COURTNEY
ROSELLE

IRON GRACE STUDIO

Photos & interview by Matt LeGrice

Courtney Roselle is a Jersey City and Hoboken based strength coach, gym owner, and former Titan Games competitor known for her iron grit and graceful authenticity. She was the first fitness model featured in Vogue and built a lasting friendship with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson through the Titan Games. But what drives Courtney the most is creating a space where trainers and clients can grow together.

At Iron Grace Studio, Courtney blends toughness with empowerment. She’ll break you down and build you back up, making sure you become stronger than you ever thought you could be. Her motto “collab over compete,” sets the tone, and it’s why her gym feels as much like a home as it does a training space.

Outside the gym, Courtney’s focus is all about her people. Whether she’s talking body positivity with Girl Scouts or shutting her phone off to laugh with family and friends, she treats community with the same intensity she brings to training.

Having spent her whole life in fitness, Courtney is now channeling those lessons into expanding Iron Grace, mentoring the next generation of trainers, and proving that authenticity—not perfection—is what leads to real strength.

Woman smiling and lifting a barbell in a gym or fitness studio with a dark wall and a sign that says 'WELCOME to my KNOT' in the background.

For people who don’t know you yet, who are you and what do you do?

My name is Courtney Roselle. I’m from Cedar Grove, New Jersey, but I live in Jersey City now, up in the Heights. Whadddup — Heights represent.

I’m the owner of Iron Grace Studio.

What is Iron Grace all about?

Iron Grace is a personal training studio, an independent training spot. Trainers come in, rent space from me, and we’re also building a community. I don’t just want people clocking in and out, I want them to hang out, do their online work here, cook a meal, recover, talk shop, do whatever they want.

Ten trainers work out of here right now, and they’re constantly bouncing ideas off each other, talking about all of the cool shit they talk about.

“It’s not about competition—it’s collab over compete every damn day.”

Why the name ‘Iron Grace’?

Oh, God, good question. I call myself the most feminine tomboy you’ll ever meet. I love my hair curled, my nails done—but I also love to lift heavy shit.

‘Iron’ comes from ten years of barbell life in CrossFit. Iron is strong. ‘Grace’ is graceful. And I think everybody has that yin and yang…a masculine and feminine side.

That balance is what Iron Grace is all about. Plus, I was a basketball player growing up. I had to be strong but graceful. It just stuck. People tried to push me to use my own name. Courtney-something-something, but I was like, oh no no no.

As a graphic designer, I gotta know the story behind your branding

My new branding was done by Blake Baaken—he’s out in California, referred to me by my friend Steph. My logo now is a hexagon for strength with the alchemist symbol for grace in the middle. My old logo was a panther, because it’s the most graceful and powerful animal in the wild, but I wanted something more symbolic. When people see the hexagon now, it actually means something deeper.

What pushed you to open the gym, and what was the biggest hurdle?

Sooooo. many. hurdles.

The reason I opened Iron Grace was because I was sick of seeing trainers compete instead of collab. Gyms will give you this “beautiful space,” but then stick you in a closet for your breaks and take most of your paycheck.

I wanted to flip that. I’ve got a big bathroom, a kitchen, shampoo, conditioner—shit you can actually live out of. People walk in here and go, “Holy shit, was this a home before?” That’s the vibe I want.

And yeah, the hours are brutal. I’m up at 4:30am, still at events for friends at 10pm. Our schedules are worse than nurses sometimes, except we don’t get days off in a row. That grind almost broke me, but it’s also what made me say, “Girl, hold your shit down and do it yourself.”

Black trash bags, cardboard, and paper tubes stacked near a black wall in an indoor space.
A room with exercise equipment, including two black workout machines and a chair, and cleaning supplies such as a broom, shovel, and plastic bag. There is a doorway to a small, dark room with stacked chairs and a trash bin nearby.

Photos of the early days of Iron Grace provided by Courtney Roselle

What are your long-term goals with Iron Grace?

I’d love to open multiple locations and create what I’m calling the Iron Grace Method. It’ll be a mentorship program for trainers, teaching them how to survive in this industry, not make the dumb-ass mistakes I did, create multiple streams of income, network, and not burn out.

I’ll never stop training, because I love it too much, but I also want to do more motivational speaking and nonprofit work. I already work with organizations for cancer patients and kids with autism. That’s where I see myself long-term.

Don’t give away your secrets, but what can we expect from the Iron Grace Method?

A lot of trainers only know one income stream; that being in-person sessions. That’s why they burn out. I want to teach them how to build three, four, five streams of income. Passive income, networking, online training, speaking, modeling, all of it. Every successful person has more than one lane, and trainers deserve that too.

What’s your secret sauce as a trainer?

I help people realize the power is already inside them. My favorite line is “A black sheep always turns into the goat.”

I’m gonna make sure you walk out of here knowing you’re stronger than you think. And I’m very in-person. My personality doesn’t come through on a screen the way it does when I’m in the room with you. Meet me in person and you’ll feel it.

“I’ll give you that aura that says, you can do this shit.”

What’s something you used to believe about fitness but don’t anymore?

That recovery didn’t matter. I used to grind two or three hours a day in the gym, thinking that’s how you got better. Wrong.

I’ve lasted this long doing 10 years of CrossFit, and now competing in Hyrox, because I learned to prioritize recovery. Mobility, massage therapy, meditation, even restorative yoga. Taking care of my mental health and recovery is why I’m still here.

Do you see yourself as a role model?

Honestly, I feel beyond honored if people see me that way. I just want people to know I live in my authentic skin, and they can too. When you live authentically, you attract exactly what’s meant for you.

How do you pull authenticity out of others?

By being vulnerable myself. I call myself a triple threat: born by addicts, raised by addicts, lived with addicts. That’s my reality. When people hear that, they realize I’m real, then they can be real with me. This gym isn’t about glitz and glam; it’s about honesty. We all know, this life shit ain’t all pretty.

You’ve been on the sober train for almost exactly a year. Why did you make that decision?

Addiction runs in my family, but I chose sobriety because I wanted to feel every hit of opening this gym. I wanted to take it on sober, no numbing, no distractions. I wanted to know I could take the mental grind and come out three times stronger. And I did.

How would you describe your coaching philosophy?

The strongest version of yourself is the best version—mentally, spiritually, emotionally, not just physically. But to get there, you’ve got to break down before you build back up. And I’m right there with you for it. Hold on to the reins, I promise I’ll take you through it.

  • A gym or workout space with a view of a dining area with a wooden table, black chairs, and a sofa. The background features a kitchen area with dark cabinets, a countertop with various items, and a brick wall. There is gym equipment in the foreground.
  • A woman holding a playful dog while a man lifting a kettlebell in a gym with brick walls.
  • A woman smiling at the gym with her arms raised, adjusting her hair, dressed in a bright yellow workout top.
  • Two women in workout clothes at a gym: one in the foreground holding a dumbbell, the other sitting on a bench in the background.
  • Two women at a gym, one lifting a barbell with weight plates, the other spotting and coaching her, in a black brick-walled fitness setting.

You’ve done motivational speaking too…what’s been your favorite gig?
I love speaking to young people about body positivity. Girl Scout troops, middle schoolers, high schoolers. They’ll be like, “Let’s do push-ups!” and we’ll all hit the floor together. And I tell them: people told me no my whole life. No one wanted a fitness model who looked like me. But it only took one person to see me for me—and that changed everything.

Tell me that story. Who was that person?

Okay, so—when I was younger, the modeling industry straight-up told me, “No little girl wants to look like you. You’re too muscular. Nobody wants that.”

I was like 110 pounds and still being called “plus size.” I kept sending packages out to agencies, and one guy in New York literally called me in to tell me to my face, “No one will ever flip through a magazine and want to see this.”

That crushed me. But then, this is where it gets wild, my mom meets Jill Deming at the US Open. Jill was the assistant editor at Vogue. My mom shows her my photo, and Jill says, “I’ve been waiting for a fitness model that looks exactly like her.” Six months later, I was the first fitness spread in Vogue.

Two full pages. That’s what blew everything up—the WWE Divas saw it, the Titan Games producers saw it, and the opportunities rolled from there. It only took one person saying yes.

So Vogue to the Titan Games. My wife and I love Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, so I have to ask, was he everything we want him to be?

Yes. You know how they say “Don’t meet your heroes”? Well, he’s the exception. He’s everything you expect: work ethic, empathy, heart. He doesn’t want you to treat him like The Rock. He’s like, “Hi, I’m Dwayne. Tell me about yourself.”

When he found out I was from New Jersey, he’s like, “Whaddddup, Jersey?” He even kept in touch after the show. We still trade voice notes and DMs on Instagram.

And the wildest part? Out of all the athletes on the show, he featured me on his page. People asked him why, and he said, “Because I want my daughters to look at someone like her; someone who stayed authentic, didn’t change who she was, and proved you can be strong and feminine.” That blew me away.

A woman wearing a black helmet, blue sports bra with 'TITAN' logo, and matching blue leggings, smiling and standing inside a gym or fitness studio.
A man and a woman smiling and posing together in a gym or fitness studio. The man is wearing a black T-shirt with a bull logo and has tattoos on his arm. The woman is wearing a blue sports bra and matching blue shorts with the words "TITAN" on them. The background features gym equipment and colorful lights.

Photos provided by Courtney Roselle

Ok, last couple questions. What grounds you outside of the gym?

My people…my family, my friends, the ones who call me Courtney Lynn, not “Courtney Roselle.” I love sitting around laughing, hearing people’s stories, turning my phone off. And yeah—I’m a Netflix-and-rom-com binger. People think I’m always on the go, but give me Love Island and I’ll crush episodes for hours.

And last one—If you disappeared tomorrow, what legacy would you want to leave?

I want people to smile when they think of me. I want them to know you can become the strongest version of yourself at any point in life—by holding on to what you love and believe in. You might have to dig deep, cry, hit rock bottom—but you can always rebuild stronger.

“There’s nothing special about me. The only difference is I got the platform to tell my story. But you? You can fucking do it too.”