Achieve Your Fitness Goals, Find Your Kosama Body

By Tim Weideman

No matter the body, no matter the goal, the trainers at Kosama believe everyone can achieve their ideal body, or their “Kosama body.”

Kosama’s “Complete Body Transformation” is a 10-week program “designed to increase lean muscle mass and transform the body from the core out,” according to Kosama’s website, kosama.com. It is designed to work for everyone, from athletes to everyday people wanting to transform their bodies and live healthier lifestyles.

“All age groups, all body types, all fitness levels, you name it, and every single one of them gets challenged.” Kosama co-founder Matt Braet said of who has taken advantage of the program.

Make no mistake about it, the “Complete Body Transformation” program is indeed a challenge, but that’s what delivers the amazing results in just 10 weeks.

Those who sign up for the program attend classes six days a week for the duration of the program. Each class is one hour long and focuses on six different workouts: yoga, kettle bells, kickboxing, plyometrics, upper body strength and lower body strength—all serving a different function for shaping each person’s complete Kosama body.

Braet said that many people are taking advantage of the workout, from the Waukee High School boys’ basketball team, to those looking to lose excess weight, to people in their upper sixties. On one end of the spectrum, there are people who have been told by their doctor that they need to lose weight immediately and, on the other end, some people in the program have already been working out for many years.

In short, Kosama is designed for everybody.

“Everyone’s question is how can the 340-pound person do the exact same thing a high school basketball player from Waukee’s doing,” Braet said. “It’s just that you modify everything. You know, everybody can go at their pace and our instructors are taught that based on whatever someone’s fitness goals or current fitness levels are, you adapt to that person.”

“So everybody in the class will have the same exercise, be doing the same workout, but they’re taught how to do it at their pace, to their level,” Braet said. “Eventually as they start getting in shape, getting rid of the stiffness, the soreness, whatever it is, then they can start going a little bit harder, you know, lose a little bit more weight, whatever it may be.”

In addition to the workout program, Kosama also offers nutrition advice through an online meal planning software. Kosama’s website says, “We do not force you to radically change your eating habits, our online program simply points out ways to make your meals better for you.”

Members of Kosama’s program enter their diet into the software and it points out opportunities to find healthy substitutes and helps them identify foods in their diets they should try to avoid, such as foods containing too much cholesterol or saturated fat.

Another feature Kosama can offer is the motivation it creates in people to achieve their goals because the workouts are held in a class setting.

“When you're feeding off the energy of everybody else in the class with all the instructors, you just get that extra couple (reps) in,” Braet said. “But not only that, most people, say when you go to the gym to work out, yeah you can work out hard, but there’s a lot of drinking fountain breaks, you’re talking to people and you get your hour workout in, but do you do what you would do in an hour workout with us? Absolutely not.”

Besides seeing their desired results, people who sign up for a 10-week session also have a chance to win the Kosama Body Challenge. For every session throughout the year, each Kosama location picks one winner who has experienced the best transformation. The winners’ before and after pictures are then posted on Kosama.com and put to a vote to decide an overall winner, who receives $5,000.

Plus, starting Jan. 3, any person who signs up for a session at some point during 2011 and remains a member until the end of the year will be eligible for the Kosama Ultimate Body Challenge. The yearlong challenge will run through mid-December and the overall winner will receive $20,000.

The focus and drive Kosama instill in people of all types is a huge factor that gives the program an advantage over many conventional workout routines and traditional gyms. If you would like to learn more about how you can achieve your Kosama body, visit www.kosama.com.

Kosama has locations in Clive, Ankeny, West Des Moines, Downtown Des Moines, Johnston, Omaha, Ames, Altoona/Pleasant Hill, Iowa City, Cedar Falls, Phoenix, Arizona; and locations coming soon to Sioux Fall, Quad Cities, Chicago, St. Paul, Minn. and Omaha.