Personal info
Known for

Influencer

Gender

Female

Birthday

21 May

Location

South Australia, Australia

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Kayla Itsines

Biography

Kayla Itsines (/ɪtˈsiːnəs/ it-SEE-nəs;[3] born 21 May 1991) is an Australian personal trainer, author, and entrepreneur with Greek heritage. 

 

She is the creator of a series of fitness ebooks titled Bikini Body Guides, and a meal-planning and workout app, Sweat with Kayla. In 2016, Sweat with Kayla generated more revenue than any other fitness app.

 

In March 2016, Time named Itsines one of the 30 most influential people on the Internet, noting her success at leveraging social media to promote her brand. As of October 2016, Itsines had eight million followers on Facebook and 12.5 million on Instagram.

 

Itsines traces her interest in fitness to playing basketball and other sports. She recalls being initially intimidated and overwhelmed by the gym until a personal trainer encouraged her to "just start somewhere".

 

 Finding that she enjoyed how the workouts made her feel, she abandoned her original plans to become a beauty therapist graduating from the Australian Institute of Fitness at the age of 18 as a Master Trainer.

 

Itsines found work at a women's gym in Adelaide. Itsines came to believe that most women seek three specific outcomes from training: smaller inner thighs, flatter abdomens, and more toned arms, while also being concerned about becoming too bulky.

 

She also started training her sister's friends who wanted to improve their fitness so they could play Netball on their high school team, focusing on building core strength and powerful legs. She lectured them on nutrition and asked them to take before-and-after photos of themselves to track their progress.

 

 Itsines' 12-year-old cousin suggested using Instagram as a way of organizing the photos. Within a few months, Itsines gained thousands of followers and was receiving regular requests for advice and help. 

 

Her ex-fiancé Tobi Pearce, suggested that she compile her routines into ebooks that could be sold online. In March 2013, they founded the Bikini Body Training Company with Itsines as director and Pearce as CEO.

 

 The following January, they published the first two Bikini Body Guides, with Itsines' workouts in one volume, and nutrition information from dieticians Julie Dundon and Anne Schneyder of Nutrition Professionals Australia in another.

 

 Itsines would later offer the guides via an affiliate program as well.  By October, the guides had been downloaded over one million times.