http://xkcd.com/189/
Although exercise has its own natural motivators - endorphins, looking better, feeling better, living longer, avoiding disease, improving your ability at just about everything - these rather petty things pale into insignificance next to important things like experience points and levelling up.
Thankfully, a couple of dudes realised this and made this website: http://www.fitocracy.com

Basically, you log your workout in the site and you get points in return. Different exercises get different points, and various metrics like weight lifted, distance ran, etc, affect the amount of points you get.
The gameplay is still a little bare-bones, and a large amount of the community interaction consists of people sending each other pictures of themselves in their underwear and frantically eye-humping each other, but it's still fun, and everyone on there is really friendly: If you have breasts or visible abs, really REALLY friendly.
The adonises are only a small part though and there's a lot of average dudes on there. I'm on there as mcdumer, so if you want to add me and laugh at my pitiful lifts, feel free.
I've had an on-again-off-again commitment to the gym for years, and I'm finding Fitocracy pretty good at keeping myself motivated. Maybe it's a feeling of accountability, maybe it's just a Pavlovian reaction after a lifetime of playing video games. Whatever the case, it works for me.

That actually seems like something I'd like. Unfortunately for the last 5 or 6 weeks my left knee has finally decided it wants a divorce so I haven't been able to go. Now I'm sad...

It sounds neat but I also think social networks are the herpes of the internet.

It's all something I am considering, now that I find myself:

1) Without a job in a foreign country, with lots more free time
2) Living 500m from a cheap university gym
3) In need of better physical health. Since... forever.

Though, having been here for 6 weeks now, I still don't feel quite settled in to a routine of any kind yet. Still things to get done and finished, like residence permits, and pain killers.

I do crossfit which has a lot of the same trappings: community, personal achievement, measurable progress between workouts. I have found a lot of difficulty in tracking crossfit style workouts with any kind of site/app because each WOD is unique on its own. Sure you might be doing power cleans but right after handstand pushups or before a 400m sprint everything changes. You can't measure progress on specific exercises over time, only your ability to hit the WOD hard each time.

The results are so obvious it doesn't drive a strong urge to find some tracking system. You just feel and look pretty ballin'.

But I'd be curious to try and wedge it into something again. I might give fitocracy a shot soon. I'll let you know.

In Reply To #5
You drank the koolaid! I saw you mention doing Crossfit somewhere else - good work, man. I'd be tempted myself if it wasn't for all that filthy cardio you guys do. There are a few Crossfitters on the site, but I could see logging the WOD would be a real pain in the arse.

In Reply To #2
Coyote, sorry to hear that mate. Is it permanent or something you can get fixed up?

In Reply To #3
I can certainly see your point.

In Reply To #4
Fair enough Cyriss, sounds like you're in a great position to start the habit though. I've always found it a lot easier to start a routine when I've had lots of free time, and when it's established I can usually keep it going when I start getting busy again.
You've just moved to Germany right? The gym might be a good place to meet new people. Also, what city?

In Reply To #6

I think it's finally surgery time. Well, probably early next year. Hopefully it will last that long.

I have found that social trackers are... well... not so much fun. I track my runs on runkeeper, the app is pretty decent and it has gotten even better with the last update. They added workout plans.

It can be used to manually input other kinds of workouts, but I don't see how WOD could work.

In the end, I use it to keep track of my times and compare. But that's about it. Motivation, I believe is intrinsical, what keeps me going is the thought of running better and faster.

Yes, and it might be. The town is called Göttingen, it's pretty much in the centre of the country. I've actually lost a fair bit of weight since I arrived 6 weeks ago, just from all the cycling - you can cycle across town here, it's not that big. Back in Aus, I just sat at a desk all day for work, or drove long distances in the car, all while having fast food (well, decent fast food, not McDonalds) for lunch every day. Now I have gone back one hole on my belt.

Mind you, I don't actually have much weight to lose. I've essentially just undone the small belly I grew over the last 5 years. Actual mass-building type stuff at the gym could be hard, as I have the appetite of a mouse, but I could use more strength. Even racking servers at my old job was sometimes a challenge.