Chiropractors' gym gets clients fit
[attach]5770[/attach]When chiropractors Tyrrell Ashcroft and Thien Dang-Tan opened Omega Health and Fitness on New Year’s Day, they were missing their Technogym workout machines.
“We imported in this high-tech equipment from Italy from the makers of Ferrari and it took forever,” says Dang-Tan. “It came to us probably about a month and a half late.”
However, he says the delay wound up being a blessing in disguise because it allowed them to show clients what they were capable of doing with and without equipment.
Ashcroft says their boutique fitness facility at Kingston Road and Victoria Park Avenue is unique because they provide medically supervised personal training.
“We found historically there’s a bit of a divide between people getting care, whether it’s chiropractic or massage or acupuncture, and them taking their fitness to the next level,” she says. “We’re trying to bridge that gap so that we can provide everything from pre- and post-surgical rehab to high-performance training, so wherever you fall in that fitness continuum we have a plan and a spot to get you where you need to go.”
They chose the name Omega since Dang-Tan’s relatives sign their name with it as their family’s emblem and because it’s the last letter in the Greek alphabet and they strive to be the last place people come to achieve their ultimate fitness goals.
When it came to designing the logo, Ashcroft says they added a tree to the concept because she thought it was synonymous for the Beach, where she’d been running a practice for the last eight years.
“I grew up in Cobourg, which is a small town so what I loved about this area is that it has a small town feel, like you know your neighbours, you can walk to places,” she says. “It has the convenience of being right attached to downtown, but it feels very personal.”
Opening the business in the area, she says, was also a natural fit since she lives nearby and likes being able to lead an active lifestyle and go for bike rides, paddle board, golf and play beach volleyball. As chiropractors, she says they both also have experience working with professional athletes.
“Our expertise is in sports medicine and we really want to take the best of the best of how we treat elite athletes to the general population and to really combine the two because that’s our philosophy — pretty much to treat everybody that walks through the door like an elite athlete,” says Dang-Tan, who served as a healthcare provider for the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2011 Guadalajara Pan American Games.
Next to work and their customers’ homes, he wants their facility to be the third place people in the area spend time and hopes to become an integral part of the community.
Ashcroft says she’d like clients to take away an increased motivation and a healthier and more active lifestyle. She says they also love to teach, whether it’s one-on-one with members or through workshops.
“We love to educate people and empower them so that they have the tools necessary whether it’s from a nutritional standpoint or physicality and movement or knowing more about how to take care of their bodies from basic postural stuff,” she says.