ABOUT ANGELA
Angela Gargano is a fierce athlete, coach, international fitness model, and speaker.
Before becoming a full-time multi-passionate entrepreneur, Angela worked as a biochemist at Brown University. Since throwing in the lab coat and goggles in 2013 to open her own gym in Cranston, Rhode Island, Angela has truly lived multiple lives in the athletic and entrepreneurial space, defying odds and setbacks to become an authentic and relatable voice to the public eye.
Angela has now competed on American Ninja Warrior 4x, won the Title of Miss Fitness America 2016, and created an online fitness empire for women called Strong Feels Good, where she teaches women to ditch the scale and focus on strength and feeling as a way to measure progress. She has also helped over 500 women conquer their pull-ups with her online program, Pull-up Revolution.
In summer 2021, Angela appeared all over the world as the Oxygen Magazine Covergirl, where she spoke about tearing her ACL on the Ninja Warrior course and coming back 11 months later stronger than ever.
Angela is a huge advocate for speaking about body image, as she was made fun of growing up for her “manly” arms and build. She would hide in a sweatshirt daily at school to avoid being made fun of, and was rejected by many fitness modeling agencies. But this didn't stop Angela from now having 3 magazine covers and becoming an international fitness model in some of the world's biggest publications: Women’s Health, Shape, Strong Fitness Magazine, and Popsugar Fitness.
Angela is strong, both mentally and physically, and she teaches you to love the body you are in. She is real, relatable, approachable, and down-to-earth. With Angela, there is fun and smiles, and there is grit, determination, and sweat. Angela’s mission is to revolutionize the way people feel about their bodies through identifying their inner strength and embracing the powerful body and mind that they have been gifted.
ANGELA'S STORY
In 2008, Angela moved from New Jersey to Rhode Island to pursue NCAA College Gymnastics. Angela was a fierce competitor, particularly on vault and bars, and Co-Captain of her team both her Junior and Senior Year. She also excelled in the classroom and consistently held one of the highest GPAs on her team as a Biochemistry major.
As a sophomore in 2010, she suffered her first major injury: an ACL tear. Through her feelings of devastation, Angela used her “career ending injury" as motivation to become stronger from the inside out. Angela pushed herself to learn more about the process to becoming well-conditioned through her entire body.
In 2012, she graduated magna cum laude with her Biochemistry degree, and went on to work at Brown University and Genzyme, creating compounds for rare genetic diseases and cancer
While working the 12 hour overnight shift at a pharmaceutical company, Angela began competing in fitness competitions. She used her midnight lunch break to run and train, and within a few months of competing, she won multiple fitness titles and her earned Professional Card in both Fitness and Bikini.
While on her new competitive journey, her co-workers joined in with her, inspired to become healthier and stronger themselves. Angela began helping them with their goals, and that's when she started to realize how fulfilling it was to watch others become stronger and more confident.
She decided to get her Personal Training Certificate, and within a few months, left her cushy pharmaceutical job all together to coach gymnastics and open up her own gym called AGAthletics.
While owning her gym, she won the Miss Fitness America 2016 title in the professional division (the highest title you can achieve), and also competed on American Ninja Warrior for the first time.
After deciding to take a break from fitness competitions and focus on her gym, she started doing shoots for several magazines, and became a finalist for the Women’s Health Next Fitness Star. Angela was on the cover of a national fitness magazine and traveled the world, telling her story about how she was made fun of as a young girl for her strong, “manly” arms and how she overcame it.
A year later, Angela was cast on American Ninja Warrior for the second time. She had been training for this by going to multiple local Ninja Competitions and competing in competitive OCR races. She was the strongest she had ever been, and she entered Season 10 with total confidence that she could hit that buzzer. She made it the top 5 female competitors, and that's when she suffered another devastating injury.
Angela tore her ACL for the second time on national television during her American Ninja Warrior run.
Turning lemons into lemonade, Angela began her epic comeback, became a voice and inspiration for people recovering from ACL tears, and was back on American Ninja Warrior for Season 11.
In 2020, during the start of the Covid-19 Pandemic, Angela began launching a series of online fitness training programs, with a focus on everything from core to pull-ups to full-body training, finally culminating in her Strong Feels Good membership. Angela's programs are designed for all ages and fitness levels and can easily be done from the comfort and safety of home with minimal equipment.
In 2022, Angela launched her Strong Feels Good Podcast and her YouTube Channel, and her online fitness programs continue to grow!
