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08th May 2016

This new app plans to pay you money to get fit

Ben Kenyon

It can be so hard finding the motivation to get fit.

But what if we told you there was a way that you could do it by earning rewards and potentially even getting paid?

If someone was willing to give us cash to get off the sofa and get running, cycling or doing weights you wouldn’t be able to keep us out of the gym.

A new app is planning to do just that – and best of all it’s free.

Sweatcoin offers smartphone users rewards to incentivise exercise and tracks your fitness by measuring your movement and location using standard iOS device tools.

Right now you can earn ‘sweatcoins’ – which are rewards in the form of classes, coupons and even products like Kymira infra-red clothing and Vivobarefoot running shoes, The Next Web reports.

But if the app proves successful then the next step is to make the sweatcoins redeemable for actual cash.

“This whole business is pegged to making movement valuable,’ said co-founder Oleg Formenko.

‘Eventually, sweatcoin is going to have a rate of exchange tied to the British pound.”

Sweatcoin hope to get insurers or employers to buy the digital currency as an incentive to keep their customers and their workers fit.

It could mean significant savings for companies and insurers as people become fitter, more active and healthy.

But before you decide to strap your iPhone to a moving car or your pet dog, there are some built in anti-cheating measures to ensure that you’re actually moving and exercises and not taking the p*ss.

The app is expected to be out on Android in the next few months.

This article originally appeared on JOE.co.uk