Guavapass and the furious
MANILA, Philippines - Have you ever been so passionate about something that your friends literally beg you to stop talking about it every time you meet up? Guavapass had that effect on me. Over the span of a month of using the app, I already got seven people to sign up. I’m like the social media influencer that nobody wanted.
It started with a simple question. “Where do you do yoga?” my friends asked me. For the longest time, I’ve been doing home practice because I’m too lazy to go to the gym or an actual studio. A yoga membership also costs an arm and a leg, so already it’s a hard sell. Traffic is terrible, and changing into cute workout clothes is also a hassle, so I do my shavasanas and chaturangas in my pambahay.
“Isn’t that dangerous?” my friends ask me. Yes, I know that doing chakrasana without any supervision can be bad for your back. But in my head, signing up for a yoga membership is still more expensive than potentially paying thousands of pesos in hospital bills for a broken spine. Stupid, right?
It was only after a friend of mine gave me a wakeup call and I stopped doing home practice. Actually, I stopped doing yoga completely, until Guavapass came along.
Some people find true love on Tinder; I found mine through a Facebook ad. It looked like a great deal: P2,999 a month for unlimited fitness classes? Yes, please! As soon as I signed up through the app, I already booked four classes in a week. I did the math: if a single yoga class costs P700, I need to do four yoga classes to get my money’s worth. And that I did.
Guavapass has a lot of partner establishments in Metro Manila. Even though I signed up only for yoga, I was able to try different classes. In one month, I already took classes in Beyond Yoga, Urban Ashram, Saddlerow, Elorde and CrossFit MNL, to name a few. More unconventional fitness classes like trapeze, fencing, Pilates and aerial silk are also worth checking out.
What I love about it is that it’s very friendly to freelancers like me. You can filter all the workout classes by location, type of activity and time. If you have a meeting in BGC, you can easily book a spin class or Muay Thai session on the same day. Class cancellations are also okay as long as you make it to the cutoff (otherwise you have to pay P300 as a cancellation fee).
A lot of people underestimate the power of an app when it comes to workout motivation. Guavapass is a tool to get you off your butt and lead a more organized life. It will actually force you to write down a schedule and stick to it. After a month, I gained a few CrossFit friends (people were right, they’re the friendliest) and did the impossible: I became a morning person. Guavapass is like a discipline trainer, manager and best friend all merged into one beautiful app. If that’s not enough to get you to sign up, I don’t know what is.
