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Jeannie Paparone

by Hans February 2003
photography by Gene X

Looking at Jeannie Paparone's tight, perfectly sculpted bodybuilder's physique, complete with a to-die-for six-pack, most people assume she's not a mother. So when Jeannie, a Las Vegas personal trainer, talks to new moms about getting back in shape after having a baby, she often gets the same reaction from them. "You don't know what it's like," they say.

"Yes, I do," she replies. "I have a five year-old son."

Last November, Jeannie's son, Louis, was in the audience at the Dallas Convention Center to see his mom compete in the NPC Nationals, the toughest amateur show in women's bodybuilding. In razor-sharp condition at 5-foot-4 and 132 pounds, the 34 year-old Jeannie looked stunning, with a spectacular v-shaped back, a tiny waist, chiseled pecs, and sweeping, ripped-to-shreds quads. She won the middleweight class and with it a pro card - an incredible achievement for a woman who had had a baby just five years earlier.

"I tell moms you can get back in shape after having a baby if you put your mind and body to it," she says. "Then I just say, 'Look at me!'"

Jeannie had begun competing back in 1994 at the age of 26 and placed a promising seventh in the middleweights on her Nationals debut in 1995. She already had her sights set on going pro, but when she and her husband Dion decided to have a child, she put bodybuilding on hold. However, she carried on working out throughout her pregnancy and stayed in such good shape that even when she was nine months pregnant, most people in the gym had no idea. Believe it or not, Jeannie even worked out the morning she gave birth in October 1997 (some squats, some biceps, and half an hour on the Stairmaster). That afternoon she went for her doctor's appointment, and in the evening, two weeks early, she gave birth to a healthy 6-pound, 10-ounce baby boy.

In 1999, when Louis was two years old and entered school, Jeannie decided it was time to think about competing again. In 2000, after an absence of five years, she promptly re-qualified for Nationals and placed eighth at the USA in 2001. A year later she came back with a radically improved physique and placed second at the USA in her hometown of Las Vegas in July, and then went one better at the Nationals in Dallas in November.

"It still hasn't sunk in," Jeannie says with a laugh two months after the show. "My husband is more excited than I am."

Louis is Jeannie's biggest fan. "He tells his friends, 'My mom is bigger than your mom!'" she says. "He loves going to my shows and seeing me onstage. A lot of times I hear him in the audience shouting, 'Go mommy, go!'" He has even started emulating his muscular mom: when Jeannie does her abs at night, Louis does them along with her ("it helps with his counting!"). Sometimes, after seeing her pose when she's getting ready for a show, Jeannie catches Louis in the bathroom doing a front double-biceps in the mirror. "It's so cute!" she says.

Jeannie Paparone is a bodybuilder's bodybuilder. Mention her to other athletes and they'll start gushing about her beautiful shape, flawless symmetry and phenomenal condition. "She's awesome," says national-level heavyweight Heather Policky. "I remember the first time I saw her at the USA I couldn't help but stare at her, then at Nationals I was doing it again. I am definitely a fan."

Jeannie grew up in Chicago, Ill., where she was a gymnast from the age of seven years-old until she graduated fro high school, and was picked as an all-state gymnast. As a teenager, she had a muscular build but was also anorexic. Then she saw pictures of Cory Everson and Rachel McLish for the first time in the magazines, and fell in love with their muscular look. "They looked powerful and confident, but at the same time very feminine," she says. In 1991 she started bodybuilding, and did her first show three years later. Jeannie met her husband Dion in the gym, and together they eloped to Reno, Nev., where Dion, a crane operator, had found a job. Six months later they moved to Las Vegas.



The physique Jeannie presented onstage in 2002 was vastly improved on the previous year, improvements she puts down to changes she and Dion made to her training and diet. In particular, she started doing an hour of cardio each morning, which helped to cut up her legs. Then, after the USA, where she was, as she puts it, "veiny," she added more carbs into diet, which resulted in a fuller look at the Nationals. "She was perfect," says Elena Seiple-Perticari, who competed against Jeannie in the middleweights at the Nationals. "She had no flaws or weaknesses. I was honored to be onstage with her."

With her outstanding muscle density, Jeannie's future at the pro level looks bright. She plans to make her pro debut as a middleweight at the Night of Women's Bodybuilding in New York in May 2003. "She should do very well," says Sandy Ranalli, the head judge at the Nationals.

But although she is now a pro, life hasn't changed much for Jeannie, who, like millions of working moms, has to juggle her different roles. She is up at 4 a.m. (3 a.m. pre-contest so she can get in an hour's cardio), eats, wakes Louis and takes him to school, and is at the gym by 6.30 a.m. She squeezes her own training, usually in the afternoon, and her six meals in between training 8-10 clients a day.

Jeannie hopes her example can be an inspiration to other women, particularly new moms. She is working on a website, which will have nutrition tips and exercises for moms during pregnancy and after pregnancy (it will be online by March 2003). She also wants to do a workout video and a video on "a day in the life of a female bodybuilder." To Jeannie, any woman can follow her example and have it all, a successful career, a family, and a great body. "I don't do very well with excuses," she says. "I believe it's a way out. If you're motivated, you can achieve anything in life by being positive."

You can mail your letters of support to Jeannie at jeanniesfit4life@aol.com

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female muscle, shawna walker, larissa reis, michelle jin, wrestling, tracey toth, kira neuman, female bodybuilding, cindy phillips, britt miller, casey daugherty, lyris capelle, jill brooks, olga guryev, olga guryeva, kristy hawkins, cheryl faust, lindsey cope, lindsay cope, veronica miller