How to use ChatGPT to replace your trainer, and why you shouldn't.

No, ChatGPT did not write this article.

Another January has come around, you're a year older, and you still haven't made fitness a priority in your life. You know you should - walking up stairs isn't getting any easier and even Milo of Croton couldn't keep up with your growing Niece. But exercise is complicated, trainers are expensive, and you know a month of getting nowhere on your own would just be a demotivating waste of time. A thought crosses your mind - if ChatGPT can write you a Shakespearean play about deadly bowel movements (you know you've tried it), maybe it can write you a workout plan? You rush to the computer, only to realize the quality of the output is directly correlated to the quality of your inputs, and again, you're back at square one. 

I'm here to help. I've been a trainer and competitive powerlifter for 15 years, and I can show you how to replace me with a Large Language Model, the limitations that come with it, and why you should think twice before hiring your new AI personal trainer.

Prompt #1: Build me a program.

You should have some idea of what you want to do. The more specific you can get, the better, as LLM's like ChatGPT love to give down-the-middle answers that often leave a lot to be desired. In this example I'll ask it to write a program that most closely mimics what I'd write for clients, so I can evaluate the output. I'll ask it to write me a DUP program, a periodization style that effectively balances training load and recovery that maximizes gains, and I'll include my schedule, and what I'm particularly interested in improving in the short term.

Build a daily undulating periodization based powerlifting program for a Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday split with emphasis on squat.

Promising so far. The plan described is daily undulating, and it even talks about progressions past the first week. The output leans descriptive, and I'm looking for something a bit more prescriptive, so I'll ask it to turn this into an actual workout program.

Prompt #2: Fix the formatting

What would that program look like?

Read the rest of the blog post at RepOne Academy