Waterloo Feature Member:
Kirsten Stanisich

Our next member of the month is none other than Kirsten! Kirsten has had more sessions at our Waterloo gym than I’ve had hot dinners! After training here for the last 15 years – she’s the definition of consistency. She managed to stay happy and healthy and prioritise exercise, which has enabled her to stay in the game and keep improving from week to week on things like pullups, handstands and Olympic lifting. 

Tell me a little about you. “I am an architect and along with my business partner have an architecture and interior design practice in Surry Hills. Design is a huge part of my life and I love what I do. Outside of that I’m a pretty social person and I have a great bunch of friends and spend a lot of time with them. Some of my favourite hobbies outside of design are reading, fashion, walking and dogs……..I’m about to welcome a new bordoodle puppy into my house and I cannot wait!” Safe to say that Shirley is going to be another regular at the 6:30am class as well.

“I have been a member since you guys started at Waterloo. I was a member of the previous Crossfit gym for 15 years before that.” Talk about consistency over a long period of time! Kirsten credits her longevity to her ability to modulate her intensity depending on how shes feeling, plus a little brit of help from the coaches every now and then…

Most of our members have highly stressful jobs, where they’ll be thinking on the fly.. A lot fo them come to us as we provide a fun environment where the thinking is done for you. It’s a good way to provide social value and fun before a hefty day’s work. “There are quite a few things I really like about BBB. First thing is the programming of the exercises. They are super effective and it means I don’t have to spend any of my own time researching and developing my own training routine. The group atmosphere is easy going and there’s nothing like a bit of peer group pressure to keep you moving in a class when you might otherwise give up!  Finally the team at BBB are all lovely, easy going and super knowledgeable.”

Why is it that you train? The main reasons that I started for was to keep myself in good condition and to give myself a few challenges so that I am still teaching my body to learn a few new things.” Kirsten has continued to learn new things and excel and whatever she puts her mind to. I remember being in absolute shock when she was banging out sets of 10 kipping pullups and smoking most of the people in the class. 

 “Before starting, I was most nervous about being 52 and training with a bunch of people who are 20 years younger than me but I got over that pretty quickly.” It’s fair to say that its been a fair shift from the old model, however consistency and taking things step by step has lead to success. Previously being held back by a shoulder injury, she spent a lot of time 1-1 with Dan addressing the issue. She’s now is pain free and moving more efficiently than ever. 

  “When I first started, my goals were to… “Keep me in a regular routine so that I could maintain some good long term results.” She was our most consistent throughout both lockdowns. What did she gain in lockdown you ask? “Extra strength in my upper body with push ups, pull ups handstands, pulls ups and all the overhead movements.”

 Finally, if you could summarise your experience with BBB, what would you say? “BBB is a really great hybrid of the attention to detail that you get from a personal trainer and the benefits of training with a really motivated bunch of people in a group.”