Ohio woman a rising star in female bodybuilding category

CLEVELAND (AP) -- An Ohio smoothie shop owner is a rising star in a new category of female bodybuilding that puts less emphasis on being buff and more on being beautiful.

Valerie Waugaman is tall, sculpted -- not vein-popping bulky -- charming and attractive. Exactly the traits needed to win the new figure competitions introduced by the International Federation of Body Builders three years ago.
Women in the category are judged on athletic ability, symmetry, physique and beauty rather than bulk and performance routines found in the other divisions of fitness and bodybuilding.

"It's awesome," Waugaman said. "You're in the spotlight."
Waugaman, 27, stands 5 feet 7 inches tall and has soft hazel eyes, chestnut hair and a tough work ethic. Every day she swims, races against the treadmill and pumps iron -- most of it before opening her downtown Octane Cafe with fiance Sam Eells at 7:15 a.m.
"Figure girls are disciplined, eat right, work out," said Jan Tana, founder of Jan Tana Inc., a company that does airbrush tans to bodybuilding competitors at major contests around the country. "They can accomplish what they want through training and through nutrition. That's all they need to get their bodies like they want them to look."
Waugaman walked onto the figure scene two years ago by chance. She and Eells attended a Columbus competition to find out about the latest nutritional products for their cafe, which specializes in protein smoothies, power bars and cuisine geared toward the fitness-minded.
Waugaman, a former volleyball star at Ohio University, caught a figure competition and believed she could use it as a way to get back in shape after a knee injury and poor eating habits caught up with her.
"I would eat more at one sitting," Waugaman said. "I got to the point where I was not working out. I had gained weight, and my knee was really bothering me."
She and Eells, who was a competition skier at the University of Colorado, agreed to start working out.
Waugaman worked with a trainer and within 10 weeks, shed 17 pounds and was ready for her first amateur figure competition.
She has placed high in several meets, most recently the Sacramento Pro, where she topped a number of big names and came in second.
A number of fitness and bodybuilding publications have used her for photo shoots and cover stories for upcoming editions. Waugaman already has been featured in several publications, including Flex and Oxygen magazines.
"She's a quickly rising star, somebody who can be Miss Olympia next year for figure," said Tana, who is based in Dallas.
"She has a certain sexuality about her that makes her very appealing," Tana said. "She's the kind of woman that women wish they could look more like and men want to be with."
Betsy Snyder, a Cleveland advertising manager who frequents the Octane Cafe, said Waugaman is an inspiration.
"All of us should strive to look like Val," she said.
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