–> Who: Yifan Zhang and Geoff Oberhofer, co-founders of…
–> What: …GymPact, an iPhone app that motivates you to exercise by paying you for going to the gym and by taking your money for skipping workouts.
–> How: Read this post, and learn more about GymPact.
Idea discovered on Greatist.com and story written by our own Sonia Chokshi.
Summertime is here, and everyone is scrambling to the gym to get in shape for theseason. The first step is so easy — signing up for a weekly kickboxing class, buying a new gym membership, dusting the cobwebs off that elliptical in the basement. But, why is getting off the couch and actually exercising so hard? Zhang and Oberhofer think the answer lies in our wallets, so they developed GymPact.
GymPact is an iPhone app that motivates you to hit the gym by simple monetary rewards and punishments. How does it work? Let’s take Sally, for example. With GymPact, Sally makes a Pact to hit the gym three times a week, and agrees to sacrifice one dollar for every missed workout. If she fulfills her Pact, she gets paid. If she doesn’t, she loses money. The more she commits, the more money she makes.
On the back-end, the lost money from those who break their Pact goes to reward those who fulfill theirs. Generally, users get paid between $0.50 and $0.75 per workout.
What do you think? Is money the answer to our fitness woes? Would you use GymPact? And most importantly, is GymPact a game-changer for our health and fitness?
Learn more about GymPact and download the iPhone app here.
