From the Freakonomics blog:
A lot of people who join gyms or health clubs find it very easy to stop going. Gym-Pact, a new program in Boston, aims to change that. “Gym-Pact offers what [co-founder Yifan] Zhang calls motivational fees: customers agree to pay more if they miss their scheduled workouts, literally buying into a financial penalty if they don’t stick to their fitness plans,” explains Susan Johnston of The Boston Globe... Currently, participants are fined $25 if they fail to follow the schedule in any given week."This is super-dumb. Why? Find out over at The Five Tribe.
