Kevin Bowles: Never Enough

April 5, 2012

Kate Rose

“Too Small.” “Lacking coordination.” “Too slow.” Kevin Bowles has heard all of these, yet he finds himself 10th in the Canada East Region after the 2012 Open. His love of training and teaching got him there.

Bowles started  his athletic career in hockey at a young age, and advanced to AAA level in Clarington, Ontario. At 9 years of age, he started to train for triathlons, and trained at a high level, with exceptional coaches. He reached Junior Nationals at 16, and competed until he was 18. University called, however, and Bowles switched gears.

While at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, Bowles kept active. He joined a varsity lacrosse program with the Laurentian Voyageurs, and was introduced to some new people with interesting backgrounds.

The head lacrosse coach at Laurentian had a brother, Larry, who was the head of the Ontario Weightlifting Association. Larry taught Bowles the O-lifts, and Bowles incorporated it into his training to improve his lacrosse game.

When home from school, Bowles would meet up with an old friend, Cam Cassidy, who introduced Bowles to this new program, CrossFit. The first workout Bowles did was 'Fran.' “I was hooked.” says Bowles.

“I lifted heavy before some of the workouts and treated it like any other WOD.” 

When Kevin found out about the competitive side of CrossFit,  his interest increased. Cassidy and Bowles went into business together, and created CrossFit Oshawa.

In 2011, Bowles competed in the Open for the first time. He wasn’t too sure what to expect, but he took it seriously. “I never repeated workouts, but I didn’t think about my training during the entire Open… it felt like I was in limbo for those 6 weeks. That’s a long time to not be improving.” he says.

This year, Bowles' focus has shifted upward. He didn’t set a strategy for Open events; he took it one WOD at the time. He used the Open to complement his training for Regionals. “I lifted heavy before some of the workouts and treated it like any other WOD.” says Kevin. As an added bonus, he performed better without the pressure.

Bowles learned the fine art of the taper as a competitive triathlete, and he'll use that to his advantage leading up to Regionals. “It works and it allows you to know your body and its capabilities, but it also provides recovery time.” he says. His primarly goal is to simply improve on last year’s Regional result. After finishing  12th at Regionals in 2011, he’s ready for anything.

While Bowles’ love for training has carried him this far, there is another side to it. “Training makes me happy, but it has to be both ways – training hard, every day, and training other people, giving them a better quality of life, and making a difference. Crossfit allows me to live my life in both ways and it is a very rewarding way to live.” he says. Kevin Bowles loves the CrossFit lifestyle, and can't get enough.