Hydrostatic Bodyfat Testing

I had hydrostatic bodyfat testing Wednesday at Courtside, they have Mike's mobile truck come every six months, so this was perfect since my membership officially ends at the end of April!


I had a good visit, saw a lot of the trainers I hadn't seen in a while, one wanted to know what I was competing in this time, Figure or Physique!


So, if you have been reading a while, you know I have been trying to gain muscle, and not get as lean as last competition when I was down to 2.5%, I didn't like the look and it wasn't healthy.


Although I am a little worried that I may not be just quite low enough, I am low, lower than most males ever get (and they get leaner than females). I am at 5.2%


To read all the details I will add links at the bottom here, I have done this three times so I don't want to go into all the details again. I will briefly explain it though. 


Mike has a big truck, like a huge taco truck, with no tacos. Inside is a changing room, scale, computer and a huge stainless steel tank half full of lukewarm water.


You need to get in the tank, weight belt on your hips and exhale all your air, then plunge underwater and keep pushing out all your air until you feel you shall die. No coming up for air until Mike bangs on the side of the tank.


Then you do it two more times. Ugh.


So my stats:


123 pounds (funny at Gold's at 5:00am I was 121)


Lean Body Mass:
Lean body mass percentage 94.75%
Weight of Lean body mass 116.55 pounds


Body Fat:
Body fat percentage 5.2%
Weight of body fat 6.45 pounds (it's all in my butt)


Mike remembered me, he had never tested a female as low as I was last time. When we were done, he said he thinks after the next week, and dropping water, I should look perfect. We had a good chat as I dried off and changed.


But the most significant detail is my increase in lean body mass. I have gained almost 2.5 POUNDS of lean mass in 7 months! Now that is significant for a natural (no steroids), trained female! Remember that you will see gains quickly in untrained athletes, just as a very sedentary person who starts an exercise regime will quickly lose weight the first few weeks.


I have been training a long time, in fact, you can see my bodyfat test done by Mike in June of 2010, almost two years ago and I weighed almost exactly the same, with 2 pounds less lean mass and 1 percent more bodyfat!


It takes a serious, rigorous weight training program, proper and adequate nutrition and supplementation and rest.


And, a good trainer. I owe all this to Roy Ganju, my trainer and owner of BodyComp Personal Training Gym. I have been training with him now for one year (I think we started April 29, but he knows, he has it written down on his charts). 


Roy took bodyfat measurements with his calipers in the afternoon, so we can compare them to the hydrostatic. As we discussed the results we were talking about my smileys that seem to have stayed longer than I want, and he mentioned that my glutes didn't shrink like they typically do when I lose so much fat, in fact, he said he thinks they got larger!  


Roy also wanted to know if any fellow competitors had seen me since October, I am much bigger, more muscular, he says I look completely different. I think he might be as excited as I am this time!


Below are the results you will get from Mike, and at the bottom is my history with him, all in his database. 

You can go to his website bodyfattest.com and check out his schedule to see when he might be in your area. If the schedule indicates Members Only, you need to be a member of that facility. If it doesn't, then anyone can do it! The fee is $49.00 for the first test and $39.00 thereafter. Courtside charged me $70.00!

My blog about my test in June 2010

My blog about my test in September 2011

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My New Home - Gold's Gym

Yes, I changed Gym's and I couldn't be happier! Courtside sent me a letter (along with everyone else) that the monthly fees would go up again, just as they do every single year. Now I have no problem paying for quality, but this place is a "club", they call themselves a "Pacific Sports Resort" and frankly I was not using the amenities.


I never used the three pools, or the 16 tennis courts, or took the Zumba class, or employed a Personal Trainer there. I did have one massage in the spa, I shopped a couple times at "the shop", and I will miss the steam room; however, the occasional steam I took was not worth the hundreds of dollars a month I was paying.


So the Friday that I got the letter happened to be an afternoon I stood in line at Kaiser for 45 minutes waiting to get morphine and Fentanyl for Emily, I stood there fuming. On my way home with the meds, I stopped at Gold's Gym, told the guy "I don't care what classes you have, I am not interested, show me the weights" and I signed up on the spot.


Gold's is a huge, warehouse style gym, exactly the kind I love! Big, open, super high ceilings, no paintings or fancy materials. 


I never even considered Gold's because it is further away from my home, but I couldn't justify the outrageous expense any longer so I figured I would cut my training short by five minutes, that would do it. Much to my surprise, it doesn't take any longer than getting to and from Courtside because I take the expressway instead of residential roads, so the speed limit is twice as high!


Gold's has more than twice the number of stairmills, and every conceivable piece of weight training machinery you could imagine. I have never seen so many neck machines! Too bad I don't want a thick neck....they have 5 power racks, and more benches and barbells for every form of pressing than you can imagine. Calve machines, every kind! Hack squats (4), several different leg presses, Glute Ham Raise, a great pull up tower that looks like a big electrical station, I could go on and on.


My first week, at least one person came up and welcomed me to Gold's every single day. I learned more names in one week than I did in one year at Courtside!


One day, a couple young college guys were training, obviously brothers and I asked them if they were using something. They replied "no" then one looked at me and said "When I grow up I want to look like you!" and a big smile broke out on his face. I thanked him and said "Well, thanks, it doesn't really get much better than this, and I will be 51 in two weeks, so you have plenty of time to practice" His eyes got wide and he stood there, then said "Wow, you never would have known!"


It's not that I am there to socialize, but the crowd is like minded, they all have a goal to create a physical specimen, and they are on a mission. It's a much younger crowd, more working class (I don't think there are any Ladies Who Lunch working out there), many, many tattoos, lot's of gallon water jugs, and a lot of smiles.


The parking lot is full of economy cars, trucks and work vans instead of BMW's, Porsche's and Mercedes (did I mention Courtside has free valet parking too?). 


There is no free coffee at Golds, nor free towels; but there are weights, and after all, isn't that the only reason I am coming to the gym? Fixed barbells, fixed e-z bar curls, lots of free weights, racks and racks, rowing apparatus, and a lot of like minded people.


The crowd lifts, I mean they LIFT. They all do, the young, the old. And when they do cardio, its a warm up or after they lift weights, I have only seen two "cardio queens" there (and one was a guy).


The signs make me laugh, instead of something that Courtside had such as:

"Cell phone usage is welcome in the lobby or sub-lobby, please refrain from cell phone usage on the fitness floor"

Gold's has signs like this:

I like Gold's so much I upgraded to the 5 club package, and it allows me to have 72 guest passes a year! Yes, that's 72 of the same person, or 72 different people, they don't care! And it set me back $29.00 a month. Roy said he will come train with me, and help me figure out some of the stuff I have never seen, I said I would take him out to The Counter for cheeseburgers after! 


I enjoyed Courtside, I was there for three years. I met many wonderful people and had some great experiences. I enjoyed a lot of coffee in the Cafe, but it really wasn't "free" was it? Some of the people I met, I will continue to socialize with, most I won't. 

I remember years ago "the Doc" at Courtside was talking to me and he said "What are you doing here? You belong at Gold's". I thought that was a very snooty thing to say, that he intended it as a derogatory remark, but I think he knew, he knew I would be happier there. 

I drove home from Gold's one morning, wondering why on earth I waited, what kept me at Courtside? The gym is a huge part of my life, it's a very important place for me.  I should have changed years ago. I will miss some of the people, but I won't miss Courtside, you see,

I'm home now.

Gym Rules

We all have our own set of "rules" about the gym, our own set of "pet peeves". I stick to my self most of the time, and unless I am stretching or warming up on the treadmill, I don't notice people around me too much, I am in my own zone and concentrating on what I am there to do.

I love training and when it is disrupted, I can get a little irritated.

I thought of this as I talked on the phone with "Mike", the head HVAC guy at Courtside. Mike was being nice, but I was a little miffed. I lodged a complaint, the last several days the weight room has been cold. I mean frigid cold. I have been wearing a long sleeve shirt and long pants, and am still afraid my hands will freeze to the metal bars. I am not a happy camper.

Mike explained that the heat is off to the weight room, intentionally. Seems folks complained it was too warm. I have never noticed that, and I tell him there must be a happy medium.

He said to give him a week before I take it further. I am hoping you can get it working Mike!

Our conversation made me think of other things that bother me at the gym.

I have my own ideas about what are very ineffective things I see people do all the time. When I see people doing these things I just wonder why they got out of bed. It reminds me of a saying that Issac posted up on the whiteboard at BodyComp Personal Training Gym, where I train with Roy:

"If you aren't living life on the edge, you are taking up too much space!"

If you are doing these things, you are wasting space in the gym:

1) Read and ride a stationary bike.

2) Text or email while on the stairmill.

3) Read the newspaper in between sets.

4) Socialize, socialize, socialize.

5) Cardio only, all the time. Period.

I have my own set of things that really bother me too:

1) The stinky guy. He wears the same damn thing everyday and he stands next to me. He cannot possibly wash those clothes by the smell of them. Yuck!

2) Perfume and cologne. ANY! Please don't douse yourself before you come in, I need to breathe. This is not a nightclub, save it for later. I am not sure which is worse, the stinky guy or perfume princess.

3) Big guys who ask me to spot them. Come on, really? You are a 200 pound stud and you want a 125 pound female to spot you on your bench?

4) Using the benches as a storage space for your water bottle, cell phone, towel, book, etc. I am here to train, I need to use the benches, put your stuff in a locker or on the floor.

5) Stopping me during my training and asking me "How do I get rid of (fill in the blank)?" "How much should I eat?" "How many days should I train?"....

I don't mind giving some suggestions, but at the right time and I cannot help plan your entire life in 5 minutes! Catch me in the cafe or in the locker room, and how about a simple question, not a request for an entire diet plan.

I hope you aren't doing anything on my list! If you are, you may want to see how those around you are reacting to you.

The Pain and the Pleasure

I am smiling, but inside I am crying. Everything hurts, and that is not typical for me. I find it very interesting as I believe the order of my training split has really been the catalyst, and of course the fact that I have been off all week so I am training like a fiend! 

I switched up my split because I couldn't train with Roy on Monday, so I trained shoulders on my own in the afternoon after returning home from my father in laws house.

Tuesday I was at Courtside at 5:00 am and I trained calves and then ran through my kickboxing conditioning, all out, 100% effort. At 1:00 I trained with Roy and we trained quads. I was OK then, the split squats did not get the better of me. 

Wednesday I was at Courtside again at 5:00 am and did it all over again, the basketball courts are empty that early, I can run and box and the place is all mine. My abs were sore because I not only trained them with my conditioning on Tuesday, but I tried a machine on Monday afternoon that I had never used before. Brett was sitting on it as I sat resting in the squat rack between sets, we were talking and I laughed and said I had never used it, in fact I pretty much steer clear of machines. He told me to give it a try, it would cause me some pain. He was right.


At 4:30 pm I met Roy and we trained Hamstrings. My hamstrings and glutes were still sore from my hamstring training on Saturday, it was hard to go heavy. But I did, I failed at the end of my GHR but I killed the single leg barbell deadlifts, heavier than last week. These glutes will soon be their own person.

Thursday I was at Courtside at 5:00 am and trained back and biceps, then down to the basketball courts for conditioning again, but I couldn't go as long, my body ached all over and the heavy weight session wiped me out.

Friday it was Courtside again at 5:00 am for calves and conditioning, I took my time since I was still off work and I finished at 6:45 am. Then Roy at 12:00 pm for shoulders. 


Saturday I was at the gym at 6:00 am when they opened for leg day! And my glutes and hams were still sore from Wednesday, hmm that means they have been sore for a week non- stop right?  There would be no kickboxing class, in fact I would be going to Jerome's for dinner. I looked for a studio to do my conditioning, but every single room, plus the basketball court was full. Seems everyone decided to get fit on this one last day of the year.


Saturday night as I sat at dinner party on New Years Eve, I was massaging my very sore forearms, I guess from the rope training we did on Friday.


I got home at one in the morning, much later than I ever stay up but enjoyed myself at one of the best dinner parties I have ever attended! I think there were 23 of us, the youngest was 5 months and the oldest in their 80's. We sat for hours enjoying course after course (after all, most of the guests were French and the French know how to enjoy food!). Luckily I made sure to drink plenty of water and had two liters at dinner. I decided to sleep in and go to the gym whenever I woke, and unfortunately David had his cell phone by the bed and at 6:00 a.m. it ran low on batter power and an alarm sounded. Ugh...I couldn't go back to sleep, so decided it was about time for the gym! I went in, hit the back and biceps hard and went home after an hour an a half.


I am down three pounds and I think it's the cardio that I swapped for kickboxing style conditioning. Although I have been off all week, I haven't added any extra workouts in, although I have lingered longer that usual at the gym. I have been enjoying several good meals with the family so all I can attribute this to is the conditioning, I will definitely keep it up and just watch to make sure I don't drop much more right now, it's too early.

Self-Myofascial Release

I stole one of Cooper's lacrosse balls! He has a bag full, and I probably bought them anyway.

Feels so good....

Roy says "stretch and roll". I do, I do. I have my own lacrosse ball in my gym bag and I tote it with me so I can use it. I go to one of the carpeted walls, put the lacrosse ball on one pec and press against it, rolling, moving my body to keep it pressed against the wall.

Then move over to the shoulder, to the rotator cuff, keep rolling and pressing. I have my iPod on, I suppose it  looks a bit odd to see me from behind wriggling against the wall, but I don't care. They expect this type of stuff from Kristy when she is at Courtside!

Not a day goes by when some wise ass male doesn't make a very original remark. I just smile and get back to my rolling.

Give it a try, it really does target the areas that the foam roller cannot reach.

In Between Trainers (2007)

Once I realized I was on my own, and wouldn't have a trainer, I actually developed my own routine quite quickly.

The gym opened at 4:30 am and I was there 5 days a week before they opened. The gal who worked the front actually gave me the code to the key box in case she was late for some reason, so I could enter the code, get the key and open the door.

I would wake up at 3:30 am (yeah I got kind of fanatical) and then run to the gym! It was 4 miles each way. I would put on one of those silly orange reflective vests, and off I went to the gym. Once I got there I lifted weights, then I put my cute little vest back on and ran the 4 miles home again. People teased me, people laughed, but who’s laughing now?

I started to read a lot, so I could understand what to do and what not to do. I read all the magazines but then I bought books. Most of them were about strength development, how the muscles worked, definitely not bodybuilding that was the furthest thing from my mind at the time.

I looked mainly at men’s strength training; I don’t believe women should train any differently than men should. I bought e-books, I bought videos, and I taught myself everything I didn’t learn from Baz.

I got very comfortable and felt I started to really know a lot. The diet was not anything I concentrated on, I just tended to eat a lot healthier than before and I gradually ate better, but it was not a focus of my life as it is now.

As you can see in the picture above, I was lean and fairly muscular, but not in a Figure competitor way, that takes a different type of training.

Then I had a problem, my gym was going to be sold yet again. I freaked out, as they said they would be remodeling and you know what that means! I also researched the company taking over who had one other gym and I was not impressed. Plus the name of the place was not very inspiring "Anastasia's Club Fit" what on earth was that?! I set out to find a new gym before they changed hands.

After locating all of the gyms within the distance from my home I would consider, I narrowed it down to the ones that opened no later than 5:00 am, which was really the latest I could train.

I then set out to visit them, there were only 4 of them and unfortunately since I live in a fairly upscale community, only one was a low cost “chain".

I ended up at the most expensive one, Courtside Club, but it really is a great place and I have come to call it home, I have been here now since 2007.

I can tell you all about why I didn’t choose the others but that isn’t the point.

I arrived at Courtside strutting in like I knew everything, but quickly felt out of place. This was no bodybuilders gym, in fact, most people didn’t even venture into the weight rooms, this a a club and the folks here like cardio best, or tennis.

I slowly developed friends among the morning crowd, a very friendly group of people indeed.

I started reading about kettlebells; I got several books by Pavel. Who is he? Here is a bit from Dragon Door:  Pavel Tsatsouline Master of Sports, is a former Soviet Special Forces physical training instructor who has been called "the modern king of kettlebells" for starting the Russian kettlebell revolution in the West.

In 1998 Pavel introduced the ancient Russian strength and conditioning tool to the American public in his subversive article, Vodka, Pickle Juice, Kettlebell Lifting, and Other Russian Pastimes. The article was published by MILO, a magazine for tough hombres who bend steel and lift rocks. When Pavel started getting mail from guys with busted noses, cauliflower ears, scars, or at least Hell's Angels tattoos his publisher took notice.

Several years later Dragon Door published Pavel's book Enter the Kettlebell! which became the golden standard in kettlebell instruction. It was followed by Return of the Kettlebell which introduced the most advanced Russian strength and muscle building techniques.

Pavel is a subject matter expert to the US Marine Corps, the US Secret Service, and the US Navy SEALs. A kettlebell in his fist, he was voted the 'Hot Trainer' by Rolling Stone and appeared in media ranging from Pravdato Fox News. Dr. Randall Strossen, one of the most respected names in the strength world, stated, "In our eyes, Pavel Tsatsouline will always reign as the modern king of kettlebells since it was he who popularized them to the point where you could almost found a country filled with his converts…"

I also have books by the above mentioned Dr. Randall Strossen…Anyway, Courtside didn’t have any kettlebells, I thought this was crazy! So I decided to buy some of my own and teach myself.

Well, if you have ever seen anyone try to use KB’s that hasn’t, you know they are not as easy as they appear. I asked the Fitness Director at Courtside if I could keep my KB’s there, in the trainer’s room and use them when I was at the gym. That’s was fine and worked well until they sometimes locked the door and I couldn’t get to my own equipment! I also decided I needed a trainer so I asked who in their huge cadre of trainers knew about KB’s. I was steered toward a woman (no longer there) and purchased 10 very expensive sessions with her.

“KB Trainer” said she knew what she was doing, well, she wasn’t certified, had never had any formal training and basically taught herself KB’s…the wrong way.

After that expensive lesson I started searching for a qualified instructor. I went to the Dragon Door website and emailed every RKC (Russian Kettlebell Certified) in San Jose. The conversations went back and forth quite a bit and I finally arrived at a choice: SC (Strength Coach) who would go on to train me for about three years.

Soon: My second trainer, “SC”

Oh, Courtside now has two full sets of kettlebells including "the beast"