Personalized fitness app includes photo-sharing social network

By combining a personalized fitness app with a built-in photo-sharing social network, PumpUp's founders claim members are “more than 5x more likely to stay on track with their goals”.

We tend to be a little skeptical when we hear of “the next big social network” here at Springwise. It’s not that those efforts shouldn’t be applauded, and we were among the first to write about both Facebook and SnapChat after all, but it’s simply that in such a crowded marketplace and against such major players, the odds are, realistically, stacked against them. Increasingly, the same could also be said of fitness apps. However, there’s an ever growing overlap between the two, and with that in mind, we felt PumpUp — a fitness app offering personalized workouts alongside a built-in photo-sharing social network — deserved our attention.

Upon loading the app, users are requested to input specific workout goals before specifying any items of kit and gym equipment they may have available. The app then processes this information to create a personalized workout designed to help the user achieve their goals. Once enough sweat has been shed and the workout is complete, they can use the app to track weight loss and calories burned, and log the amount of time spent exercising and reps completed.

What really sets the app apart from the competition, however, is the photo-sharing social network. Other photo-sharing services such as Instagram are now awash with snaps of low-calorie meals and post-workout selfies. By incorporating a photo-sharing service into PumpUp, and encouraging uploads, the founders claim members are “more than 5x more likely to stay on track with their goals”. The promo video for the app can be seen below:

The startup, which has just launched out of Beta, was founded in May 2012 and has raised an undisclosed seed round of financing in addition to a USD 200,000 Angel round late last year. The app is available for both iOS and Android.

With the success of the app yet to be determined, how else could two services be combined to create one solution that stands out from the crowd?