Speaker 1: Hi, folks, how are you? Thank you for tuning into
Speaker 1: this body and soul podcast called Healthy Ish. I am
Speaker 1: Felicity Harley. Joining me today is a woman who is strong,
Speaker 1: very strong in both body and mind. But we are
Speaker 1: focusing on what it takes to get a strong body.
Speaker 1: In this episode, my guest is high performance coach and
Speaker 1: motivational speaker Alexa Twers. She is also known as Action
Speaker 1: Alexa on Instagram. Anyway, she will tell us exactly how
Speaker 1: to build that full body strength. If you do like
Speaker 1: what you hear from Alexa, I know you will make
Speaker 1: sure you're listening to extra Healthy Ish, where she talks
Speaker 1: more about how to cultivate a strong mind. You can
Speaker 1: search for that wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2: Alexa, welcome, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: I can't believe we have a met in person. I
Speaker 1: mean I think we have. Well, I've been following you
Speaker 1: for a long time social media because I feel like
Speaker 1: I do know you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's every person I've ever met in person of
Speaker 2: social has never ever called me by my real name.
Speaker 2: What is it like, well, my full name, Like everyone's
Speaker 2: always like, oh, Action Alexa, I've set.
Speaker 1: Down the bus your handle.
Speaker 2: Yes, the guys at a table next to me, being
Speaker 2: like actional Lexa, do you want an arm wrestler? I'm
Speaker 2: like no, Can someone ask me for my number?
Speaker 1: Are you good at arm wrestles?
Speaker 2: I used to be Yeah, used to get me free
Speaker 2: breakfast in Hong Kong.
Speaker 1: Well there we go. I should call you action Alexa.
Speaker 1: Sorry something like that. Okay, strong, I mean you are
Speaker 1: incredibly strong. We'll talk about your strong minded, extra healthy ish,
Speaker 1: but your your strength of body. What does what does
Speaker 1: it feel like to be strong?
Speaker 2: God? Such a great question, you know. My love of
Speaker 2: weight training and being strong stems back to when I
Speaker 2: was fifteen and my mom was diagnosed with a mental illness.
Speaker 2: I was being bullied at school for being too skinny,
Speaker 2: so my nickname at school was actually a Lexa and Arexa. O.
Speaker 1: Gosh, that's c aren't they?
Speaker 2: Yes, they are. And I went to the weights room
Speaker 2: on a mission for muscles and it was kind of
Speaker 2: that was my first ever experience with lifting weights, and
Speaker 2: that place just became my sanctuary, and I think from
Speaker 2: then on in it sort of it became the place
Speaker 2: where I learned to develop physical strength. But then I
Speaker 2: also learned about the connection between physical strength and the
Speaker 2: mental fortitude that came alongside that, and it's just I
Speaker 2: can't describe it. But for me, the gym isn't so
Speaker 2: much about Peb's in the gym. It's kind of about
Speaker 2: the bad assory that you get from lifting the heavy
Speaker 2: weights and then how that translates into the rest of
Speaker 2: your life, because I just feel like it's a catalyst
Speaker 2: for so many other areas.
Speaker 1: I mean, you're so right. I mean when I go heavy,
Speaker 1: which I like doing, not as heavy as you mind,
Speaker 1: you you just you feel unstoppable, you do, and I
Speaker 1: think that's what has given me the confidence to do
Speaker 1: everything else that I've kind of tried to give a crack.
Speaker 2: And I think that feeling of empowerment, you know, not
Speaker 2: everybody has a really positive first experience with fitness, and
Speaker 2: I think I was just incredibly lucky to find myself
Speaker 2: in a place where people really had my back, people
Speaker 2: really inspired me, they really took me under their wing,
Speaker 2: and that sense of empowerment was such a gift that
Speaker 2: it's probably why I do what I do now, because
Speaker 2: I think, for you know, me, as both a coach
Speaker 2: and a female, there's nothing more rewarding than seeing a
Speaker 2: woman become empowered in her training and then watching how
Speaker 2: that translates into her attitude towards the rest of her life, like,
Speaker 2: that's the coolest thing about what I get to do.
Speaker 1: And also linking that, I mean often we go to
Speaker 1: the gym and we lift weights and we think, oh,
Speaker 1: we have to do this to keep fit and strengthen
Speaker 1: our muscles, especially as we're getting older. But to translate
Speaker 1: those same learnings from the gym into other areas of
Speaker 1: your life, perhaps that connection isn't made enough.
Speaker 2: No, And I think, and when it comes to work ethic,
Speaker 2: like I find that if you can cultivate like a
Speaker 2: stellar work ethic and your training, it often permeates everything
Speaker 2: else that you do. So there are so many connections
Speaker 2: that are really undervalued and not spoken about enough.
Speaker 1: For sure. Now on Instagram, you know you write you
Speaker 1: wrote that you're forty four, but your mind says you're
Speaker 1: twenty five. When it comes to lifting weights. Now this
Speaker 1: is probably I think, something that a lot of a
Speaker 1: scrapper with. Oh, I used to be able to lift
Speaker 1: this in the gym. Oh, I used to be able
Speaker 1: to run this. I used to be able to do this,
Speaker 1: and now I can't. How do you like, how do
Speaker 1: you manage this and navigate this look?
Speaker 2: I'm not going to say it's easy, because I think
Speaker 2: it's a really it's a really easy path to fall into,
Speaker 2: especially if you're on social media and there's a lot
Speaker 2: of really fit, fine looking females out there where that
Speaker 2: genetically blessed twenty year old bodies who were doing incredible things.
Speaker 2: And I think when you get older with filters Monday, yeah,
Speaker 2: you know, it's not Everything that you see on social
Speaker 2: media is obviously not real life. And you know, if
Speaker 2: you put two people in front of me, who one
Speaker 2: was twenty years old lifting incredible weights in the gym
Speaker 2: and looking phenomenal, and then you have a forty year
Speaker 2: old lady lifting the same amount of weights and looking phenomenal,
Speaker 2: I'm going to be more inspired by the forty year
Speaker 2: old female and the gym lifting weights, because man, the
Speaker 2: dedication and the discipline and the commitment to cultivating that
Speaker 2: for so many years of your life and still looking
Speaker 2: like that and still being able to do like that
Speaker 2: is so much more impressive to me. And those are
Speaker 2: the people that I go to for education and empowerment
Speaker 2: and inspiration, and I wish more women would look at
Speaker 2: that and be more inspired by that, because I think
Speaker 2: the worst thing we can do as we get older
Speaker 2: is try to fight our bodies to get back to
Speaker 2: what we could do when we're twenty. And I think
Speaker 2: it's natural, Like, you know, when I was in my twenties,
Speaker 2: I had I started out in the gym purely for
Speaker 2: esthetic reason. I wanted to look a certain way, and
Speaker 2: you buy into that. But I think inevitably along the
Speaker 2: journey you kind of then find how weights makes you
Speaker 2: feel or how training makes you feel, and you buy
Speaker 2: into that. You know, I shifted from aesthetics and then
Speaker 2: I went to performance, and now I train because I
Speaker 2: want to feel good. I want to be able to
Speaker 2: do all the things I love to do outside of
Speaker 2: the gym, and I also don't want to be in pain.
Speaker 2: You know, as you get older, your body doesn't respond
Speaker 2: the same way to either training or nutrition, and you
Speaker 2: can spend all of your time fighting that and have
Speaker 2: your body be like have an absolute tantrument about it
Speaker 2: and you not get anywhere, or you can lean into
Speaker 2: what your body actually wants, start listening to it, and
Speaker 2: start preparing for like, you know, less summer bodies more
Speaker 2: old Lady bodies, you know.
Speaker 1: Like, bring on the old lady bodies.
Speaker 2: We want strong muscles and dense bones to kind of
Speaker 2: carry us into a really strong future. Like the statistics
Speaker 2: surrounding osteoporosis and women quite terrifying, you know, like forty
Speaker 2: percent of women after menopause will develop, you know, will
Speaker 2: have an osteoproduct fracture. And by the time you're eighty,
Speaker 2: forty percent of women will have osteoporosis. I don't want fractures.
Speaker 2: I don't want to be falling over and getting injured
Speaker 2: and not having functional independence when I'm old, and we
Speaker 2: need to start preparing for that.
Speaker 1: What does your weekly strength through team of client?
Speaker 2: I since I had my head replacement, I had a
Speaker 2: have replacement six seven years ago now, and it changed
Speaker 2: the way that I train. It forced me to reassess
Speaker 2: the way that I trained, and now I probably train
Speaker 2: two to three times a week structured strength training in
Speaker 2: the gym. My warm ups and my activation and mobility
Speaker 2: and stabilization stuff are probably longer than my actual workouts themselves.
Speaker 1: Oh interesting, Yeah.
Speaker 2: I take a long time to warm up and then
Speaker 2: I have probably two days where I do some pilates
Speaker 2: and more restorative type stuff where I focus more on
Speaker 2: stress management.
Speaker 1: Now talking about stress, you are coming up in a
Speaker 1: show called Naked and Afraid. Actually's out in the US.
Speaker 1: It's coming to Australia in December. There must have been
Speaker 1: a lot of stress being in the Colombian junk call Naked.
Speaker 1: Were you afraid God?
Speaker 2: More afraid of failure? To be honest, like, not afraid
Speaker 2: of the jungle her self, more afraid of failure. I
Speaker 2: think I spent my whole life trying to hit specific
Speaker 2: goals and being out there. The goal was to survive
Speaker 2: and that was the only thing I was really worried about,
Speaker 2: like not pulling my own weight for lack of a
Speaker 2: better term, out there. So I really leaned into all
Speaker 2: the physical hard work. I was like, the way I'm
Speaker 2: going to get through this is by being a workhorse
Speaker 2: and using the work ethic that I've developed, And that's
Speaker 2: exactly what happened.
Speaker 1: We look forward to talking about about it extra Healthy.
Speaker 1: Thank you for coming on the podcast.
Speaker 2: Oh, thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1: I hope you enjoyed this chat with Alexa. Hearing from
Speaker 1: her now we have to get her back on when
Speaker 1: her series of don Alive drops. It is towards the
Speaker 1: end of the year, so yeah, if you do want
Speaker 1: a little snapshot of it, make sure you listen to
Speaker 1: Extra Healthyish because we talk a lot about it on there.
Speaker 1: If you did enjoy this chat, jump on rate and
Speaker 1: review it. You can subscribe to this podcast, share it
Speaker 1: with a friend someone who needs a bit of motivation
Speaker 1: when it comes to building strength anything else. Head to
Speaker 1: body andsoul dot com dot you follow us on socials.
Speaker 1: Grab our print edition which is out in your local
Speaker 1: Sunday paper and until tomorrow it Stay healthy Ish