IN THE DAYS leading up to his shoot with Men’s Health, Bailey O’Brien is asked the all-important question: shirt on or off for the cover? He opts for the former, if that’s alright with us.
We said yes, obviously, because (a) that’s very much our modus operandi, and (b) to address the elephant-sized set of pecs in the room, we’d have felt foolish asking O’Brien to cover up.
And so, when I arrive on set at O’Brien’s BAIFIT gym in Sydney’s Hills District on the day of our shoot, I’m fully expecting to find our cover star pumping himself up with a last-minute workout before the money shot. But there’s no need. “I’ve done two workouts today already,” says the lululemon Ambassador like it’s not 8:30 in the morning, before asking if I’ve managed to get a workout in (I haven’t). “We had a 5am run club at the park, and then I came and did the 6:15 hybrid class at the gym, which was an upper-body session. I’ll probably do a third workout before the end of the day.”
Outside, low grey clouds blanket the overcast sky. Inside, the atmosphere is less gloomy. Music pulses through the gym. Editors, photographers, the grooming team, O’Brien’s own content team, his wife, Madi, and half a dozen other miscellaneous crew members filter in and out. O’Brien bounces from conversation to conversation with the affable energy of someone who’s actually enjoying making all this small talk with people he’s never met – people who, within the hour, will all be staring at him while he’s only half-dressed.
By the time our cameras are ready, O’Brien is decked out in lululemon and glowing – though to be fair, that might have been the hydrating gel that was just applied to his face. “This is hydrating as hell,” he had said, approvingly, before pausing to check in with his videographer. “Got the shot?” They did.
O’Brien has the kind of physique that makes you wonder what you’ve been doing wrong. There are those elephant-sized pecs, but there are also biceps that practically introduce themselves and abs that protrude so far from his torso they could probably be used for scientific study. The well-groomed moustache is the icing on the cake.
And yet, despite looking like he was assembled by committee to appear on the cover of Men’s Health, O’Brien is at pains to point out that his body is a byproduct, not the goal, of his training. “I think part of the appeal of HYROX is that it gives people the opportunity to chase a performance goal rather than an aesthetic one,” he says. “And I think that’s a super healthy approach.”
In O’Brien’s case, those performance goals have kept tumbling down. He’s the kind of person who accomplishes most things he sets out to achieve. But even so, he doesn’t believe he’s reached his full potential. “My thinking is that I haven’t given all I’ve got yet,” he says. “There’s more to come. I don’t know exactly what it will be, but I’m going to give my absolute best to get there.”
It’s no accident that O’Brien ended up in fitness. His dad was a PE teacher and had a Men’s Health subscription, so there’s that. But growing up in Wollongong, he gravitated towards every sport he could find. Soccer, cricket, AFL: he played them all. But it was basketball that had his heart. “My dream was to play professional sport,” he says. “I played state basketball growing up, and I wanted to play professionally, but being a sub-six foot point guard, I knew I had to work really hard to get there.”
O’Brien did not become a pro basketballer, but when he talks about the decision to give up on that dream, he doesn’t do so with any bitterness. Instead, he points out that coming close to the pros exposed him to something he might not have otherwise encountered. “Because of my time in basketball, I was in the gym from a pretty young age,” he says. “And I always enjoyed it.” That would be his first taste of the fitness space.
When he finished school, O’Brien’s university experience lasted approximately one lecture. “I thought, this isn’t for me,” he says. “I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do, but I knew I loved health and fitness, I loved training.” He started on the gym floor, working reception, personal training – doing the unglamorous groundwork. Gradually, an idea started to take shape. “One thing led to another and I started building what would eventually become BAIFIT.”
After consultation with Madi, O’Brien is still unsure of how to answer the question of when BAIFIT was founded. As a concept, BAIFIT began in a rented PT space before migrating to O’Brien’s garage. It has been alive in various forms for about eight years. In its current iteration, it’s a dedicated gym space and thriving community with around 150 members, but there’s a reason that number isn’t higher. “Bigger is not always better,” O’Brien says. “We’ve had opportunities where we’ve looked at franchising and opening multiple sites, but ultimately I’d rather have quality over quantity.”
The gym caps classes at 20 people, with the focus on cultivating a supportive, tight knit community rather than an expansive but ultimately faceless enterprise. “When I moved to the Hills area I didn’t know anyone,” O’Brien says. “BAIFIT members really became like my family, and I treat them like family. I want to make sure our quality and our service and the value we add can truly change people’s lives and give them a sense of belonging.”
While leading classes, O’Brien runs alongside his members rather than lording over them. And coaching has taught him things about people, and himself, that he might have otherwise missed. “Everyone is different, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach, and people are motivated by different things,” he says. “Some people like to be treated softly and encouraged. Some people like to be pushed really hard.”
Knowing which is which, he says, is as important as any program design. And if you’re just getting started in fitness and are working towards a goal, he suggests not doing it alone. “Find a community with a coach that you can follow,” he says. “A lot of people who are just testing the waters will make their own program or just use ChatGPT, which is fine because everyone has a different budget, but training in a community cannot be undervalued. It will challenge you, it will educate you and it will hold you accountable.”
The name of his gym has been retrofitted with deeper meaning. The ‘BAI’ segment of BAIFIT was originally a riff on O’Brien’s first name, but it’s now an acronym: Be All In Fitness. “I wanted to make it bigger than just me and have our name reflect our values,” O’Brien explains. The idea of being all in is not only the gym’s core value, but O’Brien’s approach to everything he does in life.
CrossFit was O’Brien’s first serious flirtation with competitive fitness, but HYROX is the format he’s settled on – and he can be evangelical about what it offers to elite athletes and everyday people looking for something to train towards. “My dream was to be a professional athlete, but only the top one per cent make it,” he says. “The other 99 per cent, what do they do when they don’t make it? I feel like HYROX gives people a chance to feel like an athlete and train like one, and if you’re part of a relay or pair, to feel like you’re part of a team.”
Crucially, as O’Brien says, the best HYROX athletes aren’t simply the fastest or the strongest, but the most complete. “I like things that have multiple components where the winner is whoever can be the most consistent across multiple things rather than just really good at one,” O’Brien says. “Playing basketball, I was never the tallest, never the most talented.” Given what we’re looking at, it’s hard to imagine a version of O’Brien who was outmuscled by anyone. “Maybe people don’t want to just be a runner or they don’t want to just be a weightlifter. The multi-modal approach can make the training really fun.”
Two weeks after his cover shoot, O’Brien is heading to the HYROX World Championships in Stockholm, Sweden. His previous Worlds experience taught him something he thinks is underrated in competitive sport: the ability to detach from the clock. “I learnt that it’s best to not be obsessed with a time goal or hitting a PR,” he says. “Because then you can forget to enjoy the experience. Like, how often do you get to travel the world and compete at a world championship?”
His goal this year? “Just go and give it 100%. As long as I give 100%, then I think things will work out the way they’re meant to.”
O’Brien’s typical week of training would need a spreadsheet to replicate, but in case you’re interested, here’s the run down. He works out six or seven days a week: six days of strength training, four or five days of running, most days doubling up, some days – like the day of our shoot – tripling. His weekly structure currently looks like this:
Monday: lower body
Tuesday: upper body
Wednesday: HYROX session
Thursday: upper body and core
Friday: HYROX session
Saturday: group session
Sunday: rest (maybe)
Running alternates between easy and interval days and he estimates that he runs up to 70 kilometres per week, but he doesn’t like to spend too much time worrying about tracking precise numbers. “There was once a time where I would track everything and let it almost consume me,” he says. “That’s something I’ve learnt to let go of.” Now, the measure is simpler: did he give everything he had?
His sponsors keep him well-resourced: lululemon for kit (he’s wearing it head to toe), WHOOP to track metrics and recovery, Bare Performance Nutrition for supplements, Shokz for headphones, YoPro for fuel. “I’m very lucky to have so much support,” he says.
Years of dedication have helped O’Brien build some consistency in his routine. But asked whether it’s race day or the daily grind that presents the greater challenge, he admits that keeping up such a brutal regimen is more difficult. “The one hour on race day isn’t what decides how you’ll perform,” he says. “It’s the months you spend preparing for it. If you’ve been slacking off or you haven’t been consistent, race day will be pretty hard.”
Luckily for O’Brien, putting in the work is where he thrives. “My strength is my work ethic,” he says. “That’s where I feel like I can gain my edge.” As a basketballer, he was never the most physically gifted player. He had to be the hardest worker on the court to succeed. The same applies now.
There’s something that keeps surfacing during my conversation with O’Brien – the idea that he hasn’t yet reached his ceiling and that there is more still ahead of him. “I haven’t given all I’ve got yet,” he says, at one point. “There’s more to come,” he adds later. But he doesn’t set rigid, outcome-specific goals. What motivates him is finishing each day knowing he emptied the tank. “I want to maximise my potential in multiple modalities. That means being an athlete, being an entrepreneur, being a leader, impacting others.”
Amid all of his training, work, events and travel, O’Brien has found a version of balance that probably wouldn’t satisfy a life coach but clearly works for him. “I feel like the concept of balance is very subjective,” he says. “I don’t have an abundance of spare time, but I’m truly happy with the balance I have. I love working, I love coaching, I love building a community, I love building a business.”
Spending a morning in his orbit, you’ll notice how O’Brien deliberately refuses to let any of it blur past. “I try to stay present, notice the small things and say them out loud. Something like, ‘I can’t believe we’re here with Men’s Health’,” he says – which, for the record, is a very gratifying thing for us to hear. It’s also proof that you can be hungry for what’s ahead and still appreciate exactly where you are.
O’Brien glances over at his video crew one more time, checking if they got the shot. It’s good, Bailey. But if we know anything about you by now, it’s that your best is yet to come.
Bailey O'Brien's HYROX-inspired EMOM workout
Want to workout like Bailey O’Brien’s? This is 60-minute EMOM session uses HYROX movements to sculpt a functional physique that’s purpose built for the HYROX race course.
For the uninitiated, EMOM means ‘Every Minute On the Minute”. You have 60 seconds to complete each movement before the next movement begins. If you one movement with time remaining, use that as rest.
Complete the below circuit for 10 rounds. Each round should take six minutes, for a total 60-minute workout.
1. 15/20 calorie bike erg (scale however needed)
2. 12.5m sled push @ HYROX race weight
3. 200m run
4. 12 burpee box jumps @ 20/24” box
5. 45s Farmers hold @ 24/32kg kettlebells
6. REST
WORDS: CAYLE REID
PHOTOGRAPHY: STEVE BACCON
STYLING: KAILEE WALLER
PRODUCTION DIRECTOR: REBECCA MOORE
VIDEO: JASPER KAROLEWSKI
GROOMING: MAX SERRANO
DIGI OP: ADEAN O’CONNELL
1ST ASSISTANT: BYRON CHAMBERS
HEAD OF BRAND: BEN JHOTY
