ALL THE WONDERFUL—
and not-so-wonderful—
personal thoughts, con-
tradictions, cultural
concepts, and buzz-
words about our bodies
and how we relate to
them are best described
as: complicated. And
these ideas and words
can change—hourly,
d a i ly, mont h ly, ye a rly
(heck, even by the sec-
ond!)—for each of us.
But that’s A-OK.
That’s why we asked
seven women to get real
about their journeys
to where they are to day,
the moments that
altered their path, and
their current outlooks.
(Plu s, we reve a l t he
results of our exclusive
WH Instagram survey
of more t ha n 5,0 0 0
followers.) We hope you
find some motivation,
some revelations, a bit
of commiseration, and
a whole lot of inspira-
tion on the following
pages. Ultimately, your
definition of naked
st reng t h i s up to you!A
“I finally
realized
my muscle
is what
makes me
unique.”
Angela Gargano used to wear
a sweatshirt to school every day
to hide the muscles she’d devel-
oped as a competitive gymnast,
even if it was 100 degrees out-
side. Now, the 29-year-old
American Ninja Warrior com-
petitor and trainer at Performix
House in NYC is proud to own
her body— ever y chiseled inch of
it. Her revised mindset, thanks
to participating in fitness com-
petitions when she was 23 years
old, in a nutshell:
“I wish I could go back and tell
my younger self that the mus-
cles ever yone made fun of me
for would actually go on to mean
everything to me and define
my entire career. Looking back,
I’m glad I went through that
because it makes me appreciate
where I’m at now much more.”Angela Gargano,
trainer; Ninja Warrior