Training Mobs: Plancast for fitness junkies

If getting physically fit was easy to do by yourself, there wouldn’t be a multi-billion dollar market for people seeking help with fitness. It’s one of those things that is best done with support and motivation from others.

A startup based in Montreal is changing the way we workout through its new social planning service called Training Mobs.

Much like Plancast’s service, Training Mobs is a place to discover social activities happening around you, with a difference–Training Mobs is focused on fitness. Training Mobs aims to bring people together through group workouts and it offers its community a solution for both discovering and creating events called “mobs”.

Jogging, biking, hitting the gym and 8K runs are the type of mobs you’ll find on the site. Users are able to participate by “joining” a mob which will let the group know that you’re down for the workout. It also has sharing options that allow you to boast about your feats of strength on Facebook and Twitter. When you find an activity, you can additionally invite others via email and view the event on Google maps, the same deal when you create your own event.

The social parts of Training Mobs allow users to “follow” anyone within the community. It’s also possible to post on their wall similar to a Facebook. There doesn’t seem to be a news stream of your friend’s events although you’re able to access their activity through the “follow” list on your profile page.

We spoke with David Sciacca, one of the service’s founders, via email and he told us that Training Mobs was recently launched in Montreal a few months back. He said his team has started to expand the site by developing communities in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary and Halifax.

Sciacca shared with us that Training Mob will be part of a fitness panel at SXSW 2011, designed to discuss things such as ‘how online tools are helping people enjoy fitness opportunities together’, the main theme of Training Mob’s site.

Having a strong network of people to help drive your fitness goals seems like a total win. At times it’s hard to throw yourself off the couch but, with a group of people counting on you, you’ll be more likely to lace up your sneakers and man up. Please let us know what you think. Would you use Training Mobs?