Rachel McLish Interview: Empowering Women Through Fitness

Rachel McLish discusses her approach to bodybuilding and weight training, emphasizing her goal of giving womanhood an added dimension by being stronger and more fit. McLish reflects on her career and expresses her joy in helping women embrace fitness and redefine their ideals of beauty.

Rachel McLish was born June 21 1955 in Harlingen, Texas. She graduated from Harlingen High School, where she was a cheerleader. In 1978, she graduated from Pan American University with a degree in physiology and health and nutrition. While attending college, McLish worked at a health club in McAllen, Texas. When she graduated from college, she and the health club manager formed a partnership and founded the Sport Palace Association in Harlingen and opened two more facilities. She was inspired to compete in bodybuilding because the opening of her new health club would coincide with a women's bodybuilding contest and bodybuilding would give her a platform to promote fitness to women. In 1980, she won the inaugural United States Championships, as well as beating Auby Paulick to win that year’s first-ever IFBB Ms. Olympia contest. In a competitive career that spanned only four years, McLish proved a resilient force, never placing lower than third in any contest she entered. McLish was featured in the 1985 documentary Pumping Iron II: The Women which focused on her participation in the 1983 Caesar’s World Cup. She also acted in the movies Getting Physical (1984), Aces: Iron Eagle III (1992) and Raven Hawk (1996). These involved her acting the part of a physically strong woman. She was one of the first women to take such a role. She was also a star in Herb Alpert's 'Red Hot' music video. She co-starred alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger in the fitness instructional video Shape Up (1982. McLish has authored two books on weight training for women that made the New York Times bestseller list – Flex Appeal, by Rachel, and Perfect Parts. While attending Pan American University, she met John P. McLish, whom she married on February 3, 1979. They later divorced. In 1990, she married film producer Ron Samuels.

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Rachel McLish, Bodybuilding Champion
Interview Date: June 24, 2011

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:05 Childhood
02:53 College
05:22 Gym life
07:11 Weight training for women
09:09 Body sculpting
10:49 Women's Bodybuilding Championship
20:45 Life in the limelight
22:34 Ms. Olympia
23:44 Changing the female body
27:17 Doping
33:49 Training like a girl
34:53 Life after being crowned
37:44 Empowering women
41:13 The women’s movement
45:31 Legacy

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