Fit to Print Volume 24 Issue 4 December 2015 | Page 4

Cover Story

Interview by Paul Smith

2009 Golden Glove Champion

It Don’t Come Easy
When The Going Gets Tough, Kristin Havdoglous Excels

K

Kristin Havdoglous has been a fixture at Fitness Incentive for
years. Her impressive physique is a familiar and awe inspiring

sight to anyone who visits the gym regularly. A member, along with her
Mom and Aunt, since way back in the “Montauk Highway days,” she is a
talented all-around athlete who has won many awards and titles. These
include a 2009 Golden Gloves Boxing Title, plus All –Tournament Team
Athlete, Athletic All-American, and Most Distinguished Student-Athlete
titles competing in Division 1 collegiate softball. More recently, she has
been a Spartan Race Champion, considered to number among the
toughest and most demanding of all timed obstacle races.
Unquestionably one of F.I.’s fittest members, we asked Kristin to talk about her
athletic achievements, her time here, and her approach to training and general
fitness.
PS: Kristin, you work out at Fitness
Incentive all the time, both on your own
and as a participant in supervised
programs. How long have you been a
member?
KH: I have been a member at FI since I
was 18 years old. I started out training
with Jennifer DiPalma when I signed to
my college on a Sports Scholarship.
PS: Discuss some of the activities you’ve
participated in over the years here at FI.
KH: When I was younger, I trained with
Fitness Incentive’s staff of personal
trainers to help me train for my sports.
In the past few years, I have been a part
of Power X with Kelly Wallace, World
Champion Workout with Amy and TJ
Lynch, and Cycle with Sara LaRocca.
PS: Were you interested in fitness and
athletics as a youngster?
KH: I have always been involved in
athletics for as long as I can remember. I
grew up swimming, playing softball,
basketball, and even some roller hockey.
Once I graduated from college, where I
was a Division I athlete playing softball, I
started to get more serious about my
training. It was at that time that I got
certified as a personal trainer. I was a
trainer at FI for a few years while
completing my Master’s Degree in
Science/Exercise Science at Hofstra
University. I am now a certified Physical
Education Teacher in the Copiague
School District and have been for the last
11 years. So the fitness aspect has never
left my life. When I turned 30, I
changed the way I trained because I got
bored just lifting and doing some cardio
here and there. I started competing in
the Spartan Races, as well as
maintaining my sports routine (fast-pitch
softball, beach volleyball, boxing), so my

4

Kristin at the Reebok Spartan Race

training had to adapt. This is where the
functional training aspect came into
play. I saw great results from this
change, and I haven’t stopped with it
ever since.
PS: You are a competitive athlete and
have achieved considerable success. Two
expressions of this spirit involve the
Golden Gloves and the Spartan
Championship.
KH: The Golden Gloves was one of my
biggest accomplishments, and one of the
hardest goals I established for myself to
achieve to this day! I started boxing with
Eddie Haeffer back in 2004. After
suffering a serious ankle injury I needed
to get back into shape. My younger sister
had signed herself up for some boxing
Holidays 2015 FIT to Print

lessons, and I went with her as her
partner just to check it out. After one
lesson, I was hooked! I stayed in the gym
taking lessons for about a year, and then
took a chance and entered the New York
Golden Gloves in 2007. I lost that first
fight not due to poor conditioning, but to
exhaustion. I was so tired from not doing
cardio that I couldn’t keep the pace for
the full four rounds and lost on the
punch count alone. That day went down
as one of my lows in my athletic career,
but it certainly motivated me to get

continued on page 16