WHEELHOUSE RADIO

Our Relay Team sat down post race to talk about our first (and not last) Hyrox experience. If you are curious about this race at all, this one is worth a listen.  Contact Wheelhouse Academy Instagram: @wheelhouse.academy Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wheelhouse.academybham Website: https://www.wheelhouse.academy Email: info@wheelhouse.academy Let us know what you would like us to cover in fut...

From rowing crew in college to planning events for USA Weightlifting...Josh began tinkering with coffee and saw an opportunity to provide great drinks and positive vibes to his neighborhood. Today, Josh, his wife Melanie and their team serve Cala coffee in both their Cahaba Heights and downtown Birmingham location. This team is making big moves and we are excited to collaborate with them and learn...

Spoiler Warning: This is a sequel to episode 14 (An American Dream). Listen to that episode FIRST before diving into this one. This episode dives into greater details of Luan and his family's escape to the United States as refugees of war. Co-host of this episode is Jacque Howard, Luan's sister. He shares with her, for the first time, details of the escape that was only revealed to Luan...

Branden Lower is the Founder and Lead Strategist at Build Design Studio, a creative agency specializing in comprehensive branding solutions. Based in Birmingham, Branden focuses on structured creativity, ensuring that brands can fully leverage their visual identity and messaging to meet strategic goals. A graduate of Samford University with a degree in Graphic Design, Branden has a rich profession...

Strap in for an incredible episode with my friend Kelsey. She's practiced Nutrition since 2011 after her degree in dietetics and Masters in Functional Medicine and Clinical Nutrition. (There's a much longer list of her accomplishments including blood chemistry analysis courses, functional diagnostic nutritionist and advanced thyroid practitioner.) Kelsey is the founder of Pro-Fit, a comp...

Eric shares about touring the world with a band to eventually settling his roots deep in the heart of Avondale by creating a non-profit in Firehouse Community Arts Center. Firehouse CAC is dedicated to the enrichment of Birmingham's musical community, offering music education programs with scholarship opportunities for the underserved students.  Finally, we get to learn about his latest proje...

Listeners, meet the incredible Ellie Hiller. A Birmingham native, former college athlete, current high end competitive CrossFitter and owner of Vulcan Nutrition (VN), a nutrition company that works with cleient's needs on a one-on-one level.  Based out of Birmingham, Ellie and her team at VN curates and helps manage an approach to food and eating that is personalized for each individual. They...

Coach Faye and I dive into the history or our anniversary party, The Whammys. From why and how it got started to why and how it is changing for this year as we celebrate our 6 year anniversary and the people that make up this place.  Thanks for listening! Thank you for the training! @luan.n.nguyen @loveletterlily @wheelhouse.academy Contact Wheelhouse Academy Instagram: @wheelhouse.academy Faceboo...

After dropping out of college, Micah moved to North Carolina to chase a dream: to open and operate a fitness facility. Looking back at his decade in the industry, we reflect on the lessons learned and how that lead to the creation of the 205 Throwdown (a four person team fitness competition geared to provide the best experience for ALL levels of competition to include Rx, Scaled and Masters athlet...

It's been a while since we caught up with the Movewell Team so in this episode,  I got to host three of the four PTs that service our community at Wheelhouse on a weekly basis: Aaron, Dakota and Kaley. Of course we dug into all things Physical Therapy and how it pertains to movement and pain in the fitness world as well as answered some of the questions sent in from our listeners and IG follo...

This episode was Coach Faye's idea and brainchild as she got us together to chat about Resolutions because its THAT time of year.  Luan, Lori Ann and Faye dive in to their personal experiences with resolutions/goals setting from what they see from a coach's point of view to their own personal approach to all of it.  Follow us for more episodes and follow the three coaches on our IG at: @...

Several athletes from Team Wheelhouse qualified for AO Finals (because they crushed it at State Championships).  On this episode, Coach Luan sits down to recap the American Open Finals  shenanigans with Dakota Hooper and Jeven Sloan. Listen in to get a 'behind the scenes' happenings of this awesome weightlifting meet and experience.  "It was my greatest weightlifting experience...EV...

Luke can be seen at the 4:30pm Conditioning getting his work in just about every day of the week. You've worked out beside him but did you know that he started two business on his own?  His latest creation is Humphrey's Dog Resort, a first class dog boarding, daycare, and grooming with personalized activities to help your pet live their best lives. Listen in as he shares how he was effec...

We are hosting a Self Defense Workshop for Women this Saturday October 1st and I've brought in two of our very own Wheelhouse members (who will also help coach the workshop) to share about their journey in Jiu Jitsu and how it has impacted their level of confidence in self defense and in daily life.  Listen in to this incredible episode to learn about how Chandler Duncan (our 5:30pm regular a...

This episode takes us back to earlier this year when the Whammys  (our annual celebration/party)  was just an idea. Should we try to resurrect an event that died during the pandemic? Could we pull it off? How do we pull it off? This is such a special and important event for our community but I knew that our team was spread thin on the logistics side of event planning at the moment. Naturally I lea...

Meet "The Beer Guy", Eric Meyer. He's a husband, father, entrepreneur, and full time firefighter. You will often find Eric in the early morning strength classes, on the Jiu Jitsu mats or at happy hour at his business, Cahaba Brewery, where he leads the charge bringing Birmingham some of the best local brews around.  Eric shares how a passion of home brewing with buddies became a ful...

We meet the creators of some of Birmingham's favorite eating spots and learn about their up and coming project as well. Victor King and Kristen Hall share how Bandit Bham and The Essential became a thing and how it almost wasn't.  These two open up completely on the other side of business that you often don't hear about. Incredibly valuable and transparent.  Follow Victor at @tomato...

Luan and Rain outline the vision behind the 535 Challenge, the parameters, what we wanted it to be and what we did NOT want it to be.  Use this challenge to propel you through the multiple levels of adherence in order to create healthy habits that could be life changing for you and be successful towards any goals.  535 Challenge begins Monday Feb 7th and ends Sunday March 13th. 5 Weeks 35 Days 5 R...

Nick Pihakis is with us today and shares about growing up in the food/service industry, seeing Jim N' Nicks start from the ground up and now playing a huge role in the Pihakis Hospitality Group where they have built some of our favorite restaurant brands around Birmingham such as Little Donkey, Hero Doughnuts and Rodney Scott's BBQ to name a few.  More importantly, Nick opens up about so...

I brought in an SME (Subject Matter Expert) to chat about the importance of strength training for women. Alyssa Parten has accomplished her Masters in Exercise Science, and is currently studying for her pHD. She has worked as a personal trainer since 2012 and shares her shift from bodybuilding to competitive powerlifting, all while running her online strength coaching business (LadyBeef Inc) and b...

Luan and the crew (aka some of the coaches at Wheelhouse) get together to share experiences that they have had when it comes to goal setting this time of year.  We dive into being "sticky" when it comes to adherence to a new gym community and not being another drop off statistic.  Brandon Etheredge Emma McFarland Dakota Hooper Luan Nguyen Contact Wheelhouse Academy Instagram: @wheelhouse...

I finally get to sit down with Dakota Hooper DPT (Physical Therapist), ATC (Athletic Trainer) and Wheelhouse Olympic lifter and Strength Coach, to not only learn more about his story but also recap our experience from the American Open Finals last weekend in Denver, CO.  Hoops shares about life in small-town Florida, the physical therapy world, his olympic weightlifting journey and where he aims t...

Birmingham native, Ramsay HS alumni, Army 1st Lieutenant and 11:30am lunch class regular, Mrs Kenya Staples joins our show today to share her background and story on her pursuit into entrepreneurship. Learn how she turned her Chemistry degree into a passion.  We are also happy to announce that her website and skin care line launches this weekend! www. DearSundaySkin.com Contact Wheelhouse Academy...

In the spirit of Halloween, I thought it would be fun to host an episode where we talk about our fears.  But not only immediate fears. I challenges the coaches to come on air to talk about a time in their life when they have been most afraid. Coach Brandon, Steve and Rain were all about it.  Tell us what you think about these stories. Can you relate? What are your phobias and fears and what is a l...

Hannah Oakes is a board-certified music therapist working here in Birmingham at a local hospital.  Most people enjoy music & can get behind the idea of "music as therapy", but what does this look like as an evidence-based profession? How does someone become a music therapist? Hannah will take us through the history of music therapy, how she became a music therapist, & what it loo...