October 2, 2012
Pumping Up with PumpUp, A Mobile Personal Trainer
The founders of PumpUp in the VeloCity Garage believe that combining technology and wellness can improve lives.
As health and wellness becomes a greater concern for society, it's important that our younger generation takes note and changes their lifestyle. Lack of exercise and an unhealthy lifestyle are leading causes of disease and mortality in North America and initiatives to change these statistics are extremely necessary. Lack of motivation, boring routines and costs of a personal trainer can be obstacles to a healthy lifestyle.
Enter University of Waterloo Computer Science student, Garrett Gottlieb (pictured left at left) and his co-founder Phil Jacobson (right) – they're making this change much easier for everyone with their app PumpUp. “Being a bit of a fitness junkie, I know how amazing the benefits of health & fitness can be. It boosts your confidence and enables you to do things that you couldn't before,” said Gottlieb. “The real barrier is in our heads; most of us say "it's too hard" and "I don't even know how to get there". Well, it's actually simple, and we're just proving that to the world. My goal with PumpUp is to improve the health and fitness of the masses, one workout at a time.”
While PumpUp aims to create long-lasting impact on the lives of others, it also addresses the University of Waterloo's key pillars, entrepreneurship. Gottlieb realized that there wasn’t an app that would take equipment, muscles as duration as input and output a suitable workout. All the apps available before Gottlieb starting scripting the app for his own use forced choices from a generic list or workouts, or forced users to make one up without any direction. Gottlieb realized that if his app worked for him, it could probably work for other people. Now in Waterloo's VeloCity Garage, Gottlieb and his co-founder continue to develop the app to makes personalized fitness affordable and accessible to anyone, anywhere. With the PumpUp app, you can build a personalized workout plan and learn exactly how to do it; PumpUp is like having a personal trainer right on your phone.
Its founders say that the very nature of PumpUp is to promote living a fit, healthy and happy lifestyle. Over half of North Americans have smartphones and they generally keep them with them while working out, so it makes sense to leverage the available technology to share a healthy lifestyle with the masses. PumpUp combines tech and wellness to help people achieve their fitness goals, but most importantly, give everyone the push they need to improve and stay motivated.
