Gemma OBrien

A little bit about me

My name is Gemma O'Brien, and I'm a Personal Trainer/CrossFit Coach and Figure Competitor from Wollongong, NSW. I have been seriously training and involved in the Fitness Industry for around 8 years, a Personal Trainer for 3 years, and a qualified CrossFit Coach for one and a half years.

After spending most of my life in the corporate world, being a high level Account Manager and Sales Executive in Sydney in a range of industries including Real Estate, Telecommunications, Workplace Training, Finance, Fitness, and IT, I finally decided to follow my passion of Fitness and Training, and left the rat race to become a Personal Trainer. Since then, I have moved from Sydney back to my home town in Wollongong with my incredible boyfriend Kurt, and currently work as a Personal Trainer and CrossFit Coach at CrossFit Wollongong, as well as working part time in a local supplement store.

Where it began...
 
I'm not your typical fitness addict who's been doing training for my entire life. Growing up in the Southern Highlands, NSW, and then moving to the coastal beach-loving town of Wollongong (about an 1 ½ hours south of Sydney) in my teens, I dabbled in a few school and regional sports here and there - hockey, softball, cricket and a bit of swimming etc, but i was never called a "sporty" child, as my teenage years were more focused around school and practicing the piano and violin, so sports and training was more for fun and just to keep me healthy than anything else.

I did however grow up in a very health oriented family. My mother was diagnosed with bowel cancer when I was 6 years old, and unfortunately lost her battle and past away when I was 10 years old. So I have always been brought up to be conscious and passionate about my health, and what I put into my body.
 
It wasn't until I hit the age of around 18 that I actually went and worked out in a gym (cardio only of course!!), and the real magic began when I was 21. After being away on exchange for 3 ½ months in France, surrounded by pastries and baguettes on every corner, and red wine readily available at every supermarket, I returned home feeling less than comfortable with the way I was looking. Luckily, a friend of mine back here in Oz had also just joined a gym and was good friends with one of the trainers there, who she introduced me to, and the love affair with lifting started from that point on.

This trainer was a former bodybuilder, very built, and took one look at me and had me lifting heavy weights from the word go. I loved it!! Finally I was able to use my size to my advantage - being 5'10 and a medium-large build with extremely broad shoulders and back, I had found my groove!!

Why compete?

A couple of years after discovering the world of lifting, a close friend of mine who I had gone to school and uni with, decided that he wanted to do his first local bodybuilding show. He asked me to help him out with his tanning before the show, and I was lucky enough to help out with his prep before going onstage. Whilst I was so excited to be there to see him onstage, I have to admit that the highlight of the day for me was watching the figure girls compete.

These were women who weren’t like the stick thin models in magazines that I saw every other day; they were fit, muscular, strong and confident, everything that I had always wanted to be. Being a bit taller and larger than many other girls my age, I always felt like I never quite fit in that mould, and no matter how many diets I went on, or how much training I did, I never came close to being anywhere near what I saw in magazines.

But here, in this world – I could finally relate. And I knew at that point that I would one day be up on that stage, and experience what they were – be in the best condition of my life, and feel totally comfortable and confident in my skin.

I attempted to get up on stage a number of times over the next few years, but there was always something that stopped me. I actually dieted and prepped for over 14 weeks on one occasion, but pulled out 3 weeks before the comp as I didn’t feel I was ready or in good enough condition to get up on stage.

On another occasion, I pulled out 4 weeks before for the same reason – I just wasn’t where I wanted to be and decided that I didn’t want to risk making a fool of myself up there. So, feeling slightly disheartened and disappointed with myself and my failed attempts at competing, the bodybuilding and the competition preparation went on the back burner, and my attention and focus on my training turned a different corner – to the world of CrossFit.

So what’s this CrossFit?

CrossFit is a strength and conditioning program focusing on constantly varied and functional fitness done under high intensity, designed to produce a more well rounded and overall athlete. It looks at 10 domains of fitness – strength, speed, agility, coordination, power, flexibility, cardiovascular endurance, balance, stamina and accuracy, and incorporates elements of traditional strength training (barbell lifts like squatting, bench press, shoulder press etc), Olympic lifting, Kettlebells, Gymnastics, plyometrics, running and rowing.

I actually came across CrossFit by accident a few years ago. Around the same time that I was doing my Cert 3 and Cert 4 in Fitness to become a Personal Trainer, I asked a friend of mine (a trainer) if he could put me through a session, just to give me a taste of different styles of personal training, something that I would be able to use for my own training. He asked me if I wanted to have a session the way that he would train an everyday client, or the way that he would train me. I was intrigued, and scared at the same time, but eager to see what he had in store for me. He had seen me training in the gym, he knew that I was strong and pushed myself, so he knew that I would be able to handle whatever he threw at me.

Now, the session was a bit of a blur, but I do remember lying on the ground afterwards in a puddle of my own sweat wondering what the hell I had just done to myself, and why I suddenly felt so alive and empowered.

From that point on I was hooked – I felt like I had finally found something that really pushed me to my limits and made me believe that I was capable of anything. It kept me guessing, and the thought of not knowing what I was going to be doing before I actually set foot in the gym, scared and excited me at the same time. Now, I’m not saying that this is the only training program out there that will work for everyone, but for me, it just fits. I had grown bored of isolation work focusing on one body part at a time.

Suddenly I found a program that made me feel alive, exposed my weaknesses and tested every part of me, from the emotional, the mental and especially the physical. I said goodbye to leg presses, bicep curls, and tricep extensions, and hello to Olympic lifting (cleans, snatches etc), Kettlebell training and handstand pushups. I felt alive, and suddenly forged a new me – more confident, more proud and more invigorated about myself and my abilities than ever before.

One day, when I was going through a bunch of pictures and articles on CrossFit, I came across a video about a figure competitor in the States called Chastity Slone, who used CrossFit as preparation for her upcoming IFBB Pro show. I was shocked – could you really use this type of training to get in good enough condition for a show? I had always been told no, and that the only way to be truly competition ready was to use traditional bodybuilding moves. This irritated me – why couldn’t you use CrossFit as prep? So I set out to prove the naysayers wrong – tell me I can’t do something, I’ll find a way t make it happen!

As I started to look into it further, I realized that there were more and more people who had got on the CrossFit band wagon as prep for their competitions. I was so excited!! I was still so keen to get my butt onstage and strut my stuff, but I wasn’t prepared to give up my CrossFit and go back to isolation exercises. Finally I could have my cake and eat it too, and I was eager to see where this combo could take me.

I knew if I did this, I would need to find someone who was on the same page as me. I needed to find a coach who knew CrossFit and bodybuilding, or at least knew the level of discipline and conditioning required to get up onstage in a teeny tiny bikini!

I remember reading an article that I found all about a CrossFit trainer in the States called Josh Bunch, who had previously been a bodybuilder and also used CrossFit for his prep. Josh also turned out to be into the Paleo diet, which I also follow as it promotes a diet of all natural foods, with no grains or dairy (as I’m lactose and gluten intolerant) and reduces inflammation in the body.

And to make things even better - this was the same coach that had helped prepare Chastity Slone for her competitions – I had hit the jackpot! Josh was exactly the coach that I was looking for, and I felt completely confident that he would be able to get me ready in time and in condition to get up on stage for my first show. I immediately got in touch with Josh, and when he replied back saying that he was excited to work with me, I was stoked and excited – everything was all starting to fall into place. I was really going to do this!

After 12 weeks of preparation, training and dieting using only CrossFit and Paleo, on the advice and guidance from Josh, using only emails, photos and Facebook to contact and keep track of my progress, as well as receiving coaching on the art of posing and stage presence from the fantastic Katie Morris, I finally, on May 15th 2011 realised my dream of stepping on stage and competed in my first Bodybuilding show – the ANB South Coast Bodybuilding Competition and entered the Tall and Novice Figure divisions. The funny thing about this was, this was actually the same first show that I ever attended, and when I first fell in love with the idea of competing – so it seemed only fitting that it would be the first show I would compete in!

The difference with this show and the one that I attended 6 years ago however was huge – when I first watched those girls on stage all those years ago, there was only a handful, perhaps 4 or 5 competitors at most who entered the figure division. This year, there were about 10 competitors in one division about approximately 14 in the other. Needless to say, the competition was fierce, and I unfortunately didn’t place on the day. But I had never entered with sole desire of winning. I wanted to sculpt my body into a figure that I was proud of, where I felt completely comfortable in my own skin, and finally smash that goal totally out of the park. I wanted to feel like I truly was a trainer – that I not only talked the talk, but now I was walking the walk. It had been so many years that I had wanted this, and while I wasn’t necessarily as competitive as some of the other girls on that stage, I felt so amazing and proud of myself for getting up there. I was in the best condition of my life, and was ecstatic the entire day - you couldn’t wipe the giant smile of my face all day even if you tried!

Bit of advice

So, for those amazing women (and men) out there who are wanting to take the journey to the stage, all I can say is do it – you never know until you try! Some people attempt to get on stage and decide that its not for them, for whatever reason. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that – as it really isn’t something for everybody. But too many people don’t believe that they have what it takes or the ability to get up on stage, and more often than not, this is simply fear.

If you have ever looked at Oxygen magazine and wished that you could look like those incredible strong fit and healthy women – well you CAN! You just have to want it bad enough. Its not always easy – there will always be obstacles along the way, and people who won’t understand or will question you or even criticize you for what you want to do. But if it makes you happy, makes you healthy and empowers you to be an amazing version of yourself, and that fire in the pit of your stomach makes you want to go for it – then do it.

The best thing you can do is make sure that you have an amazing support network – friends, family, colleagues, Facebook buddies who you can chat with – whoever. I don’t know what I would have done without my amazing boyfriend Kurt, my coach Josh and all my clients and friends at the gym and online, and of course my family as well. Even though some of them may not have understood what I was trying to do, or why I was doing it, they supported me, believed in me even when I didn’t, and helped me realize just what I was truly capable of. I even had people contact me who I had never met before, but said that they had read about my journey, and what I went through, and I how I had inspired them to go after their own dreams too. You never truly know just who is watching, or what impact your actions have on other people.

Just remember, you need people who you can fall back on if you need to, people who will help you and inspire you to keep on going. Cut out all the baggage and the negative people in your life – you don’t need them, deserve them, and will be better off in the long run without them.

Also make sure that if you don’t know what you’re doing – ask for help! There are thousands of people out there who have gone through what you are going through, and you only need to look on this incredible website for some amazing people who have decades of combined knowledge in this field who can help you, coach you, and guide you down this incredible journey – you don’t have to do it alone!

Finally – once you decide on a coach, or someone that you wish to work with – you must believe in them 100% and do exactly as they ask. If you have done your homework and looked for the best coach for what you want, then you need to hand over total control to that person – no matter what.

There are thousands of theories and ideas about diet and training - what works, what doesn’t and what will get you looking the best you can. The fact is that if you decide to go down one path, stick with it. Don’t listen to the advice and opinions of everyone else, as they will only confuse you. You’re not being rude if you do this – you’re protecting yourself from an eventual emotional breakdown! Everyone has a voice and in the fitness industry, a lot of people have their own theories on what worked for them, so that should automatically work for you too. Politely, but firmly tell them, thanks, but no thanks. Trust your coach. Believe that they will get you to where you need to be, and just follow the journey.

Where to now?

Well, the fact is – I’m totally hooked on competing. I loved everything about it – the prep leading up to it, the way I took complete control of my body and sculpted it to be the best condition that I had ever been in, the pampering and girliness the days leading up to the show, and then the actual day of standing up on that stage and feeling totally proud and comfortable in my own skin. It was an incredible feeling, and while many people out there just don’t understand why we do what we do, it feels totally right and fits perfectly for me, and having that goal to work towards makes me want to be better and better everyday.

So saying all that, I will be competing again. I had intended to do another competition this year, but unfortunately circumstances and events have just worked against me. But 2012 will most definitely see me back up on that stage, in even better condition than before, and I definitely intend on being more competitive and bringing an overall better package to the stage. This last competition was a test run – to give myself a taste as to what it’s like to do a comp – what happens on the day, and what I can learn from it and take away for the next competition. I’m all about constantly learning and making myself a better person and athlete, and I know that every experience will lead to a better me.

As for CrossFit – I will continue to also work at making myself an all round better athlete. The beauty about CrossFit is that it brings your weaknesses to light – there’s no hiding from them. So you either sit in them and wallow and don’t move forward, or you grab them by the horns, and work them until they are your strengths – and that’s exactly what I have been, and will continue to do. I regularly compete in CrossFit competitions around the region, and next year or 2013 I hope to make it to the Regional CorssFit Games, where the best athletes in Australia will compete in order to gain a place at the world CrossFit Games in the USA.

In addition to all this, I will continue working as a coach and personal trainer at CrossFit Wollongong, and continue to spread the word about CrossFit and also the Paleo diet and lifestyle. The health and longevity of my clients and prospective clients, my friends, family etc is something that I am extremely passionate about, and I will continue to learn as much as I can to help as many people as I can transform their lives.

I am completely obsessed (in a good way) with CrossFit and especially love to coach the classes and clients that I do on a day to day basis. There is nothing more fulfilling and satisfying to me than watching someone get their first pullup, or be able to do a clean and jerk or snatch after they’ve practiced the techniques over and over again, or watch them completely smash their previous time on their benchmark workouts. The growth, both physically and mentally in an athlete who has taken on CrossFit is amazing – their attitude towards life changes, their belief in themselves and their abilities skyrocket and of course they get rockin bods to go with it!

I also hope to establish myself in the community as the go-to trainer for those CrossFit girls who want to also embark on the journey of Figure Competitions. I believe that there is a way to bridge the gap between bodybuilding and CrossFit, and there are more ways to get prepared for a show than the old school bodybuilding methods. Whilst they obviously work, and have worked for decades, I don’t believe that they are the ONLY answer, and as I have proven, there are many other roads that people can take, and I intend on spreading the word.

So I hope to continue inspiring people – whoever and wherever they may be, to be better versions of themselves, and never settle for what they think they should be. If they have a dream, a desire or a fire in their belly to be more than they currently are, I hope that by either speaking to me or reading about what I have done and been able to achieve and continue to achieve, they feel that they can go after whatever they want.

I am so honoured to be included in this site along with women who I have considered to be my own inspiration, and the fact that I am able to share my story alongside these incredible athletes, for this I am eternally grateful. So thankyou for reading, and I hope that you will continue to keep working to be the best version of you that you can be.

Certificates and Achievements:

CrossFit Coach Level 1 Certificate
Certificate 3 – Gym Imstructor
Certificate 4 – Personal Trainer
Australian Weightlifting Federation, Club Weightlifting Sports Power Coach Level 1
Kettlebell Instructor
Punch Fit Instructor
Senior First Aid
Diploma Remedial Massage (currently completing) - AIAS
ANB South Coast Bodybuilding Championships 2011 – competed in Tall Figure and Novice Figure Divisions

Links:

www.aussiecrossfitchick.blogspot.com
My blog that I write in every now and then. It was originally a blog I started to talk about my journey to the stage, but has become much more than that, and will continue to be my place where I talk about all things crossfit, training, diet and motivation.

www.crossfit.com
If you want to know more about CrossFit – this is the site for CrossFit HQ, the home and birthplace of CrossFit. You will find links to CrossFit gyms all over the world and Australia, if you are interested and want to get involved.

www.crossfitwollongong.com
My gym! If you’re in Wollongong and want to check it out – go to the website and get in contact with us for more info.

Twitter: www.twitter.com/gforcegemgem

Facebook: www.facebook.com/gforcegemgem

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