Since the age of 15, when surgeons removed a rib and deflated her lung to insert a titanium rod and five screws into her spine, Zoe has pushed her body to its absolute limits.

"I was always one to push the boundaries," she said.

"I went back to netball after nine months and that was earlier than my surgeon wanted me to.

"I've skydived and bungee-jumped - I really haven't let it stop me."

Zoe's operation - an anterior fusion - was the result of severe scoliosis which, as a teenager, was causing severe curvature of her spine. A back brace was initially diagnosed to treat the condition, but within weeks the condition worsened and surgery became Zoe's only option.

She's endured hours of painful physiotherapy and rehabilitation over the years, but it's this resilience and intense determination that will make Zoe a superior contestant on Channel Nine's brand new reality show, Australian Ninja Warrior.

The Ninja Warrior concept was born in Japan in 1997, a sports entertainment television program that pits contestants against a near-impossible giant obstacle course. The show has since spread to 20 countries, including the US and Sweden, with Australia the latest country to take up the Ninja Warrior craze.

When Zoe, an occupational therapist with Canberra disability service Northcott, saw Channel Nine's callout for the nation's fittest and fiercest competitors, she wanted in.

"I love challenging myself, I love training in the gym, and knew I could do it," she said.

"The one thing that my doctor told me to do after surgery was to strengthen my core. Because my back would be quite weak, I had to have a really strong core to compensate for that - so I took up pole dancing.

"I've been pole dancing for years, and I somehow knew the upper body and core strength I'd developed on the pole would be a useful weapon on the Ninja Warrior course."

But Zoe wasn't the only local woman who spotted the callout for Ninja Warrior contestants.

Fitness and wellness ambassador Jenna Douros is so obsessed with Ninja Warrior she almost moved to the US to appear as a contestant on the show.

"I've been a fan since it started in Japan, it's something I've always watched and especially when it moved into America," she said.

"I just loved seeing the girls up there and dominating.

"There were rumours [Ninja Warrior] was coming to Australia for two years so when I saw the official announcement I was like, 'is this real?'

"And of course it was, and I was straight onto it."

Jenna, a Commonwealth public servant who starts her day with an F45 class in Braddon and finds it "hard to sit still" at her desk in Woden all day, is a fitness inspiration to thousands of Australians on her social media channels.

She has more than 30,000 followers across Instagram and Facebook and will launch her own personalised strength and conditioning training sessions for Canberrans in the next few weeks.

"Fitness is what lights me up, sets my soul on fire and what I want to do," she said.

"Ninja Warrior was a way to release what I truly love to do and that's running, jumping, crawling, stepping, and releasing my inner child.

"It was so incredibly challenging, and the adrenalin was through the roof, but honestly, I thrive on that stuff."

The gruelling Ninja Warrior course is made up of 17 individual challenges including a chimney climb, an unstable bridge, jungle ropes and a warped wall.

Australian Ninja Warrior airs on Channel Nine in mid-July.