Today we’d like to introduce you to Alexa Krebs.
Hi Alexa, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I didn’t come to fitness through inspiration — I came through necessity.
Before any of this, I was in office jobs, banking and clerical work. Outside of work, my personal life was suffering but from the outside it probably looked functional. From the inside though, I was quietly disappearing.
I’d always loved the gym, even back then, but I kept putting it in the “someday” pile while I tried to make the life I had built for other people work for me. Eventually I hit a point where I couldn’t keep doing that. So I made a decision: I got my CPT — against everyone’s advice — and walked into the fitness industry on my own terms, with no real plan beyond knowing I couldn’t go back.
I started where most coaches start: training anyone who’d let me for not much money, learning more from the people in front of me than from any certification.
I kept adding to what I could offer — functional fitness, kettlebell training, TRX, nutrition coaching, eventually HYROX and a conjugate strength method through Westside Barbell. HYROX and Powerlifting became something I competed in myself, not just coached. Every certification was less about the letters after my name and more about not wanting to ever tell a client “I don’t know” when I could go find out instead.
What kept me in it — what still drives it — is that I learned the hard way that fitness was never really about fitness. It’s about whether you’re actually running your own life or just reacting to it. Every rep is a choice. Every standard you hold in the gym is practice for the standards you hold everywhere else. I coach because I watched my own body change only after I changed first, and I wanted to build something that helps other women find that same order of operations — instead of chasing the version of fitness that just sells a transformation photo.
That belief is what eventually became a full business: in-person private training, a six-week group strength program called The Forge, one-on-one remote coaching, and a self-guided app version for women who want to prove it to themselves first. I built it tier by tier, the way most real businesses get built — not from a launch, but from saying “yes” to the next client and the next problem until there was a structure underneath it.
I work with high-achieving women — entrepreneurs, executives, professionals who’ve mastered the grind at work but are running on empty everywhere else.
And alongside that, I started Momentum Run Squad — a free run club out of Lion’s Den Gym with no committments attached. Some women are ready for deep, one-on-one coaching. Others just need a group, a sidewalk, and people who’ll notice if they stop showing up. I wanted both doors open.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
No — the struggle started before I was ever a coach. I walked into a gym for the first time during one of the hardest stretches of my life, feeling like I’d somehow become second priority in my own life. I didn’t have a coach. I didn’t have a plan. I just had a vague sense that if I could get strong, maybe I could figure out the rest. I made every mistake a beginner makes — programs that didn’t fit together, plateaus I didn’t understand, weeks where I quietly gave up and started over. If you’ve ever stood in a gym feeling overwhelmed by how much you don’t know, or felt like your body was the one part of your life you couldn’t get a handle on — I’ve been exactly there.
Getting my CPT didn’t erase that. It gave me language for what I’d already lived. The early years of coaching were just as humbling — I was learning client by client, certification by certification, often training people for almost nothing just to get the experience. People in my life questioned the decision, often. The industry doesn’t hand you credibility; you earn it one client at a time, and there were plenty of seasons where I wondered if it would ever turn into something sustainable.
Once it did, the struggle changed shape. Building an actual business — figuring out what tiers of coaching made sense, how to give real individualized attention without burning out, how to make virtual coaching feel as real as standing in the gym together — takes far longer than people assume. There’s no certification for that part. I had to build the business the same way I had to build my own training: one decision at a time, no shortcuts, a lot of unglamorous reps in between the wins.
So if you’re reading this and you’re in the thick of it right now — overwhelmed, inconsistent, not sure where to start or who to trust — I want you to know that’s not a special kind of broken. That’s just the beginning of the story. I’d know. It was mine too.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’m a strength and conditioning coach and my brand is The Anvil Athletics – I train virtually and out of Lion’s Den Gym. I work with women who’ve mastered the grind in their careers — entrepreneurs, executives, high performers — but who’ve let their fitness, home life, and relationships run on crumbs. I’m a certified personal trainer (ACE-CPT), a functional fitness specialist, a nutrition coach, and I hold additional certifications in kettlebell training, TRX, HYROX, and conjugate strength training through Westside Barbell.
I also compete in both HYROX and powerlifting, which matters to me — I’m not coaching from theory.
What I specialize in is taking women who are disciplined everywhere except their own life and giving them somewhere to point that discipline. Most of my clients aren’t lacking willpower. They’re lacking a clear standard and someone to hold them to it.
What sets me apart is that I don’t coach fitness in isolation. My approach is built around physical, mental, emotional, and relational health — a body that looks strong but is propping up a life that’s falling apart isn’t a win. I’m coaching the whole woman, not just her macros and her squat numbers.
What I’m most proud of is that none of this is borrowed. The voice, the standards, the way I coach — it’s built on what I’ve actually lived and actually believe, not a template pulled from whoever’s trending. I tell my clients fitness is a means of reclaiming authority over their life, not a vanity project — and I mean that as a literal operating principle, not a tagline.
What I want readers to know is simple: if you’re a woman who’s good at your job, good at showing up for everyone else, and quietly inconsistent with yourself — that’s exactly who this is for. You don’t need more information. You need a coach and a standard.
Do you have recommendations for books, apps, blogs, etc?
The Bible, first and always — everything else I read gets measured against it. The wisdom and discipline in there laid the foundation for the way I think about coaching, character, and standards long before I ever had language for any of it.
Beyond that, I’m a self-development reader. Principles by Ray Dalio changed how I think about decision-making and building systems instead of relying on willpower. Atomic Habits by James Clear is the one I probably reference with clients the most — it’s the clearest explanation of why discipline is built in small reps, not big moments. Who Not How by Dan Sullivan reshaped how I think about scaling a business without burning myself out trying to do everything personally. You Owe You by Eric Thomas is pure accountability — no excuses, no outsourcing responsibility for your own life. And The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene, honestly, just sharpens how I read people and situations.
For podcasts, I listen to Coach Em Up and Diary of a CEO — one keeps me sharp on the coaching side, the other keeps me thinking like a founder, not just a trainer.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.alexamckenzie.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/activelyalexa/
