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How to Stick to a Regular Gym Routine? Study Unlocks Secrets to Developing Habit

What motivates people to go to the gym more often? Emails, text messages and really small cash rewards

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Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images

The secret sauce for sticking to your workout routine includes just a few key elements, a large new study found.

The experiment involved more than 60,000 U.S. gym-goers who participated in different four-week programs that were designed by 30 scientists from 15 different universities in the U.S. The goal: Get people who are already gym members to go regularly.

The behavioral intervention programs, which were conducted from March 2018 to January 2019, included text messages, emails, e-gift cards and websites. Each included at least 455 participants. 

The features prompted users to make plans that included the dates and times they would work out. An automated system sent text message reminders before those scheduled times, and an incentive program awarded points for each workout, which could be redeemed for small cash rewards. The results were published Wednesday in Nature. 

Read the full story on NBCNews.com here. 

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