Runkeeper and GymPact apps let you earn money by keeping fit

Although we’re big fans of Nike+ Running here at Shiny Media, the RunKeeper app is hot on its heels at the moment when it comes to tracking your workouts, setting yourself goals and sharing your data online. It’s also a bit different to the current fitness tracking apps on the market because you can use it to monitor all kinds of activity, not just runs but bike rides, hikes and walks too.

Well now RunKeeper is set to become even more appealing to fitness fanatics and those looking to workout more, because it’s teamed up with clever money earning service, GymPact.

We first wrote about GymPact over on our sister site Connected Health when it first launched in January and although some may question the ideas behind it, it’s set to be super successful because users can earn money for completing their fitness goals.

At the moment you begin by downloading the app and then committing to a certain number of work outs per week. You then agree to pay money for each day you miss. Bear with us on this one… If you then manage to hit your goals you get a share of the money from those who didn’t.

Of course you can’t expect to quit your job and spend all day at the gym in an effort to get lots of cash. GymPact takes 3% of the money and most people do stick to their goals because of the incentives at the end. You also can’t lie and say you went to the gym when you didn’t, the app checks your location at regular intervals, so unless you want to sit in the lobby and pretend you’re working out (which would be very sad indeed) you should probably just get on the treadmill.

The integration of RunKeeper’s fitness tracking and GymPact’s money offering makes complete sense. This way RunKeeper users have an extra incentive to work out, hit their goals and use the app more regularly and GymPact becomes exposed to RunKeeper’s huge user base.

Jake Cacciapaglia wrote on the RunKeeper blog:

“Different people are motivated by different things, and we’re committed to providing a variety of ways to get you motivated towards being healthy, so you can find the ones that are most motivating for you. We know that real money is something very motivating to many people, so we’re interested to see what happens when there is real money on the line around sticking to your fitness goals.”

As an incentive to get people using both services, the team at GymPact is giving $5 to the first 1000 users who connect up to RunKeeper and track their first activity that counts towards GymPact, which is only available to US users right now. Wow, so even more money is being thrown at us!

Of course it’d be much better in the long run if you were motivated by the personal desire to be fit, healthy and happy rather than wanting to make a few extra pennies, but an app partnership between the likes of RunKeeper and GymPact might just be the kick start some people need to get moving and make changes to their fitness.

So do you think that a cash incentive is the smartest way to get us fit?

[Via RunKeeper]