Have you ever spent the better part of your day thinking about going to the gym, but not actually going? As much as we wish that could count as resistance training, it’s not the kind that can bring us closer to achieving our fitness goals. Trying to drudge up the motivation to lace those sneakers can be a daily struggle. People often pay for their gym membership, and then watch it atrophy from disuse - along with their muscles.
Yifan Zhang and Geoff Oberhofer are 2010 Harvard grads with a solution to help us actualize our good intentions. They’ve set up a business model called Gym-Pact that requires people to pay more if they don’t adhere to a previously planned gym schedule.
Gym-Pact rallies 20 willing participants, and then negotiates with a local gym to score a group rate discount on membership. As a gym-pact participant, you commit to going to the gym a certain number of days per week. If you meet your commitment, you reap health benefits at a discounted price. If you miss a day or two, you’re charged a motivational fee. The fine is meant to impel you to keep up perfect attendance.
The rationale stems from behavioral economic principles. It’s human nature that we are motivated by immediate consequences more than future possibilities. So knowing you’re going to lose 10 bucks if you don’t show to the gym is more effective incentive than the chance of your absence costing you a pound or two that may or may not creep up on your waistline insidiously.
I think they’re onto something. Right now they’ve worked out deals with Bally Total Fitness and Planet Fitness. I hope they strike up a bargain with my Boston Sports Club soon or I might just have to switch gyms!
Yifan Zhang and Geoff Oberhofer are 2010 Harvard grads with a solution to help us actualize our good intentions. They’ve set up a business model called Gym-Pact that requires people to pay more if they don’t adhere to a previously planned gym schedule.
Gym-Pact rallies 20 willing participants, and then negotiates with a local gym to score a group rate discount on membership. As a gym-pact participant, you commit to going to the gym a certain number of days per week. If you meet your commitment, you reap health benefits at a discounted price. If you miss a day or two, you’re charged a motivational fee. The fine is meant to impel you to keep up perfect attendance.
The rationale stems from behavioral economic principles. It’s human nature that we are motivated by immediate consequences more than future possibilities. So knowing you’re going to lose 10 bucks if you don’t show to the gym is more effective incentive than the chance of your absence costing you a pound or two that may or may not creep up on your waistline insidiously.I think they’re onto something. Right now they’ve worked out deals with Bally Total Fitness and Planet Fitness. I hope they strike up a bargain with my Boston Sports Club soon or I might just have to switch gyms!
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