A primary school teacher is inspiring her pupils outside the classroom - as one of the UK's strongest women.
Lisa Wallman, 34, has been taking the country by storm and has already won the titles of Oxfordshire and Hampshire's strongest woman.
She trains by pulling buses by rope, lifting rocks and holding 65kg logs above her head - and also works as full-time teacher.
Lisa, of Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, said: "It's been crazy and amazing!
"My coach is very excited because she thinks it's going to be a big year.
"Life is teaching and training - there is not much time for everything else.
"My younger students are in awe of what I do and some even like to show me them lifting logs in the playground.
"They are also asking me when I'm going on Gladiators - to which I say I am definitely not because I am not wearing the outfits!
"I want to show my girl pupils in particular it is OK to be a woman and strong."
Lisa, who now lives in East Hendred, near Wantage and teaches at Hendreds Primary School, originally took up weightlifting to assist with her dressage and horse riding in 2022.
But after giving up her horse, she wanted something else to focus her attention on - so for around a year took part in powerlifting - a strength sport that consists of three attempts at maximal weight on three lifts - squat, bench press, and deadlift.
However, as Lisa was still recovering from a very bad spinal injury a few years ago, she found powerlifting not only painful for her back, but also quite mundane.
She explained: "I got a bit bored of powerlifting and was getting more and more back problems.
"But a best mate of mine did strongman, a different type of strength athletics, so I decided to give it a go.
"Strongman has helped my back because it has allowed me to build up muscle by my spine which helps functionally - it has changed everything."
Lisa explains how Strongman competitions (which tests competitors' strength in a variety of non-traditional ways) swiftly became her new favourite passion due to the vast nature of the exercises required and the supportive community.
So, she moved into strong man coaching just 14 months ago in January 2023 and has made a name for herself within the sport.
Lisa said: "Strongman is so much more fun - the events are ridiculous.
"There are at least 40 to 50 events you could train for and every competition has so much variety - pulling cars and buses, lifting rocks, flipping bags.
"It is also much more of a community: everyone is so supportive, even at competitions, competitors share things and support each other throughout."
Lisa has a rigorous training programme each week - where she gets up at 3:30am to train at 4:15am for three hours before teaching - and does this three times a week from Monday to Friday.
She also partakes in four hours of training on Saturday and Sunday too - making her training days total to five a week.
Lisa has members to three different gyms in Swindon, Bracknell and Wokingham - to get the specialised training she needs.
For her most recent win which crowned her Oxfordshire's strongest woman on 2 March - Lisa had to compete in five tasks in front of a crowd of 200 people.
Some of the tasks included deadlifting 160kg on a barbell five times, running as far as she was able to whilst holding a 90kg sandbag and run with a variety of metal barrels and sandbags weighing up to 80kg.
Lisa earnt the most points - taking home a trophy and £250.
Lisa, who teaches years three and four, says her school community have been vey supportive of her strength competitions and her young pupils are always inquisitive and 'amazed'.
She said: "I had two pupils come to my last competition, the whole school tuned into my radio shows, there have been no negative comments, the parents support me - it is so lovely to have that.
"I like to show the girls in the school in particular its ok to be strong."
Lisa admits although the competitions are still male-dominated, a lot of women partake in the events too and their numbers are only increasing.
She said: "It is mainly men competition but more and more of women are doing it.
"Women taking over the big stages now, the feel within the community is amazing and the women are so supportive of each other."
Lisa has set her sights high for her future plans.
She hopes to win the 'strongest in the south' contest later in Spring before the Derbyshire strong woman contest in August and the England qualifiers in 2025.
You can follow Lisa's journey here: https://www.instagram.com/lisa_strongwallman/
Lisa Wallman, 34, has been taking the country by storm and has already won the titles of Oxfordshire and Hampshire's strongest woman.
She trains by pulling buses by rope, lifting rocks and holding 65kg logs above her head - and also works as full-time teacher.
Lisa, of Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, said: "It's been crazy and amazing!
"My coach is very excited because she thinks it's going to be a big year.
"Life is teaching and training - there is not much time for everything else.
"My younger students are in awe of what I do and some even like to show me them lifting logs in the playground.
"They are also asking me when I'm going on Gladiators - to which I say I am definitely not because I am not wearing the outfits!
"I want to show my girl pupils in particular it is OK to be a woman and strong."
Lisa, who now lives in East Hendred, near Wantage and teaches at Hendreds Primary School, originally took up weightlifting to assist with her dressage and horse riding in 2022.
But after giving up her horse, she wanted something else to focus her attention on - so for around a year took part in powerlifting - a strength sport that consists of three attempts at maximal weight on three lifts - squat, bench press, and deadlift.
However, as Lisa was still recovering from a very bad spinal injury a few years ago, she found powerlifting not only painful for her back, but also quite mundane.
She explained: "I got a bit bored of powerlifting and was getting more and more back problems.
"But a best mate of mine did strongman, a different type of strength athletics, so I decided to give it a go.
"Strongman has helped my back because it has allowed me to build up muscle by my spine which helps functionally - it has changed everything."
Lisa explains how Strongman competitions (which tests competitors' strength in a variety of non-traditional ways) swiftly became her new favourite passion due to the vast nature of the exercises required and the supportive community.
So, she moved into strong man coaching just 14 months ago in January 2023 and has made a name for herself within the sport.
Lisa said: "Strongman is so much more fun - the events are ridiculous.
"There are at least 40 to 50 events you could train for and every competition has so much variety - pulling cars and buses, lifting rocks, flipping bags.
"It is also much more of a community: everyone is so supportive, even at competitions, competitors share things and support each other throughout."
Lisa has a rigorous training programme each week - where she gets up at 3:30am to train at 4:15am for three hours before teaching - and does this three times a week from Monday to Friday.
She also partakes in four hours of training on Saturday and Sunday too - making her training days total to five a week.
Lisa has members to three different gyms in Swindon, Bracknell and Wokingham - to get the specialised training she needs.
For her most recent win which crowned her Oxfordshire's strongest woman on 2 March - Lisa had to compete in five tasks in front of a crowd of 200 people.
Some of the tasks included deadlifting 160kg on a barbell five times, running as far as she was able to whilst holding a 90kg sandbag and run with a variety of metal barrels and sandbags weighing up to 80kg.
Lisa earnt the most points - taking home a trophy and £250.
Lisa, who teaches years three and four, says her school community have been vey supportive of her strength competitions and her young pupils are always inquisitive and 'amazed'.
She said: "I had two pupils come to my last competition, the whole school tuned into my radio shows, there have been no negative comments, the parents support me - it is so lovely to have that.
"I like to show the girls in the school in particular its ok to be strong."
Lisa admits although the competitions are still male-dominated, a lot of women partake in the events too and their numbers are only increasing.
She said: "It is mainly men competition but more and more of women are doing it.
"Women taking over the big stages now, the feel within the community is amazing and the women are so supportive of each other."
Lisa has set her sights high for her future plans.
She hopes to win the 'strongest in the south' contest later in Spring before the Derbyshire strong woman contest in August and the England qualifiers in 2025.
You can follow Lisa's journey here: https://www.instagram.com/lisa_strongwallman/
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