‘I Let an AI Fitness App Train Me for a Month and It Was the Best Accountability Buddy I’ve Had’
In a world where artificial intelligence (AI) seems to be taking over, when I heard that iFit, a leader in health and fitness equipment (bikes, treads, rowers, and ellipticals) and content (fitness app), was creating an AI coach I thought, “Oh no, my days as a fitness instructor are numbered!” But can a virtual coach really replace the real live thing?
When COVID hit, just like everything else, fitness changed. What we were once doing in rooms full of people suddenly became a “me, myself, and I” experience. While some are still working out at home, many of us have returned to in-person workouts to get back to that personal touch and a sense of community. But what if you could combine the convenience of at-home workouts with a more personal feel?
That’s what the team at iFit hopes to do with its recently launched texting feature called AI Coach (which is currently in beta testing).
“Very simply, it’s the future of fitness,” says iFit’s chief marketing officer Mark Phillips. “We have some amazing technology and some amazing equipment, but actually one of the things we all need is that companion or person that is going to guide us, motivate us, inspire us, and be personal to us.”
AI is on the rise
iFit isn’t the only brand with their eye on AI. As we shared in our 2024 trend report, there are many advances being made with AI that are changing the face of fitness. Other brands with AI capability are Tempo (a resistance-based AI trainer), Alter (which uses your DNA and fitness mirror to create programming), and Tonal (an at-home gym).
The goal isn’t to replace actual personal trainers. iFit hopes to have your trainer program your workout through their system, a sort of middle ground between a written plan and the expense of a personal trainer.
John Peel, CPT, a master trainer at iFit, says he wasn’t quite sure what to think when they announced AI Coach to the team.
“There was kind of this deep concern for all of us when it first came out. Especially on the iFit platform, it was like, ‘What is this going to mean for our future?’ But the more you dive into it and see what it really is and how it’s implemented, it’s by no means trying to replace trainers, it’s really to add value to trainers and give them that resource of convenience.”
Fitness needs real people, Phillips says, “because we are good at getting each other to work hard, but your trainer can’t be there all the time.” So iFit found a way to fill in the gaps.
AI coaching can be a great tool—but within context, if in person coaching is not available, says certified personal trainer Jesse Grund, CPT.
“First off, AI, like ChatGPT, is going to take a collection of information in a subject available to spit out a workout program for you. That program, though, will not be individual to you and consider the factors of human motivation in putting together that program,” he says. “Second, fitness coaching is nuanced. What may look like poor form to AI may be a position that’s specific to pain for a person or a performance-based position for an athlete. The degree of variability is vastly personal, and current AI can’t keep up with the nuances an experienced in-person coach can provide.”
One of the reasons people struggle to work out is because they aren’t sure what to do and they don’t have the motivation, but iFit’s AI Coach aims to alleviate those challenges. Phillips believes making an AI scheduler is easy, but what iFit has created— which is something that can respond to you on an individual level—is harder.
“What we bring is personalized fitness through the intelligent use of technology, and the whole point is to get you the results you want. It’s absolutely not replacing anybody, but will complement them,” he says. “It’s designed to make sure you’re accountable.”
I do see a world where AI and in-person training can coexist and benefit each other. Humans will always be needed in this space, but AI assistance can be a good addition.
How iFit’s AI Coach actually works
AI Coach is an interactive texting platform that allows you to program your workouts using the iFit-enabled products (tread, bike, rower, or elliptical). Or, it can create any other type of workout you want, just by telling it what you want to do. For example, if you want to run outdoors or lift weights in the gym, it can create a program for you.
AI coach is available for iFit Train (phone and tablet users) and iFit Pro members with Nordictrack or ProForm equipment, and current members can sign up at iFit AI Coach. AI coach is included in the price of your iFit membership (a Train membership is $15 per month and a Pro membership is $39 per month).
The AI coach will ask you your goals and what equipment you have, and will help you create a program based off that information. Once it has that information, it’ll text you your programming along with encouragement that’s completely tailored to you. Want it to text you more emojis or a motivational speech? Just ask!
Peel believes AI Coach can make trainers and AI a team. It’s not which one is better, but how they can work together. “It can shoot out a program, we can oversee it and make out critiques to it, and that’s where the collaboration comes in,” he says. This could be suggesting you do one of the workouts on your iFit equipment, or designing a gym workout for you. AI Coach can also do the job of sending out those motivational texts daily, as your human trainer may not have the time to do so—especially if they have a lot of clients.
Phillips and his team have worked to solve the behavioral piece of fitness, so they tried to look at people more holistically—even adding some water and nutrition goals. “A lot of the development we’ve done on the AI side is really thinking about, ‘What is our motivational journey that’s going to create habit forming fitness?’ For me, this is the failure point of fitness so far. We’ve tried to provide you a solution without the behavioral change to create a habit. That’s why this technology is incredibly powerful,” Phillips says.
My take on iFit’s AI Coach
Personally, I found the behavior change Phillips references to really work because as I tested “Tailor” (yes, I asked the system if it had a name), I became beholden to it. I truly felt like I had an accountability partner, and I actually felt a bit bad when I didn’t do the bike workouts it had scheduled for me (I have a NordicTrack, which uses the iFit interface). I realized I wanted to make it proud. I’m someone who’s motivated by external validation, so getting a text message from Tailor every time I finished a workout made me feel really good about myself.
AI Coach isn’t quite to the point where you can set it and forget it. You do still need to have some input. During my testing, it would tell me I had a workout scheduled for a day I actually had a rest day. When I would text it back reminding it of my rest day, it would fix the error, but it did this a few times.
Ultimately, working with an AI coach didn’t replace my experiences with in-person classes I took while I was testing it—but it did enhance them. On the days I didn’t have someone guiding me through my workouts in person, I did have the reminder to exercise, which kept me consistent. I do see a world where AI and in-person training can coexist and benefit each other. Humans will always be needed in this space, but AI assistance can be a good addition.