Local Web Site Requires Members To Work Out Or Pay Up

BOSTON (CBS) - Exercise. We all know we should. Getting motivated is one thing.

It can be as simple as a New Year.

"First two weeks of January you can't find a treadmill. Can't find a machine to work on," says David Lee, group fitness director at Cambridge Athletic Club.

Staying motivated?

What drives Brendan Mulhern, who says, "Working out is going to keep you healthy," sadly, doesn't motivate most of us.

Massiel Deandrade exercises elsewhere, and her motivation is different. She pays a fine if she misses a workout.

WBZ-TV's Peg Rusconi reports.

"It actually motivates me, I stay longer because my wallet is important to me."

She's joined an enterprise called "Gym-pact." The web site calls it "Enforced Fitness."

Says co-founder Geoff Oberhofer, "You pay if you don't exercise."

"And people sign up for this?" I asked.

Oberhofer replied, "People sign up for this because they're actually saving themselves money by getting more out of their gym membership. Because as long as they go there's no penalty."

Here's how it works. A client gets a group rate membership at a gym-- then commits to a schedule-- and chooses a no-show penalty amount of ten dollars or more.

They text Gym-pact a password they get at the gym, to prove they were there.

"What we found in an earlier trial is this helps people about double their gym attendance from what they would already go," said Oberhofer.

If you're not quite ready to put your money where your muscles are, David Lee at Cambridge Athletic Club recommends classes, which are social, energized, and perhaps most importantly, scheduled.

"Classes they usually happen on a regular basis."

Which is often all it takes to make a good habit routine.