Health Club News…As a personal trainer, Ms. Fitness USA is a regular person’s champ

Taryn Bagrosky won the Ms. Fitness USA competition in August and took sixth in the Ms. Fitness World event. (Cyrus McCrimmon
The Denver Post )It takes some nerve to sign up with a personal trainer whose taut abdominals and sinewy biceps represent an impossible dream for most of us.

Imagine learning that your personal trainer was among the winners of the Ms. Fitness USA competition.”It’s a little intimidating,” Mary Stribling says of Taryn Bagrosky, 29, who won August’s Ms. Fitness USA competition, and went on to place sixth in the international Ms. Fitness World contest. The Ms. Fitness title is not a beauty pageant, although Bagrosky, with her honey-streaked long hair, dramatic eyes and lithe body, solidly belongs in the “hot” category. The competitors perform a 90-second routine that’s part uber-aerobic dance, and part parkour, the fluid urban running discipline.
“Lots of leaps,” Bagrosky says.agine ‘So You Think You Can Dance,’ but incorporating one-armed push-ups and a lot of dynamic moves.” Her Ms. Fitness routine would look at home in a Cirque du Soleil program. (In fact, some of her Ms. Fitness competitors are Cirque performers.) She disarms clients daunted by her successes by redirecting their attention to their own accomplishments. “There’s nothing cooler than hearing a 50-year-old woman say she’s in the best shape of her life,” Bagrosky says.She’s so modest,” says Barb Carlson, 40, who began training with Bagrosky last spring. After working out twice a week under Bagrosky’s supervision, she’s lost 10 pounds and dropped at least one dress size.
“But I don’t work with her because I want to be a size 2 or a certain weight,” Carlson says.

“Of course, I want to look good. But I want to do it the right way. I want to be happy in a strong body.”
Under Bagrosky’s terms, that means combining aerobic exercise, flexibility moves, resistance exercises (like weightlifting), isometrics and nutritional adjustments. Carlson finds herself more disciplined about what she eats because she reports her diet to Bagrosky during their sessions.

Bgrosky believes firmly in a workout routine that constantly evolves. Boredom kills motivation.”If you’re bored on the Stairmaster, then go to Red Rocks and run the steps,” Bagrosky says.”I try to go to Red Rocks at least once a week in the summer.”r interest in fitness is avocation and vocation. As an adolescent, she danced competitively. After earning her health and exercise science degree at Colorado State University, Bagrosky moved to New York, where she worked as a fitness specialist for NBC.In addition to writing a health and wellness newsletter, Bagrosky led spinning classes and supervised weightlifting classes for Tom Brokaw and dozens of producers.

“They mostly wanted to work off stress,” she said. “We did a lot of spinning.”When she moved back to Denver, Bagrosky began working with clients at a small studio just off busy South Colorado Boulevard in Glendale. She teaches Pilates, floor classes, and is a devotee of functional fitness — exercises and stretches that strengthen the body core muscles and condition the body for real-life tasks and situations — lifting heavy boxes or avoiding a fall. “There’s a lot of flexibility involved in her routines, a lot of strength, and a lot of range of motion,” says Stribling, who dreads but appreciates Bagrosky challenges, such as doing biceps curls while standing on one foot.”The balance stuff is really great,” Stribling says.”If you don’t work on that, and you lose your footing, your brain doesn’t go ‘Whoa, what’s this?’ when you slip on the ice. I’ve noticed myself catching my balance, and I know it’s because I’ve been practicing that with Taryn.”Bagrosky counts Stribling and Carlson among the clients she calls “lifers,” which she defines as “people who’d cut out housekeepers or fancy dinners before they’d cut fitness from their budgets.” Most of her clients are women, ranging in age from 21 to 81 and from triathletes to the clinically obese.She keeps things upbeat during workouts, sharing calorie-cutting tips, nutritional advice and recipes for seasonal treats, such as her low-fat oatmeal-protein pumpkin muffins.t’s not pumpkin bread, but it’s close enough to be seasonal,” she says.”You want to treat yourself, but everything in moderation. I tell my clients that their bodies are my business cards. So many people don’t realize the connection between being overweight and having back and knee problems. If they just lost the weight, they would feel so much better.”

Claire Martin: 303-954-1477 or cmartin@denverpost.com

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