Women To Watch 10.12.25 - Flipbook - Page 6
Q&A
Angela
Gargano
A discussion with Miss Fitness
America on building confidence
By K. Mauser
HANDOUT
S
ix-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 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.
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 the 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.
You’re a six-time American Ninja Warrior, threetime cover athlete, Miss Fitness America and
sought-after keynote speaker, all a product of
6 | 2025 | WOMEN TO WATCH
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 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 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 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
going to be able to build upon it.
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?
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 [injury], 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.
Read the full interview at baltimoresun.com.
