Athletic Lab is one of the premier fitness and performance training centers in the country, and each month we highlight one or more of our members in our member of the month feature. We have an energetic and diverse community ranging from fitness enthusiasts looking to get in the best shape of their lives to elite professional athletes.

For the month of November we’ve selected Ashley Kitchens as our member of the month. Ashley joined Athletic Lab’s Comp Team earlier this year and recently competed at the Mr America All American Sports Festival & Expo. This competition took place at Atlantic City Fitness Throwdown and her team won 1st place. They were also the only female plant-based team!

You can read about previous members of the month here.

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ashley kitchensName: Ashley Kitchens

What city were you born in? Winona Lake, Indiana

What do you do when you’re not training at Athletic Lab (occupation, hobbies, etc)? You can usually find me doing one of four things. Reading or listening to a great book (I just finished my 61st book of the year). I love being outdoors, even in this cooler weather, taking daily walks and hiking on the weekend with my 10 year old lab. What takes up a big chunk of my time is running my business called Plant Centered Nutrition, where I create content and digital products, work with brands and the media, consult with LTC facilities, and help people transition to a plant-based diet for their health. What I enjoy the most is eating all the vegan food throughout the Triangle. I went plant-based in 2012 and it’s been one of the best decisions I’ve ever made for my health and athletic performance.

What do you feel has been your greatest accomplishment since you started training? Having the courage to push myself to another level and leave the comfort of my home gym. Through this hard work I have more consistently performed in competitions and became a sponsored athlete this year with the Vegan Strong PlantBuilt team, competing with them at Mr. America.

What’s your favorite exercise? Least favorite? I’ll narrow it down to deadlifts, handstand push-ups, and butterfly pull-ups. Single arm dumbbell overhead squats are the death of me.

What motivates you in your training? Constantly striving to be a better version of myself. There’s no endpoint in CrossFit, there’s always a lift or skill that can be improved upon or even a new movement to develop and that excites me. Being part of the CrossFit community is like being part of a team, there’s something very special about working out together day after day, cheering one another on, and achieving goals. And I’ll be honest, having muscles is fantastic.