One thing any healthy person needs is a balanced schedule. Especially, in a rigorous and stressful environment such as Bronx Science, organized routines are critical to maintaining both one’s physical health and mental health. This skill of organization often lacks resources to support it. Fortunately, one club at Bronx Science provides just that and more. This club is the Bronx Science Health and Fitness Club, an ambitious project of eight like-minded gym enthusiasts who aim to spread health ideals across the entire student body at Bronx Science. 

Health and Fitness Club started as nothing but a mere blueprint curated by three separate groups of constant gym goers. The first group was Tahorim Taohid ’26, myself ’26, and Axel Lopez ’26; the second, was Jaman Mahmud ‘26, Elham Mamun ‘26, and Jake Leite ‘26; the final group was Benjamin Huang ‘26 and Evan Yang ‘26. Ultimately, each group decided in the Summer of 2023  to make an official club. This was without the knowledge of each other’s existence, but eventually, last winter, the three groups came to the consensus to not compete, but rather to form one unified Health and Fitness Club. 

This theme of friendliness and welcomeness is no stranger to the brief, but ever-growing history of the club. The moment you enter the club, you can instantly sense feelings of unity and community. Of course, this is intentional; one of the main goals of the club itself was, as one of the founders Axel Lopez ‘26, said, “to create an all-encompassing environment centered on health education for people who are interested.” The basis for this club from the start has been to unite otherwise separated people through the cause of spreading valuable fitness information and developing the knowledge of the younger classes at our school.

This goal has succeeded through the way our club members enhance the general atmosphere of welcomeness and friendliness of the club.  The club’s secretary, Benjamin Huang said, “We (the members of the club) all want each other to become stronger in all aspects of life. The community we have built surpasses just the weight room as some people who barely work out still attend our meetings.” These statements embody the main theme of the club, which is not solely to give new information to those who are already active members of the gym, but also to welcome anyone who wants to help each other to improve their living conditions. Living conditions are not just limited to physical health and fitness, but also the well-being of all our members.

Another way of looking at this club is through the lens of those who participate in it. At one of the meetings, I went at the end to ask some of the fellow club members what they thought of the club and the general atmosphere around it. A member said, “I walk into the club feeling better than I was before walking in. Everyone’s cool and nice and are easy to have a conversation with. The environment is just warm, and it’s one of the best clubs I’ve been to in my two years in Bronx Science.”

However, it’s important to note that achieving these ambitious goals does not come without some conflict. A clear instance is the club’s struggle to encapsulate the overarching nature of the subject of Health and Fitness. As the vice-president of the club, Jaman Mahmud, addresses this. “At first, with an idea as broad as health and fitness, it’s hard to truly capture the most important facts and details in such a complicated topic as that which we discuss,” Mahmud said. This is one of the faults of being a part of such an inclusive, compassion-driven club, however, as I’ve seen by attending many meetings. This problem has clearly been addressed to fit the learning needs of the community’s loyal members, such as teaching skills aimed to help balance keeping a health-related, gym-going schedule along with the stress inherent in everyday life as a student. 

Mahmud, expanding on the issue of inclusivity, said, “Although the gym space has the stigma assigned to it as being ultra-masculine and at times toxic towards those a part of this ‘ideal’ male model, it’s important for a club surrounding itself around health and fitness and gym going to make sure that everyone feels comfortable, especially newcomers, in going to the gym and personally bettering themselves up to their own standards.” This motive for the club is definitely a highly commendable aspect and one of the reasons why its popularity has been increasing since its creation. The fact that knowledge on health and fitness is not universally accessible to many nationwide is a national problem and one that the Health and Fitness club takes an important step in addressing.

This now leads us to one of the greatest hindrances the club has faced in its development. Naturally, with a club focusing on health and fitness,  members expect to receive hands-on experience in the school gym. That is exactly what they get access to through our school’s health center. The Health and Fitness Club has a unique meeting schedule, where after a given meeting lesson ( which lasts for around ten to twenty minutes), the majority of club members venture to the health center to exercise for the rest of the club time and freely experiment with whatever content was presented during the lesson. This innovative meeting setup allows for members, especially newcomers, to understand and comprehend the lesson taught that day. It also allows members to be able to respond to work on these lessons as opposed to just letting what they learned go through one ear and out the other. 

With this admirable approach to community-building and schedule organization, the Bronx Science Health and Fitness club is not only unique in its ability to create a community and spread fitness knowledge efficiently, but it is also unique in its promotion and interaction with the entire school community. On top of the club itself, Bronx Science Health and Fitness Club has a focused promotion campaign behind it. Almost weekly, the Health and Fitness treasurer Benjamin Huang releases and shares news about the club through Instagram and various other social media platforms. With his social media presence, he is able to reach people who generally do not attend the club, through promoting after-school events, by posting funny entertaining short videos about the club, and through attempting collaborations with other clubs such as Bronx Science Business Society.

Recently, Huang’s approach to promotion has been wildly successful and has helped gain a loyal following among Bronx Science students who attend club meetings. The method has additionally bolstered notoriety with the Health and Fitness community Instagram account, having gained hundreds of followers over the course of the past year. Through this system of inclusiveness and outreach, the club has, become more of a community and a family than just a school club. The fun, educational, and entertaining nature of the videos embody that spirit of the club, and most importantly the people who comprise its membership, club-board members and followers alike. 

It’s easy to see why the Bronx Health and Fitness club has garnered such popularity and success in such a short period of time. The club’s board members are all uniquely ambitious and intelligent in their approach to fostering a safe, welcoming environment that anyone regardless of their status can feel comfortable with and be excited about – which is, without a doubt, a beautiful thing. 

The basis for this club from the start has been to unite otherwise separated people through the cause of spreading valuable fitness information.