Alexa Floria
IFBB FIGURE PRO
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Alexa Floria just recently earned her IFBB Pro Card by winning both her class and the Open Figure Overall at the 2017 NPC North American Championships in Pittsburgh this past August. She made her way there by also winning the Figure Overall at the 2017 NPC Cascadian Classic in Bend.
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Both Overall wins are impressive considering the athletes she competed against... but what makes it more impressive is that Alexa is only 21 years old! Yes, 21!!! You can easily say the genetics run deep with Alexa and she has been able to capitalize on what she was born with. Alexa like many other Oregon Figure Pros is gonna be a threat on any Pro stage!
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1. When and why did you decide to start competing?
Honestly, I was always a heavy girl growing up. I was athletic, but heavier than I would have liked. When I moved to Hawaii for college I let my body get out of control and decided I needed to do something about it. Somewhere in April 2015, with the help of a friend I got introduced to macros and started lifting weights consistently and fell in love. When I started to lose body fat I started to notice muscle lines and growth and from there I was hooked. Fast forward to January 2016 where I decided to meet with my friend's coach to talk about competing. He said he saw an extreme amount of potential in me, and that he would love to work with me and that we should go for Emerald Cup as my first show. I competed, and ended up winning my class so I decided I would see where this sport took me!
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2. What makes you want to go farther in the sport?
I love progress. I love pushing myself to the limits and seeing what my body and my mind can accomplish once I have set a goal. I am addicted to seeing myself strive to always push farther than I think I can go, and then some. Growing up I felt like I never "finished" anything, so I suppose completing a successful prep leaves me wanting more and more each time. I love the struggle, I love how much drive and determination it puts in my heart!
3. What type of training do you implement during contest prep and the in the off-season?
I love to train heavy in the off season, it makes me feel strong and powerful, which is quite an addicting feeling. Sometimes you'll catch me in the gym doing 2 lifts a day because I just cant seem to stay away for, what seems like, more than 12 hours at a time. During contest prep, coach Dan Simpson and i train together more often, and train with conditioning in mind instead of simply trying to pack on size!
4. What is your favorite type of dieting meals and what is your favorite type of cheat meal?
I honestly really enjoy chicken and rice. Everyone thinks I'm crazy for never getting sick of it, but hey, its delicious! In the off season and in the beginning of prep I make sugar free BBQ pulled chicken and rice or sweet potatoes. That one has to be my favorite. My favorite cheat meal is anything including steak or Italian food!As for contest diet, I don't eat a lot of fats in general but during prep they pretty much disappear except for what is in my chicken, and my carbs slowly get decreased until peak week! While I'm prepping for a show my go to cheat meal is a bison burger and fries from Oswego grill.
5. Who are some of the people that have helped you along the way to get where you are now in life or in the sport?
There are so many people who have helped me get to where I am today, every single person who has impacted my life in some way or another is so appreciated by me. But there are a few people who stick out more than others. Those would include my coach Dan Simpson, my nutritionist Jeanette Frieden, Andre Scott with Posing Perfection, and my boyfriend Kyle Alarcon. Everyone I listed has been amazing to me and they really took me under their wings to help me reconnect with the reasons I love doing what I do. When I first came to Dan this year, I had zero plans to compete again. I just wanted to get my body back after I ate my way out of sadness about Nationals last year (I am incredibly hard on myself). He reignited the spark in me and reminded me that I do have potential and drive, I just needed a little help pulling it back out. Since our very first conversation it's been nothing but positivity and for that I am incredibly grateful. Dan is an extremely caring and motivating coach and it shows in every aspect of his coaching. Ask any of his athletes, they will all tell you the same thing!
6. Who or what inspires you to strive for more in the sport?
What motivates me in this sport is looking back and seeing what I have accomplished and how far I have come. Whenever I get down about "not progressing quick enough" or something stupid like that, I just look back and remind myself about everything. Also, seeing the look on everyones faces when I succeed, making the people I love the most proud of me drives me to want to be better. My dad and my boyfriend come to every show they possibly can, even if it means flying to Pennsylvania to watch, and I want to give them a reason to keep wanting to come anywhere to watch me compete. They are truly my biggest fans.
7. What is next for you as a competitor?
What is next for me as a competitor is going to be giving my body a well deserved break, and taking a long off season to build more shape and to become competitive as a pro. I want to come back and make my pro debut like I deserve to be on that stage and earn a top 5 placing. I am so ready for whats to come in the next couple years, it is going to be hard taking such a long off season but I know its essential to my progress.
8. What is your favorite memory good or bad while prepping or competing?
My favorite memory while competing has to be my entire experience in Pittsburgh. It is a beautiful city, I had so much fun there. I met so many strong, beautiful figure women backstage and every single one of them was so encouraging and supportive and genuinely happy for my success. So many people I want to connect more with and keep in touch with, it was such a positive change from my last nationals experience. I an truly thankful for every friend I gained while over there!
9. Any website you would like to plug, Facebook, Twitter, personal site, etc...
I only really have an instagram, you can find it under my name, Alexa Floria or my username Alexafloria_IFBBpro
10. Anything you would like to say to all the visitors to NPC Oregon?
The community here is amazing, I have never felt so welcomed and loved by a group of people that I really don't know a lot of people in. I am overwhelmed with the amount of support I have gotten through the NPC community in Oregon. So, thank you to anyone and everyone who has ever said a kind word to or about me, it is so appreciated! Hopefully I can continue to represent Oregon in a great way once I step on that pro stage!