What began two years ago when he joined a summer strength and conditioning program for teenaged hockey players run by his parents has developed into a lifestyle passion for Liam O'Beirne.
He's now hooked on CrossFit, one of the fastest-growing competitive fitness sports in the world, and his abilities to perform the high-intensity workouts have given the 15-year-old national recognition.
A little more than two weeks ago O'Beirne finished second in Western Canada and eighth overall among 60 of his peers in all of Canada in the 14- to 15-year-old teen category in the Reebok CrossFit Games Open, an annual five-week competition involving interval workouts, weightlifting, gymnastics moves and body-weight exercises which cover a wide spectrum of variability.
"My first workout (in the competition) was OK and my score was reasonable but the second workout I did phenomenal, I was absolutely shocked," said O'Beirne. "It proved to me it's all worth it. The last workout was tough. I have a horrible time with thrusters (front leg squats with an overhead press using a 65-pound barbell)."
O'Beirne's strength is his ability to perform pull-ups, using his arms and back to lift his body weight until his chin is over the bar. In the Open competition he did 130 pull-ups and 129 overhead squats in 15 minutes.
This is the first year teens have been eligible for the CrossFit Open event. During the five-week competition, new workouts were announced each Thursday and competitors had until the following Sunday to submit their scores. In each round of exercises, competitors have a set time limit to try to do as many reps and as many rounds as possible.
O'Beirne, a Grade 9 student at Duchess Park secondary school, trains for CrossFit six hours per week and also finds time for soccer. He's had some training with the Prince George Gymnastics Club to work on handstand walks and to learn some of the balance moves needed for more advanced workouts. The gains he's made in strength, endurance, agility and flexibility are obvious to him when he engages in other sports.
"It uses every muscle, it doesn't isolate a certain muscle," he said. "People should give it a try. If you try it for three months and still don't like it it's perfectly fine if you don't want to do it but I'm sure by then you'll be hooked."
He's hoping the CrossFit organization in California will allow kids to compete in regional events and the CrossFit Games. He'd eventually like to compete for the "fittest on earth" title.
O'Beirne's parents, Marcie and Steve, own and operate CrossFit Northern Ice, a CrossFit gym at Downtown Fitness Studios at 1533 Second Ave. Steve has a background coaching soccer and Special Olympics swimming and is the strength trainer for the city's peewee rep hockey teams, while Marcie is a former Prince George Youth Volleyball Club coach. Steve started CrossFit in 2010, and Marcie followed a year later. They opened the gym in April 2013.
"I was interested because I saw them doing all these cool movements and lifting all these big weights and I wanted to try it and soon enough I got into it," said Liam.
The O'Beirnes offer CrossFit training for adults and kids and all the workouts are scaled according to ability. CrossFit Kids classes are split into teen (12- to 18-year-olds), novice (11-14), Pack (six- to 11-year-olds) and Pups (three- to six-year-olds).
The teen program has 20 locals involved, including motocross racer Hayden Wolf, one of the top racers in Canada. Liam's 12-year-old daughter Ilyana also does CrossFit. While she was too young for the Open competition her test scores ranked fifth among 14- to 15-year-old girls in Western Canada.
Because the bodies of teens and younger kids are still developing, the O'Beirnes take extra precautions to make sure exercises are performed using proper form and the kids aren't trying to lift too much weight or trying to do too many repetitions.
"We're trying to prepare people for real life and we teach functional fitness - nobody does a biceps curl outside of the gym," said Steve. "People pick things up all the time and it's our job to teach you how to pick things up. We're not building bodies, we're building capacity to perform.
"Intensity is what you control as an athlete to maximize your results. If you want to get fit fast, do CrossFit."
