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When physiotherapy graduates Josée Deezar and Quentin Raval recently teamed up to open Deezar-Raval Physiotherapy, they chose the CrossFit Winnipeg sports centre over a health centre location for their new practice.
Josée Deezar knows all about CrossFit Winnipeg on Lagimodière Boulevard and has worked out regularly there for the past five or six years. When she got her master’s in physiotherapy at University of Manitoba, she could already see herself working there.
“CrossFit Winnipeg encourages physical activity, proper nutrition and a healthy lifestyle. It offers sports and fitness classes as well as nutrition consultations and personal training. Incorporating physiotherapy services to help clients with their exercises seemed like a good idea to me.”
She began establishing herself there as a part-time physiotherapist at the end of February 2019, while working at two other physiotherapy clinics in Winnipeg.
In May, Quentin Raval, who did his master’s with Deezar, joined her at CrossFit to co-found Deezar-Raval Physiotherapy.
“We enhance CrossFit members’ physical activity experience,” says Raval. “We can teach them what to do at home or at the gym to prevent or improve an injury. It’s active treatment. We always start by asking our clients about their goals.”
Tania Tétrault Vrga, founder and head coach at CrossFit Winnipeg, says that this service is great for her business: “When CrossFit Winnipeg opened in 2009, our vision was to offer everything to do with health and physical fitness, including fitness classes, nutrition consultations, personal training, massage and physiotherapy, under one roof.
Ten years later, we’ve found the perfect partner in Deezar-Raval Physiotherapy. In addition to treating our members’ pain and injuries, Josée and Quentin can also help them with prevention. They provide a key service to our members so that they can take control of their own wellbeing and maintain their physical, mental and emotional health.”
However, Quentin Raval points out that their services are not limited to CrossFit Winnipeg clients. “It is a real advantage for us to be located here to receive patients who are not CrossFit members, because we have access to the CrossFit equipment and space. That means that we can have them do a lot of different exercises, and they are often impressed with and interested in all the other programs available at CrossFit.”
Josée Deezar adds: “It’s good for them to see that CrossFit is for everyone. You don’t have to be a certain age or body type. It is sometimes intimidating for people who are unfamiliar with CrossFit to come.”
“Tania and several of the staff also speak French. It was important for us to be able to work and offer our services in French. Quentin and I were both raised in French in Winnipeg.”
In addition to the warm welcome they received from the CrossFit Winnipeg team, the two entrepreneurs turned to CDEM to help establish their business. “We took the Été en affaires business start-up program in late April,” says Quentin Raval. “It helped us find funding for the equipment we needed over and about the CrossFit machines, as well as signage displaying our company name.”
“We also received personalized support from Joel Martine, who coordinates Youth Economic Education at CDEM,” adds Deezar.
Their dreams for the future? “Working full time at CrossFit (1) with more closed rooms for our consultations, and having separate access from the CrossFit entrance, even though we work together to create a universal health and fitness centre,” concludes Quentin Raval.
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