👋 Hi! Tell us about yourself and your training
I’m Alex Carneiro, 31 years old. I was born in Brasilia, Brazil and is now living in Denver, Colorado.
I’m a full time Fitness Studio Owner, Personal Trainer & Television Host. I’m also a published health author.
Some of my major accomplishments are:
- 3rd IFBB Pro Physique in the History of the Division
- 1st Overall CA and CO Physique Champion in History
- 1st Latin IFBB Pro Physique
- Top 10 Mr Olympia Physique Finisher
- 55+ International Fitness Ads
- 5 International Fitness Covers
I have been training for 13 years now and the reason I started was because I was passionate about the world of bodybuilding.
The passion began from watching early 90’s movies with Arnold, Jean Claude Van Damme, Stallone and many others. I remember also watching my favorite cartoons like Thunder Cats and similar where all the main characters were really muscular and I wanted to be similar to them.
I spend the majority of my time at a gym since I run and operate a local studio in Denver with my fiancé.
When I am not working the other two things that I do for leisure are reading, which I try to read a book a month on business or inner health, or you’ll find me playing video games or attending Comicon or something alike. I also played Volleyball in High School.
I’m sponsored by Optimum Nutrition.
⏱ Describe a typical day of training
A typical day begins usually with some type of cardio. I own a spinning bike at home and either use that or my home treadmill.
Following that I tend to meditate for 10 minutes and take a cold shower to wake me up.
Depending on the day I have around 5-6 clients I train while I’m also managing my personal training studio here in Denver.
Traditionally around 2-3pm I then start my second workout of the day and do my strength training. I’ve adopted a push, pull and leg day routine that works really well with my schedule and week.
Twice a week I end the day with hot yoga to work on my mobility and flexibility and allowing me to unwind for the day.
👊 How do you keep going and push harder?
Pushing harder is just a matter of priorities and less excuses.
An entire chapter of my book Fitting In – The Mask of Health discusses the topic of motivation and how it’s unreliable.
Motivation is a state of mindset just like happiness and anxiety. Which means it can’t be controlled all the time, especially when we really need it.
What I’ve learned is to develop skills and habits such as reading in the morning, small meditation breaks throughout the day, thinking about the state of my thoughts and analyzing how to change them at the right moment.
I do that daily which aid me in physically acting first and then thinking about them later.
This way I am already working out on those days I don’t physically “feel like it”. Pushing harder is just a matter of priorities and less excuses. I always tell my clients, “what is it that you want most?”.
If you can act daily towards that desire than you are on the right path.
🏆 How are you doing today and what does the future look like?
Today is always a present. I live it by being grateful of what I have and reminding myself of it.
The future is one of those aspects I don’t spend too much time looking at. It can create anxiety and stress with no need.
I know my goals and I can only work towards them in the present to ensure what I want in the future get’s accomplished.
🤕 How do you recover, rest and handle injuries?
The body heals itself from the inside out.
Recovery isn’t just physical. It must begin in the mindset.
We always talk about working out but we never talk about working “in”. The body heals itself from the inside out. I think many forget that.
In order to heal from the inside in the first recovery aspect is the nutrition we eat daily. What we put in can cause inflammation or create a hospitable environment for our muscles to grow.
Secondly is hydration. The body needs to be hydrated to properly do it’s natural function.
Additionally with the incorporation of hot yoga, stretching, foam rolling, stretching and some CBD muscle creams; personal favorite is MyaDerm Extra Strength I tend to recover efficiently.
If I had an intense week then I usually add a massage to finish the week and some sauna.
🍎 How is your diet and what supplements do you use?
The body is a temple. That temple needs the right amount of balance to operate. That’s why nutrition is key.
I tend to stick with whole foods and the minimum amount of processed foods.
Have you noticed that grocery stores are made up of aisles and aisles of processed foods that have the main intention of lasting longer? That’s exactly where you won’t see me shopping.
I’m a big fan and advocate of carbs. I don’t believe in diets and I promote that what happens after you are “off” a diet.
People only speak of being “on” a diet. Diets create mental instabilities and restrictions that I know aren’t sane for the body and mind. Hence my nutrition is simple.
I strive daily to get around 300g of carbs, 30% of them before and after my workouts. 220g of daily protein and around 70g of fats from rich omega sources. I don’t complicate this too much.
Then the days I can’t reach my nutrients I rely on Optimum Nutrition Isolate Whey and Gold Standard Casein.
My morning supplement regiment is always the same: 2g of turmeric, 1g of garlic, 1000mg of milk thistle, 1g of Ginger Root, my Opti-Men multivitamin and 5g of Optimum Nutrition CLA.
👍 What has inspired and motivated you?
The body is meant for moving and there is no right or wrong way to do that.
Motivation can change from day to day. What motivated me back in the day surely is not what motivates me today.
People need to understand that so they can keep something fresh in their mind as to why they want to achieve the things they do.
These days sustainability and longevity of health is what I seek the most. I truly enjoy most workouts and this keeps things fresh.
Back in the day I was a very narrow-minded individual whom only did hypertrophy (muscle increase) workouts. They were plain and eventually got boring.
Today I’m open to anything. Bootcamps, yoga, hiking, spinning, kayaking, you name it and I’ll try it at least once to see what I think of it.
The body is meant for moving and there is no right or wrong way to do that. This itself keeps me inspired to learn different modalities of fitness.
✏️ Advice for other people who want to improve themselves?
Start by talking to yourself first. In a world that loves to compare itself to others we sometimes forget what WE want and tend to do what others might like us to do instead.
By asking oneself what is it they really want to accomplish they can start a path of narrowing down the solutions to reaching that destination.
Start by taking small actions on a daily basis to lead to bigger changes on the long run. Too often people want to make unsustainable big fast changes that lead to failure fast.
Sustainability is the name of the game that will lead to success.
🤝 Are you taking on clients right now?
I started Driven Personal Training 11 years ago in order to expand and help as many people as I could.
Today I operate out of my own studio and work with my employees to further reach more people and aid them in their journey.
We are always open to helping anyone and everyone who’s looking for that change.
📝 Where can we learn more about you?
Main Website: alexcarneiro.com
Business Site: traindriven.com
IG: @alexcarneiro_
