Coach Spotlight: Alex Mitchell

Coach: Alex Mitchell

What do your parents or spouse call you when you are in trouble?

My wife fondly refers to me as “You Mother F***er”

Do you have any embarrassing nicknames? What are they?

My Nickname was Corn in Middleschool for absolutely no reason. My videogame handle was “Hellfire” 

What actor or actress would you like to play you in a movie?

I’d play a mean Robert Downey Jr. I’m just as Cocksure as he is.

How long have you been coaching?

3 years

Have you had other careers, or currently work in another field? What are they?

I was in Commercial Realestate, and before that I was planning corporate team-building exercises at a theme park venue.

Who’s your favorite BLOC client? (JK, don’t answer that.)

Can anyone actually answer that?!

If you could time travel back to when you first started coaching, what advice would you give yourself?

Leave LA Fitness. Yeah, that’s right, I started teaching barbell movements at LA Fitness. It went exactly as well as you are imagining it might.

What are some of your favorite things to do when you’re not working or training?

I used to be an avid gamer, and I still play Hearthstone and dabble in some Smash Bros. I mainly fill my free time with listening to The Great Courses lectures on random stuff like The History of Food or Language Families of the world.

What is your favorite lift?

Deadlift

Where do you live?

Atlanta, GA 

What is your favorite animal print?

Wolf. Duh.

Gym cat, dog or something else?

A gym snake would be lit, just have to keep it caged during deadlifts.

How long have you been training?

3 years (Yeah that’s right, I was coaching during my NLP. It went as well as your might imagine.)

What is the most embarrassing moment from any dark days of “lifting” that you may have had?

When I started lifting I was following a Mike Matthews, program which means I was 130lbs 6 feet tall. One time I failed an inclined bench press rep without safties at the 4th rep with 85lbs on the bar. I called for help and some gym bro came over and literally CURLED the weight off my lap, put it on the ground and walked away.

What do you love about training? 

The results.

What do you love about coaching? 

I can learn more in an hour with a client than from a year of academic instruction.

What lifting achievement are you most proud of?

I’m proud of my ability to grind. I’m not very strong compared to other people in my demographic, but if I fail a rep it’s because my muscles gave out and no other reason.

Would you rather magically increase each of your PRs by 20%, or magically increase one of your lifts by 100%?

Magically increase one of my lifts by 100% 

Would you rather not have to eat food and have your ideal body composition, or get to eat 6,000 calories per day and have your ideal body composition?

Get to eat 6,000 calories per day and have my ideal body composition.

How many lifting-related shirts do you own? 

11-20

What or who gets you to train when your motivation is really low?

I’m weird like that, I’ve always just been a robot as far as discipline goes. It’s like the option not to do the thing isn’t even on the table. Same with dieting and other stuff.

Pre-workout of choice

Something fancy pantsy

What are some of your go-to lifting songs?

What’s Up Danger from the Into the Spiderverse soundtrack is my PR song. Back In Black is my heavy blue collar song.

What is the most embarrassing song you like?

Party in the CIA by Weird Al Yankovic is my JAM. Also love ALL the Epic Rap Battles of History.

What’s one of your personal lifting superstitions?

I only PR when I’m wearing colorful socks. Also all I wear is colorful socks.

What are some of your lifting-related goals for this year? 

Squat 405 has been a long time coming. Overhead press PRs at all would be nice.

What have you learned about yourself from barbell training?

That I am a weak little human that should be humbled, and that I can do so much more than I give myself credit for.

Who is someone you’d love to try barbell training and why?

I wish my wife would barbell train because she does very injurious skill dependent sports and Barbell training could help avoid injury. She is also incapable of being mediocre at anything.

Do you have a role model? Who is it and why?

Steve Irwin will always be my role model. He taught me a love of nature, and animals. More important he taught me that its okay if everyone thinks your crazy as long as you love what you do.

Dead or alive, who would you love to lift with?

George Carlin. I just think that’d be a blast.

If BLOC made a yearbook, which do you think you’d most likely win?

Most likely to overthink simple concepts. 

How much do you love to eat? 1 – It’s a chore … 5 – What are we eating next???

5

What’s your favorite meal? Please use as much detail as possible.

Literally anything Indian. Biryanis, dosa, Korma, Dal Makhni, That area has had access to more spices and flavors for longer than any other civilization, its some of the most intricate and refined food on the planet. And it makes your poop fragrant. 

What was your favorite childhood TV show?

Avatar the Last Aribender

What is a movie that you have watched over and over and over again?

Dodgeball. 

Tell us your best dad joke. 

What’s brown and sticky? ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………A Stick.

What advice do you have for a new lifter? Or a lifter who’s been doing this a while? 

Hire. A. Coach. Seriously it avoids so many setbacks, tweaks, and heartache.

Anything else you would like to share with your BLOC brethren and sistren? 

Of 100 people, 40 might be smarter than me, 60 may be stronger than me, and 20 may be more driven, but of all 100 not one will love learning as much as I do.