Training and AI
Can ChatGPT or your favorite conversational AI tool help you design a great training plan?
Last night during the Super Bowl there was an add poking fun about OpenAI moving to advertising in ChatGPT (link at the bottom). That itself is a topic for another day, but it reminded me about the original commercial that inspired the parody.
A few months back I remember seeing this commercial for the first time, “Pull-Up with ChatGPT.”
With how connected people are getting with ChatGPT and other conversational AI tools, this one struck a chord with me. OpenAI clearly felt it important enough a topic to use it in one of their ads on TV. There certainly are many individuals interested in getting stronger, being in better shape, or just wanting to lose weight. I would imagine many of those individuals that frequently use a conversational AI tool turned to it to ask for help.
I love working with AI products as they have expanded my ability to do so many things. Strength training is definitely an area being impacted by these LLM-based tools, but the major shortcoming to the power and effectiveness of AI-generated workouts comes with a problem already seen in the fitness industry today—a lack of proper programming. We generally see a one-size-fits all approach to training, unless you can afford a personal trainer that works with you continuously.
The commercial presents a simple prompt and response, and ChatGPT provides the character a valid workout for pull-ups, but it ends there. He may get stronger at pull-ups, but with “Day 5 — Full-body strength (optional)” he is missing out on so much opportunity over those eight weeks of training. For a simplistic goal this demonstrates a great tool, but then what?
I spent time working on prompting ChatGPT and Gemini to generate workouts and plans, and the results got so much better when as I provided the right details in the prompt. You can generate a great short-term program, but value in the long-term comes with historical data and changes to your goals and requirements. When working with AI, context is everything, and that is where your historical data becomes particularly important.
There is so much possibility with the technology that we have to work with and I am having a lot of fun tinkering around with what is possible. I am already training my son as he prepares for high school baseball tryouts and working with AI has been an invaluable resource.
Feel free to reach out if you would like to learn more, or have me work with you to effectively use AI to help yourself get stronger, healthier, and train towards your goals.
Just a thought:
When advertising comes into play, how do you know when your AI tool is prompting you with something you need, or suggesting something its advertiser wants to sell to you? That is going to be an interesting question going forward as ads and AI begin to merge into our favorite chat AI tools…