Finding a fitness buddy is like dating - sharing similar interests with a partner at a mutually comfortable pace. Student Health Services is attempting to facilitate an on-campus initiative to improve health and fitness with a new online network that might match like-minded exercisers.
Fitness Buddies, a new online networking tool created by Healthy Carolina, is designed to establish a fitness community within USC. Its goal is to help establish fitness goals through encouragement and companionship.
Within just a week of its inception, 83 people registered on the Fitness Buddies site. When the site went live March 16, Healthy Carolina sent out 6,000 postcards to faculty and staff members, blasted e-mails to academic and departmental listservs and worked with the USC Times to promote the new program.
Like Match.com, Fitness Buddies matches users up with a fitness partner who shares a similar level and interest in physical activity. But unlike Match.com, personal information is more secure.
Michelle Burcin, director of Healthy Carolina, is a major proponent in creating a fun and secure environment for the USC community.
"I hate using the word networking because then everyone thinks Facebook," Burcin said. "But the idea behind this is to match up folks with similar physical activity interests."
Because of the skepticism about privacy associated with other online networks, Healthy Carolina makes safety precautions a top priority. Unlike MySpace, Facebook or Match.com, you must use a university issued e-mail address to login.
The Web site was designed in order to prevent non-USC members from logging in. Any personal information entered is only used for administrative purposes, in case of disruptive online behavior.
"All the communication comes through the Web site," Burcin said. "And that was very intentional so that you never know my e-mail address so I feel comfortable to give it to you."
According to Burcin, the project has been in the works for more than a year after Healthy Carolina came up with the idea and UTS built the Web site.
"We were the brains behind the idea and they were the brains behind making it work," Burcin said.
When entering the site for the first time, users login with their VIP network username and password, waiver their contact information to Healthy Carolina for safety and identification purposes and answer a comprehensive questionnaire. The questionnaire includes gender preferences for workout buddies and physical activity interests, from badminton to yoga.
"For instance, say you don't run at all but you want to train for a 5K," Burcin illustrated. "You can then search for people that are beginning runners so you're not training with someone who's a marathon runner."
Burcin said Healthy Carolina looks forward to some future additions to the Web site. There will be a navigation bar that will post upcoming events related to users' physical activity interests. E-mails will also be sent via Fitness Buddies for upcoming events.
If you're worried about being inundated with e-mails - no worries. Fitness Buddies expects to send no more than one e-mail per month.
"We don't want people to find this to be a burden on them," Burcin said.
Burcin hopes that the Web site will be a tool for both students and Campus Recreation.
"The nice thing is it will provide great information for Campus Recreation as far as where the strong interests are and if there are interests on-campus that we're not providing services for," Burcin said.
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