Six-time American Ninja Warrior, three-time cover athlete and Miss Fitness America Angela Gargano doesn’t just build strength for women in her fitness coaching — she builds confidence.
The “Oprah of Pullups” says her mission is to help women feel strong and confident in their own bodies through empowering fitness coaching, including her Pull-Up Revolution program, which helps women ages 30 to 70-plus achieve their first pullup.
Gargano, the keynote speaker for The Baltimore Sun’s 2025 Women to Watch awards presentation, an event honoring local female trailblazers, spoke to the newspaper about helping women on their journey to fitness.
This interview was edited for clarity and length.
Before becoming a strength coach, you used your degree in biochemistry to research treatments for rare genetic diseases and cancer. What would you say to women considering a start to their fitness journey while working full time?
I feel like the biggest piece for me was learning that it’s not “all-in” or “all-out.” It’s really integrating it into your life.
The job I had for biochemistry — the one in the pharmaceutical company — was overnight … so my schedule is not going to look the same as somebody else who has a 9-to-5 job or maybe is only working a couple of days a week. Really [make] sure that when you’re getting started on your fitness journey, that you’re doing something that is actually going to integrate into your life, not somebody else’s, not all the crazy stuff that you see online.
I love to call it an integration instead of a work-life balance or workout-life balance — it’s a work-life integration.
When first beginning your journey competing in fitness events, you tore your ACL on “American Ninja Warrior.” On your website, you mention the growth that occurs when setbacks are seen as steppingstones. How was your injury a steppingstone into your current place in the fitness world?
I feel like the injury was such a shock to me because I realized that I placed … all my worth [on] being the identity of this athlete — of being this Ninja Warrior. At the time, I was also gym owner and all these different things, and I started to realize that when I didn’t have any of those things, I felt like my worth [was gone], which was wild.
I think what was really great about injuring myself is it actually allowed me to internally go a little bit deeper, and learn that I’m so much more than that. And that actually helped me even more start to realize who I want to help and how I want to help them, which is how I think I got more into the fitness world [and] into this next career.
In recovering from tearing your ACL, you said women at the gym would come up to you and ask for help achieving their first pullup. Why do you think this goal is so important to women?
I think this all comes back to an internal reasoning. A lot of us as women were told, maybe not on purpose, that we weren’t strong enough to do it. I remember going back to thinking about when I was in high school or middle school — where you do the physical Presidential National Award test — and when you went to go through the specific goal of the pullup, they would just be like, “Oh, just, just hang on the bar.” … So you immediately were like, “Oh, I’m not going to be strong enough to do this.”
What was so important for them … is to show that they could do something they once thought was impossible and prove [to] themselves — and prove [to] the world — that I absolutely am strong enough to do this thing. And then what was so cool about it is it translated into other parts of their life right now. Now, they conquer something that’s impossible, and now they try things that they also thought were impossible that [are] maybe not even related to fitness.
Now, you’re a six-time American Ninja Warrior, three-time cover athlete, Miss Fitness America and sought-after keynote speaker, all a product of resilience after a life-changing injury. What does resilience mean to you now? What does resilience look like for women?
Some people think that you are born with it — that you’re born resilient — but I don’t think that you’re born with it. I think experience is what gives you the resilience, and the idea of just not giving up and taking the step forward even if you don’t fully believe it just yet.
People are always like, “Oh, Angela, you’re so resilient” … but that’s not the reason that I’m resilient. The reason I’m resilient [is that] I was like, “You know, I’m just going to not stop.”
Aside from building just strength, you empower women to build confidence. What role does confidence play in a women’s fitness journey?
Sometimes it can be tough to feel confident. A lot of women come to me and maybe they’re not in the place they want to be right now. Maybe it’s the way they look, maybe it’s their energy level, maybe it’s just the way they like feel in their body right now. I feel like when you start to do movement, you start to build the confidence just like with the resilience. By taking action, you’re going to get more confident. And just by trying and showing up, you get more confident. In your fitness journey, by doing that and just trying to take care of yourself in the best way, you build that confidence in everyday life as well.
Why do you believe an empowering fitness journey is essential to women? What makes one’s fitness journey empowering?
There’s a lot of places right now where maybe fitness isn’t so empowering. I think that’s changing right now, which is absolutely amazing. Because before, the fitness journey used to be about, “What are we going to lose? How are we going to be less? How are we going to lose weight? How are we going to be smaller?” … What I’m loving so much about the fitness journey now is it’s seeming like people are like, “Oh, what can I gain from this?”
So if you can shift your mindset when you’re getting in your fitness journey, thinking about what you have to gain and what are you not losing — what are you adding? — I think that’s really important.
What are some of the challenges women face in the fitness world?
There are so many challenges right now … there’s just so much information out there, so they’re not really sure what to do, and they’re trying to do a little bit of everything. I always come back with them to tell them, “You have to do what works for you.”
I also think that the time has been a big thing, obviously. Because [for] a lot of women, we’re not just career women now. We’re taking care of our families. I think sometimes the misconception [is], again, the hour [you] might need to take … to see a result. Coming back to being really simple with it, maybe it actually doesn’t need to be an hour. Maybe it needs to be something that’s a little bit less, but it’s actually going to feel really good for you and actually work it into your life.
What would you say to women who let self-doubt and fear take control of their fitness journey? Have you ever experienced this, and if so, what did you learn from it?
I think that comes up for everybody, no matter what. Even if you’ve talked to the best athletes in the world, we all have self-doubt. We all have fear when it comes to [our] fitness journey. I think for women, the biggest thing that I always would tell them is, “You just need to get started. You just need to do something — it doesn’t need to be perfect.” I think we have this sense that we think we need to show up perfectly for it. … Even if it’s just the smallest little thing to get you started, that’s so important.
I think that’s really going to be helpful for a lot of women to hear. [Don’t] think that you have to jump in and do all these different things. One simple step, one little thing, that’s it. And then once you get started with that, you get a little confident … [and] you’re gonna be able to build upon it.
You also mention on your website that many current fitness programs are created by men who don’t understand a woman’s unique fitness struggles. What changes do you hope to see in the fitness industry to be more inclusive for women moving forward?
Luckily, I’m really feeling there’s a huge shift. … A lot of the scientific research [on fitness] that they were giving out before was only men. … It’s only been recent in the past couple years that we are actually doing tests specifically on women and seeing how different their bodies are. And I think that’s awesome.
I’m also loving that we’re already seeing a difference with people talking about menopause and stuff like that now because that is something that a lot of women struggle with that was never talked about before. I think what I would like to continue to see in the industry is what we’re seeing now, where the focus is on longevity, building skeletal muscle, and not so much like, “let’s get as thin as possible and focus on all the external pieces of that,” because I feel like there’s so much more to fitness and what it could really do for your life.
One of your goals is teaching women to love the body they’re in. What is the first step for those looking to love the body they’re in? Why is this such an important component of your program?
You have to learn to love the current body you’re in and not compare yourself to your previous body, which I think can be very, very difficult. Again, with my knee, it was like I was comparing myself to that old athlete. You need to love yourself … and give yourself such grace, because maybe you [aren’t] exactly where you want to be right now — and that’s OK, because life happens.
One of the things that I have one of my clients doing right now is [writing] down three reasons why you love your body. It could be just like, I’m so grateful that my body is allowing me to pick up this thing from the floor. … I think sometimes we take that, maybe, for granted, and we just keep thinking about all the past things, but it’s so important to focus on you versus you now, not anywhere else.
Have a news tip? Contact K. Mauser at kmauser@baltsun.com.
from Baltimore Sun https://ift.tt/RjQS5mG
via IFTTT
