I keep hearing about a cellphone app called Gym-Pact that charges you a pre-determined fine for not going to the gym. It determines this by tracking your location, and if you do actually workout, you and other users who made it split the weekly fines from those who didn’t. Judging by the huge crowd at my gym this week that will ultimately thin out, this seems like a good idea for those who need a little extra motivation. However, since I’m already a regular gym-goer, I’m thinking of joining to make a few extra bucks each week. Has anyone else heard of this app? What do you think?
As a PT-related sidenote, this app got me thinking about patients being assigned exercises to do at home. The few times I saw a PT myself, I was always sent home with dozens of photo-copied exercises. They’d seem simple with the PT, but always seemed more complicated when I got home. I’d forget what the proper position was for each exercise or forget how many reps I was supposed to do. Sometimes the feeling that I was doing them wrong, combined with the half hour they would take to do, led to me just not doing them at all. In talking with other PT patients, this seems to be a common trend.
When I first started working as an aide, I asked one of the PTs why I never noticed anyone photocopying exercises for patients. He explained that rather than give patients a dozen exercises that won’t get done anyway, they try not to give out any “homework” at all. Instead they lead the patients through exercises during their twice or thrice weekly sessions and usually leave it at that. If doing additional work at home is necessary, they’ll give the patient no more than two clearly-explained exercises. At first I couldn’t believe it, but after seeing patients improving month after month, it really seems to work. Sometimes simplicity really is key.