Fitness for geeks?

[pacefit]

PaceFit.com wants to erase the myths of the gym-class and bring the ability to lose weight, look great, and stimulate your mind to everyone through our online HD-video personal training.

Am looking for co-founder now. Have been filming, editing, etc.,and want to hear from anybody that would be interested in this incredible project.

[truebosko]

Why the hell does your site insist on resizing my browser full max when it doesn't need do?

Don't do this.

[pacefit → truebosko]

Excellent point. Will get this removed ASAP!

[aaroneous]

You need more pictures of girls, and less half-naked guys on your homepage. I'm totally serious.

[danielhodgins]

The value I would see in your idea relates to a niche you have created called "geek fitness" or perhaps "ambitness". The latter one refers to people that are so busy trying to excel in their field that they don't have time to think about working out or designing a program for success.

Setting goals, designing a fitness program, and meeting other geeks or ambitious types would be fun. Make it a way to meet new people, network, socialize, and get fit at the same time. None of that is possible online or at home in front of a DVD player. The value-added is all in the physical world- real people, real friends, real equipment. The value add is in how you address your chosen niche- as geeks, as ambitious young professionals. Trouble is, the people with money are baby boomers aged 45+. Then again, they just haven taken a 30% hit in widows and orphans stocks!!! Good luck, and if this idea doesn't work, start building the next one. Today.

[silencio → danielhodgins]

Make it a way to meet new people, network, socialize, and get fit at the same time.

But the question then is whether pacefit is worth paying for. Personally I've done exactly that at Curves without having to pay a "middleman" like pacefit to make it happen.

Maybe the appeal is meeting up with other geeks, but I do that all the time, and I don't know if that's the best matchup of people to go working out together. At Curves at least I know all the equipment and fitness programs are designed with women in mind. But how would you match up people online, even if they live in the same geographical area? You'd have a hodgepodge of gym memberships, interests, abilities, goals and more.

[mightybyte]

Your website looks nicer, but I can get more and better materials at http://crossfit.com for free. This market is already over-saturated with businesses trying to take people's money. I think you will find it very difficult to compete.

[pacefit → mightybyte]

We are a platform. Not a content provider. You are right, nothing new is ever going to come out of the fitness industry. It's pretty simple stuff. Yet people still under-sweat and over-eat.

See my responses below.

[mightybyte → pacefit]

CrossFit is a platform as well. It's a platform that has also created what is possibly the most effective system (and content to go with it) out there. They also have been experiencing massive grass-roots growth recently.

As a paid site, you bring nothing to the table for me personally. If you were free, I might be interested in browsing. But it would still be very difficult to top the current well-thought-out, well-tested, and still free online resources already available.

That's not to say that you can't bring something to the table that reaches a different group of people. In fact, I think that motivation is probably the reason there are so many players in the fitness industry. So be sure to view my thoughts with this in mind.

[pacefit → mightybyte]

I genuinely appreciate it!

[smap]

What about this is aimed at geeks? What about it is personal training in any way? It seems like your idea is to just give people access to standard gym training videos, nothing personal (or incredible) about it.

And what do you want from a co-founder? Fitness/business/online expertise, money?

[pacefit → smap]

There are several roll-out phases from Beta to complete interactivity. The training videos are made and digested by the community. Think of trainers as developers and PaceFit as the AppStore.

Being fit does not take a herculian or "incredible" interface, it takes the consumer being mentally stimulated in just the right way.As such, you need huge variety.

I could elaborate more if you'd care to email me: ferguson@pacefit.com

[smap → pacefit]

It's a subject I'm interested in but I don't see any value in what you are trying to do, it doesn't seem very well thought out.

[pacefit → smap]

It's very well thought-out, simply that I don't care to share, in a public format, every facet of the roll-out plan.

[smap → pacefit]

I don't expect you to publicly share your plan, I get the sense you don't even have one. You don't seem to be offering anything different than any of your competitors, except a slightly better designed website.

[silencio → pacefit]

Maybe it's just me, but I don't find that huge variety of boring things to do at the local gym appeals to me. You know what it took for me to get off my ass and actually exercise a little? Wii Fit.

[trapper]

Who are your major competitors?

[pacefit → trapper]

Great question. In the sense of online personal training videos - there are many. In the sense that we are developing a platform where fitness professionals meet users (think Threadless meets Current TV meets your local gym), there are none.

[mightybyte → pacefit]

The question is, can your users tell the difference? I didn't see one. It strikes me that yours might be a little more personalized, but that's about it. An online personal trainer rather than some ripped dude at the gym--although you are cheaper than him.

[silencio → mightybyte]

But said ripped dude at the gym can watch me work out and can give me personalized help.

Unless pacefit can give me personalized help, which is most and severely limited by the not-physically-present aspect, why even bother spending money no matter how cheap it is? I could just watch one of the many videos out there or join one of the many communities to network with other people.

I remember the first time I ever used gym equipment when I was a kid in my middle school's gym. Sure, we could all imitate what the teacher was doing, but it was pretty clear most of us weren't doing a good job of it, so he'd personally help us out. Especially for beginners the physical presence is more helpful than watching a video, even personalized.

[whatusername → pacefit]

so you don't see places like: http://www.burnthefatinnercircle.com/ http://www.ttmembers.com/ as being competitors?

What do you offer that they don't?