Trying to Help Women Fit In:
Cathy Savage molds her fitness competitors for pageants.

Cathy Savage gave her athletes some last-minute advice in preparation for an upcoming competition. “Just relax those arms,” she said. “If you’re trying too hard, it’s going to show.”

“Flirt with the judges,” adds Linda McLaughlin, her nutrition and training adviser.

Some of the 14 athletes gathered at the gym in Walpole were heading into Saturday’s national qualifying competition as seasoned pros. Others were nervous, eager first-time competitors. All of them knew what they needed to win: a fit body, an energetic dance routine, and a big, bright smile.

Savage’s athletes are competing in the Fitness Atlantic Pageant that takes place in New Haven, Connecticut. In the pageant, which Savage describes as similar to Miss America with a twist of fitness, contestants are judged on a fitness round, a swimsuit round, and an interview round. Scoring factors include creativity, body conditioning, and femininity.

The sport has not achieved national recognition, but those who know fitness know there is one woman capable of taking ordinary women and molding them into champions: Norwood resident Cathy Savage.

Savage has spent the past nine years developing Savage Choreography, a business that teaches women how to be fitness competitors. She began with five clients in 1994 and now has more than 60 students, some of whom fly in from California and Nebraska to attend her annual fitness Prep Camp.

“Her creativity has been the key to why I made it,” said McLaughlin, who won the 1999 Fitness America Pageant Series before retiring last year.

Savage was a fitness competitor for two years before shifting to choreography in 1994. Since then, she has built a veritable fitness empire at World Gym in Warpole, where students come to her as novices and leave with nutrition plans, exercise regimens, costumes, and mix tapes.

The training is rigorous: al-through most of the students training for Saturday’s pageant consider the sport a hobby, may of them train 10-15 hours a week, consulting Linda McLaughlin about exercise regimens and strict protein and complex carbohydrate diets, and spending hours with Savage developing routines or leaning how to walk in 5-inch heels.

The Savage touch, which has guided three women to national championships, is an individually themed two-minute performance. The routines are designed to show off the contestants’ grace, flexibility, and strength; most are a mixture of gymnastics and dance, and include leaps and pirouettes as well as splits and shoulder stands.

Savage consults with each women to determine a theme and character, displayed through music and costume. One woman does her routine to an Elvis medley and performs with a guitar in a white sequined jumpsuit - which she rips off halfway through the routine to reveal a halter top and shorts. Another has a game-show theme, complete with “Jeopardy” song and a T-shirt that reads “I love Bob Barker,” which is also torn off as part of the number.

The striptease element is not Savage’s favorite part of her sport, but she accepts that the sexy costumes and bikini contests are a part of achieving her larger goal: greater national exposure.

“I want the sport to be on the same level as any other women’s sport, she said. My goal is to have the sport going to the point where the mainstream knows it as well as baseball or football.”

When people tell her that fitness isn’t a real sport, she has her defenses ready.

“Most guys can’t do one-arm push-ups, and these girls all can,” she said. “What I say to those people is, that’s their opinion.”

Her students have adopted a similar attitude toward skeptics and developed a thick skin to deflect the highly subjective reviews from pageant judges.

“That’s the nature of the game,” said Heidi Fletcher, a Billerica resident who will be competing in her first pageant this weekend. A judge who lives the blond bombshell look might choose her, she said, but another might prefer someone entirely different.

That attitude, said Savgae, is the key to maintaining a healthy outlook and place as a member of her team.

“While they compete against each other, the majority of them understand that on any given day, any person can win this,” she said.

Savage’s own experiences as a fitness competitor made her create a warm and supportive environment for her students. Fitness might be an individual sport, she said, but her girls are teammates.

“It sounds so hokey, but in the show, all the girls who are back-stage are cheering each other on,” she said. “It didn’t used to be like that.”

For some fitness competitors, the environment that Savage provides is as much of a draw as her choreography. Nicole Ferreira, a Fairhaven resident who is one of Savage’s top competitors, was won over after watching Savage in action at a competition.

“She was backstage supporting her girls, and I wasn’t one of them, but she took me under her wing,” said Ferreira, who has qualified for nationals twice. “Ever since I met her, I wanted to be a part of her group.”

Savage said she never expected to make a career of fitness and considers herself extremely lucky to have found success in a field she loves. But she is reluctant to take credit for her success.

“It’s really not me; it’s more these guys,” she said, referring to her students. “They do all the work. I just help them get there.”