Incentives Matter

[A] new website called GymPact … promises to pay you to exercise — and charge you when you don’t. It’s both a carrot and stick approach to get you to the gym, which is often the toughest sell of exercise.

[A] new website called GymPact … promises to pay you to exercise — and charge you when you don’t. It’s both a carrot and stick approach to get you to the gym, which is often the toughest sell of exercise.

How does it work? You sign up on their web site, saying how many days each week you plan to exercise and what you’ll pay if you don’t. The minimum penalty is $5, but one user actually opted to charge himself $100 per miss, says Zhang. The site will ask for your credit card information, which is how you’ll get dinged at week’s end if you’ve missed one of your promised days.

You’ll also need to download GymPact’s free iPhone application, which allows you to check in at the gym, using your phone’s GPS…  When you check in, GymPact will verify that the location is a gym, yoga studio, tennis court – or whatever – and you get credit for that day of exercise.

Source: CBS News