ChatGPT is one of the most exciting new toys on the internet.
Ask it for just about anything that can be produced in written form, andit will oblige.
Which means that, among many other things, people are using it to generate workout programs.
So how do they stack up?
I brought the robots advice to my garage gym to find out.
In the process, it misunderstood me, lied to me, and gave me hilariously terrible advice.
To be fair, it also managed to give me one kind of OK workout.
How can ChatGPT write a workout?
Its job is not toknowthings; its job is to generate text that makes itlooklike it knows things.
It is an expert bullshitter.
If you catch it in a lie, it will deliver a perfectly bland non-apology.
Have you ever used the predictive text on your phones keyboard just to see what it would say?
It doesnt say anything particularly smart or insightful, but it can put words together into somewhat plausible sentences.
ChatGPT is basically that, but bigger.
Or in other words: ChatGPT is not writing workouts.
It is generatingtext that looks likea workout.
Lets see how it goes!
Warming up
I first asked ChatGPT for a five-minute warmup to do on an indoor bike.
It gave me a five-step warmup, with some of the steps lasting more than one minute.
In step two, I was supposed to stand up on the pedals to help engage different muscle groups.
It did not say whether I was ever supposed to sit back down.
Remember to adjust the intensity of the warmup based on your fitness level and the workout you have planned.
Ill be editing out that fluff for the remainder of this post.
I just want you to know that ChatGPTs writing style makes me want to slap it.
Anyway, thatisa warmup.
I wrote it down on a fresh sheet of notebook paper.
Maybe some swings or some clean-and-press.
This makes no sense.
Nevermind that 2+8+2 is not 10it also does not take two minutes to do 10 goblet squats.
Something fun and creative.
Three exercises maximum, make em good.
Im too busy being impressed by the flips.
What is a half-moon swing?
I googled, and only found a half moon exercise that is nothing like a swing.
So I asked it for instructions.
Swing the kettlebell back between your legs, keeping your arms straight and your gaze forward.
Drive your hips forward, straightening your legs and swinging the kettlebell up to chest height.
Alternate sides for each rep, continuing for 30 reps in total.
So it starts with two hands…and then goes to one side…Im not getting it.
I tell the bot: I think you just made up the half-moon swing.
It doesnt sound possible.
And it said:
My apologies, you are correct.
The Kettlebell Half-Moon Swing is not a commonly recognized kettlebell exercise and could potentially be hazardous if performed improperly.
I apologize for the confusion and for any inaccuracies in my previous response.
which are three words that I am sure have never been uttered together.
He says he might try it someday.
It gets (steals?)
It said something that, while not original, fits the bill quite well: Kettlebell tabatas.
Kettlebell swings: 20 seconds of work, followed by 10 seconds of rest, repeated for 4 rounds.
Repeat for 20 seconds, then rest for 10 seconds.
Repeat for a total of 4 rounds.
This is a mini version, with kettlebell swings replacing the cycling.
Thats six total minutes, which allows me an extra two minutes of rest between each chunk.
It gets a better idea
My husband wandered in at this point.
He suggested I ask it for a drinking game that I could do with a protein shake.
Its important to maintain responsible and safe behavior when consuming any key in of drink.
So, of course, this was the perfect challenge.
I wrote it down on my workout sheet, right under the bike warmup.
With my interpretation its basically a kettlebellwindmill.
I might fall on my face.
Exactly the kind of challenge Im looking for.
Maybe its on to something
On a lark, I asked it for a grip workout.
Towel pullups or hangs, where you drape a towel over the bar.
These are tough but good!
Intrigued, I asked it for another quick grip workout, and another, and another.
It didnt start repeating exercises until the fifth one.
Hey, nice work, bot!
How the workout actually went
So I did the five minutes on the bike.
Then I did the mini tabatas.
Fortunately, these weights were easy enough that I did not end up puking up my protein shake.
(Im not really a yoga person, OK?)
The triangle/windmill went fine.
The chair pose, basically an overhead squat, I struggled to do with straight arms.
I think it would work well with a pair of dumbbells, though.
And finally, I didnoteat dirt on the kettlebell plank taps.
Proud of myself there.
I finished with the grip work.
These exercises went fine until I realized the towel pullups camelast.
I managed two reps on most of the sets, and thought that was pretty good.
Ill do this grip workout again, but Im swapping the order.
It is not a substitute for real programming
So could ChatGPT replace a trainer?
Oh god, not even a little.
Generating the workouts was a bit like asking a child for brainstorming help.
For example, the bike workout wants you to start out slow, with low resistance.
When resistance is low, you actually want faster legs.
And for the kettlebell exercises, it couldnt give any useful recommendations on the weights to use.
All the credit for going light enough not to puke belongs to me.
These are essentially tweaks to the text that ChatGPT generates.
Not exactly a high bar to clear.
I asked the bot to put together some simple programs, and it failed every test.
First, how about a meet prep block for somebody about to do a weightlifting competition?
Coaches will debate the finer points, but I was willing to accept anything in the right ballpark.
So what did ChatGPT give me?
The exact opposite of that.
Instead of cutting out unnecessary lifts, it programmed deadlifts at 90% (in sets of five!)
If I did that before a meet, my coach would kill me.
Would it do any better with, say, a marathon program?
It expects an intermediate runner to do athirty-four milerun two weeks out.
The result was not pretty.
Do AI workouts have a future?
So does something like ChatGPT have a future in the world of fitness?
I would say yes, but not to design workouts or apply training knowledge.
ChatGPT was just taught how to write text.
These systems dedicate much of their logic to fatigue management; ChatGPTcompletely ignoresfatigue management.
If a generated workout sucks, ask it for something else.
