My name is Andrew Nagda, I’m the founder of Iron Journey and currently a Sophomore at Bryant University majoring in accounting and minoring in legal studies. Above all else I’m just a gym-goer, I love the gym and I love challenging myself with new things, and I deeply believe in Kaizen, the philosophy that everyday is a chance to improve, even if just by 1% a day. Here is the story of why I created Iron Journey.

            On January 26, 2021 it snowed, which meant I couldn’t run on the snow-covered bike trail where I ran during the cross country off-season. Two days later I’d found an alternative and have been going to the gym consistently ever since. I have experienced periods of growth, and of plateaus lasting for months.

            One day my friend asked me to spot him as he incline dumbbell bench pressed with 50 pound weights. I watched him complete 12 clean, smooth repetitions. I asked him why he didn’t lift more weight; he was clearly strong enough from what I had witnessed. He immediately stated he just couldn’t; he hadn’t been able to push past the 50s for the past months. He didn’t think he could lift more. I urged him to try 55 pounds, assuring him I’d spot him. He tried, got 12 repetitions, again with perfect form, repping the weight with ease. I shared that I thought he could lift 60 pounds. When he did, and then managed 8 repetitions, he was shocked by how much more weight he could move when coached, and challenged.

            Iron Journey is a multi-faceted fitness app that challenges its users to stay active daily, pushing through plateaus when they present themselves. Once downloaded, the app asks what you want to work on and how experienced you are in fitness-based topics ranging from meditating to strength training. The app gives users a daily challenge: “Do 5 more pushups than you ever have before” or “Spend 5 minutes meditating, away from your phone.”

            Iron Journey offers a semi-anonymous forum where gym-goers can ask questions and answer the questions of others, users can share their successes and celebrate the successes of their friends. Iron Journey is a community that also fosters a home for competitive students with the use of a leaderboard system, to create healthy competition between friends and the populations of students at other colleges. The app allows for you to see which of your friends have completed the most challenges this month or see if your college is more active than your rivals.

            I have spent the last 5 months developing Iron Journey and have finally released it as a Minimal Viable Product (MVP). As of now, it can be downloaded on the App Store, and Google Play Store. The app allows you to join your school's feed with email verification and send messages to all other users at your school. You can also create new groups with your own friends. The app currently offers daily challenges for strength training and meditative practices, and keeps track of users’ daily streaks.

            Discussing the evolution and growth of Iron Journey with a mentor, they suggested I consider integrating bigger challenges within the app that users can enroll in. Challenges based on the UN 17 Sustainable Development goals, giving users smaller challenges, like “go vegan one day a week” to reduce carbon emissions from the meat industry, or “get a reusable water bottle, no more disposable bottles,” to bigger challenges like “Install solar panels at your house.”

            Iron Journey is more than a fitness app, it’s a movement that pushes its users to immerse themselves in a life of self-betterment; both physically, spiritually and socially. Through small bite-sized challenges, I have engineered a way of blending personal goals with sustainability goals, and pushing through plateaus to make the world a better place.