What happens when the world’s most delightfully impractical sport runs straight into the hardest questions about fairness and inclusion? We invited amateur strongman athlete and community mod Lola Phoenix to lift the lid on Atlas stones, log presses, and the culture that keeps people coming back for more. Along the way, we unpack a controversy shaking the strongman scene and sketch a better path forward that puts competition—and community—first.

Lola walks us through the nuts and bolts of strongman: why odd objects make lifting feel like a puzzle, how a 90 kg stone becomes a rite of passage, and which events are secretly miserable (looking at you, Dinnie-style carries). If you’re new, you’ll get a no-nonsense roadmap for getting started without a fancy gym: build deadlifts, carries, and overheads; find a crew; and follow approachable pros and evidence-based resources like Stronger By Science. We also laugh a lot about height problems, bag toss fails, and the eternal allure of big rocks.

Then we get serious. Strongman’s gendered divisions, uneven funding, and patchwork rules have produced real harm, from stripped titles to targeted harassment. Instead of arguing identity in a vacuum, we zoom out to everything that already skews “fairness”: height, hormone profiles, coaching access, money, and the absence of consistent PED testing. Lola shares a practical fix hiding in plain sight—use existing competition data to build ability-based brackets. Set the events first, auto-cluster athletes by performance, and let the weights match the lifter. You get closer heats, better shows, and a bigger tent for strongwomen and nonbinary athletes without locking anyone out.

If strength sports intrigue you or you care about making competition genuinely fair, this one’s for you. Tap play, meet Lola, pick up a metaphorical stone, and help us grow a smarter, kinder strongman community. If you enjoyed the conversation, subscribe, share with a friend, and leave a review so more people find the show.

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