Latest / Hurdle with Emily Abbate / 2. Alex Silver Fagan, Nike Master Trainer

Transcript

2. Alex Silver Fagan, Nike Master Trainer · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

0:02
Speaker 1: Hello everyone. If you are listening to this, you have
0:07
Speaker 1: major way to the second ever episode of Hurdle. If
0:11
Speaker 1: you're new here, let me introduce myself. My name is
0:14
Speaker 1: Emily a Body Baseball card Stats. I am a writer
0:17
Speaker 1: and editor living in New York City. I am a
0:20
Speaker 1: fitness fanatic, a certified trainer, a run coach, a spin coach.
0:25
Speaker 1: The list goes on. If you want to know a
0:28
Speaker 1: little bit more about me up front, feel free to
0:30
Speaker 1: head over onto my social channels at Emily a Body
0:33
Speaker 1: Abbat and now a little bit about Hurdle. Hurdle is
0:40
Speaker 1: a bi weekly podcast that features people who got through
0:43
Speaker 1: a tough time a hurdle of sorts, by integrating wellness
0:47
Speaker 1: into their routines. In this modern world we live in,
0:51
Speaker 1: filled with so much anxiety and pressure and obscene amounts
0:55
Speaker 1: of competition, wellness in all of its forms is an outlet.
0:59
Speaker 1: Some of the biggest, baddest, most inspirational humans and top
1:03
Speaker 1: CEOs got to where they are today because they found
1:06
Speaker 1: themselves with the help of things like yoga, running, juicing,
1:10
Speaker 1: a new approach to eating, meditation crystals.
1:14
Speaker 2: The list goes on.
1:16
Speaker 1: Hurdle brings you their stories, the lessons they learned and
1:19
Speaker 1: hopefully gives you the push you need to live a healthier, happier,
1:23
Speaker 1: more motivated life. Today on Hurdle, I'm here with Alex Silverfagan,
1:41
Speaker 1: Nike trainer, Wilhelmina model fitness entrepreneur.
1:44
Speaker 2: I love that designation fitness entrepreneur.
1:49
Speaker 3: When you asked me to explain what I did that
1:51
Speaker 3: is I feel like I do so much that fitness
1:55
Speaker 3: entrepreneur is just such a good umbrella term for all
1:59
Speaker 3: of the things that we do, and there's so many.
2:01
Speaker 3: Everyone's a fitness entrepreneur. Everyone's an entrepreneur nowadays, Like we're
2:03
Speaker 3: all trying to figure out what we want to do
2:06
Speaker 3: while working on something that we already know what we
2:08
Speaker 3: want to do, and exploring and talking and all the things,
2:12
Speaker 3: so that that's all the things.
2:14
Speaker 2: I'm about it.
2:14
Speaker 1: I feel oftentimes it's hard to designate what I do exactly.
2:18
Speaker 2: Also a founder of Flow into Strong.
2:20
Speaker 1: Talk to me a little bit about Flow into Strong
2:22
Speaker 1: and welcome Alix.
2:23
Speaker 2: Thank you thanks for having me.
2:24
Speaker 3: Flowing is Strong simply is a class that combines yoga
2:29
Speaker 3: and strength training, but deeper, it's understanding the connection between
2:34
Speaker 3: your yin and your yang and your fire and your vulnerability,
2:37
Speaker 3: and being able to know when you should tap into
2:41
Speaker 3: each and when it's appropriate, and also understanding a little
2:45
Speaker 3: bit more about yourself when you can see how the
2:47
Speaker 3: two combine. So it's a long version and then a
2:50
Speaker 3: small version of what is strong is.
2:52
Speaker 2: Well, I'm interested in it.
2:53
Speaker 1: I think that what we should do first and foremost
2:55
Speaker 1: is kind of rewind sure and talk a.
2:58
Speaker 2: Little bit about who you are.
3:00
Speaker 1: Why are you giving me a little bit of information
3:01
Speaker 1: of what I should know about Alex silver Fagan?
3:04
Speaker 2: What you should know? Oi? Oi? Yes? What should you know? So?
3:10
Speaker 2: I am twenty five.
3:13
Speaker 3: I have lived in New York for eight years going
3:15
Speaker 3: on nine, which is wild. I grew up in New Jersey,
3:20
Speaker 3: so not far from the city, and I've always felt
3:22
Speaker 3: like I was going to be here. I went to
3:24
Speaker 3: college here, and I guess what you should know is
3:27
Speaker 3: that I work in fitness. My whole life is fitness,
3:29
Speaker 3: but my whole life was not fitness beforehand.
3:32
Speaker 2: I didn't really know what I wanted to do. When
3:36
Speaker 2: I was growing up. I was running around all over
3:38
Speaker 2: the place.
3:38
Speaker 3: I wasn't an athlete though I'm not sport based at all,
3:43
Speaker 3: which is pretty funny. But I loved running around. I
3:46
Speaker 3: loved moving, and I loved connecting with people. And I
3:49
Speaker 3: also loved being in front of people. So I was
3:52
Speaker 3: obviously big in theater, which most I think people in
3:56
Speaker 3: our industry are, because they like being in front of people,
3:59
Speaker 3: they like telling a story in a different way. So
4:02
Speaker 3: I was in the drama club, president of the drama club.
4:05
Speaker 3: And then when I went to school, I started studying
4:08
Speaker 3: acting in psychology because I've always been fascinated with the
4:11
Speaker 3: human psyche and understanding why we do certain things.
4:15
Speaker 2: And from then on I moved into kind.
4:19
Speaker 3: Of a rough phase of nightlife in New York and
4:24
Speaker 3: all that, and then that actually led into fitness. Fitness
4:28
Speaker 3: was almost like my savior.
4:33
Speaker 2: And you said you went into night life, Yes, so
4:36
Speaker 2: what were you doing?
4:37
Speaker 3: So I started my junior year of college working at
4:41
Speaker 3: a club and bar in the Lower East Side called
4:43
Speaker 3: two A five club. It's underneath the Whiskey Bar called
4:46
Speaker 3: the Rose Shells. Great life, Ben, Yeah, love all of them.
4:49
Speaker 2: I love that. Yeah, it's a great place.
4:52
Speaker 3: I definitely have nothing against working in nightlife.
4:55
Speaker 2: It just wasn't for me. It's a really hard lifestyle.
4:59
Speaker 3: I was working ten pm to six am and then
5:03
Speaker 3: had to do it all over again at the same
5:04
Speaker 3: time studying and being a trying to be a kid,
5:07
Speaker 3: and also trying to be healthy. And I when you're
5:12
Speaker 3: thrown into this city as an eighteen year old and
5:17
Speaker 3: going out is not just going to a frat party,
5:19
Speaker 3: it's going to a club and then trying to get
5:22
Speaker 3: into the VIP section and trying to cut lines and cut.
5:26
Speaker 2: Lines at the door, but also other lines.
5:30
Speaker 3: As I said that, I was like that act makes sense.
5:33
Speaker 3: You're just you're thrown into a world where you think
5:37
Speaker 3: you should be doing certain things just to live up
5:39
Speaker 3: to this standard. And I was in that for a
5:42
Speaker 3: very long time, which is how I met the people
5:45
Speaker 3: that then became my coworkers and bosses at two five
5:48
Speaker 3: Club and Michelle's. And nothing against them if they ever
5:50
Speaker 3: listened to this, Like I love all of them.
5:52
Speaker 2: It just wasn't for me.
5:53
Speaker 1: Okay, So when did you get to the point where
5:55
Speaker 1: you were working there and you knew you needed out.
5:58
Speaker 2: I got incredibly skinny.
6:00
Speaker 3: I was down to like ninety pounds, and I remember
6:02
Speaker 3: going to Florida to see my grandma, which she lives there.
6:05
Speaker 2: I'm not from Florida, but that's where home is now.
6:08
Speaker 3: I went down to see my grandma and she threatened
6:10
Speaker 3: to send me to a hospital if I didn't do something,
6:12
Speaker 3: And so I went online and I found bodybuilding dot
6:17
Speaker 3: com and very strange, how I guess, I just found
6:21
Speaker 3: like how.
6:21
Speaker 2: To get strong or that's what I looked up a research.
6:24
Speaker 2: So it's interesting that you immediately went to how to
6:27
Speaker 2: get strong? Yeah, not like how do I get healthy? Yeah?
6:30
Speaker 2: How do I get because you didn't.
6:32
Speaker 3: I didn't want to gain with I didn't want to
6:33
Speaker 3: gain weight, and I didn't want to start eating because
6:37
Speaker 3: that was what I was scared of. I just knew
6:39
Speaker 3: that I needed to get strong and get better. But
6:43
Speaker 3: I never thought of healthy, like because I didn't think
6:45
Speaker 3: that I was unhealthy.
6:46
Speaker 2: I just knew that I was weak like I was.
6:48
Speaker 2: I was doing something wrong when you're in it, Yeah, exactly.
6:51
Speaker 3: So I found a basic how to lift weights for
6:56
Speaker 3: dummy type of trainer or program on bodybuilding, and I
7:00
Speaker 3: started going to the gym while I was still working
7:03
Speaker 3: at the club, and I started noticing that ten am
7:06
Speaker 3: to six pm hours and then waking up trying to
7:09
Speaker 3: go to the gym and then having to go back
7:10
Speaker 3: to the club to do it all over again. Wasn't
7:12
Speaker 3: lining up, and I just I didn't feel good and
7:16
Speaker 3: I at This was when Instagram started to kind of
7:19
Speaker 3: pick up, not the way that it is now, but
7:22
Speaker 3: it was just I thought at first it was like
7:24
Speaker 3: an editing app for photos, but then I realized there
7:27
Speaker 3: was actually a feed, and I started searching things and
7:29
Speaker 3: I found hashtag fitspo, which most of that was bikini
7:35
Speaker 3: competitors and bodybuilding, and so now all of a sudden,
7:37
Speaker 3: my mindset of healthy and fitness was bikini competitions and bodybuilding.
7:42
Speaker 2: So I decided to go from zero to I want
7:46
Speaker 2: to do a bikini body company.
7:47
Speaker 3: That's my personality and that's my biggest problem.
7:49
Speaker 2: I am.
7:50
Speaker 3: I'm all or nothing, and it's why finding balance is
7:54
Speaker 3: so difficult for me, and it is for a lot
7:56
Speaker 3: of people. I'm really good with being at the club
7:58
Speaker 3: and going crazy or weighing my food and going to
8:04
Speaker 3: the gym twice a day. I'm now finally in a
8:08
Speaker 3: place that feels balanced. I'm not one hundred percent there yet,
8:12
Speaker 3: but I live in extremes and that's been the hardest part.
8:15
Speaker 3: So that's why I went from zero to one hundred,
8:17
Speaker 3: Because there was no other way to do it, and
8:20
Speaker 3: so I quit the club on New Year's Eve. I
8:23
Speaker 3: think it was before.
8:25
Speaker 2: Or after the New Year's Eve party situation. It was
8:28
Speaker 2: I worked New Year's Eve.
8:29
Speaker 3: I worked New Year's Eve and it was twenty thirteen,
8:33
Speaker 3: like it just became twenty thirty. No, it just became
8:36
Speaker 3: twenty fourteen. Sorry, all over the place, and I I
8:40
Speaker 3: that was my last night, my last shift, and the
8:43
Speaker 3: next day I started researching bikini competitions.
8:47
Speaker 2: It's a three month.
8:48
Speaker 3: Prep twelve weeks I and if you don't know what
8:53
Speaker 3: prepping for a bikini competition is, it's essentially you cut
8:57
Speaker 3: your calories, so you end up weighing and measuring all
9:00
Speaker 3: of your food. You use a tracking app on your
9:02
Speaker 3: phone to make sure that you're eating the specific macros,
9:05
Speaker 3: so specific number of proteins, spetific number of carbs, specific
9:09
Speaker 3: number of fat, very low in my case because I
9:12
Speaker 3: had to cut a lot of body fat. And then
9:15
Speaker 3: you're also going to the gym in the morning for
9:17
Speaker 3: a fasted cardio and then you're going back to lift
9:19
Speaker 3: in the afternoon. And it's all for aesthetics. It's not
9:23
Speaker 3: functional movement. It's just let's make your butt look big
9:27
Speaker 3: or let's like, get your shoulders to be round. And
9:30
Speaker 3: I thought I was being healthy. I really did. And
9:34
Speaker 3: those three months were miserable. The only people that I
9:37
Speaker 3: was talking to was my family and my roommate because
9:41
Speaker 3: I wasn't going out and I wasn't socializing. You don't drink, obviously,
9:46
Speaker 3: which isn't it wasn't the worst thing, but you literally
9:48
Speaker 3: just have no social life. And the only energy that
9:51
Speaker 3: I was putting out was at the gym, and I
9:54
Speaker 3: was just a zombie. I was miserable, but I looked great.
10:00
Speaker 2: How did the competition go?
10:01
Speaker 3: So my first one, I did two back to back
10:03
Speaker 3: because I got seventh place in my first one. It
10:07
Speaker 3: was a giant show called NPC Atlantic States. It's like
10:10
Speaker 3: one of the biggest shows in New York. I got
10:12
Speaker 3: seventh place, which means I didn't get a trophy, and
10:15
Speaker 3: that was not good enough for me. After three months
10:18
Speaker 3: of not eating, not talking to anybody, I was not
10:21
Speaker 3: cool with seventh place.
10:22
Speaker 2: So I signed up for a competition three weeks later,
10:24
Speaker 2: and I won and got my trophy. And I won
10:27
Speaker 2: and I won.
10:27
Speaker 3: I got my trophy. But then with competitions you get
10:32
Speaker 3: into it's almost like an addiction. I was like, all right,
10:34
Speaker 3: when's the next one? And I was going to do
10:38
Speaker 3: a national show because I had one, which means I
10:41
Speaker 3: was qualified for nationals. And I was like, I can't
10:43
Speaker 3: do this prep again. I just can't do it. So
10:46
Speaker 3: I was like kind of half can I say okay?
10:50
Speaker 2: Sorry, okay?
10:51
Speaker 3: So I was half asking my I don't know what
10:53
Speaker 3: we're in.
10:54
Speaker 2: I think you file it as explicit. You just like
10:56
Speaker 2: roll with it. We're on an explicit podcast.
10:59
Speaker 3: Amazing, you just opened the doors. I was half assing
11:04
Speaker 3: this prep, not really in it. But I had also
11:07
Speaker 3: seen on bodybuilding dot Com a competition for their spokesmodel
11:12
Speaker 3: search like an entry, and I was like, might as
11:15
Speaker 3: well I use bodybuilding dot com spokesmodels or sorry the
11:18
Speaker 3: body space, which is basically like a MySpace for bodybuilding
11:22
Speaker 3: dot Com.
11:23
Speaker 2: So I entered. Didn't really think about it. Do you
11:25
Speaker 2: talk to other people on this like body building? You
11:28
Speaker 2: can do people like Walls? I didn't. Do you like
11:30
Speaker 2: hook up with people on bodybuilding dot Com?
11:32
Speaker 3: I did? Well, I mean I have, but I have
11:36
Speaker 3: through like the competition, I'm not because it's just my space.
11:41
Speaker 2: I was just you know, I haven't. My space was
11:44
Speaker 2: a thing when I was like thirteen.
11:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, wow, I just like went to a whole
11:48
Speaker 1: different thing right thinking about it, And did you like
11:51
Speaker 1: code your own Oh? I like learned HTML just to
11:54
Speaker 1: like make it look cool.
11:55
Speaker 3: Honestly, it was pretty great for young adult or like
12:00
Speaker 3: kids to learn how to code.
12:01
Speaker 2: Pre coding with COLOSSI yeah, I was just class there.
12:05
Speaker 3: Was yeah, so I guess yes, so you could talk
12:10
Speaker 3: to people. I didn't really talk to that many people,
12:12
Speaker 3: but I entered the competition. I gotten to the first round,
12:17
Speaker 3: which was top forty. Then you had to enter like
12:22
Speaker 3: more information. You had to show like photos of your
12:24
Speaker 3: current body because you would then be competing if you
12:27
Speaker 3: got to the next round. And I ended up making
12:29
Speaker 3: it to the next round, and then I made it
12:31
Speaker 3: to the ultimate next round, which was top ten. And
12:34
Speaker 3: what's funny is the top ten or top five girls
12:37
Speaker 3: top five guys was announced the day of my grandfather's funeral,
12:41
Speaker 3: which was December twenty ninth. He passed on the twenty seventh,
12:44
Speaker 3: and ever since he passed, my entire career has just
12:51
Speaker 3: like taken off. So I'm pretty spiritual. I don't know
12:55
Speaker 3: if a lot of people are, but I do think
12:57
Speaker 3: that my grandpa is a part of the reason why
12:59
Speaker 3: I've done well in such a short amount of time.
13:01
Speaker 3: But so December twenty ninth it was announced, which meant
13:04
Speaker 3: I had like a month and a little over a
13:08
Speaker 3: month to prepare to go to LA to compete February
13:11
Speaker 3: third for the winning title of spokesmodel like of that
13:16
Speaker 3: year twenty fifteen, and I went to LA. I didn't win,
13:21
Speaker 3: I got third place, but they sign everybody, So all
13:24
Speaker 3: of a sudden, I was a Bodybland dot com athlete.
13:26
Speaker 3: I went from a girl studying marketing and business and
13:28
Speaker 3: fashion to working in night life, to all of a
13:31
Speaker 3: sudden studying to be a personal trainer, entering competitions for fitness,
13:36
Speaker 3: and training to teach group fitness, which was wild. Yeah
13:43
Speaker 3: that's I guess that brings you a little closer to now.
13:47
Speaker 3: I stopped doing bikini competitions after that show.
13:50
Speaker 1: But so after you got this gig with bodybuilding dot Com,
13:55
Speaker 1: what happened for you with them?
13:56
Speaker 2: What were you doing with them? What?
13:58
Speaker 3: So as an athlete, you get a lot of supplements,
14:01
Speaker 3: you get a lot of products, but it gives you
14:04
Speaker 3: a platform. I'm not with them anymore, so let me
14:08
Speaker 3: just start with that. I working with them was great
14:10
Speaker 3: because I got to go to expos and I got
14:13
Speaker 3: to meet a lot of people, and it also introduced
14:15
Speaker 3: me to a company called cellu Core, which is a
14:17
Speaker 3: supplement company, and they were the first company to sign me,
14:20
Speaker 3: which means I now had a salary and I was
14:23
Speaker 3: on top of personal training and teaching classes. I was
14:26
Speaker 3: making money for just being me, which was pretty cool,
14:29
Speaker 3: a weird concept, but very cool. And then after them,
14:34
Speaker 3: I now work with a company called Performance, which I think,
14:37
Speaker 3: actually I know one hundred percent lines up with more
14:40
Speaker 3: of my beliefs than sell a Core or bodybuilding ever did,
14:43
Speaker 3: which is performance, like Performance Performance Performance. They care about
14:48
Speaker 3: how you move, why you move, and moving well and
14:54
Speaker 3: all of this just it kind of put my name
14:56
Speaker 3: out there. So I was then teaching at Cidero and
14:59
Speaker 3: on my birthday, a lot of things happen on like
15:01
Speaker 3: pivotal days. March third of twenty fifteen, a month and
15:06
Speaker 3: a little bit after coming back from LA the global
15:09
Speaker 3: head of fitness for Nike ended up in my class
15:12
Speaker 3: and then invited me to audition for Nike. So it's like,
15:16
Speaker 3: like I was saying, I literally just got wrapped up
15:19
Speaker 3: in this like one, it was not. I never like reached.
15:23
Speaker 3: The only thing that I reached for was entering myself
15:25
Speaker 3: into a competition, and from there I've worked hard at
15:27
Speaker 3: what was in front of me, and I've been really
15:29
Speaker 3: fortunate that the next thing just kind of walked around the.
15:32
Speaker 1: Corner and you felt for sure, without a doubt, that
15:34
Speaker 1: stopping competing was the right thing for you.
15:37
Speaker 2: Absolutely.
15:39
Speaker 3: Like I said, I have trouble with all or nothing,
15:42
Speaker 3: and I have. I'm I also have trouble with competitions
15:46
Speaker 3: in general, Like being compared to other people is tough,
15:49
Speaker 3: and it's why as a model, I really don't enjoy
15:52
Speaker 3: castings or being put up to be judged. And that
16:01
Speaker 3: is that's the life of competing. It's you work, You
16:05
Speaker 3: work so hard for so long to then be put
16:07
Speaker 3: up on a stage for somebody else to tell you
16:09
Speaker 3: that you're good based on what you look like, not
16:12
Speaker 3: for what you've done, And that just didn't work with me,
16:15
Speaker 3: and I didn't.
16:17
Speaker 2: I wanted to.
16:17
Speaker 3: Live like I wanted to have a burger if I wanted,
16:21
Speaker 3: or or eat all the healthy food that I wanted
16:24
Speaker 3: and not have to weigh it. Like I literally couldn't
16:27
Speaker 3: go into a salad because I couldn't measure what was
16:29
Speaker 3: in it, which is that's how is that healthy?
16:32
Speaker 2: So I've not I love salads that are just like
16:35
Speaker 2: beyond full. Yeah, just all of them, but the bread.
16:39
Speaker 3: And then like if they if at sweet Green, there's
16:41
Speaker 3: like extra in that bowl, give me another little bowl.
16:44
Speaker 2: I'm the same way with smoothies, like if they give
16:46
Speaker 2: me a give me a little cup, let me drink
16:48
Speaker 2: the ax. Let me drink it. Yeah, but with competitions,
16:51
Speaker 2: you can't do that. You can't drink the X. You
16:53
Speaker 2: can't have the extra healthy smoothie. That's not okay. Wait
16:57
Speaker 2: what do you put in the smoothie? Though? What do
16:59
Speaker 2: I put myself? They talk to me about what you
17:01
Speaker 2: put in the smoothie?
17:01
Speaker 3: Okay, So I'm I sticked like a Staple three breakfast.
17:05
Speaker 2: It's like either eggs, yogurt, or smoothie. So good thing
17:09
Speaker 2: that you asked. Smoothie. Always a good.
17:11
Speaker 3: Protein powder obviously performance because that's who I'm with. Good
17:14
Speaker 3: protein powder. All the greens either kale or spinach or
17:17
Speaker 3: even like a greens powder, berries, frozen banana. I add
17:23
Speaker 3: maca powder because it kind of tastes like caramel.
17:25
Speaker 2: If you've ever had it.
17:27
Speaker 3: I put collagen protein also because I want like that
17:30
Speaker 3: goodness almond milk, cauliflour, frozen cauliflour, bulx it up.
17:36
Speaker 2: I don't know if you've ever done that.
17:38
Speaker 3: And then blend it and top it with purely Elizabeth
17:41
Speaker 3: granola and some almond butter and you're good to go.
17:44
Speaker 2: Is it? So? Are you saying this is a smoothie bowl? Oh? Yeah? Sorry?
17:47
Speaker 1: Okay, See like you, I knew when you got to
17:50
Speaker 1: the I'm putting granola on top and almond but on
17:52
Speaker 1: top that we were no longer in just smoothie.
17:54
Speaker 2: No, no, no, I.
17:55
Speaker 3: Don't drink things with a straw. It's got to be
17:57
Speaker 3: everything bowls for life. I eat everything out of a bowl.
18:01
Speaker 2: That's all.
18:01
Speaker 3: Dinner out of a bull, eggs out of a bowl.
18:04
Speaker 3: Come me, just fill it and then you know, let's
18:07
Speaker 3: just spoon everything else. Get everything out of it, eat
18:10
Speaker 3: life with a spoon.
18:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm into it. Okay, So why don't you go
18:15
Speaker 1: ahead and tell me a little bit of what a
18:17
Speaker 1: normal day is like for you?
18:18
Speaker 2: All right?
18:19
Speaker 3: Well, a normal day, so every day is different, but
18:23
Speaker 3: I'll give you kind of an example of what the
18:26
Speaker 3: most consistent schedule would be I usually have clients six
18:29
Speaker 3: thirty am and then seven thirty am. After that, I'll
18:32
Speaker 3: get my own workout in. I'll then head back to
18:36
Speaker 3: my apartment and have my smoothie bowl recipe earlier in
18:40
Speaker 3: this podcast. Then I will send on my computer either
18:44
Speaker 3: answering emails, responding to article requests maybe from Emily Abattel,
18:51
Speaker 3: or writing programs for the classes that are coming up
18:54
Speaker 3: throughout the week. And then possibly I'll have a meeting
18:57
Speaker 3: that I run to or a casting for a fitness
19:00
Speaker 3: modeling job. And then I go back to the gym
19:02
Speaker 3: in the afternoon and I teach either one to two
19:05
Speaker 3: classes or train an evening client.
19:07
Speaker 2: So every day is different.
19:08
Speaker 3: But that's a pretty good example of how it's kind
19:12
Speaker 3: of sandwiched with the gym, like my business stuff in
19:15
Speaker 3: the middle, other people's workouts on the end, all of
19:19
Speaker 3: the fitness all of the time, All the fitness all
19:21
Speaker 3: the time, and smooth bulls.
19:23
Speaker 2: And smooth bulls.
19:24
Speaker 1: I want to ask you a little bit, what is
19:25
Speaker 1: it really like, you know, being so ingrained in the
19:28
Speaker 1: fitness scene here in New York City.
19:29
Speaker 2: You know, it's different here than a lot of other places.
19:33
Speaker 3: In the fitness industry, you feel that you need to
19:36
Speaker 3: keep hustling, which is the same mentality that you have
19:38
Speaker 3: in New York in general. But because it's fitness and
19:41
Speaker 3: it's mentally exhausting, it's physically exhausting, it's every single part
19:46
Speaker 3: of you, it's just so much more intense, and I
19:50
Speaker 3: think there's all of these expectations to live up to
19:55
Speaker 3: this persona that you create and you build. So that's
19:58
Speaker 3: one of my hurdles that I'm still working on. And
20:00
Speaker 3: it's am i alex Olverfigan on Instagram. Like I wasn't
20:03
Speaker 3: an athlete. Fitness was just kind of it just kind
20:07
Speaker 3: of happened for me. It was an escape for a
20:08
Speaker 3: little bit, and now it's become my whole world. And
20:10
Speaker 3: I'm having trouble matching that to what I really enjoy
20:16
Speaker 3: and what I'm really passionate about. And I'm not saying
20:18
Speaker 3: that I'm not passionate about fitness. I love movement, but
20:21
Speaker 3: I don't know. I don't know. If I would have
20:24
Speaker 3: sat down, like a few years ago, and you asked
20:26
Speaker 3: me what my passions are, fitness probably wouldn't have been
20:28
Speaker 3: on the list. And I think we're all kind of
20:32
Speaker 3: growing up with these expectations, which is great. It's turning
20:35
Speaker 3: me into this amazing person that I'm proud of, but
20:37
Speaker 3: I don't know who that is, and New York Fitness
20:41
Speaker 3: has definitely led to that.
20:42
Speaker 2: Well.
20:42
Speaker 1: I also think, as we've kind of talked about here,
20:45
Speaker 1: so much happened in such a short amount of time, right,
20:48
Speaker 1: Like I was just thrown into this urbal wheel totally,
20:51
Speaker 1: and something that you're touching on obviously, this social media
20:55
Speaker 1: Instagram situation.
20:56
Speaker 2: I you know, sometimes I feel crazy.
20:59
Speaker 1: Vulnerable and I've got god knows what sixty four hundred
21:03
Speaker 1: Instagram followers.
21:04
Speaker 2: How do you handle it? It's weird. It's grown very quickly,
21:07
Speaker 2: I think I have.
21:08
Speaker 3: I think it's like eighty three zero point five thousand
21:13
Speaker 3: followers on Instagram. And it went from like I remember
21:20
Speaker 3: starting Instagram when I was doing my bikini competitions and
21:22
Speaker 3: then posting, and then I started working with all these
21:24
Speaker 3: companies and solely it started building.
21:26
Speaker 2: And as it grew.
21:28
Speaker 3: I felt the pressure to post, I felt the pressure
21:32
Speaker 3: to share, and I felt the pressure to maintain this
21:37
Speaker 3: status of being an influencer when I honestly was just
21:41
Speaker 3: posting to keep myself accountable. To start my life is
21:44
Speaker 3: on Instagram.
21:45
Speaker 2: I am.
21:45
Speaker 3: I am Alex Silverfagan on Instagram, and I'm still trying
21:48
Speaker 3: to figure out who Alex just in life.
21:51
Speaker 2: Is, which is normal at twenty five, very normal at
21:55
Speaker 2: twenty five.
21:57
Speaker 3: It is normal, but it's also it's never been This
21:59
Speaker 3: is no the normal where you're you're growing into a
22:04
Speaker 3: digital personality, right, That's never been the case. And now
22:09
Speaker 3: so many people, even if they don't have a big following,
22:11
Speaker 3: feel like they need to keep up with some sort
22:12
Speaker 3: of online persona and do things because it seems cool
22:17
Speaker 3: or it seems like or it seems trendy or it's
22:20
Speaker 3: part of New York fitness, when that may not be
22:23
Speaker 3: somebody's interests or goals.
22:25
Speaker 1: And I think it's important to touch upon, you know,
22:27
Speaker 1: the other things. I mean obviously, yes, you're Alex Silverfigen
22:30
Speaker 1: on Instagram. You're also Alex silver Fagen an author, which
22:33
Speaker 1: is something we haven't kind of bridged.
22:35
Speaker 2: Yeah, I am. I'm holding this book right now. It's legit. Oh, hey,
22:39
Speaker 2: you're doing all the things. I'm doing a lot of
22:42
Speaker 2: the things in the book.
22:42
Speaker 3: So this book is it's called Get Strong and Dkay
22:47
Speaker 3: Publishers or Dky Books were amazing and reached out to
22:53
Speaker 3: me back actually like a year ago and asked if
22:56
Speaker 3: I wanted to write a training program and I said absolutely.
22:59
Speaker 3: And this was actually coming off of the tail end
23:01
Speaker 3: of releasing my first book, which was my ebook that
23:04
Speaker 3: I self published, put all my money and time into.
23:09
Speaker 3: And for me, it's funny because you're holding a physical book,
23:13
Speaker 3: which does make me an author. But the ebook that
23:16
Speaker 3: I wrote initially called Flow and Strong, which basically explains
23:21
Speaker 3: my approach to flow and Strong and why I'm connecting
23:25
Speaker 3: to this yen and this yang, the fire and the vulnerability,
23:28
Speaker 3: that book feels like a book for me. And on
23:32
Speaker 3: that note, I think it's actually really cool to realize
23:37
Speaker 3: that you're holding a book that was published. It's in
23:39
Speaker 3: Burnes and Noble, it's on Amazon. But to me, something
23:42
Speaker 3: that I just put out online is more important. And
23:45
Speaker 3: people forget about that little bit, right, like people strive
23:48
Speaker 3: to reach the top of the top without realizing that
23:53
Speaker 3: maybe you can get there without you can get there
23:57
Speaker 3: in a different way and still put your heart and
23:59
Speaker 3: soul and energy in something.
24:01
Speaker 2: So but yeah, I did. I am an author now,
24:05
Speaker 2: which is awesome, And I think what's really interesting.
24:07
Speaker 1: And I know we talked a little bit before about this,
24:09
Speaker 1: is that when you had this desire at first to
24:13
Speaker 1: be an author, you like weren't really willing to wait
24:15
Speaker 1: for a publishing company just to be like, let's do this.
24:17
Speaker 3: No, I wasn't I and I didn't even think that
24:19
Speaker 3: was an option or ever going to be an option.
24:22
Speaker 3: I just knew that I wanted to write something and
24:23
Speaker 3: I wanted to put it out there. And this was
24:25
Speaker 3: before I started teaching Flown to Strong, So I really
24:27
Speaker 3: wanted to get my thoughts and my message out there, and.
24:33
Speaker 2: I just did it.
24:34
Speaker 3: And then I got an email asking if I wanted
24:36
Speaker 3: to write a real book. So it's with everything that
24:40
Speaker 3: I've done and what I continue to preach to people,
24:44
Speaker 3: if you want to do something, do it, and the
24:45
Speaker 3: next thing will be there one hundred percent.
24:48
Speaker 2: You're already putting that energy out there into the universe.
24:50
Speaker 1: Before a little bit earlier, you were saying like things
24:53
Speaker 1: just started to happen for me, and it all happened
24:54
Speaker 1: really fast, and you felt like you you had to
24:57
Speaker 1: work for that first bikini body competition, but after that,
24:59
Speaker 1: like an all just kind of fell into place. Well,
25:01
Speaker 1: this is a great example, like that first book didn't
25:04
Speaker 1: just fall into place.
25:05
Speaker 2: No it didn't. It took a lot of time.
25:07
Speaker 1: And I mean it's it's modest. It's modest to say
25:10
Speaker 1: that things have just fallen for you.
25:12
Speaker 2: Thank you.
25:12
Speaker 3: I appreciate that I say that, but I know that
25:16
Speaker 3: it's because I've been working on what's on my plate
25:18
Speaker 3: and really focused on doing the best that I can
25:22
Speaker 3: in the moment. And my anxiety comes from worrying if
25:26
Speaker 3: the next thing is going to come around the corner,
25:28
Speaker 3: and I need to check myself quite frequently and be like,
25:33
Speaker 3: you're good, worry about what you're.
25:34
Speaker 1: Doing, something I think is important. As we're on, you know,
25:38
Speaker 1: the beginning of this new year, someone is scared and
25:41
Speaker 1: it's a new year and they want to start over,
25:44
Speaker 1: Like how do they even begin? Because it's so overwhelming
25:47
Speaker 1: for some people, and in any aspect it doesn't necessarily
25:49
Speaker 1: need to be a fitness program, but you know, there's
25:52
Speaker 1: a lot of things.
25:53
Speaker 3: I think starting just is like you said, starting is overwhelming.
25:59
Speaker 3: But when you I hate New Year's resolutions. I hate
26:02
Speaker 3: and I've said this before, I'm not a big fan
26:04
Speaker 3: of big goals or like big dreams because they're very
26:09
Speaker 3: hard to it's hard to see the steps when you're
26:11
Speaker 3: looking at something so big. So I think breaking it
26:16
Speaker 3: down and maybe if you're going to look bigger picture,
26:19
Speaker 3: maybe think of something that's a theme. Right, It's like,
26:22
Speaker 3: how do you want to feel on this journey? Or
26:24
Speaker 3: what do you want to accomplish from this? Rather than
26:26
Speaker 3: what you're accomplishing, how do you want to feel or
26:29
Speaker 3: what do you want to do to get you there?
26:32
Speaker 3: I think when you then connect to that almost more
26:37
Speaker 3: emotional side to anything that you're starting, it's much easier
26:40
Speaker 3: to start and to stay disciplined on whatever you're working
26:44
Speaker 3: on because you know how much it means to you,
26:46
Speaker 3: rather than just saying you need to do something because
26:49
Speaker 3: you feel like that's what society is saying.
26:51
Speaker 2: Or you're expected to do it. How do you feel
26:54
Speaker 2: about it? That's what I would say.
26:56
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, I mean when I apply this to
26:58
Speaker 1: my own experience, I think when I wanted to lose weight,
27:01
Speaker 1: and I just knew I wanted to be happier than
27:03
Speaker 1: I was when I started, and so it wasn't like
27:05
Speaker 1: when I sat down, you know, the day after I
27:08
Speaker 1: kind of had this come to Jesus moment.
27:10
Speaker 2: It wasn't like.
27:11
Speaker 1: I sat down and I was like, you are going
27:14
Speaker 1: to lose seventy pounds, You're going to start running profusely.
27:18
Speaker 1: You're going to one day run god knows all the marathons.
27:22
Speaker 1: Like that wasn't something that was even in my head.
27:23
Speaker 1: What was in my head was I need to make
27:25
Speaker 1: myself happier, right, And I think what you're saying about
27:28
Speaker 1: making these smaller, more actionable goals is super super important
27:33
Speaker 1: to be able to make progress and then be able.
27:36
Speaker 2: To check things off along the way. Yep, for sure.
27:38
Speaker 1: Okay, So then what advice do you have for those
27:41
Speaker 1: resolutioners who really are like, Okay, I need to drop
27:44
Speaker 1: some weight, I need to get healthy, I need to
27:46
Speaker 1: get strong.
27:48
Speaker 2: What are you telling them? Well, I would tell them
27:50
Speaker 2: to have a plan, like have an actual plan, because.
27:56
Speaker 3: It's and I'm not going back to I'm not going
27:59
Speaker 3: back to my work and saying like, have this giant goal,
28:01
Speaker 3: but you need to have a plan, like step by
28:03
Speaker 3: step plan. And I also think that you need to
28:07
Speaker 3: you need to be able to give yourself a break,
28:09
Speaker 3: like take a break in that plan, evaluate how you're feeling,
28:12
Speaker 3: how it's going, and if you need to make changes
28:15
Speaker 3: and that's for a specific plan or even just a
28:19
Speaker 3: day by day kind of routine.
28:21
Speaker 2: How tough is that? I feel like all the time.
28:23
Speaker 1: If you're going to like a big box shim and
28:25
Speaker 1: you go in there and you just see people like
28:27
Speaker 1: dawdling around, there's wasting their time.
28:29
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was wasting my time for a little bit,
28:32
Speaker 3: like I. I mean, when I spent so much time
28:34
Speaker 3: on writing this book, I the last thing, honestly, the
28:37
Speaker 3: last thing I wanted to do was go into the
28:39
Speaker 3: gym and do my own workout. So I ended up
28:41
Speaker 3: just taking a bunch of classes. I was running around,
28:43
Speaker 3: I wasn't focused, and I didn't feel strong anymore. I
28:47
Speaker 3: wasn't I wasn't hitting any goal because I wasn't.
28:51
Speaker 2: I wasn't on a program.
28:53
Speaker 3: And I've now been on an actual program again, and
28:56
Speaker 3: I see the changes and I see the progress, and
28:59
Speaker 3: it doesn't need to be a lifting program.
29:00
Speaker 2: It can just be your.
29:03
Speaker 3: Goal is to be better with gymnastics, and you start working.
29:06
Speaker 3: You just need to be You need to have a focus,
29:09
Speaker 3: and that's with anything in life.
29:11
Speaker 2: You need to have a focus. You need to look
29:13
Speaker 2: at what you're doing right now, and if it's going
29:15
Speaker 2: to benefit you or not.
29:16
Speaker 1: What do you think is something that you are doing
29:19
Speaker 1: right now that's really benefiting you.
29:22
Speaker 2: I am journaling a lot. Yeah, this year and.
29:25
Speaker 3: These past few months have been more introspective than they've
29:27
Speaker 3: ever been. And I've also been incredibly open about being introspective, so.
29:34
Speaker 2: Being vulnerable but also reaching out to other people.
29:38
Speaker 3: So I've been thinking a lot, but I've also not
29:41
Speaker 3: held back in reaching out for help. I've been seeing
29:44
Speaker 3: a new therapist, Like, I'm not ashamed of any of
29:46
Speaker 3: those things. And I think mental illness, not that it's
29:49
Speaker 3: mental illness, but just mental being in general should be
29:53
Speaker 3: discussed more frequently than it is. And I think that's
29:57
Speaker 3: what I've been doing most that's been best.
30:00
Speaker 2: Those are great things.
30:03
Speaker 1: We're on this advice tip, So I guess the last
30:05
Speaker 1: piece of advice I kind of have really interested to
30:08
Speaker 1: know is what kind of offering would you give that
30:12
Speaker 1: eighteen nineteen year old girl that's, you know, back working
30:16
Speaker 1: at Rachelle's.
30:18
Speaker 2: You look back on that experience now you have learned
30:20
Speaker 2: so much. If you could tell her anything, what would
30:23
Speaker 2: you tell her to not worry about what other people think?
30:28
Speaker 3: Yeah, or that's one of my uh one of the
30:32
Speaker 3: things that I'm trying to work on in twenty eighteen
30:34
Speaker 3: would be to not care about people pleasing as often.
30:40
Speaker 2: I love giving.
30:42
Speaker 3: Energy and helping people around me, but I also get
30:44
Speaker 3: so wrapped up in and making everybody happy, and you
30:47
Speaker 3: just simply can't do that. I would also tell her that,
30:54
Speaker 3: I would tell her to stop comparing herself to the
30:59
Speaker 3: cool of the moment. So back then, the cool of
31:01
Speaker 3: the moment was working clubs and doing this and that,
31:04
Speaker 3: and now it's being healthy and drinking green juice. And
31:07
Speaker 3: the cool is always going to change. So don't waste
31:10
Speaker 3: your time worrying about it.
31:12
Speaker 2: Waste your time or spend your time.
31:14
Speaker 1: I don't spend your time, spend your time thinking about
31:16
Speaker 1: what you want, what's cool for you?
31:18
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you may not know, And that's the cool journey.
31:21
Speaker 3: Like I still have no idea, and I'm sure in
31:23
Speaker 3: another twenty five years, I still will have no idea,
31:25
Speaker 3: but I've I will have continued to work through and
31:28
Speaker 3: jump these hurdles and figure out maybe getting closer to
31:33
Speaker 3: what I want or what.
31:34
Speaker 2: I know who I am.
31:35
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, I think we've said before here. It's
31:39
Speaker 1: not like you jump one Hurdle and you're done jumping
31:41
Speaker 1: hurdles forever and that I think we might wrap it here. Alex,
31:45
Speaker 1: thanks so much for sitting down with me. I feel
31:47
Speaker 1: so happy.
31:48
Speaker 2: Thanks for having me.
31:49
Speaker 1: Oh, if you are still listening, thank you. Please take
31:55
Speaker 1: a moment to leave a quick review by clicking the
31:57
Speaker 1: link with the description to this episode.
32:00
Speaker 2: We all face multiple hurdles in life. I want to
32:03
Speaker 2: hear about yours.
32:04
Speaker 1: Reach out to me at Emily at Hurdle dot us,
32:08
Speaker 1: connect with the podcast on Instagram and Twitter at Hurdle Podcast,
32:12
Speaker 1: and of course feel free to.
32:13
Speaker 2: Stalk the both of us a little bit too.
32:15
Speaker 1: I'm at Emily a body abbat e Alex.
32:19
Speaker 2: How do they find you on social at Alex Silverfagan.
32:22
Speaker 2: Just my name, just the names, just the name.
32:25
Speaker 1: On the next episode of Hurdle, we have Fred Santarpia,
32:28
Speaker 1: the chief Digital officer over at Conde Nast. Fred's going
32:32
Speaker 1: to talk to us about a bullying experience that landed
32:34
Speaker 1: him in the hospital and how he leaned into wellness,
32:37
Speaker 1: building a serious fitness situation in his parents' basement in
32:42
Speaker 1: his late teens to restore his confidence and make necessary
32:45
Speaker 1: life altering changes that not only got him out of
32:48
Speaker 1: a bad situation but propelling him into this extraordinary career.
32:53
Speaker 1: It's good stuff. That's all for now, guys, another hurdle conquered.
32:58
Speaker 1: Catch you next, Timeta