I recently began Kayla Itsines’s "Bikini Body Guides." If you have never heard of it before, it is a workout guide meant to make you stronger and fit. Since I can’t even do three pushups without collapsing to the ground with sweat dripping on my face, I figured it was about time I get into shape, considering I have nothing else to do this summer. The guides warn that you must have at least a “very basic level of cardio fitness.” I decide that since I walked 10,000 steps four days prior to starting my workout journey, I have achieved this very basic level, even if only once. Without this basic level, the guide warns that the user could feel “slight dizziness” after the first few workouts. These workouts are very intimidating, but looking at a variety of real people’s results on the @kayla_itsines Instagram makes the workouts seem worth it.

I started the guides last Monday, with the week one Monday workout. There are two circuits that you do twice each, for a total of about 28 minutes. I was feeling pretty good the first round of the first circuit. Slight dizziness? I thought. Yeah, right. I’m a workout pro.

I was flying through the squats and lunges, then took a 30-second break between circuits. Moving onto circuit two, I was feeling really energized and thought to myself, Wow, if these 12 weeks are really this easy, I’m going to be as strong as Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in no time.

Then the burpees came.

If you are unaware of what a burpee is (which I was up until last Monday), it is a move where you have to throw yourself on the floor, get into a pushup position, throw yourself back on your feet, jump in the air, then repeat the process for, what seems like, 800 reps. This may seem dramatic, but after doing one, my entire face was the color of the red velvet cake I wanted to eat after doing those burpees. I was suddenly sweating in places I’ve never sweated before — my shins, my elbows, the tops of my feet, probably even my fingernails. This was after doing only one. I had to continue on for more reps. I had many things on my mind while doing the burpees.

Should I just give up now?

Maybe I’ll skip the burpees and do jumping jacks instead.

Maybe I’ll skip both and just go to sleep.

I hear sleeping burns calories.

Eating probably does too — you move muscles when cutting a piece of cake.

OK, stop, I can do this.

Probably.

Eventually, I got through the burpees, which made the rest of the workout suddenly seem harder. But then I finished Monday’s workout and I felt good. I felt really energized and healthy.

The workouts are Monday, Wednesday and Friday, with cardio in between. But somehow, my friend convinced me to do Wednesday’s workout with her the second day, on Tuesday. I thought it was a great idea until I woke up Wednesday morning. I had to go to work that morning and man, was my entire body was sore. I could not move. But I got through it...somehow. I even had it in me to go to the gym later that afternoon for cardio.

Then I woke up Thursday morning. My arms were so incredibly sore, I couldn’t move them. Even if I didn’t move them, they hurt. I couldn’t do anything, and if I had to, my arms moved in the same way that a T-Rex’s arms do. I Googled if it was normal for arms to be this sore. Then I read about a disease where your muscles get into your bloodstream and then you pee them out. Oh, no, I think to myself. I probably will get that.

Somehow, I made it out of Thursday’s soreness alive and was able to do Friday’s workout. The first week’s Friday workout was optional, so I figured it is because everyone gets sore.

Now it is week two, and I am looking forward to being strong and doing the workout.

Disclosure: This article was typed entirely by using my new arm muscles.