Valkyrie Garage

Monica Wroblicky is a Viking shieldmaiden who wears other women’s knee sleeves as her elbow sleeves, eats donuts when she damn well feels like it, and spends her free time helping at-risk youth heal through horse therapy at Heart's Landing Ranch. She’s been training in Strongman for less than a year, has already won several first place honors, and is just getting started. In this conversation, she shares her journey from struggling with her weight to doing bikini comps to eventually wandering into Untamed Strength only to discover she was custom made for the sport of Strongman. Be sure to check out her IG @monicawroblicky, and support her ministry of strength for girls at @fearlesswarriorministry. Also check out Curves Apparel and Til You Collapse to get leggings like Monica's! This is the final episode of Season 1 - thanks for an awesome first season for the Valkyrie Garage.

Rachel Carrillo won the lightweight Master's division at California's Strongest Woman this year. Before she got into Strongman, Rachel was a Crossfit regional games athlete and an Ironman athlete and ultrarunner. And before that, she started as an elite artistic roller skater, traveling the world performing with a roller dance troupe in a white leotard -- just like Olivia Newton-John in Xanadu! She owns a Strongman and Crossfit gym where she’s forging strong people and training to become the world’s strongest woman.  She’s also a mom, a cat mom, and a person who can make Forever 21 look like a million dollars after taxes. Someday maybe I'll have visible obliques to flex too! Until then, I am happy to live vicariously through knowing this powerhouse. You can follow Rachel’s journey to the Nationals this September in Vegas at @rachelannecarrillo. Or if you're in Southern California, you can come train with her and get inspired by her at Crossfit Divinity.

Maddy Stewart, aka One Rep Mads, uses strength training to help her flourish while living with mental illness.  I love her sweetness, her boundless enthusiasm for the bench press, her boyfriend, her dogs, overalls, and pretty much everything. As a lifter on the cusp of the Millennial and Gen Z generations, she shares what it means to navigate social media and its perils. If you know someone living with obsessive compulsive disorder, this could be a helpful episode to share. And if you just want to smile and know that whatever is going on in the world, an excitable Canadian is up there somewhere giggling and lifting heavy things, follow @onerepmads.

Deb Arana is a real-life Artemis.  Don't believe me? She's a black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, she's a pole dance and aerial performer/instructor, and she's a bow hunter.  She's also a fierce Pilates instructor and grandmother who is killing some #physiquegoals at 58.  Deb is a body whisperer who holds space for women to find their power in the very different spaces of jiu jitsu and dance.  She shares about awakening our erotic nature, where to buy the best stripper shoes, her favorite gis, and how to avoid getting cauliflower ears. She inspires me to roll around on a jiu jitsu mat and then go give a lapdance to a Rihanna song.  If you need a little mojo of your own, check out her jiu jitsu classes (including women-only ones!) or join her for some feminine erotic movement. You can find her at https://www.debarana.com/ or on Insta here. For her shoes - Pleaser Shoes Gi - Senso Gis Mouthguards from Sisu Mouthguards

Fresh off her win at the Iron Gauntlet V Strongman/Strongwoman competition, our guest is Lindsay Hall!   Her strength journey started when she  walked into a gym to find some relief as a recovering addict.  At 35 she got into strength through group training classes and began competing in Olympic lifting.    A few years later, she was heading to the farthest flung corners of the earth to compete in events like the World Nomad Games in Kurdistan (goat polo, anyone?) and the World Championship of Mas Wrestling.  And she's just getting warmed up. She shares her journey to become strong, finding her tribe in the competition scene, and how she plans to age fiercely.  For more Lindsay, follow her @lin_zzee and her coach Chip @bodytribechip.  The fantastic image of Lindsay's Iron Gauntlet V tiebreaker came from Maverick and Atlas Photography.

She's a flame-haired, tattooed goddess who emerged as a Westside Barbell coach from a background of boxing and burlesque. She co-authored an epic book on the fighting life called Pain Don't Hurt. Now, Shelby sets women free through strength coaching and the feminist community she leads. You could gaze at her for hours on IG @shelbybelfast -- but what I find most thrilling about her is her thoughtfulness, her intense smarts, her professional seriousness, and her iron conviction. We talk about her favorite gym lewks, how she eats and trains, and her plans to launch her own brand. DM her to inquire about working with her in-person in SF or LA, or remotely from anywhere. To rock her outfits, you can shop Gymshark or Doughnuts and Deadlifts. (Also helps if you have an accessory like her partner in life and training @sfitperform).

The ultimate Strongwoman Squad drops by the garage -- three women from the @grassrootscrossfit team who are redefining what strength over 40 means as competitive Masters athletes at the National level.  Natalie Studer, 47, is a kindergarten teacher who channels Maria von Trapp at work. Her strength alter ego, Rage Butterfly, has a fierce war cry that inspires awe and chills. Follow her @rage_butterfly to get fired up to train at 5:30 am.  Molly Merson, 42, is a psychotherapist who journeyed from HIIT bootcamper to Crossfitter to Nationals Strongwoman competitor and earned the nickname Tenacious Bee for her driving ferocity in the gym. Follow her @barbelledreams. Lola Schneir is an artist and parent who decided to take on Strongman training 6 months ago and is now headed to Nationals at almost 50. Follow her @lolaresinartist. We talk about how facing the Atlas stones make you fearless in other areas, how training emboldens you to ask for what you want, how to get more protein in, and how the secret to Natalie's poppin' shoulder definition may actually be her "sleep hat." 

Emily Stanwyck is a coach at Deuce Gym. She's also a wife, a mother, and a doula.  We talk about how she's expanding her practice to guide women and couples through the process of becoming parents, how she won California's Strongest Woman in flip-flops, and how to use breast milk as a power snack (mind blown!)  Follow her @emboslice_ and if you're in the LA Area, sign up for the Women's Only Strongman Social on April 20 or the Strongman 101 program at Deuce (starts April 29).

All hail the Platform Queen! Ari Phillip (aka Platform Queen Ari) broke the record for deadlift IPL/USPA Masters Division at the 2018 Mr Olympia with a 474 deadlift., and she plans to break her own record again this year. Five years ago she couldn't do 5 pushups in a circuit training and before that, she was crawling on the floor surrounded by food delivery bags because she couldn't walk or leave her house. These days, she books her hotels and flights to competitions even before she has completed the qualifiers -- because she has eliminate any doubt that she will win. I need me some of that! From plus size modeling to baby wipes to mirror affirmations, Ari breaks down how she unleashes strength and beauty in powerlifting and life.

Welcome to the Valkyrie Garage, a new podcast celebrating female strength. Our first EVER guest to the Garage is Clinay Cameron. If you don't know her yet, stop everything and follow @clinayislivingproof right now. Clinay is part Division 1 athlete, part strength and fitness coach, part lifestyle advocate, and 100% goals. If you travel with her, she juuuust might walk off the street into a conference room and pick up 400lbs. If you're a strongman noob like me, she just might handle stones for you (kind of like Mick Jagger being a roadie for a garage band). If you're an at-risk youth, she just might invite you into potential you didn't know you had. But if you see her out there glowing, you might not know that she had to overcome a obesity, an addicted parent, and personal tragedy to get to UC Berkeley and a thriving career. Clinay shows how to own your story (including the hard parts) and bring your full authentic self to the party.