Here’s a novel way to get people to exercise: Pay them.

That’s upshot of new research showing people will exercise more if you give them money, The New York Times reports.

For the study, researchers randomly assigned 281 people to one of four groups — each designed to get the participants to walk or run 7,000 steps a day for a 13-week period.

Those in the first group got $1.40 for each day they reached the goal. In the second group, the reward for success was entry into a lottery with a possible payoff of $100. Those in the third were given $42 the first day of every month, and had $1.40 automatically deducted each day they failed to achieve 7,000 steps. A fourth group received only daily feedback about their performance.

The findings, published in Annals of Internal Medicine, indicated those in the unpaid group achieved their goal 30 percent of the time, and the lottery and paid-every-day groups performed statistically no better, at 35 percent.

But the group paid upfront, risking a loss every day, succeeded 45 percent of the time.

The findings suggest that programs that provide financial rewards for exercise, such as workplace wellness programs that give participants a break on company health insurance premiums, might be effective ways to help combat the nation's growing obesity crisis.

“There’s a presumption that tracking your activity will help you change your behavior,” said lead researcher Dr. Mitesh S. Patel, an assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania. “But it typically doesn’t work unless it’s combined with behavior change strategies. Our study shows that the design of the incentive is critical to its success.”