IFBB Pro Rosario
I’VE ALWAYS LOVED MUSCLE
Born in El Paso, but raised in Juarez, IFBB Pro Rosario Romero is quite well known amongst the bodybuilding community here in town. Born into a family that wasn’t very health and fitness driven, Rosario stepped out of the norm and has pursued bodybuilding as a hobby and has become quite successful in the field.
She started lifting without much guidance around high school age and progressed to CrossFit after moving to El Paso and having her son; she loved the competitiveness of the sport, but encountered a lot of injuries along the way. After about 4 and a half years (around 2015), she stopped CrossFit and got back into strength and conditioning in a manner that she felt was safer for her to perform.Initially just a way to lose weight and get healthy, this is around the time she got serious about bodybuilding.
She began training with a very good trainer here in El Paso and started to admire the way other local female bodybuilders looked. Admittedly a party animal Wednesday through Sunday, her coach noticed that even then, she was consistent with hitting the gym. He told her that she should compete, but that she had to stop going out and drinking. This being said, she decided to try to compete once and then go back to her normal life, but she fell in love with the sport of bodybuilding; she got addicted. She said she loves it “so, so much.” In 2016, Rosario competed and won her first bodybuilding show. That qualified her for nationals. She did a show in Dallas and then in El Paso, competing in both the categories of bikini and figure. Eventually, in 2019, she earned her pro card and she has been competing in figure ever since.
Rosario has recently started online training and nutrition for other people; she just doesn’t have a lot of time to do it since she works full time and is a single mom with a teenage son. For this reason, she picks and chooses who she wants to train so that she can ensure she’s providing them with the best service possible.
When asked about what’s coming up in the future, Rosario discussed how she had been competing consistently for seven years in a row and between that and the chronic dieting and overtraining, her body took a bit of a beating. In a recent blood test, she noticed some things were a bit off. She wasn’t giving her body the rest it needed to recover, so she made the tough decision to take off for about a year and a half to recoup.
Within this recovery, she implemented a gut protocol with her coach, and finally her bloodwork came back good, so about two to three weeks ago she decided to go back into prep, which she is very excited about. Now her and her coach are looking at upcoming competitions for her to perform in both the figure and physique categories; physique being a completely new category for her to take on. She is currently working with a new coach and taking a different approach to her prep, so she anticipates being ready to compete by May of this year.
In regard to another important aspect of bodybuilding, Rosario provided some insight into how your mental health is also affected by the sport. She discussed how bodybuilding is a process even when it comes to the mental aspects of the sport and that it can take time to adjust to that as well. She said in the beginning it’s hard to take criticism and feedback in the right way. She went on to talk about how you improve after each show and learn to understand that you’re basically a work in progress. She explained how the judges tell you what you need to work on, but also provide positive feedback on the parts of your physique that look perfect. Rosario also provided some pro tips on communicating with the judges to get more detailed feedback.
