I’m not disagreeing with anything said here and have read these arguments in many other forums. What’s not said or acknowledged in this and similar things I’ve seen is the fact that not everyone is in a position financially to hire a fitness coach or trainer. I’ve worked with trainer before. It’s been enormously helpful and if I could right now I would hire another one in a heartbeat. It’s not feasible for me at this time. Nor is a nutritionist or a life coach. So if an AI “coach” can provide me with helpful information and suggestions for ways to improve my health and fitness I’m going to take advantage of that option and the actual human coach I’m not able to hire right now is not losing his job as a result of it.
Health coaching is expensive. Depending on your budget and how much you are in need of help, you should get a coach, if only for a limited amount of time.
A minority of people can or will want to invest in coaching.
AI can be helpful in providing basic information, that you might use to build your own program. It’s just very challenging to do that and not get hurt, give up before reaching your goals…
Agreed. And your article was more balanced than many I’ve seen in at least noting the ways that AI can be helpful in lieu of being able to hire a professional. I have enormous respect for knowledgeable, trained and experienced fitness coaches and trainers. I’ve also had an extremely difficult time locating professionals who have training and experience working with someone in my age bracket and who has my particular health issues and challenges and who I can afford to pay. So for now I try to become as knowledgeable as I can about healthy and helpful ways to approach my own fitness. Not ideal but the best I seem able to do at the moment.
Like you said, AI can be good as an assistant, but it fails when used as a teaching tool. First and foremost, it cannot replace the social and emotional connection that a teacher and coach bring to the classroom/gym. Additionally, like you mentioned, AI relies on data sets, so it's not providing us the full wealth of knowledge and experience that a good teacher/coach has.
I haven't used AI for anything other than playful image generation, but I understand how it can benefit those of us in a field who know what we're doing, but need a little help with time management and task delegation. It's probably good for creating outlines of lesson/exercise plans, that we as professionals can then go in and tailor with our human-centered experience.
A huge benefit of a coach is having someone who will push you to be a little better, to achieve something. Ai is about as motivating and uplifting as a soulless machine can be. It’s not inspiring. It can’t provide actual feedback for form or show you real-world demonstrations.
"Consistent – No human error, no missed check-ins, no emotional bias—just a structured approach every time."
Nah, I wouldn't entrust AI with my health. For one, the response AI gives is different for each person depending on how you phrase your question.
Secondly, if you encounter a problem with the AI desgined workout, diagnosing the problem will take ages because you will be trying different solutions it recommends.
And without knowing your health status an error could lead to an irreversible damage.
I’m not disagreeing with anything said here and have read these arguments in many other forums. What’s not said or acknowledged in this and similar things I’ve seen is the fact that not everyone is in a position financially to hire a fitness coach or trainer. I’ve worked with trainer before. It’s been enormously helpful and if I could right now I would hire another one in a heartbeat. It’s not feasible for me at this time. Nor is a nutritionist or a life coach. So if an AI “coach” can provide me with helpful information and suggestions for ways to improve my health and fitness I’m going to take advantage of that option and the actual human coach I’m not able to hire right now is not losing his job as a result of it.
I agree with everything you say here.
Health coaching is expensive. Depending on your budget and how much you are in need of help, you should get a coach, if only for a limited amount of time.
A minority of people can or will want to invest in coaching.
AI can be helpful in providing basic information, that you might use to build your own program. It’s just very challenging to do that and not get hurt, give up before reaching your goals…
Agreed. And your article was more balanced than many I’ve seen in at least noting the ways that AI can be helpful in lieu of being able to hire a professional. I have enormous respect for knowledgeable, trained and experienced fitness coaches and trainers. I’ve also had an extremely difficult time locating professionals who have training and experience working with someone in my age bracket and who has my particular health issues and challenges and who I can afford to pay. So for now I try to become as knowledgeable as I can about healthy and helpful ways to approach my own fitness. Not ideal but the best I seem able to do at the moment.
Of course Dan, I have no doubt you will competent enough to do it by yourself, when you have a keen interest in the topics.
Thank you for your feedback
Like you said, AI can be good as an assistant, but it fails when used as a teaching tool. First and foremost, it cannot replace the social and emotional connection that a teacher and coach bring to the classroom/gym. Additionally, like you mentioned, AI relies on data sets, so it's not providing us the full wealth of knowledge and experience that a good teacher/coach has.
I haven't used AI for anything other than playful image generation, but I understand how it can benefit those of us in a field who know what we're doing, but need a little help with time management and task delegation. It's probably good for creating outlines of lesson/exercise plans, that we as professionals can then go in and tailor with our human-centered experience.
Nice food for thought in this post!
100%
It can provide basics, a framework, which needs adaptation.
AI might use the right words to push you, but I doubt they will reach you.
A huge benefit of a coach is having someone who will push you to be a little better, to achieve something. Ai is about as motivating and uplifting as a soulless machine can be. It’s not inspiring. It can’t provide actual feedback for form or show you real-world demonstrations.
What it can do is distract you.
It lacks many elements a real person/coach can give.
It might be ok if you possess a high level of motivation, discipline and you know what you do.
"Consistent – No human error, no missed check-ins, no emotional bias—just a structured approach every time."
Nah, I wouldn't entrust AI with my health. For one, the response AI gives is different for each person depending on how you phrase your question.
Secondly, if you encounter a problem with the AI desgined workout, diagnosing the problem will take ages because you will be trying different solutions it recommends.
And without knowing your health status an error could lead to an irreversible damage.
The level of helpfulness of AI depends on your own competency, but given that you are knowledgeable, you might neither need AI nor a coach.
So I agree, the lack of customization, likelihood of errors should be borne in mind when relying on AI Fitness coaching