This weekend, look for a local gal from Becker to be on National TV.

 

Jen Callahan of Becker will be featured on the CMT program, Steve Austin’s Broken Skull Challenge Sunday night at  8 p.m. “Broken Skull” is an athletic competition where competitors contend head-to-head until just one competitor is left standing. The person who wins earns a chance to take on the Skullbuster — Steve Austin’s personal obstacle course for a prize take home of $10,000.

 

Callahan, 40, is a personal trainer at Snap Fitness in Big Lake and was formerly a deputy with the Sherburne County Sheriff’s Dept. Fitness has been a big part of Jen’s life for a long time and the Broken Skull TV show is just one of Jen’s goals to be the best at what she does.

 

Callahan wasn’t necessarily on the lookout to get in on a TV show, but when she received a link for the show from a friend encouraging her, she put the thought in the back of her mind.

 

“Then, one night I couldn’t sleep so I turned the computer on, checked out the show and just like that, filled out the application,” she said.

 

Callahan said she had never seen the show so she had no idea what it was all about and didn’t think she had much of a chance to get picked.

 

“I filled out the application, sent in pictures and that was about it,” she said. “Three months later, I get a call and they wanted to Skype.”

 

Callahan “Skyped” with the producer and answered questions. Suddenly, she began feeling she might have a shot at it.

 

“It was a long process, but as soon as the Skype was done, I started looking at the website and past episodes to see what I got myself into,” she said.  “It all started getting real.”

 

 When Jen was accepted and signed on by the producers in early July, she was flown to Santa Clarita, CA July 20 to begin the filming. Six days later, she was back at home carrying a big secret.

 

“”I’m not allowed to tell anyone the results of the show, not even to my husband,” Jen said.

 

Jen is married to John and they have three boys — Cade, 14, Carter 12 and Kian 5.

 

Jen has always been a big fan of shows like Biggest Loser and American Ninja Warriors and to her big surprise when she showed up in Santa Clarita — she was going up against Kacy Catanzaro — a veteran and national celebrity from the Ninja shows the last few years.

 

“She is super sweet and a good friend,” said Jen. “We got along great out there.”

 

Jen not only is a  personal trainer, but she is a body builder and does a lot of her training for that at Akimbo PT Fitness in Monticello. There, she has worked with ropes, tractor tires, stairs, boxing bags, medicine balls and weights to tone her body and build muscle — all while challenging her mind — where she says lots of people see failure.

 

“Fitness is not only pushing your body but its pushing your mind,” she says. “You’ve got to convince your mind you can do things and the body will typically follow .”

 

Following the filming of the show, Jen says she felt a little melancholy when it was all over and she returned to her customary life.

 

“Coming home was bittersweet because it was great to see the family and get back to a regular life, but it also was so exciting and fun and hard to put in the past,” she said. “Being out there on the show just seemed so surreal. I mean here I am competing against some of the greatest women athletes in the country and just over there is Steve Austin. It was crazy.”

 

Austin was a hall-of-fame professional wrestler who goes by the nickname, Stone Cold. He has also been featured in a number of small movie roles since 2005 and as of 2016, is in his third year of production of his CMT TV show.

 

Jen Callahan and her family plan to hold a viewing party this Sunday to see the final edited version of her show. She also hopes the exposure leads to other opportunities to be on other programs including Ninja Warrior or even Survivor.

 

“I’ve always thought about the show Survivor and how fun that might be but it’s more than being physically capable of winning that show, it comes done to mental,” she said. Not mental as in, ‘can I do this?’, but mental as in, “can I lie and deceive like that just to win a show.’”

 

Callahan is also going to be a contestant in the Mr. & Mrs. Natural MN bodybuilding and figure championships May 27-28 in Bloomington. She prides herself on keeping her bodyfat low and her arms and legs toned, but she is most proud of her abs — where she exhibits an hourglass figure and six-pack abs.

 

“Don’t get me wrong, I like my pizza and chinese food,” Jen says with a laugh. “But the key is moderation. I also dine on high protein foods and mix in some protein powder once in a while.”

 

The whole “fitness thing” clicked for Jen when — after her first child — she weighed herself and she was at 215-lbs. She gained motivation when someone she knew saw her at that weight and asked her if she had swallowed a kid.

 

“I jumped on the treadmill and started walking and running,” she said. “Then I’d enter some 5k’s and my goal wasn’t just to finish. I wanted to place.”

 

In 2014, she started weight lifting and in her first bodybuilding competition, she took first and second place in two categories.

 

Jen grew up in Little Falls where she went to the local high school and played volleyball, basketball and softball. When she graduated and went to college, she played softball at Itasca Community College before transferring to Bemidji State to get her degree in criminal justice.

 

Each episode of Steve Austin's Broken Skull Challenge brings a group of eight contestants, either all men or all women, to the "Broken Skull Ranch" to compete in a series of physical challenges. The contestants were selected from athletic backgrounds, including CrossFit, Spartan Racers, Tough Mudder, mixed martial arts (MMA) and pro wrestling.

 

The contestants are eliminated in a series of competitions with the last one standing facing a tough obstacle course known as the Skullbuster. Some of the elimination challenges are Trench Warfare, Pulverizer, Possession, Loaded, Snatch, Stacked and Drag Race. Some of the pit challenges are Junkyard, Grip-And-Rip, Chained Up, Blowout and Barrelled.

 

The first contestant in the series to successfully complete all elements of the Skullbuster wins $10,000, sets the time to beat for all future contestants, and is declared champion.

 

Any future contestant must complete the Skullbuster in less time in order to win the $10,000, thus becoming the new champion and setting the new time to beat. If a contestant fails to beat the champion's time or does not complete the course, the champion wins another $10,000 for every unsuccessful effort. 

 

Sunday, the nation will know Jen’s secret.