by Krista Harper
8/2/2010

(Blyn poses in front of her Hummer, which, she says, is probably her trademark in Holliston. In 2008, Blyn pulled her Hummer around the parking lot of ABT for MetroWest Daily News. The video is available on YouTube.)

The 5’3” blonde also competes regularly in strongwoman competitions where she performs outrageous feats of strength like flipping tractor tires, lifting huge stones and pulling seven-ton airplanes.

(Blyn and DiAntonio share a laugh after he flips the tire.)

The Southwick native, now 37, is more casual about her achievements than one might expect. “Training and working out are forms of stress relief for me,” she says, shrugging. “It’s a high.  It’s a sense of accomplishment.”

Blyn opened Athletic Based Training (ABT) in June 2008. When it opened, the center had only 3,000 square feet of floor space, where Blyn only had room to teach one group class at a time. In the past two years, her business has expanded so much that she has had to add another 2,500 square feet of space to accommodate more athletes, equipment and trainers. Last month, she added another 3,000 square feet of gym space, where athletes registered for other classes throughout the week can come just to work out on their own.

Most of Blyn’s clients are from Holliston and surrounding towns. They come to ABT for all kinds of different reasons. Some are former couch potatoes who just want to get in shape, while others are adult athletes pushing themselves to their limits. Many of Blyn’s clients are teens who are in sports at their middle and high schools. To Blyn, who doesn’t have children of her own, they’re her kids. 

 “I’ve gotten really attached to the kids here in Holliston,” she says. “I go to the games my kids are in, at least a few of each sport each season.”
Blyn gives out ABT scholarships to some of her kids who she knows can’t afford the services. She also donates services, money and equipment to most of the high school sports teams and local Pop Warner football.
Her involvement in her kids’ lives doesn’t end at sporting events. She goes to other events to cheer them on, like the play one of her girls was in last year.

Alison Corin, who works at ABT’s juice bar part-time, says Blyn’s commitment to her teens doesn’t end there, either.  “The kids tell Liane everything,” Corin says. “Fitness is so secondary compared to what the kids get from her. She knows which kids are drinking, who’s in trouble. She has no problem sitting down and giving them a lecture. They know that if it’s something dangerous that could hurt them, she’ll go to their parents.”

Sixteen-year-old Hopkinton High student Mike Decina, who comes to ABT to prepare for the football season, says he has a lot of respect for Blyn and what she can teach him. “She’s just a very positive person. I look up to her, and I strive to be like her.”

Another teenage client, Patrick Talentino of Holliston, says his sister and his mom work out at ABT as well. “It’s very competitive down here,” he says. “I like it a lot.”

 (Liane Blyn, owner of Athletic Based Training in Holliston, coaches her client Nick DiAntonio of Milford through flipping a tractor tire. Blyn says coaching is her passion, though she spends a good amount of time flipping tires herself.)

Talentino gestures toward a white board in the hallway displaying record weights lifted by young people at ABT, categorized by gender and age. “Everybody wants to get on the board,” he says.

Blyn says she likes coaching youth because sports are such a confidence booster for young people. She especially likes working with girls, because of outside pressures placed on girls to have perfect bodies. Giving the girls a boost in the gym helps raise their value in the sports world, too, she explains, where boys usually get most of the attention. The boys’ teams often go out of state to play games, while most of the girls’ teams have to stay at home. The imbalance is something of a personal battle for Blyn, who has personally competed against men both in strength competitions and for jobs in the coaching world, which tends to be male-dominated.

Before moving back to Massachusetts a few years ago, Blyn spent several years strength coaching male and female college athletes at major schools in Nevada and Arizona. Though some male athletes were surprised at first to have a female coach, they quickly realized that she deserved their respect, especially when she could lift, squat and bench more than they could.

Blyn says it wasn’t her plan to return to Massachusetts, but a few years ago she moved back to her home state with her husband to get a job coaching at Boston College. More recently, she spent a few years directing athletic centers similar to ABT elsewhere in Massachusetts. Working at those jobs, she realized that she wanted her own business.
Her husband, Rich Blyn, does sports reconditioning at ABT for recently injured athletes. But the business is primarily Liane’s, as his main job is doing sports medicine for professional bull riders, and that means that he’s sometimes away on the bull riding circuit.

Alison Corin, now ABT’s master juice mixer, came to the center two years ago for a boot camp-style class for “very unfit housewives,” she says.
When Corin missed a class, Blyn would call her or text her to see where she was. Blyn does that for everyone taking her classes, Corin says. She says Blyn changed her life by getting her in shape and improving her outlook on life.

“For most people, Liane’s better than antidepressants,” Corin says. “I don’t think she has any idea how much of an impact she has on other people’s lives. Anybody that works for her would go to war for her.”
Kevin O’Neill, a trainer who has worked with Blyn in other athletic centers since before she opened ABT, agrees. “Working with this industry for years, I’ve never met anyone who cares about her clients as much as she does.”

Nick DiAntonio of Milford has been training with Blyn for three years, since before ABT opened. The 20-year-old is now a linebacker on Assumption College’s football team. “It’s an unbelievable opportunity for any athlete [to train at ABT],” DiAntonio says. “The coaches here are the best around, in my opinion. They’ve all worked at big places. You have someone pushing you all the time here. I’ve gotten a lot stronger.”

Shaking off the credit everyone else gives her, Blyn says simply that she has great staff and couldn’t do it without them. Between all of her myriad responsibilities, Blyn still finds time for her stress relief. Right now she’s training for her next big competition, the World’s Strongest Man event in South Africa in November. Blyn’s moved around a lot in her life, but she says she’s in Holliston to stay now that ABT is established. “This is more than just a business to me, and to my staff. We’re not going anywhere.”