AI in Fitness: How AI is Transforming the Industry

Artificial intelligence is rapidly reshaping how we approach fitness, training, wellness, and athletic performance. From smartwatches to personalized coaching apps, AI is making workouts more efficient, engaging, and effective. Let’s review the quickly evolving use of AI in fitness.

Benefits of AI in Fitness

AI offers a range of advantages in the fitness space. Benefits of advancing technology reach from the beginning exerciser to fitness professionals. AI in fitness offers personalized support and enhanced results by integrating technology across several key areas. Wearable devices and fitness apps track real-time data such as heart rate, steps, and sleep patterns to provide users with tailored feedback and insights into their progress. Personal training technology uses AI to deliver customized workout plans, correct form, and adapt routines based on individual performance and goals. In nutrition, AI analyzes dietary habits to recommend meal plans, monitor calorie intake, and support specific health objectives. Altogether, these innovations make fitness more efficient, accessible, and personalized.

Smart Wearables and Real-Time Health Tracking

Devices like smartwatches and fitness apps use AI to:

• Provide real-time feedback on movement. Developing smartphone apps are capable of monitoring and guiding users in real-time, providing movement analysis and feedback to improve form. While there are some limitations based on individual body structure and movement patterns, research shows promise in an app’s ability to improve basic movements such as the squat and plank (Chae et al., 2023; Haoran et al., 2022)
• Track and monitor data. Smartwatches and wearables can track nearly every waking – and sleeping – moment, to include steps taken, heart rate (during exercise and at rest), sleeping habits, workouts logged, and much more. This provides crucial information to guide programming of workouts and recovery needs.
• Interact with others. Fitness wearables help connect people with others by enabling social features like activity sharing, group challenges, and virtual competitions. These tools foster motivation, accountability, and a sense of community, making it easier for users to support and encourage each other in reaching their fitness goals.

Personal Training Tools

Use AI to provide you with a personal training experience. You can expect to see some innovative features:

• Create custom workouts based on user goals. AI technology can assist in creating custom workouts based on client goals, styles, and abilities, that can then be refined by the personal trainer based on conversation with and feedback from the client. AI analyzes individual goals, preferences and fitness levels and uses algorithms to generalize personalized programs to optimize results and keep clients motivated.

• Analyze client movement and form. Software such as TrueClient, Motion-IQ, and Kinetisense enables trainers to input video and receive analysis of movement. This is especially helpful for fitness professionals working with athletes seeking enhanced performance in their sport.

• Increase business efficiency. AI technology can be used to help streamline your personal training business, through automated scheduling and reminders, and identifying client patterns that provide opportunity for retention. As an example, some AI technology can recognize commonalities in client profiles that may indicate likelihood of repeated session cancellation or no-show, allowing you as the trainer to take preventative measures to offer additional helps to those clients before it is too late. And, AI generated copywriting and marketing tools can assist with creating blog posts and webpage content as well as developing targeting client outreach and marketing, allowing the trainer to spend more time on the PERSONAL side of training – establishing and developing relationships.

Customized Workouts

With the help of chatbots, training apps and other AI technology, you can create your own customized workouts:

• With the development of technology and wearable devices, there is a growing population of individuals seeking data-driven, evidence-based training, with workouts customized to their goals and abilities. AI technology can assist in creating custom workouts based on client goals, styles, and abilities. AI analyzes individual goals, preferences and fitness levels and uses algorithms to generalize personalized programs to optimize results and keep clients motivated.

• AI technology also has the ability to analyze vast amounts of data and consolidate it into patterns and trends to make data-driven decisions to maximize results with minimal risk. AI tools are capable of looking at a large number of programming variables, and adapting workouts in-the-moment as changes are needed.

Nutrition and Meal Planning

AI doesn’t stop at workouts—it helps nutrition and healthy meal planning as well:

• Programs like MyFitnessPal and Trainerize provide personalized nutrition recommendations based on individual goals, dietary preferences, and health conditions. Becoming proficient in these types of programs allows fitness professionals to assist clients in making nutritional choices that support their goals.

• These types of technologies also streamline tracking for users, making it easy and convenient to log intake throughout the day and monitor progress toward calorie and macro- and micronutrient goals. Many programs have a vast database of restaurants and grocery stores, allowing users to simply search for commonly consumed items or to input and log their own recipes based on ingredients.

• Finally, these programs can offer insight into nutrient deficiencies and suggest healthier alternatives based on individual preferences.

What the Future Holds for AI in Fitness

AI is reshaping the fitness world, making it more accessible, personalized, and powerful. However, the experience a fitness professional provides for their clients and participants is far more than a personalized workout and data and metrics – AI cannot replace the engagement, encouragement, and experience that a real trainer can. Despite this, AI can be extremely beneficial in streamlining and supporting exercise programming, for both the avid gym-goer and the fitness professional.

References:

• Chae, H.J., Kim, J.B., Park, G., O’Sullivan, D.M., Seo, J. Park, J.J. (2023). An artificial intelligence exercise coaching mobile all: Development and randomized controlled trial to verify its effectiveness in posture correction. Interactive Journal of Medical Research 12(e37604). doi:10.2196/37604
• Haoran, J., Karungaru, S. & Terada, K. (2022). AI fitness coach at home using image recognition. International Journal of Human Movement and Sports Sciences, 11(4), DOI: 10.13189/saj.2023.110419