Ella Mitchell is currently in her last year of high school at Lasalle Secondary School. She was one of the first athletes to sign up for our Teen's program which began in January 2019. Since joining, she has been one of the most committed athletes in the program. She consistently comes looking to improve and is a fantastic role model for others. Ella has thoughtfully provided us with information on what her life is like as a teenager, all the recent improvements she has made, and what she plans to do after high school.

What were your goals when you joined the Teens program? Have they changed? 
Before joining Teens I was regularly training five times a week, this involved mostly running and some simple weight training with dumbbells. Prior to being introduced to a wide variety of movements in Teens I had a lot of anxiety associated with barbell movements. This fear was mainly because I didn't know how to safely complete barbell movements and I was too afraid to ask.

Joining Teens was completely out of my comfort zone. I've always been very shy and not very outgoing. At the start of this year, I decided to make a goal for myself to start doing things that I'm afraid of. My first challenge was signing up for this program. My mindset for my first class was to just get through the session one step at a time. I had a lot of anxiety going into this because I wasn't familiar with the facilities or staff members or the athletes I was going to be training with. One of my biggest fears was that everyone was going to be at a higher level then me.

My first workout involved wall balls as the main movement. I remember watching Rachel and Sean demonstrate the movement and made it look so easy. This movement was so challenging!!! I couldn't get the rhythm, mainly because I didn't have much upper body strength. Since this day, I've been working towards improving my upper body strength. I have improved in this area since the beginning of the Teens program, as now I can complete wall balls with a 14lb wall ball and they are one of my favourite movements.

Another challenge for me was double unders. Nothing has ever made me so frustrated with myself then this movement. It took me what felt like forever to get these consistently. Every time we had a workout involving double unders, I tried to stay as focused as possible no matter how many times I tripped up and accidentally whipped myself with the rope (not raising my arms too high as my body fatigued and jumping through my toes). Now I am able to complete up to 50 double unders consistently.

My goals now still include improving my upper body strength, but also my endurance. In 2017, I had competitive coach for track, that would always tell me that I had poor endurance. This coach also pushed me harder then I was capable of. This led to an injury in my right shin and right foot that I'm still recovering from. Since this experience I have always prioritized endurance as one of my main goals.

Currently, I'm focused on improving my bench press, back squat, front squat and deadlift.

How would you characterize your growth as an athlete since joining the gym?
I think my time at the gym has really forced me to push myself out of my comfort zone. I've learned a wide variety of movements and I've become a lot more social with other members at the gym and with people outside of the gym setting.

What does a day-in-the life look like for you these days?
Monday, Wednesday, Friday

5:45am - Wake up (I always need to be extremely organized and prepared well ahead of time)
6:00am - Walk my French bulldog Frieda
8:00am - Usually get a drive to school
8:15am - 2:35pm - In classes
3:15pm - 4:30pm - Queen Street Teens
5:00pm - 9:00pm - Complete homework, assignments and study
9:15pm - I try to go to bed at this time but when I have a lot of work to get done it is difficult.

Tuesday and Thursdays
(These are my least favourite days of the week)

4:45am - Wake up
5:00am - Walk my Frenchie
5:25am - Go to RMC gym to workout, I usually just go for a run on the treadmill and incorporate some stretching
8:00am - Usually get a drive to school
8:15am - 2:35pm - In classes
3:00pm - 7:00pm - Work (Pan Chancho Bakery)
7:30pm - 10:00pm - Complete homework, assignments and study
10:30pm - Bed time!! Usually on work nights I don't get to bed as earlier as I'd like to.

Saturday and Sunday

These are my rest days!!:) Usually consisting of a lot of homework and studying but I always make time to watch Netflix and spend time with my family and my boyfriend.

What challenges do you face in your day to day life? How do these affect your ability to train? How do you overcome them?
I struggle with a lot of anxiety in my everyday life, because of this at the end of each day I'm incredibly exhausted. This is challenging when I'm studying in the evening because I fall asleep very easily. On the weekends I usually can't stay up past 9:30pm because I'm so drained from the week. This is very hard to overcome, but I just try to get as much of my homework done at school as possible so when I get home I have don't have such a heavy work load. This factor does effect my training as well because at the end of the day I find myself with not much energy to put into my workouts. To overcome this I try to go into my workouts with a positive mindset and just tell myself that I will do what I can and put in as much effort as I can without over working myself.

What do you eat on a typical day? What are your nutrition priorities?
Breakfast: I always have a smoothie including 1-2 bananas with either strawberries, mangoes or raspberries and wild blueberries. I put a few scoops of yogurt in, milk and sometimes an avocado if we have any. I always have scrambled eggs sometimes mixed with bacon, peppers, mushrooms but always ketchup. I also usually have a piece of toast with peanut butter on it.. so yummy!!!

Lunch: I usually make sure I always have a carb (usually pasta salad) and a protein (moroccan chickpeas, red lentils, black bean salsa or tofu). Sometimes I'll get a sandwich from work or a muffin. I also have some veggies (brussel sprouts, cucumbers, carrots, cabbage salad or greek salad).

Dinner: My meals are highly varied, consisting of mostly veggies, a portion of protein and usually combined with rice, mashed potatoes or pasta.

Favourite Foods: Spaghetti and clementines

What improvements have you made in the past 6 months that you are most proud of? 
- Increasing my dumbbell weight for exercises from 15lbs to 20lbs
- New pbs for back squat, front squat, bench press and deadlift
- Increasing my wall ball weight to 14lbs
- Constant improvement of double unders
- Eating more plant-based meals
- Drinking more water (3-4L daily)
- Trying to sleep 8 hours a night
- Running at least 2 times per week to improve my endurance

This section is very challenging for me to fill out and took a lot of thought because I'm not often very proud of myself. I have extremely high expectations that are sometimes unrealistic.

What would you consider to be your greatest strength as an athlete?
I know I have a lot to work on as an individual. I'm continuously working on improving my unhealthy mindset. I've become obsessed with what I put into my body and I don't have a lot of confidence in myself. I don't give myself enough credit for everything I've been through and the fact that today I still find the motivation to show up to every workout and give it my everything. I constantly put myself down and am very hard on myself on my rest days or if I have to take a day off training due to illness. My biggest fear is that I will never meet the goals I set for myself. I have to learn that where I am today is where I am supposed to be. It is all apart of the journey.

What are you current goals after High School? (Schooling, work, etc)
My plans after high school are to attend University. I just recently applied to Life Sciences at Queens, Health Sciences at Queens and Life Sciences at McMaster. My life goal is to find a career that I'm passionate towards.

Do you have a particularly memorable or challenging workout to share?
My most preferred workouts are partner workouts and interval workouts. I like working with partners because I feel a lot more motivated by my teammates and it encourages me to work harder. I also love interval workouts. I find I can recover quickly with short rest periods.

How do you see CrossFit fitting into your life long term?
I hope to continue at the gym through the rest of high school and into university.

Is there anything you would like to add?
Thank you to the gym staff for being so supportive towards my training and always pushing me to improve. Thank you for not only making me a better athlete, but also a better person. :)