A Wallet-Punishing Workout

A Boston company has unveiled a new program to incentivize exercise by charging you extra for each scheduled work-out that you miss. Now, before you start howling that exercise is anathema to geekery, pause for a moment and think of how deliciously psychological the scheme produced by GymPact really is.

As a member, if you successfully fulfill your commitment, you enjoy great discounts on a fitness membership that you actually use.  If you fall short of your commitment, a motivational fee is charged for each day missed that week to motivate you to get back on the fitness track.

“Motivational fee?” Never has fitness sounded so Orwellian — or so effective. As the creators of the program told The Next Web, and any honest soul would agree, that “people are more motivated by immediate consequences than future possibilities.”

Speaking as someone with about as much self-control as a house fire, this idea does sound appealing. It’s especially clever since after each successful workout, you’ll not only have the endorphin high from punishing yourself on the elliptical machine but you’ll feel like you’re beating the system by saving money. Double high! Now that’s something I can get behind.

(GymPact via The Next Web, image via hotelcasavelas2)

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Max Eddy