Last Saturday afternoon, upward of 4,000 women gathered at a sports center in New York City to break a sweat with Kayla Itsines, the Australian fitness star behind the wildly popular Bikini Body Guides (BBG).
The full house should come as no surprise: Kayla boasts an international Instagram following that's more than 5.3 million strong — and largely female, as her fitness program, which promises a bikini body, simply isn't designed to appeal to men.
Nonetheless, Eric Pratt, a 30-year-old web developer who lives in Boston, showed up for the workout wearing a BBG Boston T-shirt.
Besides Kayla's boyfriend Tobi (above), BBG's co-creator, Eric was the only man besides to attend the massive NYC meet-up. Curious about him, Cosmopolitan.com spoke to Eric to find out what he's all about.
There's no question BBG is marketed toward women. How did you get involved in the first place?
The Bikini Body Guides are clearly meant for women who want to shape specific parts of the body, so I was a little hesitant to get involved at first. But I wanted to gain a little more muscle to look and feel healthier, and develop a sustainable strength-training routine — and every single male-oriented program I found online felt too impersonal, aggressive, unforgiving of failure, and likely to trigger body-image issues.
When I stumbled upon Kayla's Instagram, her message seemed very different. As a bisexual, stereotypical gender roles have always seemed antiquated to me. So I downloaded a free BBG workout from Kayla's website and realized it featured the same basic push-ups, squats, lunges, and jumps in every fitness program. That was two years ago. Now I use BBG to guide my workouts about two to three times a week.
I don't follow the diet plan, but healthy eating is something I've gotten down pretty well. BBG has also been the most sustainable and effective cure for my depression yet, and I'm truly thankful for that.
What was it about BBG workouts that helped you?
I had never been officially diagnosed nor have I ever taken any medication for depression, but there's no doubt it was a giant issue in college, which was a very dark time for me as I came close to ending my life twice. I was a late bloomer, had never had a girlfriend at that point, and as college came to a close, I was feeling an increased desperation that this was the best opportunity in my life to find someone, and due to shyness and social awkwardness, it just wasn't happening. I also went to an engineering school that had mostly male students, which didn't help.
After college, I moved to Boston for work and worked very hard at overcoming my social anxiety. I made friends and started dating, and that helped a lot. But I still struggled to find the motivation to work out regularly.
When I discovered BBG, it was a combination of factors that helped: For the first time in my life, I wasn't fueling my workouts with anger and frustration at not being good enough or popular enough or sexy enough. I was fueling them from a more positive place of determination to work for my happiness and the knowledge that I wasn't alone.
Finding so many people who were drawn to the same healthy lifestyle I was working to build for myself helped me realize that there were so many girls still out there in the world for me — that there was no reason for me to feel desperate to find someone.
What made you trek all the way from Boston for the event?
Last fall, I decided to go to a monthly BBG meet-up in the Boston because I'd been looking for friends who were as into fitness and healthy eating as I was. I was nervous the women wouldn't want me there and spent the night studying Kayla trivia to prove I was a legit fan, not some random dude looking to crash the party.
The meet-ups made me feel like I was a part of something, and I've been to almost every one since. I've met so many amazing people including the person I'm currently dating. We were all over it when we heard Kayla was holding a boot camp in New York City. I remember waiting by my computer and not being able to concentrate at work the day the tickets went on sale.
Why are you such a big fan of Kayla? Is it because her program worked for you, or is there any attraction there?
I'm not someone who crushes on celebrities, but I have great respect for Kayla and Tobi and what they've created. Obviously they're both very good-looking, and they seem very happy together! But just because someone is hot, it doesn't mean he or she is a good match for me.
How did you feel about being the only guy at the meet-up of 4,000 women? Did you get any strange reactions from other women at the meet-up?
I was a little nervous I wouldn't get in. But I had a ticket, and I came with a group of women who said they'd make sure I would.
I definitely got some what's-he-doing-here looks from girls at the NYC boot camp, or at least looks that gave me that impression.
I'm super conscious of the fact that BBG is the largest female fitness movement in the world and in history, as Tobi said during his speech at the meet-up. To the extent that guys can support it, and cheer it on, or even join the women in their life as they work to stay fit, healthy, and strong — I think it's great. I'm proud to be a part of it.
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Elizabeth Narins is a Brooklyn, NY-based writer and a former senior editor at Cosmopolitan.com, where she wrote about fitness, health, and more. Follow her at @ejnarins.
