This week, Ashleigh speaks with the owner of "the world's deadliest thighs," Kortney Olson. You may have seen her viral videos, crushing watermelons between her legs and other awesome feats of strength, but there's more to Kortney than big muscles and a personality to match. Having struggled through disordered eating and addiction, it's been a long road to acceptance and perseverance for the woman who can now call herself an armwrestling champion, international bodybuilding competitor, motivational speaker, and entrepreneur (she's the founder of GRRRL clothing). We talk fitness, her explant experience, and how to re-wire our brains and our attitudes for positivity, happiness, and confidence. Oh, and watermelon-crushing, we talk about that too.

Kortney is an Australian Womenʼs arm wrestling champion, Queensland state Brazilian Jiu jitsu champion, three time international bodybuilding competitor, author, TV personality, certified personal trainer and Olympic lifting and CrossFit coach.

If you think youʼve seen Kortney before, itʼs probably because youʼve seen her smashing watermelons with her thighs on the Internet or TV or being described as the "woman with the world's deadliest thighs" by Stan Lee, creator of Marvel Comics; a title she holds with pride.

She is also dedicated to empowering young people and women to be confident and strong and gain self-acceptance through her annual Grrrl Live events and her fast growing apparel company Grrrl.

Minute Breakdown:

8 - 14 An intro to Kortney and her work

14 – 22 "Goals not controls" Tools she uses to stay on track, how to avoid feeling like you and your work is "never enough" and ways she's worked through a difficult past to find acceptance – and still working through it

22 – 29 Ashleigh asks Kortney about how we can all work to instill and encourage true confidence in women—both young ones, and grown women who have had low self-esteem for most of their lives

29 – 41 Kortney tells us about her experience with implants and her subsequent explant surgery due to severe negative reaction; this leads to a larger conversation about the way we look at women's bodies in the fitness industry specifically

41 –53 What Kortney's training currently looks like

53 – 61 How Kortney organizes her day and attempts to balance health and her many work projects

61– 1:06 How to persevere in your work despite criticism; how to avoid becoming sidetracked and crushed by other people's opinions

1:06 – 1:10 Kortney tells us what's next for her, and for us, including a watermelon-crushing strength program

Visit grrrl.com and say hi on social media @kortney_olson and @grrrl_clothing

Reach out to me on Instagram @themusclemaven to say hi and tell me what you thought of the podcast, head to ashleighvanhouten.com to sign up for my weekly health and fitness newsletter, and you can find me talking weekly on the internet via the Paleo Magazine Radio Podcast and as a co-host on Ben Pakulski's Muscle Intelligence podcast.

Reach out to me on Instagram @themusclemaven to say hi and tell me what you thought of the podcast, head to ashleighvanhouten.com to sign up for my weekly health and fitness newsletter, and if you enjoyed the episode please share on social media and leave me a nice rating and review on iTunes!

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Show notes: http://www.shruggedcollective.com/mmr-olsen

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Shrugged Collective is a network of fitness, health and performance shows that help people achieve their physical and mental health goals. Usually in the gym, but outside as well. In 2012 they posted their first Barbell Shrugged podcast and have been putting out weekly free videos and podcasts ever since.

Along the way we've created successful online coaching programs including The Shrugged Strength Challenge, The Muscle Gain Challenge, FLIGHT, Barbell Shredded, and Barbell Bikini.

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