August Member of the month // Ella Chappell
How did you first get involved with Blitz?
I joined in June 2021 after years of my older sisters banging on about CrossFit and never finding my groove in any open gym or fitness classes! I was living in Richmond at the time and found Blitz on Google, went to an introductory afternoon session with coach Tim, which overran by at least hour! (my first introduction to 'Tim time'!) I signed up very shortly after to see how it would go and I'm still here 4 years later.
What is your most memorable CrossFit moment so far?
It's tricky to pin down just one moment! I remember being so chuffed to power snatch 29kg twice in the 23.3 CrossFit open, with my oldest sister who'd just flown back from Japan screaming me on! I'd only ever snatched 25kg before that, so I was not expecting a PB on the day. The first time clearing a 30" box jump was also pretty epic for someone who's only 5'4" (this was swiftly followed by a wipeout attempting 31"!)
What is your favourite movement/workout?
I quite like a dumbbell snatch and chipper style workouts- anything where I can put my head down and keep chugging away!
What is your least favourite movement/workout?
Long runs! Seeing 400m+ runs in a WOD does slightly fill me with dread...! I'm slowly learning to accept burpees but by no means love them yet.
Name a CrossFit goal you hope to achieve by the end of this year
I'd like to Deadlift 100kg when we retest them next. My current PB is 90kg which was 15kg up from the previous attempt so I'd love to get to 3 figures.
What do you do when you’re not training at Blitz?
I work shift hours as a broadcast engineer at the BBC, so that takes up half my time. Otherwise I'm entertaining mine and my partner's silly orange labradoodle, Malkie - he likes games of woofleball ('tennis') and being a fielder for games of cricket! We've also got plenty of gardening and home improvements in the works too.
What is your favourite part of being a Blitz member?
The fact that it's so often the best hour of your day! Even when the WOD doesn't go your way, just showing up and doing what you can is better than not coming in the first place. Then of course there's the times you pleasantly surprise yourself with what you can do. I recently completed the Blitz Body Blast nutrition challenge which had weekly core programming and since then my kipping, push ups and rope climbs have all improved.
If you could give a new member one piece of advice what would it be?
Listen to the coaches and scaling is your friend, both in terms of weight and reps!
Tell us a fun fact about yourself….
I used to (and still sometimes) play steel pans. I've competed in 4 UK panorama finals, with our band Real Steel winning 2 of those titles! I was also in a world record attempt called '1000 pans' back in 2012- basically a band made up of 1000 pans(!) It's all on YouTube so go and have a watch/listen!