ABOUT
Envision Fitness uses the most cutting-edge training methods to help you read your goals.
Envision Fitness is located in Pitt Meadows, BC. We are your alternative to large and impersonal gyms.
What makes us different?
We focus on relationships with our members, customer service that exceeds your expectations, and education designed to help you get the most out of your workouts.
Our members describe us a “more that just a gym, Envision is a way to get back to feeling like yourself again, a lifestyle.”
Our Team
Envision Fitness uses the most cutting edge training methods to help you reach your goals. All our memberships include a personal coach to help you reach your goals.
You won’t find a more qualified, highly-trained fitness training team anywhere.
Kari Negraiff Director
I started my fitness coaching career as a kinesiologist in 2005. Despite my book-smarts in university, I soon learned I was ill-equipped to teach people how to exercise safely and reach their goals in the real world.
It turns out, coaching exercise goes far beyond a trainer’s ability to perform an exercise properly themselves. Clients often couldn’t repeat the exercise technique I’d shown them. Furthermore, most of the clients I worked with were injured, new to exercise, ‘not gym people’, and had low starting strength; they had a lot of things to consider and it felt like most exercises I knew, did more harm than good. The worst part was that my clients often blamed THEMSELVES for ‘not getting it right’, rather than my coaching ineptitude.
My lack of practical coaching skills fueled me to to constantly learn and improve. Seventeen years later, I am still continuously growing my skillset as a fitness coach, personal trainer and gym owner. I’ve attended countless certifications and workshops, read hundreds of books and taught several courses with the experience I’ve gained over the years. Opening and growing our personal training business for the last 12 years has been the greatest testament to my growth as a coach.
I love to learn, and to teach, but most of all I am driven to help people quickly grow confident in how to perform and coach exercise safely and effectively.
I’ve always felt I’ve come closest to realizing my potential as an athlete, student, coach and entrepreneur when I’ve had a guide or mentor to believe in me and gently show me the way as I grow my skills. I like people to feel supported on their journey, and I take pride in being their coach and mentor.
It sounds cliché but I was born to do this. I’m passionate about helping people and I have a real knack for making things and processes better. Combined with that, I really love to teach people. I think what makes my skill set unique to my team is that I’m good at problem-solving and converting solutions to teachable components. This allows me to help clients and teammates achieve great things. I love to be a part of others’ greatness.
I’m highly analytical and also very sensitive to peoples’ energy. My ability to sense peoples’ energy and process infinite environmental details allow me to recognize unique patterns. This ‘superpower’ helps me understand what my clients and teammates need before their own awareness of it and it also helps me anticipate solutions before problems happen.
I grew up in Moose Jaw Saskatchewan and spent my summers outdoors- adventuring, biking, climbing trees, playing fastball, dryland training and camping with my Mom, Dad, and brother. My winters were occupied with speed skating. It was one of those families where your parents were always the coaches of all the sports you played. I’m grateful for the opportunity to be raised with an active lifestyle, play sports with coaches who mentored and fostered my curiosity for how things work and for the extended family I gained through speed skating. Tragically, I lost my dad to non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma when I was 11, he was 44. I’m grateful for the time I spent with him and for the inspiration he gives me every day to be the best at what I do. My dream inspired by the precious memories I had with him as a kid, is to create a place where people can come and experience the joy of life through fitness as they become empowered to adventure and create active memories with their own families.
In 2005 I graduated from the Human Kinetics faculty of UBC as Valedictorian, President of my Undergraduate Society and top overall academic student of my class. In 2012, Steve and I opened this gym and the very next year we won Results Fitness Business Owners of the year from a pool of over 100 businesses worldwide. Finally, in November of 2014, I ran and completed the New York TCS Full Marathon.
Natasha Romanova (aka Black Widow) is a former KGB spy and assassin. Her Russian decent meshed well with my own personal Russian background (as well for my tough love approach). Natasha is known for her companionship to Captain America (where I think they saved the world together a few times over), that made her a natural fit for me as Steve Rogers’ real life alias is Steve Di Tomaso. If that weren’t enough she’s highly touted for her ruthless ability to extract information from her subjects through either charismatic and persuasive or more invasive tactics. People know me in real life as the “questionator” as I have an insatiable quest for knowledge and a will to do whatever it takes to get it. A match made in Heaven.
Steve Di Tomaso Director
A little about Steve
After graduating from university I really wasn’t sure the direction in fitness that I wanted to go. After spending a few years in the industry I realized that there was a desperate need for change. EVERYTHING could be done better (better training, better programs, better education, better layout, better equipment… etc.). There were a few other fitness professionals that I had met along the way that shared similar views but only Kari was willing to take the risk alongside with me. It has been an amazing ride with a lot of ups and some downs but I wouldn’t hesitate to do it all over again tomorrow. We’ve really seen our vision come to fruition with the creation of Envision Fitness. We can see how we are changing the lives of our members and that’s truly what I’ve set out to do. I love what our gym has become. I love our team. I love our members. There’s no other place that I would rather spend my time.
I’m somewhat of a collector of Nike bandanas and have matching bandanas for most every occasion (though I am colour blind I am able to make it work for me).
My childhood was filled with endless athletic endeavours. As a youth, I competed at length in speed swimming, but also spent time competing in soccer and paddle sports. Some of my fondest memories are playing street hockey with my neighbours until we were called in by our parents because it was too dark outside. I’ve always been an active body, and have difficulty staying still for any length of time. A career in fitness was a no brainer, the only question was which stream of physical education? I explored them all while in University and graduated with far more credits than I could ever make use of. The learning has not stopped. Kari and I make a point of continued learning from the greatest minds in the industry so that we could bring it to our practice.
Over the years I’ve received accolades for athletics, education, and business, but the proudest moment that I’ve had was to be honoured by our team and members in 2015 with a “Gym Owner Appreciation Day”. It gave Kari and me validation for what we’ve done and why we do it. The runner up goes to running sub 3 hours at the Boston Marathon. After falling short in two consecutive runnings the third time was a charm. Having to go back to the drawing board and start over really gave me an appreciation for the success of finally achieving my goal.
Captain America! Steve Rogers’ commitment is unwavering. Captain America epitomizes that there are no failures only lessons. Prior to Steve’s ascent into superhero-dom he failed repeatedly but his no quit attitude made Steve the only choice for the experimental Super Soldier program. The odds didn’t matter to Steve if there was an opportunity to succeed. As an individual and business owner, I take Steve Rogers values to heart. I have always been willing to take calculated risks and put in work. Failure, at times, may be unavoidable, but rather than be paralyzed by the possibility of failure I embrace the opportunity for the lessons that I can learn to better myself and the people around me.
