Today we’d like to introduce you to Amanda Chemel.
Hi Amanda, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
After graduating high school from Newton, Iowa, I had to move to sunshine, beach and no snow to be found. I moved to Orlando, Florida, and quickly joined a course for massage therapy. After a year in the sunshine state, I had decided to move in with my older-than-usual grandparents who wished to finish their years where they started them….Yukon, Oklahoma. Back to the midwest, I stayed with them until their health was worse than my capacity to help. They moved, I stayed. For another few years. Floundering with jobs, seeking purpose. One such day at a job as a mail order pharmacy technician, I had to get out. I looked into all the miliary options, finally deciding to visit the Marines later that week. After a plea from friends to join any other branch, I decided to check out the Navy, after all my father, uncle and two cousins were also sailors. Not but two months later, I was off to Great Lakes, Illinois, for bootcamp.
Five years later, I had had my share of military life. Stationed in Norfolk and Guam with MH60-S helicopter squadrons, it was time to live another life. I had dabbled in yoga during my years in the Navy, and wanted the real experience of Ashtanga yoga. I took my practice to Mysore, India for my 200hr RYT training for over a month of meditation, pranayama, yogic theory, vegetarian dieting, once again enjoying new cultures as the minority.
Alas it was time to go back to reality, where absolutely nothing interested me. I began school at Rollins College, hoping to find something that would spark my interests. Sure enough, spending time in the gym is where I wanted to stay more than anywhere else. I spent three hours a week teaching yoga, it was then I looked for ways to become a personal trainer. I found a diploma program during my sophomore year summer. National Personal Training Institute in Orlando, Florida. It was everything I wanted and could not get from my years at the private liberal arts college I was attending. I was with like minded individuals also foaming at the mouth for as much knowledge about the human body, how to train, condition, feed and nurture it. Before graduation, I attended my first CrossFit class one of the instructors owned and operated. Instant love. I fell hard for CrossFit. I quickly saw muscle, endurance, stamina I have never experienced, pushed myself harder than before, and was surrounded by fit, sweaty fit humans I grew to love. It was at CrossFit MDI I met my best friend/sister/roommate, as well as began my journey as a CrossFit instructor, swapping CrossFit classes for yoga classes at the box.
Since that time back in 2015, I have gone through phases of work and jobs, friends and homes, yet one thing remained constant was CrossFit. It was my anchor. Whether it was as an athlete or as a coach, it was the only thing that kept me sane and grounded as my life moved swiftly up, down, and back again.
I joined a new CrossFit gym my roommate was part of, CrossFit Baldwin Park in February 2021. After the pandemic, I was craving that feeling I’ve only experienced with CrossFit, the pain, the sweat, the defeat and victory at the end of any given workout of the day. I quickly fell in love with the group and shortly after became a member of their coaching staff. I stayed with them, and since then we became OTown CrossFit, and I am a proud owner and head coach. I plan to stay with this box, making it one of the primary CrossFit destinations in the city as well as one of the most popular and hands down one of the more enjoyable experiences in anyone’s CrossFit journey,
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Hardly has anything been smooth, but where is the fun in that?
After leaving high school, I was on my own for the first time ever, and was not prepared for the real world. I was enjoying my freedom in a climate I had been dreaming of my entire life. It took me over a year to finish an 8 month program in Therapeutic Massage, and the day I graduated I moved to Yukon, Oklahoma for “family duties”. Instead of working at a spa, I cared for ailing people I hardly knew as an adult. I had my coping mechanisms that stayed with me from Florida, very hard to overcome cold turkey. After a year or so, it was all gone. My grandparents had full-blown Dementia and I was 20 years old trying to party and find any escape. They moved, I stayed. I became a server, living that life of late nights, even later mornings, paying rent in cash and living on leftover food and caffeine, Other jobs came and went, I elevated life enough to live on my own only to dream of getting out. That is when I joined the Navy. Being an intelligent female is much better now than years past, but it is still a male dominated fraternity where my skills were valued but never above that of my male counterparts. Sexual assault was rampant and pushed under the carpet to make anyone and everyone feel it was not an issue; safe and secure. After spending a year as a victim advocate in Guam, I was disgusted at the highest officials, how they “cared” for the victims, and cared more for the assailants in higher pay grades, including their own. I mean, it wouldn’t look good on a board to see a CO running a squadron with sexual assault cases. So, there just were not any to be had…
Finding a niche is not easy. I took 6 years to finish my bachelor’s in Communications, stopping to get more certifications for personal training or yoga, then back to school, changing majors, then leaving again for work. Never really having someone to keep me in check, allowing myself to flow with the wind.
I was an instructor for National Personal Training Institute twice. I left once, as I was not feeling appropriately compensated for my work, desiring to finish my degree and be more. Two years later, they reached back for an offer I couldn’t refuse, with nothing changing but the pay. The work was still hard, the hours were long, hardly a day off, and zero personal life. But I was teaching what I loved. I got to be the source of the knowledge and help others grow at the cost of my own.
Once I finally left for good, I began coaching CrossFit again. That has since been my main priority, and the sport has since declined. Struggling to maintain the higher numbers from pre Covid, CrossFit HQ pricing and the death of the athlete last year at the Games has taken a hit on participation in the box and as an affiliate owner. Our gym specifically was losing energy as the owners were all in it part-time. It was a side project no one really dedicated time to anymore and you could feel it. They approached me with a spot at the Table, which I took after a long deliberate back and forth. Since then, the energy is up, attendance is up but it is not easy being a face of a gym. To be on all the time, to not have the freedom of days off or other with the same energy and excitement for the sport. Yet, I could not imagine doing anything else. I do it because I love it, even though it is one of the most challenging experiences of my life.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I am in love with fitness, anatomy and physiology and trying to spread the word to anyone willing to listen. The word is health will truly set you free. Life is hard regardless, doing hard stuff on top of a pain, sickness, illness, low energy or foggy body and brain is shackling yourself for no reason. I see how unhappy so many are that do not move their bodies. Once they do, literally instant boost. Once it becomes a habit, everything in life gets better. Challenges are not as bad, some vanish completely. The hatred for unnecessary pharmaceuticals is real, and with community and exercise, they wouldn’t be nearly as powerful and they know it. Covid almost showed us all how we can take back our own bodies with movement and water and protein over all with descent sleep. Is it easy? No. Is it worth the dedication and discipline? Yes. Anyone with excuses as to why they cannot, do not or will not are missing out on life.
My work surrounds me with like minded, health conscious people not afraid to get sweaty, work themselves hard, challenge their systems and are willing to listen to advice on how to be even better. They know what it takes to be better and are willing to do the hard shit to feel good and look good for themselves and for those they love.
I have a personality that is easy to love. I love what I do and make it enjoyable even though its hard work. I know what I am doing, I know what someone needs to get a great workout safely and efficiently, something that keeps them coming back for more. I don’t take life too seriously unless it comes to excuses and being a victim of circumstances. That is literally everyone, so that’s no reason to be soft. I have high standards and do not tolerate giving up, yet have compassion for most everyone where they are, as long as they are willing to help themselves. Thankfully, if you walk into my gym, you already want to get better and that is all I need is your willingness to learn, to change and to be tough on yourself to love yourself.
I have a tattoo “Laugh and Enjoy Life” and I truly live that motto.
Networking and finding a mentor can have such a positive impact on one’s life and career. Any advice?
This is a good question as I am constantly looking for someone to guide me and help me to elevate myself. In the fitness community, it is very easy to find someone more knowledgeable, fitter, wiser, faster. But to find those who walk the talk and do it consistently, they are harder to find. Once you do, they are the most willing to help anyone with the little amount of time they tend to have to give. I am only speaking of my own experience with my mentors, those I look towards. I would have to find them locally, in the few spaces I would go. But now, man its much easier to reach out and connect to your idols.
With the ability to look at YouTube videos it’s so much easier to get help with this industry with movements, programs and protocols. Simply reaching out to them on social media has become a very easy way to meet and connect to multiple people, and that can help someone become their own brand, their own ambassador.
Pricing:
- Unlimited classes $150/mo
- Student/Veteran/First Responders/Nurses $135/mo
- Specialty Classes +$30/mo
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Otowncrossfit.com
- Instagram: @otowncrossfit
Image Credits
@otowncrossfit
