Be honest: how many times do you skip the gym in favor of a Netflix night in bed? No judgement here. I've neglected my own yoga mat too many times to count, but Netflix wants to change that for all of us.
Instead of having Netflix and chill nights, they want us to have Netflix and workout night — and they're using your favorite shows as motivation.
The company has released a DIY guide to make your own Netflix "personal trainer." The trainer is an activity tracker that clips to your waistband or to an armband and pairs with your phone. When you turn it on, the Netflix character of your choice will coach you through a workout. They'll give you encouraging comments if (when) you start to slow down, but if you slow down too much Netflix will pause whichever show you're watching. Talk about motivation.
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Putting together a Netflix personal trainer takes a bit of tech know-how — the list of materials you need is pretty extensive — so if you're not comfortable with coding or soldering, you might want to track down a tech-savvy friend who can help you out.
But once you have it, this personal trainer might just be better than the flesh-and-blood version.
While we don't necessarily love the idea of reward-based exercise — you don't need to work out to "earn" the things you take pleasure in — this could be a great source of motivation for some people.
As Netflix says in a YouTube post about the trainer, "If committing to exercise was as easy as committing to Netflix, you'd probably have Daredevil's abs by now." That's not exactly a lie.