Inside the meat factory in Melbourne, shattering stereotypes with a fight club

Arm wrestling has long had a reputation as a “blokey” sport, where muscular competitors go arm-to-arm in a showdown of strength.

But at an operating meat factory in Melbourne’s south-east, a group of women are part of an arm wrestling club called ‘The House of Pain’.

Every Wednesday evening, club members pack up in the factory’s small reception office for practice.

The narrow space has been outfitted with special arm wrestling tables and is decorated with unique touches, including a wall of used energy drink cans.

Attendance varies from week to week, but on this occasion at least 20 people turned up, including a new mother, an oiler and a disability support worker.

There are no handshakes here. Members greet each other with a friendly fist bump.

Club member and Australian Armwrestling Federation Victorian director Celine Van Os says there has been a big jump in female participation since she discovered the sport in 2016.

“My first competition was by accident. I was there to watch the event and they had bought three medals for the three podium finishers in the women’s class and they only had two women up,” explains Ms Van Os.

“When I walked in, my coach Andrew Lea caught my eye and said, ‘Oh, she’s our third female. Celine, you’re competing today.”

“I’ve never been to an arm wrestling table before. I barely knew anything about sports.”

An extremely technical sport

Andrew Lea founded The House of Pain in 2012 and says he noticed right away that there weren’t enough women in the sport.

“I’ve always tried to encourage women to come to the club first to really learn about arm wrestling and then compete, which was the second step,” says Mr Lea.

Currently, nationally, there are at least 50 women who regularly train and compete in wrestling events across the country.

“From the outside, it looks like a typical strength-based sport, a very masculine, strength-based sport,” Ms Van Os says.

“But once you’re introduced to the technical side of the sport and how many different ways there are to stack your strength against your opponent and use the strength you have … that really fascinated me.”

While there’s certainly a social element to the weekly training night at House of Pain, the competitive spirit is as strong as the smell of sweat—and the slight tinge of factory ammonia—in the air.

Members focus on the upcoming Australian gun titles in Melbourne.

Competitors are divided into weight divisions and Mr Lea describes the event as “a bit like ranked tennis”.

“But you can lose twice, so the winner is the person at the end who hasn’t lost twice,” he says.

Eyes on the Olympics

Supermarket worker and new mum Yvonne Ritzert-Smith will be taking part in the left and right arm events on November 2.

“I feel like this is my year to hold the top spot,” she says.

Regardless of whether the club brings home trophies from nationals, Celine Van Os says such competitions are an important step in raising the profile of the sport.

Ms Van Os is among many in the arm wrestling community who hope it will be included in the program for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.

“There are certainly plenty of other countries that have bigger women’s teams than Australia,” she says.

“We are very new to the sport, so we are much smaller in terms of the size of arm wrestling for our country compared to other countries.

“So I think if we then had the Olympics and opened it up to the whole world, it would be incredible to see all the people come together.”