HOW ONE SOUTH BROOKLYN GYM IS SLEDGEHAMMERING AWAY THE COMPETITION
BY TYLER ANDERSON
Four years ago, Anthony Esposito had an idea; he wanted to teach functional fitness boot camps in the park of his South Brooklyn neighborhood…and he wanted to do it for free. It was crazy, his friends told him as much, but for Esposito, money wasn’t the objective; he just loved fitness, and he wanted other people to love it too. Besides, he thought, what the hell. Why not?
Today, on Bay Ridge Avenue, surrounded by shops with names like Family Store, Idris and Sons, and Family Eye Care, where walking along the street is like walking backwards through a Frank Sinatra song, a nondescript brick building sits on a corner. Inside, thickly woven ropes are strewn across a scuffed concrete floor and heaping tractor tires lean against walls. There are rows of sledgehammers lined up menacingly in a corner. Monkey bars and rope ladders are peppered throughout like the inside of some giant adult playground. The shouts of a trainer echo over the blare of music. It has the unmistakable air of a battleground…a gladiator arena.
Welcome to Bad Ass Academy.
“I never would have guessed those early sessions in the park would become this place.” Explained Esposito, whose thick Brooklyn accent and powerful physique virtually legitimize the company moniker. “I mean, I always wanted to start a gym, but I wanted something practical, you know, something that helped people become healthier.”
Which is exactly what the Academy’s brand of fitness, called functional fitness, is; workouts based on movements performed in everyday life. Tying a shoe? That’s a lunge. Waking up in the morning? That’s a sit-up. It is a theory where workouts are tailored around real life and real people, not the other way around.
Indeed, it is perhaps this targeted approach to fitness that has allowed the Academy to thrive in an industry saturated with competition, not only from other gyms, but also from a swath of contrasting and often contradictory information and ideologies.
“The big box gyms, they’re all the same.” Esposito said with a laugh. “No attention. No direction. It’s like Dunkin’ Donuts or Starbucks. You get in. You get out. It’s all convenience. Here it’s different. It’s hard, trust me it’s hard, I mean we’re going to push you, but that’s the point. It’s tough love. You come here knowing you’re getting something out of it. I always say, ‘I can’t force you to come, but if I can get you through those doors, I’ll get you through the rest.’”
And come they have. Back on the floor, the members (or “cadets,” as they are affectionately known) are as diverse and varied as the neighborhood they train in. Old and young, athletes and hipsters, businessmen and laborers, they’re all here. In fact, the Academy itself is a like a snapshot of Bay Ridge, a place where the blue collar toughness that has for so long defined the neighborhood is beginning to coalesce with the PBR drinking, tattoo wearing, beard sporting coterie which has finally traversed the rest of Brooklyn to reach it.
“It’s all about community for me.” Esposito, who was born and raised in Bay Ridge said. “This neighborhood is my community. It doesn’t matter who you are, I want all people to feel at home here, and I want to be there when they achieve their goals.”
The Academy plays a big part in that community too. Esposito and his partners, Jose Cordero and Jerry Balistreri, contribute regularly to non-profits in and around the neighborhood, organizations like the American Legion, a local veteran’s group, and in support of research to battle diseases like Cystic Fibrosis.
As for Esposito’s own goals. “I just want to make people’s lives better through fitness. The money will come. Screw it… you make it, you lose it, who cares? I just want to make people better off any way I can. That’s the point, right? That’s badass. Everyone needs to feel a little bit badass sometimes.”
Bad Ass Academy
238 Bay Ridge Ave. / 718.759.9870 / badassacademy.com