Until trying out Boss Shape & Burn, we had never thought about following a 12-week plan. Well, not one so complete as this one anyway.
Sometimes it’s hard enough just knowing what the hell to do in the gym. Especially when there’s so much information on what fancy exercise we need to be doing and what ancient Himalayan super-food we MUST eat.
So, when spotted Boss Shape & Burn, the first thing we noticed was it’s overall simplicity. Finally! Something we could understand without a Sports Science diploma and realistically try out.
At first 12 weeks seemed like a long time. But, when we saw everything broken down into bite-size guides, it totally felt manageable.
This made Boss Shape & Burn stand out from the get-go. Rather than feel overwhelmed, we quickly became inspired.
Plus, the handy nutrition guide helped us a lot. It was great to be lead through what to eat and when, which is something a lot of transformation plans miss out.
What Boss Shape & Burn did for us:
What Boss Shape & Burn didn’t do for us:
First of all, this isn’t just a workout plan, it’s a lifestyle plan too. So, if you’re looking for us to promise you a quick fix, you’re in the wrong place. Sorry girls.
Boss Shape & Burn is an entire transformation plan based around 12 weeks of optimized diet and exercise. It was tough at times, but nothing good in life ever came easy.
Plus, once you start to see the body you’ve been striving for start to take shape in the mirror, it’s totally worth it. Eventually, we began to feel the same sort of excitement for working out that grabs you when you first start to get into fitness.
But, that’s easy for us to say, right? We’ve been hitting the gym for a long time and we’ve seen a lot of these exercises before. Meaning the question stands…
Well, the truth is, it actually doesn’t matter. The team of experts at boss behind the workouts have designed them to benefit any and all body types.
If you struggle to maintain weight, phase 1 will help you to build lean muscle first. But, if you’re somebody who battles with excess body-fat, phases 2 & 3 will help solve this.
The whole programme favors compound lifts over isolated exercises, meaning serious torching of calories.
Boss Shape & Burn might be the answer for you if you’re a girl who wants to:
One thing to remember about Boss Shape & Burn is it is designed to empower us ladies by helping us achieve our dream bodies. It is not a trendy tool marketed by men (or women for that matter) promising to make us skinny! (Eugh)
So, if you’re having visions of slaving away on a treadmill for hours then guess again, girl. Weight training provides the basis of each session to help us sculpt and shape our natural structure. Fun cardio sessions are also featured as an optional extra, to help improve results and keep things fresh.
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The real question is though, how does it actually work? Well, luckily for us everything was laid out clearly and easy to understand. So, we’ll give you the low down:
Now we’ve got an understanding of the “what”, let’s take a look at the “how”. By breaking down how Boss Shape & Prime helped us reach our goals.
Niki Zager and the team at Boss have designed the entire programme to focus intently on the posterior and lower body. We found this approach to be refreshing and miles apart from other cookie-cutter workouts. Plus, the DOMS were definitely worth it for a fuller rounder butt.
We also loved the fact that the upper body exercises used were obviously put in with the fit physique in mind.
They didn’t feel like stereotypical bodybuilding movements thrown in there for padding. Which, if you’ve ever ignorantly dragged a free plan off the internet, you’ll know what we’re talking about.
However, one thing we did notice was a lower number of distinct core exercises! When we imagined working for a flat and toned tummy we expected a bunch of ab crunches and planking. So, understandably we were a little confused to not see many in there.
After a little research into the multi-muscle group exercises Niki has implemented into the workout, we learned there wasn’t much need for add-on ab stuff. This is because the experts at Boss specifically included a bunch of compound exercises that seriously challenged the core.
| Phase One | Phase Two | Phase 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Goals | Lift & Tone | Strength & Curves | Blast & Build |
| Focus | Build a foundation of strength and shape to tone. | Adds extra shape and toned muscle to the right places (butt, legs, abs etc.) | Burn away remaining body fat, revealing your hard earned figure and definition |
| Frequency | 3x per week (+ optional cardio) | 4x per week (+ optional cardio) | 4x per week (+ optional cardio) |
| Volume | Lower volume | Higher volume | Higher volume |
As you can see in the table, the team at Boss have designed the program to get progressively more intense as time goes on. This is a technique used by professional athletes all over the globe as a way of building muscle in a planned and purposeful way. If you’ve ever heard the term ‘Linear Periodization’, this is what people are talking about.
The compound movements kept things fun and we loved the fact we didn’t have waste an evening painstakingly jogging in the ‘fat burning zone’. Instead, we were burning fat simply by moving weights around.
One thing that stood out to us was how much Shape & Burn really hit hard with compound movements. By using multi-muscle movements like squats, lunges, and presses we really got our heart rates going.
We’re not going to pretend we weren’t a little sore for the first week or two. After all, we hadn’t really worked the lower body like that in a while. But, once we started perfecting our technique everything got easier.
Phase Two is Strength & Curves. This is where we started to notice a difference in our shape, especially when it came to our butts! All of a sudden the DOMS started to pay off.
Introducing a higher frequency and volume made the workouts harder. But, by week five we’d already helped set a pretty good foundation of strength and fitness, which we achieved in Phase One.
Also, we’d got a hang of using our training log, helping us keep track of what we were actually lifting! Seeing the numbers go up each week made us feel empowered, even if the supersets did leave us in a puddle of sweat!
We could see our muscle definition starting to peak through and we surprising felt less bulky than we had expected.
Week nine kind of felt like we were on the home straight. Even if we still had four weeks to go!
This was because we’d felt a shift in our mentality, which in hindsight we’d credit to the constant support we received. Referring back to the Training Guide and clicking through Niki’s helpful videos became part of our daily routine at this point.
By the end of week 12, we couldn’t believe the overall transformation we’d made. When you workout for an extended period of time, say a few months, it’s hard to notice how big a change you’ve actually made. Especially when you see yourself every day!
So, when we caught a photo of ourselves from three months before we couldn’t quite believe it. If you’re going to give Boss Shape & Burn a go, definitely grab a selfie before you start. #motivation
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One thing that sets Boss Shape & Burn apart from other transformation plans out there is its overall completeness. Well, that and it’s incredible value for money.
Nowhere else will you be able to get an entire workout plan and nutrition guide for the same price. If you were to source the same level of information from a personal trainer, for example, you’d be looking at a seriously steep price tag.
How does upwards of $2,400 sound? Yeah, we’d rather send a one-off $90 fee to Boss for unlimited anytime access to our own private account.
Plus, we doubt your personal trainer will want to show you how to safely perform a dumbbell swing at 01:30 am or help you track your macros during their lunch hour.
Starting in 2019, you can now subscribe to Boss Workouts, Netflix style, and access their entire range for just $9,95/£7,50 per month with no obligation.
This also includes all of their other workout plans (Lean Mass, Shred & Shape and Burn).
When you look at the overall package contents, this is ridiculously good value. There’s nothing on the market currently which provides more bang per dollar.
Within our Boss Shape & Burn package we received the following:
Our interactive trainer for the 12 week period was Niki Zager.
A fitness model, bikini competitor and fully certified personal trainer, who helped design the whole program.
It was great having a seasoned pro in our corner who’s accolades include:
We found Niki’s guidance and enthusiasm extremely infectious. Her little go get’em motivational speeches really got our butts moving on the days when we didn’t want to work out.
Not only that, but her in-depth breakdowns of each exercise made us feel totally in control. Sometimes when you follow workout plans purely by photo or text it’s hard to know if you’re nailing the technique. But, with video guidance, this was so much easier.
Having Niki to call upon made us feel safe to push ourselves harder. Which we’re sure helped to improve our results.
The easy to follow Shape and Burn nutrition guide was put together by leading fitness expert Lee Bell.
At first, we weren’t too sure if the guide would be for us, as we aren’t overly keen on things that are too sciency or overly complex. (Yawn)
Fortunately for us, we found the guide to be neither of those things. We’d say a certain level of nutrition knowledge would help to speed things up, but it isn’t essential.
We found Lee’s style of writing and way of explaining things interesting. So, instead of being the battle we first expected, we’d got to grips with our macros and complete proteins in no time.
The recipe’s included also surprised us. Typically, when we try to pick up a “healthy” recipe online, there’s a whole bunch of crazy things thrown we’ve never even heard of.
When we opened the ones up from Boss and saw food we could actually make and still want to eat. Which is a massive thumbs up to the team because frankly, we don’t have time to search around Whole Foods for hours every day!
Inevitably, as with all things, there are a few downsides. Fortunately for Boss, there isn’t anything that stands out to us as a major put-off.
However, we did notice a thing or two that should be mentioned:
Because each session was planned out for us it was really easy to stay on track.
Also, because we didn’t have to literally spend unrealistic hours in the gym, we didn’t struggle to find the time to work out. If you’re after results but have to go to your day job and actually “live” like the rest of us, go for Boss.
The thing that sold us most on Boss Shape & Prime was the unbelievable amount of content we got for our money. Having Niki available on-demand was awesome too! She felt like our own personal trainer because, in a way, she really was.
We’re not gonna lie, we thought the price tag was off-putting at first. But, once we broke down the worth of the whole package we changed our mind. $90 for essentially a whole workout schedule, tuition, nutrition guide and periodization plan is an absolute steal! Better than thousands of dollars in PT fees.
Finally, the most important factor will always be that the plan worked. We started seeing changes in our body near the end of week four, and the transformation didn’t stop. We’re so glad we actually committed our time to Boss and trusted their expert guidance.
We honestly couldn’t have wished for better results!
Subscribe now from just $9,95/£7,50 per month (cancel any time)
This post was last modified on Jan 19, 2021 12:04 pm
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