AI-Driven Fitness: Making Gyms Obsolete?

A woman working out in a gym PHOTO BY JOHN ARANO ON UNSPLASH

Surprisingly, fitness just might be easier to achieve during a global pandemic.

At least, according to a recent survey of 2,000 Americans.

72% of us are finding it easier to maintain our fitness routines now, when we can’t go to the gym, than pre-Coronavirus. Almost half are using fitness apps for the first time, and 56% of people actually don’t plan to buy back into their gym memberships after the current health crisis. And a staggering 80% of men are exercising more now without access to their gyms than before Covid-19, according to data from Freeletics, an AI-based fitness app with 47 million users in over 160 countries.

If accurate, it indicates we’re getting more fit without the gym than with it.

AI is a big part of that, and so is human psychology, Freeletics CEO Daniel Sobhani told me in a recent episode of the TechFirst podcast.

AI and fitness

Machine learning and artificial intelligence is a major component of modern fitness programs, and not just at the high end. It’s not just machine learning guiding your workouts via the $4,000 Forme Life mirror or artificial intelligence optimizing how hard you spin on your $2,500 Peloton either.

It’s also dozens of inexpensive apps like FitnessAI, which says its algorithm has been trained on 5.9 million workouts and is “sure to out-perform any human personal trainer.” There’s AI Fitness Kiosk, the Vi AI-based running app, dozens of AI-based weight loss apps, and many more.

Freeletics doesn’t pretend to be better than a human trainer, but it does say it will learn from you and create a unique workout from over 3.5 million different options to optimize your health. 85% of the time, CEO Daniel Sobhani tells me, people like the workout the AI creates, rating it “perfect” afterwards.

And that’s important. Obviously, physical activity is critical to fitness and wellness. But how you feel about your fitness options and routine is probably even more important, since it will determine whether or not you continue.

And, in some cases, whether you’ll even start.

Because while AI can help us know what to do, human psychology gets us off the couch in the first place. And that’s where the no-gym negative might just become a positive, because according to the 2000-person survey, 65% of men and 55% of women say they are often intimidated when working out at the gym. That’s not great for mental wellness or habit retention. But 65% of respondents said working out at home alone — thanks to Coronavirus — has been a confidence booster.

One problem, Sobhani says, is gym culture.

“What’s the point in having to be fit before you go to the place where you are supposed to become fit?” he asks. “That was one of the real challenges before. So that’s definitely an advantage of being able to do this at home.”

So what does the AI do? Sobhani says it does three things.

Predict what exercises you’ll be able to do and want to do based on first getting a very short profile from you, then comparing you to Freeletics’ other 50 million users.
Create workouts out of sets of exercises while learning how you react and what results you get.
Adjust workouts based on available equipment ... because you probably have less gear at home than in your gym.
After using the app, “we know you better than probably you know yourself,” Sobhani says. At least in terms of physical capability. And that was true for him too, in a sort of Hair Club for Men not-just-the-CEO-I’m-also-a-customer way.

“What I really hated was that, very correctly, the AI figured out that my leg work and my leg muscles are like, let’s say a little bit underdeveloped versus the other ones,” Sobhani says. “You know this is what sometimes happens.”

Close up of a young woman learning yoga online from her laptop GETTY

Behind the curtain, the app’s AI works by taking input from fitness experts — a “human-augmented AI approach” — and adapting that insight, along with the constantly-updating results of tens of millions of users, to your specific exercise abilities and goals. To grow that abilities, the AI estimates what you should be able to do, and pushes you to achieve it.

“We combine causal inference modeling with data mining techniques, to generate this personalized training experience based on user source data,” Sobhani told me. “So the data that we get from the user and capability estimation … that’s really the absolute gist of what we’re doing.”

AI versus a human trainer

So how does it compare to a real human trainer?

In some ways, an AI-driven fitness coach can be better than a human trainer. It has access to more data, knows more exercises, and can track your progress more precisely.

“The great thing about using machine learning techniques to personalize a workout is that within given parameters, you can provide very accurate workouts prescription,” Sobhani says. “And you can have this change adapted every day: every given minute, you as a user decide that today for some reason I want to brief my coach somewhat differently, you know, more time, less intensity, different equipment, different type of modality.”

It’s also a lot cheaper, about the cost of a cup of coffee every week.

But there are downsides.

A real human trainer can employ more psychology: you want to impress your trainer, you want to not let your trainer down, and you don’t want to leave your trainer hanging if you miss a session. Also, a real human trainer can spot imperfections in form, perhaps caused by injury, and correct them in real-time with actual physical intervention.

Plus, communication can be easier.

NEW YORK, NY - MAY 18: Justin Wiezel works out on a Peloton high-tech stationary bike in his apartment on May 18, 2020 in New York City. Coronavirus temporarily shut down schools and gyms, substantially increasing online education and at-home exercise routines. (Photo by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images) GETTY IMAGES

“So if you have ... certain injuries or something aches and you really don’t like this type of exercise, and for some reasons today you just don’t feel like doing X, all of these things, they are very difficult to impossible to predict for an AI coach,” Sobhani says.

Oh ... and an app can’t spot for you on the weight bench.

Add it up, and Sobhani says that while an AI-driven fitness coach might be great for you 80% of the time, 20% of the time you’ll really benefit from a human coach. And that’s a model Freeletics is looking to offer at some point in the future.

Ultimately, it’s about getting results.

Using an AI trainer like Freeletics, Sobhani says, results in higher levels of sticking with your fitness routine than buying a gym membership. And whatever you do for fitness and wellness, consistency is the key to success.

The interesting thing for Sobhani is that Covid-19 changed typical male and female behavior.

“Typically what you see is that women have a higher engagement and interest in fitness and mental wellbeing and meditation,” he told me. “But for now, what we figured out it was exactly the opposite ... you had about 20% higher engagement ... on male than with female.”

In fact, according to the survey, not only have nearly 50% of men been experimenting with meditation, 80% have been exercising more for their mental health as well as physical fitness. Given that men were more intimidated by going to the gym than women, that might be a good thing.

Ultimately, whether it’s in a gym or at home, with a real human trainer, or an AI ... fitness and wellness take time and effort. There’s no silver bullet or magic solution.

“So very explicitly, we don’t advertise ... ‘five minutes per day and you will see incredible results within three weeks,’” Sobhani says. “That’s … a nice word for this is it’s not true if you hear anything like that.

form:forbes.com