Owner of Kahnawà:ke women's-only gym aims to empower clients, meet growing demand

This story is a collaboration between Concordia University's journalism department, Kahnawake Survival School and CBC Montreal.

Brittany Delisle gave up on maintaining a healthy lifestyle after finding out she was pregnant with her third child.

Unmotivated, she stopped exercising, began overindulging in food and fell into a slump.

But when a gym in her community began offering a stroller fitness group for mothers, Delisle started exercising again and never looked back. 

"Within my first year, I had lost 70 pounds with proper nutrition and exercise," she said. 

That journey sparked a love of health and fitness, and Delisle decided to get her training certification in order to help others.

Six years later, Delisle is the proud owner of a successful private training facility called Mindful Body Fitness — one of the sole women's-only gyms in Kahnawà:ke, the Kanien'kehá:ka (Mohawk) community, south of Montreal.

The business celebrated its first anniversary in March. But getting to that point was no easy feat. 

For starters, Delisle was hesitant to move into the fitness world as a trainer, even after being certified. 

"I was so nervous and very skeptical," she said. 

She found her footing after agreeing to train a small group of girls.

"Taking them on as clients got me out of my comfort zone and I began to take on more," Delisle said.

Once she built up a clientele, finding adequate space became her next challenge. Delisle didn't have a gym to train in, so in 2019, she began doing outdoor boot camp classes with her few clients and ended up turning her living room into a mini gym. 

After three years of making do, Delisle finally opened her own private training facility in March 2022.