Gym Owner Carianne Meti Gets Fitness Boost From Her Four-Year-Old Daughter Ivy
Like many, Carianne Meti struggled to motivate herself to workout during the height of the worldwide pandemic, when her gym Deka CrossFit in Blainville, Quebec was closed for the better part of two years.
What kept Meti committed to continuing to work on her fitness was her training partner: Her now four-year-old daughter Ivy Meti.
“During the pandemic, she was the only reason I continued moving. She would ask me to do the Zoom class with people at the gym…We have dumbbells at home and I would do it for her, because for me it was so hard. I didn’t want to train,” said Carianne, who purchased Deka CrossFit from five-time CrossFit Games athlete Michele Letendre.
“She was the motivation…and she made me fitter,” Carianne said of her daughter’s push.
Beyond the Pandemic
Today, Ivy—who is doing the Open for the second year in a row—continues to inspire her busy gym-owning mother to prioritize her own fitness, something Carianne isn’t sure would be the case without her daughter’s push.
“Sometimes she’ll ask, ‘What time are you going to workout? And I’m like, ‘Oh my God, I have no time to workout today. I don’t think I’m going to workout, Ivy.’ And she’s like, ‘No, no. Which class are you going to do?’ ‘OK, I’ll do the 3 o’clock class,’” Carianne said laughing.
Most recently, Ivy’s drive has led the two to hit the CrossFit Open workouts together during their busy Friday Night Lights event, something both mother and daughter value as quality time together.
“She loves it. For her, it’s our mommy, daughter time,” Carianne explained of the bonding time it gives them.
During 23.2, Ivy asked her mom when they were going to take their shirts off to show off their muscles.
“When we get hot, we’ll take our shirts off and show off our muscles,” Carianne replied.
“OK, we have to do it at the same time,” Ivy replied.
Not only has Ivy helped make training more enjoyable for her mother, but Carianne said coaching has also become more fun again, especially when it comes to the CrossFit Kids program.
“I enjoy coaching the kids even more…It’s just so fun,” Carianne said. Having Ivy there “makes my job so much better.”
Ivy’s CrossFit Journey
Though only 4 years old, Ivy is already a veteran and feels right at home at Deka CrossFit.
“She knows everybody’s name in the gym. I have 300 members (and) she welcomes everybody…She has seen people do this for four years, so it’s normal for her,” said Carianne, who purchased the gym when she was six months pregnant with Ivy.
It’s also normal for Ivy to workout every day, sometimes multiple times a day, which often leads Carianne to try to hold Ivy back.
Still, all the training Ivy has logged already means she is a proficient weightlifter and can do pull-ups, toes-to-bar, handstand walking and handstand push-ups, jumping bar muscle-ups and rope climbs, although Carianne monitors how high she lets Ivy climb.
But Carianne insists the driver and competitive nature comes from Ivy.
“When the workout 23.1 got out and she saw that there were ring muscle-ups, she was very mad. She didn’t want to do the workout because she can’t do muscle-ups…She’s a very competitive kid and I’m not a competitive person, so I’m trying to balance her (competitiveness),” Carianne said.
Ultimately, though, Ivy trains as much as she does, not because of any push from her parents to be good at CrossFit, but because she loves it.
“She’s good because she loves doing it,” Carianne said.
And as her mother, Carianne couldn’t be happier watching her daughter’s drive and work ethic grow, and most importantly, watching her establish healthy habits for life.
“I love watching her grow in the sport…and I love seeing her love this and be part of the community,” she said.
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