Higher Ground was an overnight success 22 years in the making.

Born out of an MBA course in the year 2000, “Higher Ground” is what Ranil Kumara and Steve Lachelt called the business plan they wrote as a class assignment. The idea was simple but bold: to smash the imaginary boundary between fitness and health and create Canada’s first “Health Club”. This Club would welcome all to a better place to be healthy and active. It would be a healthy place for people with injuries to recover and become better, and it would introduce medicine and rehab to those interested in fitness and performance. Essentially, Higher Ground would be the marriage of a sports medicine clinic and a fitness centre, but the result of this marriage would be a different and better way for people to think about their health care and their physical and mental potential.

At the conclusion of the course, Steve said to Ranil that he wanted to make this vision a reality. Little did either of them know it would take 22 years to come alive!

Following the course, Steve went hunting for a venue and someone who could lead the Sports Medicine part of Higher Ground.  In 2001, he met Dr Tim Rindlisbacher, who shared his vision of better health care through movement. Soon, Tim introduced Steve and Ranil to Marcel De Rous and Mark Cho, and the founding pillars of Higher Ground had formed. Since then, others have joined and shared the vision of Movement as Medicine. More than anything else, it is the people that have always made Higher Ground special.

After 22 years of waiting Higher Ground was officially born on May 1^st 2022 on the 4^th floor of the Aura Tower at College Park. Good things come to those who wait!