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Heffernan, from Sydney’s northern suburbs says his ideal job would be fighting fires. At the moment he lists his pastime as fire twirling. “And it’s a great cardio workout,” he adds.

Just over 12 weeks ago, Heffernan was a 25-year-old struggling to get any consistency into his gym program and fitness regime. So he decided to apply a little pressure on himself to get motivated. He sent in his entry form – which including the before pic you see here – so those of us at the BodyBlitz 12-Week Challenge knew of his goals. He also told his family and friends and suddenly had no choice but to stick to the challenge.

In fact he was in so deep that he couldn’t even let a knee injury early in his Challenge slow him down. “I don’t know how I injured my knee. It was just sore and I couldn’t put pressure on it by running,” he says. “I was already committed and had organised all my meals and what I was going to do. I told everyone and decided that I wasn’t going to give up just because I’d hurt my leg. I knew I wouldn’t be able to do as much cardio.”

So Heffernan hit the internet and sourced out the art of fire twirling. “I’ve seen people do it at parties and thought that looks interesting,” he says.

A few singed hairs and bruises later he twirls a pretty mean 1.3 metre stick with flames coming out both ends. According to one Melbourne-based distributor of fire-twirling products: “Fire twirling stokes a primal force in us all. Share the spirit, peek in the areas above! Fire twirling, fire dancing, or just plain f'wirlin is the art of manipulating the body and a fire toy in a deliberate manner. Circular trails of light and dance-like/martial arts movements characterise this wonderful, mesmerising practice.”

“There’s a lot of hard sweating,” he explains. “It works a lot of body parts, bending over and catching the stick. When you’re doing it to music and getting into the beat you move quite quickly and bounce up and down and move around.”

And no he’s not available for shows, just the occasional performance in front of family and friends.

With the cardio sorted, Heffernan hit the gym with his younger brother Peter. He wanted mass and while he dropped 6.5kg over the 12 weeks, he put size on his chest, arms and thighs. He hit the heavy weights doing eight rep max five times a week – Monday chest, Tuesday shoulders, Wednesday arms, Thursday back and Friday legs. The weekends were for family, friends and a spot of fire twirling.

Apart from the monthly prizes, Heffernan goes into the mix to become the 2004 BodyBlitz Grand Champion with a wealth of prizes, including $5000 prizemoney, up for grabs. Whatever the results, Heffernan says he’s continued to work hard in the gym rather than let the results from his 12 week transformation lapse.

He’s applied to become a firefighter and his new body shape will be an important aspect should he take up that career. And he assures us there’s no chance of causing extra business for firefighters with his fire twirling pastime. IM

Monday	chest
Tuesday	shoulders
Wednesday	biceps/triceps
Thursday	back
Friday	legs
The weekends were for family, friends and a spot of fire twirling.

By Andrew Berkman

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Read some of our other
female success stories 2004

Read some of our other male
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Read some of our other
female success stories 2003

Read some of our other male
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Over a 12-week period, even the best-laid plans can go awry. For the entrants in the BodyBlitz 12-Week Challenge the obstacles are varied and the solutions numerous. But we’ve never had anyone tackle them with quite the fire and flare of Sydneysider David Heffernan.