Meet Ireland’s strongest woman who can squat an eye-watering 200kg and pull the cab of a lorry.
Ayshea Ullah from Galway will take on some of the world’s strongest females later this month and is urging others to follow in her footsteps.
What’s even more amazing is the 45-year-old stumbled across her talent by accident when she joined a gym in 2014.
Ayshea told the Irish Sunday Mirror: “I started it to stay fit and soon realised that I was quite strong.
“The guy who was running it at the time was very interested in power lifting so I said I would give it a shot.
“I did that for three years and was representing Ireland and then I changed gyms and met my current partner and he was big into Strongman. A few girls and I who were training together said we would give it a go and threw ourselves into it and haven’t looked back.
“I was the first woman to ever do 200kg deadlift in competition and then I went on to be the first woman to squat 200kg.
“I fell in love with it and just wanted to keep pushing myself more and more.”
She added: “A lot of women say ‘I would never be able to do that’ and then they lift 50 or 60kg. Don’t let the fear stop you.
“I guarantee any woman who wants to try it will end up loving it. The empowerment you feel is unreal.”
Four-time Irish champ Ayshea is 5ft 7 and will compete at a weight of 105kg at the UK’s Strong Woman 2021 competition in Bangor, Co Down, on August 21.
She trains four days a week and admitted she loves to lift and pull unusual objects including tree trunks and lorry cabs.
She revealed: “When it comes to the competition we make it equally challenging to the mens.
“You could be pulling trucks, lifting Atlas Stones. I have the Irish record for the Atlas Stone which was lifting 135kg to three foot and six inches in height.
“I pull trucks. They are the cab of the big lorries.
“We also do heavy sandbag runs which weigh between 80kg and 100kg and run with them.
“You also might have to flip big lorry tyres for a long distance, all kinds of crazy things.
“This weekend I will be going out and pulling a transit van full of metal on the back of it to replicate a lorry cab because we can’t get a hold of one for training.”
Ayshea also admitted the extreme sport has its sceptics.
She revealed: “After one of our competitions we all headed off to The Quays in Galway and this guy came up to us and said ‘what do you do’ and we said ‘oh, we have just taken part in a Strong Woman competition’.
“He said ‘can you lift me?’ and I ended up with him up over my shoulder.
“I try not to do anything stupid though now,” she joked.
But she said her strength can come in very handy in certain situations.
She added: “It comes in handy if your car breaks down to be able to push it to the side of the road.
“I had to do that when my jeep conked out on me.”
