With the public soft-release of ChatGPT, an easy-to-use artificial intelligence (AI) program, I wanted to see how well it understood fitness. Spoiler alert: I was able to teach ChatGPT how to write better workout programs than most personal trainers – in under 30 minutes.
As both an athlete and professional coach throughout my career, I have paid dozens of coaches and charged hundreds of athletes for custom workout programs.
We all have different backgrounds, strengths, and weaknesses and react to training in unique ways. While a generic program can certainly see results, having a customized plan from a professional is a huge advantage.
But there are a few problems with custom workout programs:
- The number of coaches with the education and experience to make great programs are limited.
- Writing and adjusting custom programs is very time-intensive and, thus, very expensive. (Most professionally trained coaches charge over $300 per month for this service.)
Having an AI program, like ChatGPT, be able to write custom workouts could potentially solve these issues.
I taught ChatGPT to be my Personal Trainer
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If you have not heard of ChatGPT yet, you likely will soon. It is basically a supersmart version of Ask Jeeves that has extensive knowledge about almost every topic and can apply that information however you would like.
Want to learn how to clip in and out of a Peloton Bike as told in the voice of a 1920s gangster? You got it!
ChatGPT already has 1 million users within its first five days. This means it is now one of the fastest-growing platforms ever created. You will hear about it soon enough if you haven’t already.
To test how good ChatGPT is at writing a workout program, I first gave it several attempts at putting together a program. Unfortunately, the results were pretty poor, and the AI seemed fairly incapable of such a task.
So while I was unimpressed initially, I figured I should try teaching it how to write better workouts.
First, I laid out a few ground rules. Information about how to create better workout structures, rep schemes, rest periods, and how to adjust all of these for various types of people.
The results instantly became much better.
So I taught it more – rules about formatting, supersets, and how to adjust for a variety of factors given the complexity and load of a movement.
ChatGPT would make another attempt. It would improve. And I would teach it some more.
Within 30 minutes, I had ChatGPT creating four-week workout progressions that were honestly better than most I’ve seen written by many “internet coaches” you can find on Instagram or TikTok!
The future of AI in fitness
Now imagine, instead of me, you had some of the world’s best coaches teaching this AI. And instead of 30 minutes, imagine how good it could become over the course of a month. Or a year.
Now imagine that whenever a workout program was delivered, the AI was able to learn from the results given, both in the short and long term.
What sort of movements delivered better results for this particular person? What sort of volume worked best? How did their sleep, or did HRV affect their performance on a workout? How can a workout best be adjusted for this person based on these other metrics?
The implications of how an AI could quickly become better at writing workouts than a professional are fascinating. What blows my mind is that this tech seemingly is already available and capable of all this.
Do you think AI will replace coaches in terms of writing workout programs, or do you think a person will always be better? Do you think it’s a good thing that AI could provide a better service to more people, or is it more troubling for personal trainers whose skill set may now become obsolete? Let me know what you think!
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