App fines users for not exercising

Planning to hit the gym this new year, only to never go? A new web service could make you pay for that.

Two Harvard grads have launched a service called Gym-Pact.com aiming to get people to stick to their resolutions to work out. It promises users they’ll collect money every time they go through with a planned workout – and make them pay for missing one.

“Behavioural economics show that if you tie cash incentives to things that are concrete and easy to achieve like getting to the gym, it’s very effective,” co-founder Yifan Zhang told the New York Times. “People don’t like losing money and it’s one of the strongest motivators, much more than winning money.”

The basic idea is that the site charges users a minimum of $5 for each missed gym visit, then it pools that money and divvies it up among those people who do stick to their workout regimes.

The service is currently only available as an iPhone app, although it’s coming soon for Android and HTML5 devices.

Users set up profiles, where they decide how many days they want to go to the gym, along with a penalty for missing a workout. (The minimum commitment is one day per week for 30 minutes, and a $5 penalty).

And if you’re wondering how easy it is to cheat (or just claim you did the workout), it uses the GPS in your smartphone to track if you’ve been in the gym. There are 40,000 gyms in the database, or you can add your own. Check in every time you arrive at the gym, and the app will confirm your location. If you leave before 30 minutes, a pop-up lets you know your workout will be cancelled.