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
For athletes aged 8-12
Junior Varsity
Ages: 8-12
Prerequisites: None
Start date: September 2
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
Empower Weekly WOD: Week Beginning September 1st 2025
Monday, September 1st 2025
30 min AMRAP
800m Run
25 DB Thrusters @25/35#
400m DB Farmer’s Carry@25/35#
30 minutes sounds like a lot of time. And the dumbbells are lighter than usual so, it should be easy, right? Not so much. It was a rainy morning when I joined the 5am make-up day crew to do this one. I used 1 pood kettlebells instead of dumbbells because I find them more challenging.
Oh, the farmer’s carry! So challenging and yet so beneficial.
Tuesday, September 2nd 2025
Front Squat
3-3-3-3-3
Some days you just don’t feel it. I was struggling at 175lbs and thinking of capping my workout somewhere thereabouts when young Paul racked up his barbell and started doing 5x5 front squats at 225lbs across from me. Shame is a powerful motivator! I ended up working all the way up to 235lbs. And the crazy thing was that my sets performed at 225lbs felt like my easiest set of the day. So, I guess I had more in me than I initially thought. At 235lbs I felt my form collapsing slightly so I dialled it back to 205lbs for a couple sets just to accumulate a bit of volume at a respectable load. As long as you don’t get silly with it and do something reckless, a little competition can sometimes help.
Wednesday, September 3rd 2025: Make Up Day
See previous WODs
Thursday, September 4th 2025
15 min AMRAP
25m Handstand Walk
20 K2E
15 Hip Extensions
Look, I love the handstand walk so I get it if you’re a freak like me and want to give it a go. Hand-to-hand against the wall is a great progression and is exactly how I developed my handstand walk. But if functional fitness is your goal I believe you will get more benefit and less risk by performing a 25m Bear Crawl. Crawling is amazing for developing full body strength and you are far less likely to get injured than handstand walking.
Knees to elbows or hanging knee raises depending on your core strength.
It is a short set of hip extensions that can be done in a single set each round. Get on the GHD for this, it is such a great exercise for training you to activate glutes and hamstrings while learning how to isolate them from your low back muscles. At the same time you get to develop midline stability in an open chain, unloaded position. Safe and effective. There is no equivalent substitute.
Friday, September 5th 2025
20 Burpees
20 Hang Squat Snatches @95/135lbs
20 Bar Muscle Ups
20 Hang Squat Snatches @95/135lbs
20 Burpees
Loved this workout but only made it through the first 60 reps. 20 is a good set of burpees, Few enough that you can sprint through explosively the way they were intended but numerous enough that to do so requires you to push into discomfort.
With all the Olympic Lifting in the programming my skill is improving rapidly, I hope yours is too. September has a lot of Weightlifting for us so use every opportunity to improve your technique. As my coach said: “Skill is the greatest fitness hack.” I had to break the snatches up into sets of 5 which really slowed me down so I only got through the first set. 20 reps at 135lbs was enough though, I felt thoroughly exhausted. Pick a weight that allows you to get 5 good reps and really hone your skill.
Bar muscle ups were almost as challenging as the snatches. Do them if you have them. Banded is fair game. Chest to bar pull ups are a great substitute if you aren’t at bar muscle ups yet. Don’t have Rx’d pull ups yet? No problem, jumping or banded chest to bar pull ups are great ways to work on this skill.
It is good to see a pairing of skilled lifting and gymnastics movements showing up in the programming again! These types of workouts set Crossfit apart from any other training modality.
Saturday, September 6th 2025: Empower Team WOD
Come ready to team up and conquer!
Sunday, September 7th 2025: Make Up Day
See Previous WODs
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
© Copyright 2025 | Design by Zen Planner