Venagro trying to set example
Pawtucket native headed to Vegas to compete in national fitness competition
CRANSTON — Stacie Venagro gave birth to her first child, a handsome baby boy named Aidan, on Friday, March 25, 2016, and the 32year-old Pawtucket native couldn’t have been happier about becoming a new mom.
According to Venagro, she loves everything about it – except, naturally, the frequent diaper changes.
She nevertheless continued to follow her passion for physical fitness, and now wants mothers everywhere not to lose sight of their own physical and emotional needs after having a baby.
She certainly hasn’t, and that’s one of many reasons why she flew out of T.F. Green International Airport before sunrise Wednesday for Las Vegas Tomorrow, she will compete against dozens of the globe’s other super-toned females at the 2017 World Miss Fitness America Championships.
“I’m making a comeback to show other moms what’s possible after having a child,” stated Venagro, who owns a fitness center of the same name on Macklin Street in Cranston. “I want them to know that training for a goal that’s so hard to reach is possible, that you shouldn’t let excuses get in your way.
“A lot of mothers will put themselves on a backburner and say, ‘It’s not about me anymore; it’s about my baby,’” she added. “They should know it’s possible to train and have a job and take care of yourself and the child afterward as long as you make working out and your nutrition a non-negotiable part of your schedule.”
The caveat is other women don’t have the background in fitness that Venagro does, but that doesn’t matter to her, as she’s been instructing men, womenand children the details of getting and staying in shape and healthy at her own studio since 2012.
She initially got into tournaments/competitions on a whim, but captured her first title at Miss Fitness Boston in 2012, then followed that weeks later with the New England crown.
She went on that summer to win (in impressive fashion) her first World Miss Fitness America championship, and accomplished something no other woman ever had before two years later – she nailed down a third consecutive title in 2014.
Incredibly, Venagro flew to Miami for the 2015 Miss Fitness Universe event in June and returned home with another first-place trophy.
“I got pregnant a month later; that why I moved my studio from Pawtucket (the same site as the Dancin’ Spirit studio on Columbus Avenue),” she explained. “I needed a bigger place, and I live in Cranston, so it was a chance to be closer to home. It felt more secure to be here with a child on the way.”
Venagro (her maiden name is Wildenhain) had always been an athlete, dating back to her days at Davies Tech.
There she starred in basketball and softball before graduating in 2003, but she never got into hard-core training until she suffered a few setbacks.
That September, she attended Rhode Island College to chase a Bachelor’s in physical education and health, but grew wary of that and redirected herself to the Community College of Rhode Island to pursue criminal justice.
She earned an Associate’s degree there, and desperately wanted to become a police officer.
“I tried to land a job for three years, but I never got in, so I got fed up, said, ‘The heck with it,’” she stated. “I went to my Plan B, and that was to become certified in personal training.”
In November 2011, she received notification from the American Fitness Aerobic Association she had succeeded.
“I had done it on the side for the previous five years, and it was my alternate plan because I knew I wanted to help people take care of themselves,” she said. “I wanted them to get in better shape, and it became my passion.
“I could still do acrobatics – flips and things – as a former gymnast, and I had done a ton of dance, so I wanted to display what I could do in another industry,” she continued. “I was introduced to a woman named Sheryl Atwood, who introduced me to Cathy Savage; she’s been an icon in the fitness world for over 30 years.
“I hitched on with her in 2012 after my first competition in Boston; I won it, which I loved. I also loved the atmosphere of the girls competing on Team Savage. The camaraderie, the sisterhood was amazing, and it made the journey that much more enjoyable. I was with likeminded women who loved fitness, and I felt less alone.”
Venagro was thrown for a loop when she discovered, in January of 2016, her pregnancy went viral on the Internet.
“Somebody saw a picture of me and my stomach on Instagram; it showed I still had oblique and (abdominal) definition even though I was seven months pregnant,” she grinned. “I was first contacted by a woman named Leslie from mom.me, a blog writer, and – the next day – I was on AOL. com. That’s when people started calling or messaging me left and right.
“People and Self magazines, the Daily Mail in the United Kingdom, Cosmopolitan, etc.,” she added. “I went from 1,800 followers on Instagram to 10,000 in the matter of minutes. I also received phone calls of texts from Lou Ferrigno, George Takei, Mike the Situation, Paris Hilton, The Today Show and Fox News. The list goes on and on. “It blew my mind.” It’s no secret that, after having Aidan and taking a doctor-ordered six-week layoff from training, Venagro would return to the fold. She began working out 12 weeks ago, and, in early September, she weighed 146.6 pounds and had a body fat index of 17.2.
On Tuesday, after running client Shannon Caldwell of West Warwick through an arduous exercise, Venagro took off a sweat jacket – displaying toned muscle upon muscle over a tank top – and hopped a special scale. It depicts a variety of health/fitness statistics, including weight, body mass, body fat on each limb, metabolic age, etc.
“I’m down to 137.4 pounds and my body fat is 15.9; my body, inside out, is 12 years,” she stated of the latter stat. “In that time, I’ve lost nine pounds and cut the body fat two percent, but I don’t care about the number of pounds I lost because weight doesn’t define me. It doesn’t tell me how beautiful I am, or how strong I am, or how funny I am. It’s just a number.
“I’m healthy, and that’s all that matters. I want to help other people get to that point; I want to help women realize they can achieve anything after having a baby.” So, how’d she do it? “At the end of August, I really started going back hard; push-ups, bicep curls, 400-meter sprints, burpees (a pushup to a tuck/pike to a vertical leap), stretching, dancing, flipping, acrobatics,” she said. “But I still trained no longer than an hour a day, five days a week.
“I tell the people I work with the same thing,” she continued. “You don’t have to work out to the point of failure, where you can’t do what you being asked. You only have to train to the point of fatigue, and your nutrition, if you’re paying close attention, will do the rest.
“You have to fuel your body every three hours. If not, your muscles start to break down. You have to ingest protein, which fuels those muscles.”
All of that sweat (not so much blood and tears) should result, Venagro hopes, in a fourth national/world crown in the Pro Fitness category. She must endure a two-minute routine of strength and acrobatic moves while exhibiting flexibility and personality, then a bikini round (which shows off a body’s symmtery and tone), and – if one finishes among the top five – an interview stage.
“My goal is only to go out there and have fun,” Venagro said. “I can’t wait to get back out there on stage and prove to myself and to others I can still do it. Sure, I’m anxious and nervous, all of the above.
“I’m going to be away from home and my little one, my husband Mike. I also know it’s not going to be the same as it was before Aidan. I want to see what I’m capable of, the come back here and celebrate what I achieve.”
She pointed to a bottle of wine on her office desk.
“Shannon brought it in (Tuesday) before her training session,” she smiled. “It’s called Evolution, and it’s my favorite, really hard to find. She said it was for me to enjoy post-show, and – oh – I will.
“I haven’t missed it, not really, because I’ve never been a big drinker anyway, but I do miss having a glass on occasion, you know, being a new mom. Things can come up unexpectedly, and it’s nice to know it’s there.”