{"id":32281,"date":"2026-10-22T02:01:24","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T02:01:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/?p=32281"},"modified":"2026-10-22T02:01:24","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T02:01:24","slug":"girls-in-the-garage-gym-in-arden-hills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/?p=32281","title":{"rendered":"Girls in the Garage gym in Arden Hills"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Dawn Shafer Forbes was a runner who believed her body was built wrong \u2014 runners were supposed to be lean, and she was naturally muscular.<\/p>\n

By about age 13, a negative voice in her head started telling her she wasn\u2019t good enough. It grew into anorexia she would fight for decades.<\/p>\n

\u201cThrough some of those dark times, I think I\u2019ve become a stronger female, one that feels more confident, one that loves themselves more,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Forbes has spent the years since learning to love the body she was given \u2014 enough to become a world champion bodybuilder<\/a>. Now she has opened a gym called\u00a0The Girls in the Garage<\/a>\u00a0in Arden Hills, so girls can learn that lesson sooner than she did.<\/p>\n

\u201cWill I always deal with (anorexia) in some sense? I will,\u201d she said. \u201cWill I always know how to combat it? Yeah, I think I will.\u201d<\/p>\n

Built to give back<\/h4>\n

For 21 years, Forbes trained in the garage of her Arden Hills home. There was no heat in the winter and no air conditioning in the summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cGrowing up on a farm, it taught me that no matter what, you should feel fortunate for what you have,\u201d Forbes said. \u201cI had equipment, I had space. \u2026 I could get up early and walk down to my garage and work out. I felt lucky.\u201d<\/p>\n

That garage is where she trained for the 2019 International Pro Elite World Championships in Liberty, Missouri, where, at 54, she became the oldest competitor ever named World Champion of Pro Women\u2019s Bodybuilding.<\/p>\n

Forbes transformed that 650-square-foot garage into The Girls in the Garage \u2014 now a warm, closed-in gym where Forbes coaches women and girls in strength and confidence. It officially opened this month.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy goal is to reach as many women and girls as I can before my time is done,\u201d she said. \u201cI really want to make a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

A dream on hold<\/h4>\n

The plan took shape right after her world title, when Forbes sat down with her oldest daughter, now 33, and mapped out the gym. They were well along when the COVID-19 pandemic hit.<\/p>\n

Forbes left a job at St. Catherine University to help her husband, Michael, run a dental practice. She left the practice in January and decided to go all-in on the gym. It was a point of purpose for Forbes.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I spoke at colleges about eating disorders, or worked with different youth groups, I always said, \u2018One day I\u2019m going to give back,’\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Her children kept the dream alive, she said, along with women who kept asking when she\u2019d open her own place.<\/p>\n

Her daughter designed the gym\u2019s logo, which Forbes painted on the wall by the entrance, and gym flooring now covers the old concrete. Another wall is painted with the words \u201clove, brave, radiant, resilient, courage, empowered and believe\u201d \u2014 each one offered by a woman or girl in Forbes\u2019 life that gave her strength.<\/p>\n

Stepping inside brings \u201ca powerful feeling that you accomplished something,\u201d Forbes said, and \u201cthat you\u2019re here to make a difference in the lives of women and girls.\u201d<\/p>\n

Food as fuel<\/h4>\n
\"Dawn
Dawn Shafer Forbes lifts weights inside The Girls in the Garage, her newly opened gym in Arden Hills. (simonabphotography \/ The Girls in the Garage)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After graduating from high school in Detroit Lakes, Minn., and running cross country and track at Minnesota State University Moorhead and later running marathons, Forbes turned to bodybuilding in 2008, learning to embrace the muscular build she\u2019d once tried to hide.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never really liked the muscle I was given,\u201d she said in a 2019 interview<\/a> with the Detroit Lakes Tribune<\/a>. \u201cI was supposed to be a lean machine.\u201d<\/p>\n

That history shapes how she coaches nutrition, which she calls her favorite part of the work.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s taken me so many years to get to the point where I\u2019ve realized that eating is fuel,\u201d she said. \u201cTo perform anything, you have to fuel your body.\u201d<\/p>\n

Part of the job is clearing out myths, from the idea she absorbed as a college runner that \u201cthe thinner you were, the faster you were going to be,\u201d to today\u2019s grocery aisles, where \u201cprotein\u201d is printed on everything from pop to popcorn.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s candid that bodybuilding\u2019s strict pre-show dieting has, at times, stirred up old patterns. More than once, she stepped back from competing when the mindset of the eating disorder crept in. She still lifts but isn\u2019t planning a return to the stage, and she isn\u2019t eager to steer clients toward it.<\/p>\n

Forbes is also clear about where her role ends. If she sees signs that someone is struggling, she\u2019ll help the family find specialized care in the Twin Cities, as she already has for several families, rather than try to treat it herself.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve gone through it,\u201d she said, \u201cbut I don\u2019t have the credentials.\u201d<\/p>\n

Turning down the voice<\/h4>\n

Forbes said she will never consider herself fully recovered. She describes anorexia as an oftentimes unrelenting voice.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like a recorder \u2014 it keeps going,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why she wants to reach girls young, and their parents too. Families teach kids not to run into the street, she said, but rarely teach them about food. She doesn\u2019t mean labeling foods good or bad.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all machines,\u201d she said. \u201cJust like a car, we need the right fuel for our body \u2014 not only physically, but for our mind.\u201d<\/p>\n