Workout Spots Wants To Be The OpenTable For Fitness

Workout Spots is hoping to bring the oh-so-popular “OpenTable for X” approach to the world of fitness.

The goal, as the name implies, is to help people find nearby gyms, and to register for classes at those gyms. The interface is pretty straightforward — you just enter your zip code, how far you’re willing to travel, whether you’re looking for a “spot” or a class, and in the latter case, the class type, and then you get a list of results. Each gym has a profile with basic information and a calendar of classes. If you find a class that you like, you can register directly from the Workout Spots site.

There’s also a social component. You can see who else is taking a class, and there are optional calendars, so you can see what your friends are taking, and you can also message people to try to coordinate classes.

It seems like an obvious idea, but co-founder Mike Stefanello says that the competition is “minimal” — basically, there’s MindBody. (Last month, I wrote about fitness scheduler FITiST, but that’s focused on boutique classes.)

Stefanello says he wants to create a user experience that’s better than MindBody’s, and also to build a single, centralized spot for your fitness needs. Plus, businesses that use MindBody or some other scheduling system don’t have to switch over — they can just create a profile for themselves without classes, or enter their class schedule to leave out the registration button.

I played around with Workout Spots earlier today, and the results are fine, if far from comprehensive. Businesses have to register with the service to be listed, so I couldn’t find the gym closest to my apartment in San Francisco, but I did find several nearby gyms and bootcamps. If you want Workout Spots to add a location, there’s a request button for that too.

The site is free for both businesses and users.