Offering people small monetary incentives to go to the gym does not work, according to a new study.

An investigation carried out by Case Western Reserve University found that there was no difference between two groups of gym goers offered different small financial incentives to continue their exercise programme.

For visiting the the gym nine times over a six-week period, participants were offered a US$30 (£23, €25) Amazon gift card, a prize item or a US$60 (£46, €51) Amazon gift card, while a control group were offered a US$30 gift card no matter how often they visited.

While incentivised participants showed a slight increase in gym visitation during the sixth and final week, they only made 0.14 more visits per week than those promised no reward at all.

The group promised the US$60 gift card also did not visit the gym more than those offered the US$30 card or prize.

After the first week of the study, 14 per cent of all participants did not visit the gym again.

“Maybe the internal motivation that gets a person to start a gym membership is unrelated to what drives them to earn financial incentives. What’s clear was there was no complementarity in lumping these two motivations together,” said study co-author Mariana Carrera.