Youth Fitness & Development Programs

Empower Your Young Athlete

Give your child, middle-schooler, or teenager the confidence to tackle whatever the world throws at them through fitness and development.

Our Empower Youth Fitness Programs in Vancouver are designed to develop strong, adaptable, resilient athletes with superior physical literacy. These programs are designed to meet the neurological and physiological needs of the each respective age group. Because these functional fitness movements are scalable, the athletes can safely train at their level.

Whether your child is just starting their fitness journey, is playing sports at a recreational level or is an experienced elite athlete, our programs will help them excel.

In the gym your young athlete will develop self-awareness, discipline, focus and perseverance that will help them overcome obstacles outside the gym. We want to help create a passion for fitness that your child will carry with them throughout their lives.

Group Classes, Small Group Training, and 1:1 Coaching for Youth

Choose from any of the following programs or call for a custom option

Youth fitness programs: varsity

For athletes aged 8-12 and 13-17

Summer Varsity

Start date: July 2 and August 6, 2025

Classes run on Monday and Wednesday afternoons from 4–5pm. The programming includes all weight lifting movements, gymnastics and metabolic conditioning.

All weights are scaled appropriately to the correct stimulus and intensity for the athlete. We work on injury prevention and strong core conditioning in addition to providing a positive confidence building environment.

Prerequisites: all senior varsity athletes must have pre-approval or attend a 1:1 session with Coach Leon prior to attending a Varsity class.

This assessment and review of movements allows the athlete to transition into the group setting easily and sets them up for success in the program.

Youth fitness programs: varsity

For athletes aged 13-17

Varsity

Ages: 13-17

Prerequisites: Prior assessment

Start date: September 2025

Our Varsity program includes all weight lifting movements, gymnastics and metabolic conditioning. All weights are scaled appropriately to the correct stimulus and intensity for the athlete. We work on injury prevention and strong core conditioning in addition to providing a positive confidence building environment.

Prerequisites: Coach assessment and approval to ensure you can transition to Varsity classes safely and easily. One-to-one coaching sessions are available if needed to set you up for success in this program.

Register now and we'll arrange for an assessment at a time convenient for you prior to joining class.

Youth fitness programs: junior varsity

For athletes aged 8-12

Junior Varsity

Ages: 8-12

Prerequisites: None

Start date: September 2025

The Junior Varsity group learns all the foundational movements of CrossFit. This includes weight lifting, gymnastics and metabolic conditioning. The PVC pipe is an excellent tool for teaching complex movements like clean and jerks without load until the athlete is ready to handle a barbell. If you stop by during class time you might see us playing games like shoulder tap cone grab or tabata hot potato hollow holds. These games help develop the smaller stabilizing muscles as well as make it fun so the kids work hard without realizing it!

Prerequisites: none at this time. All youth athletes welcome. Athletes who have participated in Junior Varsity can graduate to Varsity level when they age up.

Youth fitness programs: homeschool PE

For young athletes on an alternative education path

Homeschool PE

Ages: 9-17

Prerequisites: None

Start date: September 10

Homeschool PE is a CrossFit-based program that incorporates cardio, strength training, and gymnastics movements for complete body conditioning. All weights are scaled appropriately to the correct stimulus and intensity for the athlete.

We work on injury prevention and strong core conditioning in addition to providing a positive confidence-building environment. Best of all, we have fun doing it, by incorporating partner workouts and games.

Early bird pricing ends August 25.

Youth fitness programs: team training

For teams between seasons

Team Training

Ages: 9-18

Prerequisites: None

Start date: Let's talk!

Empower offers dryland training for teams that are coming off the ice, out of the pool or are in between seasons. Bring your team in for strength and conditioning sessions and set them up for success when they return to sport.

Talk to us to set up a training program for your team.

Youth fitness programs: personal training

For all athletes aged 8-17

Youth Personal Training

Ages: 8-17

Prerequisites: None

Start date: Let's talk!

Our Youth Personal Training program is custom built to support the needs of your athlete. These custom programmed sessions can be built to support youth athletes in specific sports with a focus on strengthening, injury prevention, and injury recovery.

Personal training can be done 1:1 or in small groups (1:2, 1:3, 1:4, etc.) so kids can train with their friends.

Whether the group class time doesn’t fit your schedule, your athlete works better one-on-one, or your elite athlete is looking for more specific training, we are here to help meet those needs.

Our Coaches Talk About How We Empower Youth Athletes

Vancouver Personal Training

Choose Your Hard: The Battle Between Now and Later

July 22, 20253 min read

“These things will be hard to do, but you can do hard things.” – Glennon Doyle Melton

Thought of the Day


Do you want to choose
easy now and hard later, or hard now and easy later? The easy button or path is always there. You can take a shortcut, grab the fast meal option, ignore the exercises that will help you elevate, and even listen to bad advice that lets you off the hook. But doing this only delays the hard part for later and doesn’t help you become the person you need to be to overcome the next challenge.

To take it out of fitness for a second—being a critic is very easy. You can sit on the outside with no skin in the game, judging those around you. But what’s harder is trying to execute your own ideas and putting yourself out there to be judged. You will make mistakes. You may look silly along the way. But at the end of the day, choosing this hard will help you grow.

The question that always comes to mind is:
“Do you want to look like the thing or be the thing?”

Many people choose to overinflate their ability while staying safely in the shadows. It’s one way to live with the appearance of success, but deep down, you’ll always know you’re not living in alignment with who you truly want to become. It becomes hard to progress when you avoid the mistakes necessary to grow. What would it look like if you chose to put yourself out there instead of always hitting the easy button?

CrossFit training is hard in a way that most training is not. In many arenas, you can hide and do things that make you look like a superstar. But with constantly varied movements—especially in the beginning—you’ll often look and feel silly. Still, if you have the right mindset, this kind of training can become the path forward.

Back in 2019, I had a really hard time, I was recovering from heart surgery and a torn hamstring from a jiu-jitsu match. But by training appropriately at empower, I was able to rehab my body, get back on the mats, and keep improving my fitness. In the low moments, it’s hard to keep showing up—but would you rather face that challenge now, or a worse one down the line?

If you’re an athlete struggling to stay in your sport, in the game of life, or maintain a sustainable fitness practice—we’re here. Your setback right now might be the very path that helps you overcome something even bigger. You just have to be willing to choose the harder thing now, and we can help you move forward.

The easy path is always an option.
We can take shortcuts, skip the workouts, or follow bad advice.
But there will be challenges on
every path.

Do you want to deal with the challenge now—or save it for later?

 

Tuesday

Warm up

2 rnds (in teams of 3)

Row

Side plank (L/R)

alt back lunges

 

Tech

SDHP

Push Press

Back Squat

 

Wod

4 rnds

10 SDHP

10 Push Press

20 Back squats

65/95#

Or

4 rnds  (kettlebell version)

10 odd rnds SDHP and Even rnds lawnmower high pull

10/10 Shoulder press

20 goblet squats

 

Cool down

 

Do hard thingsChoose your hardSustainable fitness mindsetCrossFit recovery journeyOvercoming life challengesMental toughness trainingLong-term growth over comfortAthlete motivation tipsPersonal growth through fitnessEmpower fitness transformationVancouver GymYVR Fitness
blog author image

Coach Leon

Leon will help you create a fitness practice that will allow you to excel at the activities you enjoy inside and outside of the gym. Leon started coaching at Delta Kaigan Judo Club in 2007, branching out into leading personal safety and fear management courses. Leon competes in CrossFit, Judo and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and has been coaching CrossFit since 2012.

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Accomplish Personal Bests

"Empower has provided our son with a safe and supportive environment in which to test himself, accomplish personal bests and celebrate the results among peers."

-Chris H.

Incredibly Supportive Environment

"Empower has become a gym for our family. The coaches are so knowledgeable and can also scale weights/movements to your fitness level. Smaller group classes allow coaches to ensure all movements are performed safely. It is an incredibly supportive environment which makes Empower Youth unique."

-Carmine L.

Empower

Contact Us

235-2083 Alma Street

Vancouver, British Columbia

[email protected]

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