With the New Year come many resolutions about fitness goals individuals want to achieve, whether it’s losing weight, gaining muscle, or simply to live a healthier lifestyle. To aid people in reaching their resolutions Waterloo-based PumpUp recently launched its iPhone app to tackle some of the most common obstacles people end up running into, namely not knowing where to start and getting bored with their routine after a certain time period. The VeloCity incubated startup offers a personal fitness app that adapts and creates workouts for users based on a number of personal and situational variables.
Co-founded by Garrett Gottlieb and Phil Jacobson, the duo initially built a web app in May of last year to test out the concept and gain feedback which they then used to develop the mobile app. “[Gottlieb] was just really bored with his routine at the gym and he was looking for more, and that didn’t really exist in the way we envisioned it so went out to build Pump Up,” said Jacobson in an interview with BetaKit.
The app looks to mimic a personal workout coach, where upon download, it asks the user a series of questions relating to their physical dimensions, fitness goals, whether they work out at home or at the gym, how long they want to work out for, and the equipment they use or have access to. Based on those variables it creates a workout that uses animated images with instructions and includes everything from warm-up routines, conditioning, strength building, core exercises and more. Users track their results which then allows the app to better customize the workout and push them to reach their goals.
“Over time the app actually adapts the workout, so it ups and downs based on the performance the sets and reps, and eventually will integrate in new exercises and take out ones they are plateauing with,” Jacobson added.
PumpUp is available to download for free with the startup looking to monetize on monthly and annual subscription plans offering the first month at no cost. Prices range from $4.99 per month if a user chooses the annual subscription plan or $9.99 a month for a monthly subscription. It currently has a promotional offer for the month of January where the annual subscription plan is available for $2.99 per month.
There are already a wide array of options individuals can turn to in order to reach their fitness goals. Everything from Nike’s Training Club app that also provides a personal fitness plan to gaming consoles like Xbox and Wii which offer multiple fitness games. Startups like Teemo and Nexercise in turn are looking towards gamification and making working out social. BetaKit also covered Fitness Interactive Experience (FIX) when it announced its seed round to build out its massively multiplayer online (MMO) fitness game. PumpUp aims to stand out from the pack with a focus on personalization which includes its algorithm that better adapts the workouts to the user as they continue to interact with the app.
As for future plans, the PumpUp team will be looking to continue to build out the app by adding features as it gains feedback from its initial users which could include an extension into diet and nutrition down the road. It will also look to debut an Android app later in the year in addition to possibly moving to other platforms like BB10 and Windows. With fitness being top of mind for consumers at this time of year, PumpUp will have to prove that its personalization factor trumps existing solutions in order to gain any significant traction.
