Bikini Fit review – Hong Kong’s premier girls only fitness regime

If your daily commute takes you through Hong Kong Park in the mornings and you’ve recently noticed a group of girls being shouted at by a menacing-looking Australian man, I just wanted to let you know that there’s no need to report him to the police. If you’ve seen the same girls running full pelt up a hill away from said man, please don’t panic.

Those girls are actually willingly running up hills while the man shouts at them. In fact, they’re paying the man for the pleasure! Those girls are the Bikini Fit Girls and that man is the (actually quite nice in real life) head trainer of Bikini Fit, Alex de Fina.

Bikini Fit is Hong Kong’s premier girls-only fitness programme; each programme lasts ten weeks and provides you with all the tools to get into the best shape of your life. We’re talking access to six bootcamp sessions a week, fortnightly health and nutrition workshops, detailed eating plans and 24/7 support from the Bikini Fit team via a private Facebook community. Sounds like it’s going to cost a fortune right? Wrong. You get all that for just $695 a week – that’s cheaper than one personal trainer session at most gyms in Central.

Whether you’re a complete novice, are stuck in fitness rut or if your current regime isn’t providing the desired results, Bikini Fit is the perfect way to kick start a new fitter healthier you.

So far, so sales brochure patter… but what you really want to know is what it involves and whether it gets results. Sassy Girls at your service! Not one, not two, but four of us have been getting up at the crack of dawn, donning our best Lulu Lemon gear and sweating it out to bring you the skinny while hopefully getting skinnier!

I signed up to Bikini Fit’s very first programme back in October last year and I can hand on heart say that not only am I now in the best shape I’ve ever been, but I’ve also met a whole new group of great girls who I genuinely enjoy working out with and look forward to seeing in the mornings. After completing the first programme, I signed straight up for the next two. Yup, I’m a glutton for Bikini Fit punishment!

So am I a mega fit gym robot? Errrr… no! As a child, I was the P.E. hater who was always last to be chosen for sports teams. As an adult, I’m the girl that drags herself to the gym solely so she can eat nice things and still fit into skinny jeans. At the end of last year, I was in a bit of a fitness rut. Despite spending 45 minutes running on the treadmill three times a week and trying to eat healthily, I didn’t seem to be losing any weight and my legs were the only part of my body that had any muscle definition. Enter a shiny new girls-only bootcamp programme promising to shake things up. I signed on the dotted line quicker than you can say ‘Muffin Top’!

On my first day, I felt the same old P.E. apprehension. Would the other girls all be better than me? Would they laugh at me? Would they be mean? Approximately two minutes later, my worries melted away as I arrived at Hong Kong Park to be greeted by a group of girls all looking exactly the same as I felt! Group apprehension soon turned into group exhaustion after Alex took us through 50 minutes of squats, push-ups and stair sprints. And it turns out that nothing bonds a group of girls quicker than mass loathing of your sadistic trainer!

When my alarm jolted me awake at 6am the next morning, I was sorely tempted to turn over and go back to sleep, but then I remembered that it was yoga and everyone knows that yoga’s the easiest type of exercise around… Just over an hour later as I contorted my body into a pretzel shape while sweat trickled down my forehead, I began to rethink my attitude!

By Wednesday morning, my body ached and I was craving a lie-in but knowing that one of the girls had been on a date the night before and dying to find out all the goss, I hauled myself out of bed. Trainers on, I trotted down to the Park where the date lowdown was accompanied by 50 minutes of TRX and kettle bell thrusts.

Despite the sore muscles and early mornings, I made it through each workout that week, and by Saturday morning I was springing out of bed to head to boxing down by the harbour front (yes, there are six bootcamps a week – bye bye vodka jellies at 3am on a Friday night…).

Over the following weeks I did miss the odd bootcamp – Hong Kong’s busy and we still have to live our lives. But when I was being slack and lazy, the other girls would ask where I was, spurring me to get back in gear the next day. And when I had to go on a week’s work trip, Alex posted daily workouts for me on the Facebook group after I sent him iPhone pics of the kit available in the hotel gym.

The meal plans and nutrition workshops give you sound guidelines for ditching bad eating habits and ideas for getting back on the right track. The general gist is lots of protein, lots of leafy green vegetables and no alcohol. While this may sound boring, once you understand the science behind it, you’re a lot more likely to swap that stack of toast and jam for a plate of scrambled eggs and avocado… plus when you have a 7am tabata training session, Wednesday night cocktails don’t seem quite so appealing!

At the end of the first programme, I was 6kg lighter with a flatter stomach and generally feeling much more energetic and bright. I may have undone a little of my good work over Christmas, but after the holidays, I was straight back into it. Achey muscles aside, it’s been pretty painless getting back into the Bikini Fit routine – possibly helped by the fact that a band of the old Bikini Girls stuck with the programme, as well as a whole raft of new girls joining too.

I love breaking out of exercising in an air-conditioned room (and particularly enjoy the Saturday sessions which are at various locations around Central); the fact that no two sessions are the same keeps me interested and my body guessing.  A great alternative to traditional workout regimes, I plan to ditch my old training routine and stick with Bikini Fit from programme to programme. But if you’re just after a short sharp shock or need to get into a wedding dress this summer, the rolling ten-week programmes mean that it’s also perfect for you. As for the rest of Team Sassy – Sophie ‘never knew HK looked so beautiful early in the morning… even when you’re in pain lifting power bags and kettle bells’, Emma can see her abs again and Charlotte’s regained her fitness mojo. Success all round!

If you’re reading this thinking that it sounds interesting, I can’t urge you enough to stop thinking about it and sign up. After all who doesn’t love being shouted at by a menacing-looking Australian man at 7am?!

Bikini Fit costs $695 per week, for the duration of each programme. Registrations for the next programme, which runs from 18 February until 20 April, are open now – register here!

Monday to Friday sessions are held at Hong Kong Park (7-7.45am), whilst Saturday sessions move around Hong Kong.

www.bikinifit.com.hk

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