Upace, a web app that brings together fitness and convenience, will be launched for the first time this week at Jacobs and Cassell fitness centers.
The app allows users to know how many people are using the fitness facilities and to sign up for equipment and fitness classes in advance. Students will be able to see the total occupancy for a given facility and then a breakdown of particular rooms such as the weight room, cardio room and studios A and B.
Upace will first be launched as a web application that can be opened on any type of browser on any web-enabled device. The Upace team are looking to then make it available as a downloadable iOS app a few weeks after its initial launch and then later as an Android app.
The idea for Upace came from Rachel Koretsky, who graduated from the Kogod School of Business in May 2014, after a frustrating gym experience as an undergraduate at AU, she said. Koretsky was often unable to use the machines she wanted, or she had to arrive for fitness classes far in advance to get a spot, Koretsky saidt.
“My junior year when I got a car on campus I just went off campus to work out and had a yoga studio membership outside of AU,” Koretsky said. “I thought to myself ‘This is so ridiculous, I have a free facility on campus but I’m paying all this money to use another person’s facility.’”
By helping students at the gym, Koretsky said she believes that she can also help them to get healthy, work out and, just as importantly, help prevent them from unnecessarily spending money elsewhere.
“My motto that I want my company to be built and stand by is that this is an app made by you, for you,” Koretsky said.
She further personalized the app for college students by interviewing faculty and over 100 students from 30 colleges about what the ideal app for helping them use their university gym facility would look like.
Assistant Director of Recreational Sports and Fitness Julia Avans, who has worked closely with Koretsky to bring the app to AU, hopes that this will benefit all fitness center members by streamlining their gym experience.
“We’re doing signups the stone age way. With this app, we can get up with the times and the ways people are doing things today,” Avans said.
Currently, students at AU’s fitness centers are required to sign up on a whiteboard for certain facilities during busy times of the day. App users will have the ability to book certain pieces of equipment or to share classes and invite friends to them. Koretsky said she plans to later add on more social media aspects to the app.
The equipment sign up will begin with a couple pieces of cardio equipment and then as time goes on the amount of reservable gym equipment will increase based on student usage, Koretsky said.
If the app-based signup system is a success, all fitness facility signups may one day be online, but it’s unlikely this would happen soon.
“Anywhere this app would go will have to be a gradual process,” Avans said. “You don’t want a member coming in and saying ‘I didn’t know that today we were switching over to 100 percent using the app.’ I don’t want any member to be disappointed.”
Members will be made aware of any potential changes that come with the app through the Fitness Center listserv, website, Facebook and signage in the centers. Additionally, all reservable machines will have a sign indicating that they are reserved by Upace.
Fitness staff have been trained since the beginning of the year to work with the app and help with any potential bugs.
As the site launches, promotional Upace water bottles and t-shirts will be given out on campus, as well as complimentary Kind Bars at the Jacobs fitness center on Feb. 3 and Cassell fitness center on Feb 4.
