“Bee Fit” teaches students healthy habits
Photo courtesy of Ali Bassir
Club SCAD kicks off a new fitness program at the St. Paul’s Athletic Center Friday. The initiative, called “Bee Fit,” places five teams of students in a competition against each other to lose the most body-weight by the end of the quarter. The competition comes during January, the busiest season for gyms and fitness clubs.
Jamie Ives, Fitness Coordinator of Club SCAD and a native of Wilmington, North Carolina, said programs like this cause a “positive cycle” of healthy lifestyle changes.
“A lot of times people get in routines… They just get bored. We want them to be constantly engaged, to be creative with fitness,” Ives said. “The end result is the person has had a lifestyle change and now they’re a healthy individual and now they want to reach out and talk to their friends.”
“Bee Fit” starts in what fitness industry trade group the International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association calls the “January bump,” when most health clubs report their highest membership rates after the New Year. The IHSRA said 12 percent of all health club memberships are sold within this month.
Thirty-six students were selected for the 8-week-long program out of about 60 applicants. Ives says the selection process involved a health screening where factors like height, weight and body mass index were taken into consideration. Applicants also had to write a personal essay describing their interest in the program.
“Some people had some really great — and in some cases heartbreaking — stories about how they really want to participate in the challenge because of family issues,” Ives said. This helps the coaches know their class members beyond their diet logs and one-on-one workout sessions.
With this amount of specialized attention, Ives said he hopes retention rates will be high. But even if a student drops out of the program, their team members don’t suffer; the weight loss goal is by percentage lost, not an absolute number.
“We want our students to succeed from an academic standpoint, but you can’t minimize how important our health is,” Ives said. “The end result:… if they haven’t done so already, to really embark on that lifestyle change to be a healthier person.”
District A&E Editor Savannah Rake will publish her column following the program every Friday night.
