 15-minute ab workout classes every other day, and these aligned perfectly with our workout times. Some days, we just did our own quick ab workouts at home.
Home stretch- Week 9 onwards:
This was the hardest part of our workout plan. This week marked the end of my internship, which meant that Hannah and I would be in different cities for the rest of the summer. We made it so far because we supported each other when one of us felt too tired or lazy to go on. This would be the final test.
Turns out, The Transformation Workout Plan transformed more than just our bodies- it transformed our outlook on health and fitness. Working out by ourselves was a lot easier than we expected because we were now physically and mentally strong enough to independently continue this routine. In fact, we intend to continue on as far as possible even after the 12 weeks are up.
Whether or not you intend to follow this plan, the takeaway is that continuing a workout and meal plan that is good for you, no matter how challenging, will help you achieve that better lifestyle you intend to eventually start living. You just need to be headstrong, and it will become an important part of your routine before you know it.
Huge thanks to Arushi and Hannah for taking on this incredible project this summer. Often women think that purposefully building muscle will make them look bulky, but Arushi and Hannah were able to get the tone they were looking for without those effects. You can follow Arushi on Instagram @inarushi.
Have you tried the Transformation Workout? Do you lift?
This post is part of my series I’m now calling Do You Even Lift, Ro?, where I try different exercise programs and review them on the blog! What workout should I try next? Let me know on Instagram @xoxorosana.blog
Xoxo, Rosana
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