Episode 18: Naked and Afraid, How Trauma Shaped Alexa Into an Athlete, and Why Strength Starts in Your Mind.

She’s also raced 1000 kilometres across Mongolia on semi-wild horses, survived the South African wilderness multiple times for the Discovery Channel’s Naked and Afraid Global Showdown, and turned childhood bullying and family trauma into a life mission to help women find their strength. This week Alexa joins Lee and Irene to talk about how physical strength becomes mental fortitude, why the gym became her sanctuary, what survival taught her about the human capacity to endure, and why strength training in midlife isn’t about aesthetics. It’s about living the life you actually want to live.

✨ In this episode we chat about:

· The turning point at 15 when fitness became her safe place in an unsafe world

· From bullying and family trauma to finding empowerment in the weights room

· Surviving Naked and Afraid three times. What it teaches you about yourself

· Strength training for women over 40. Not for summer bodies, but for life

· Sleep, energy, and the uncomfortable truth about getting started

· Why emotional wellness and physical strength are inseparable

🎙 What’s Popping: Alexa Towersey on Strength, Survival, and What You’re Truly Capable Of

The Girl Who Found Herself in the Weights Room

An Unsafe Childhood: Bullying at an all-girls school plus an unstable home (her mother diagnosed with bipolar or manic depression, unrecognised at the time) meant Alexa had nowhere to feel safe or empowered. At 15, after intervening to protect another student during a classroom confrontation where a chair was actually thrown, she made a decision: she needed to figure out how to take care of herself.

Walking past a gym near her home in New Zealand, Alexa spotted a fitness class pouring out. Everyone was red-faced, sweaty, high-fiving, simultaneously tortured and exuberant. When the instructor offered a free trial, something in her said yes. That moment changed everything. She found physical and mental strength in the weights room, learned the connection between physical power and psychological grit, and discovered a community and identity she didn’t have anywhere else.