Imagine no longer having to wait in line for a treadmill to become available at the campus gym. No more excruciatingly excessive delays or peak crowded hours to deal with, just an easy, enjoyable workout experience. That dream will soon become a reality thanks to upace.
A web-based fitness time management app, upace allows students to preschedule workouts and view real-time occupancy in workout facilities without even stepping foot in the gym.
The idea for upace was dreamt up by recent American University alumna Rachel Koretsky, a fitness enthusiast attempting to solve a problem she personally experienced while in school.
"By the time my junior year came around I always went off campus to workout. I was done with waiting 30 minutes for a cardio machine. I thought to myself 'this is crazy,' I'm paying all this money to workout but I have this free university facility I could be taking advantage of," Koretsky said over the phone.
Realizing that other students must be feeling the same way about wait times, Koretsky took the summer to travel and speak with people at more than 30 colleges and universities across the U.S. – those small like AU to Penn State-sized schools – to understand what problems, if any, institutions are experiencing with their gyms.
"What I found out was that a lot of universities experience the same frustrations as AU of long wait lines," Koretsky explained. "That's what led me to create upace."
Using feedback from students and fitness department heads, Koretsky was able to develop a clear, efficient and practical application that provides those who want to stay healthy with the resources they need to take back control of their workout goals. Users can figure out the best time to hit the gym by monitoring room occupancies, reserving cardio equipment and scheduling group fitness classes with just the touch of a button. The software also allows universities to analyze data that can improve the facility in order to meet student needs.
As for what Koretsky wants to accomplish with upace, she hopes her product "really helps students feel satisfied with their workout so that they continue to maintain a healthy lifestyle balance."
She doesn't just want to help the gym rats, though. "We want to get the average gym-goer to feel more satisfied from their daily workout and we want to get the person who doesn't workout encouraged, excited and motivated to start going to the gym," Koretsky said.
Upace officially launched on Monday in partnership with AU. The D.C.-based university will be piloting the web-based application, with a native app coming soon. Koretsky plans to expand to other universities over the summer.
