Gabrielle Papineau

Personal Trainer/Physician Assistant/Athlete

Physician Assistant by day, Personal Trainer by night! After many years in school learning about the physiology of exercise and disease, I now enjoy applying my knowledge to the clients and patients I see on a daily basis.

I started into health and fitness at a young age, always encouraging family and friends to stay active and to move more. My family also had a big impact on my athletic endeavours, enrolling me and encouraging me in activities from dance to softball to ringette to any school sports team I could make (let's admit right now there weren't many).

From there I found the sport of rowing - and learned a lot about commitment, focus, and how hard you could push yourself. I was lucky enough to earn a scholarship in rowing to the University of Massachusetts, where I learned the art of coaching from one of the best, an Olympic level coach and athlete who helped change the face of rowing. He taught me more about gut instinct, drive, and utter determination than I had realized until more recently. Thanks to him, I was then given the opportunity to coach at the Division-1 level with him where he helped build my confidence and experience and a coach and mentor. During this time I was completing my bacherlor's degree and then my master's degree in Kinesiology, learning about the science behind training while suffering through the effects of "Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness" and learning just what it meant to "hit the wall". During this time I began to "dabble" in the fitness industry through personal training, managing a gym, and trying out any and every fitness class out there.

I then continued into the health field, becoming a Physician Assistant with a focus in Orthopaedic and Spine Surgery. In this role I saw more and more how important physical activity was at any age, to lessen the effects of aging and preserve the daily functioning we all take for granted. I realized that my patients needed more than a simple "go exercise" from me - they needed specific protocols and plans that suited their body's and their lifestyle's need. And I realized how much I wanted to coach and train as I had before, armed with the medical, exercise and nutritional information I had gained over the years.

As Ottawa's only Registered Clinical Exercise Physiologist I can help you achieve your health and fitness goals, work through barriers, and make