About Us
We are driven by complex cases. We are qualified strength, conditioning, exercise physiology, nutrition, and therapy professionals.
Performance And Health Are Complimentary
We believe that each individual’s ultimate goal is the realization of potential through high performance and great health. And, that performance and health are complimentary.
Our foundation is built on serving complex cases, from Olympic Journeys to Chronic Pain. To do this we create a clear path for each individual by meeting them where they’re at and guiding them to where they want to go.
Our mission is to change the way people perceive performance and rehab. They are not separate, they are on the exact same spectrum. Movements that are injury-resistant tend to be those that are also performance-enhancing.
Our clients boast both rehabilitation of age-old injuries, nagging pains, and speedy recoveries, while also citing that our athletes are confident on their rise to personal bests, National teams, and podiums.
Committed to our professions
Meet The Team
Carla Robbins
Owner of Vital Strength & Physiology
Master’s of Kinesiology (MKin)
CSEP Certified Exercise Physiologist with a High Performance Specialist Designation
Additional Experience:
Head Strength Coach for UofC Dinos Women’s Hockey
MRU University Instructor
NCCP Weightlifting Certified
ISAK level 1 anthropometrist
L2 Reconditioning, L1 FRC, L1 FST
With a Master’s of Kinesiology from the University of Calgary, her passion is in tackling national level athletes both in strength training and conditioning, as well as testing and monitoring. She currently works with athletes trying to fulfill their goals at the World Cup and Olympic level, in professional sports, a handful of them attaining Olympic appearances in the past.
She is often referred clients by top level chiropractors and physiotherapists who recognize that treatments alone are not enough to solve movement issues that arise from poor movement patterns in the first place. For this reason, she works closely with doctors and therapists to help create a more well-rounded approach to performance.
Her current client roster includes an Ironman World-Championship athlete, winter sport World Cup athletes, a professional football player, and various other athletes and individuals.
Nicholas Simpson
Owner of UpToPhate
Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology (BScKin),
NSCA Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS)
Precision Nutrition Certified
Additional Experience:
Head Strength Coach for Canadian Swimmers
2014 and 2018 Olympics with Speed Skating
Nick joined Vital after close to a decade of working with high performance athletes – having coached multiple medal winning athletes and teams at the international & Olympic level in speed skating & swimming. This gave him a unique insight into the integrative approach it takes to push boundaries far past the norm. Not only is he well-versed in how a fully integrated support team runs on an intimate level, and believes we are moving towards a system that is less about individual specialties, and more about blending the borders, and thinking outside the box. With this approach as a strength and conditioning coach, Nick looks to not only to get someone strong and fit, but also to look at the bigger picture of their recovery, their lifestyle, their biomechanics in movement patterns, and their psychology.
Nick’s current roster of clients includes but is not limited to World cup athletes competing in winter sports of skeleton, biathlon, and karate, and a World Police Games international competitor.
Chantelle Ball
Masters of Kinesiology (MKin)
Certified Clinical Exercise Physiologist (CSEP-CEP)
Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS)
Chantelle had a love of sports and physical activity from a young age, which led her to eventually pursue her Bachelor of Kinesiology from the University of Calgary. In 2019, she returned to the University of Calgary to study in the Master of Kinesiology program, which specializes in applied exercise physiology.
Chantelle has experience in a wide variety of areas, including personal training, strength & conditioning and exercise physiology testing for high performance athletes, and strength training for neuromuscular conditions such as spinal cord injury, traumatic brain injury, and stroke. Chantelle strongly believes that movement is medicine – that the way we choose to move our bodies day-to-day impacts how we look and feel, both mentally and physically.
Her current roster of clients includes complex endurance athletes with stroke, multiple sclerosis, nagging injuries, and other strength and fitness goals.
Rick Canning
Bachelor of Engineering
NAASFP Marathon Running Coach
UESCA Ultra Running Coach
UESCA Triathlon Coach
Since 2015 Rick has been providing science based endurance coaching to runners of all abilities, with a focus on trail running and ultra distances. While his primary focus is on running, both road and trail, Rick is well versed in coaching the multi sport athlete with experience coaching both ultra distance cyclists and triathletes.
With a Bachelor in Engineering and coaching certifications Marathon and Ultra running, Rick brings a unique skill set to endurance coaching. He specializes in finding practical solutions to complex problems while helping athletes go after big goals. Whether that is tackling a new distance, achieving a personal best or striving for qualifying standards and podium finishes.
One of the things he is most proud of, is the inaugural year of the Capes 100 a local ultra marathon in Nova Scotia where eight out of eight athletes he coached finished their respective distances ranging from 25k- 100 miles (three athletes who completed the 100 miles!). A 100% finish rate is pretty amazing where all of those athletes where running those distances for the first time! He’s also pretty proud to have coached an athlete who completed the UTMB 160k, but in all honesty he says it a pretty special feeling anytime an athlete achieves something they thought was near impossible.
“Over the years, the athletes who I see have the most fun during their training and progress the most in their sport are the ones who come to the sport with a sense of curiosity. The most important thing I can do for my athletes is to allow them to explore their abilities, and help them incorporate training into their lives in a sustainable way. Meaning their happiness comes first, and we figure out how to fit the training around everything else.”
Rick’s current client roster ranges from average Joes looking to accomplish big running goals, to elite cyclists, to some of the best long-distance ultramarathoners in North America.
Dave Proctor
Running and Endurance Coach
Registered Massage Therapist since 2000
Running Coach since 2019
Ultra runner since 2006
The TransCanadian speed record holder of running 7159 kms in just 67 days, Dave has combined his decades of experience, focused knowledge of the body, and unique mental approach to becoming the best ultra runner in Canadian history. Dave has been dominating the ultra running scene for over a decade winning and setting course records at races like Sinister 7 and Lost Soul and setting Canadian and world records. His approach that we like to call “the secret sauce” is a combination of physical, digestive, spiritual and mental fine tuning that transforms an athlete into a limitless, unstoppable machine.
His 23 year career as a Sports Massage Therapist working alongside the best Physiotherapists and Doctors has taught him critical points surrounding the structure and mechanics of the tissues that stabilize and propel the body.
Tessa Gray-Burnett
Bachelors of Kinesiology with a Major in Pedagogy
Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist – CSCS
NCCP Certified Athletic Performance Track and Field Coach
NCCP Trained Olympic lifting coach
Ki-Hara Level 2 Resistance Stretching Practitioner
Certified Precision Nutrition Level 1- Pn
Tessa Gray-Burnett was born and raised in Calgary, Alberta. She has
been active her whole life, pursing different outdoor activities and
sports. This love for being active helped her decide to pursue a
kinesiology degree with a major in Pedagogy at the University of
Calgary. Tessa's true love is Track and Field. She competed for over
16 years in Canada, the United States and overseas. She was a
perennial finalist at the Canadian Track and Field Senior Nationals in
her favorite event, the 400m Hurdles. Her best result there was 4th in
the country in 2008. She has since hung up her sprinting spikes but
gives back to the sport by coaching young sprinters with Calgary
International Track Club.
Tessa has a passion for fitness and living an active lifestyle. She
loves helping people feel stronger, healthier, and more confident in
their bodies. Her other passion is teaching running. She believes that
proper running form will help athletic performance in all sports and
loves to teach people how to run properly to help them become more
efficient and stronger runners.
Tara (Falconer) McNeil
BSc.
MKin. (MSc. 4 PhD in Process)
Exercise Physiologist and Performance Advisor for 25 years specializing in sustainable performance and career expectancy in sport
Tara has over 25 years of experience in exercise science as a physiologist and administrator. She has developed training and monitoring programs for elite and amateur athletes (NHL, AHL, WHL, CFL, MLB). Transitioning to cardiac rehabilitation, she led multiple research and programming initiatives. Returning to sports, she consulted for professional and amateur organizations, including Bobsleigh Skeleton Canada and the Canadian Luge Association, where she developed the sliding sport long-term athlete development framework. At WinSport, she created sustainable athlete development pathways and sport-specific ‘performance toolkits.’
Recently, Tara devised performance strategies for athletes, coaches, and sport organizations. She was selected by the Calgary Stampeders for the 2022 CFL-KPMG ‘Women in Football’ initiative. Tara also mentors exercise professionals and frequently speaks on extending athletes’ careers.
Pursuing her doctorate at the University of Calgary, Tara aims to leverage her experience in sport science and optimal training strategies to support coach education. She is currently the President of the Board of Directors for Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton.
Organizations We’ve Worked With
