How AI Can Help Personal Trainers
As weeks go by, I want to talk about how AI tools can help freelancers in various fields. Today, I’d like to discuss physical trainers.
The biggest problem physical trainers face
Before we explore how AI can help trainers, it makes sense first to examine the problems they face with their businesses and clients.
Keeping clients motivated
One of the biggest challenges trainers face is helping clients stay motivated and committed to their fitness goals. This can be especially difficult if clients are not seeing the results they desire or if they become discouraged due to setbacks or injuries.
Time constraints
Many clients lead busy lives and may struggle to find time to fit in regular workouts. This can be a challenge for trainers, who have to find creative ways to help clients fit fitness into their schedules.
Keeping social media updated
Between training sessions, admin tasks, and the pressures of running a business, it can be challenging to find the time to keep up with social media. The constant demands of the Instagram and YouTube algorithms can also be jarring to someone completely new to social media, making this an exhausting and intimidating task.
Finding a demographic
It’s easy to understand the problem physical trainers fix, but there are thousands out there that all solve the same problem. Trainers might find it hard to zero in on their niche, which makes it harder to curate content since they don’t know who they are catering to.
Keeping up with the latest research
It’s 10 PM, you’ve just wrapped up a session, and you only have a few hours before you wake up at 4 o’clock and start all over again. That hardly leaves any time for bedtime reading to catch up on the latest research and trends in the field. Things like fad diets can easily slip them by, and when clients recommend said diets for themselves during a session, trainers might feel out of the loop.
Explaining the science
Even if you are an avid reader and manage to keep up with the latest development, it doesn’t become any easier explaining the science to clients. Often, you need to find a delicate way of explaining why something is or isn’t happening, why the new fad diet is detrimental, or why a particular exercise is helpful for others but harmful to them.
These problems, more than anything, are due to the lack of privilege of time. This is precisely where AI tools can help!
How AI tools help personal trainers
Keeping morale high with clients
AI tools, such as ChatGPT, can help clients of physical trainers stay motivated by providing personalized recommendations and guidance. For example, ChatGPT can create customized workout plans based on a client’s specific fitness goals and needs and can provide motivation and support throughout their journey.
The same tools can even help clients stay motivated by tracking progress and providing feedback. These features also go a long way in maintaining accountability in clients.
Automated scheduling
It can be hard to pin down certain clients and get them to commit to a specific schedule. With many of us now working from home, it has become harder to maintain a set routine every day. For others, highly demanding jobs make it impossible for people to confirm a date and time to meet the trainer.
Trainers can now use AI tools to create customized workout plans tailored to a client’s specific schedule, allowing clients to fit workouts into their busy lives and ensure that they are making the most of their limited time.
These tools can easily accommodate last-minute changes too, enabling trainers to spend less time reworking minute details. The AI will simply rework the timetable itself and send clients notifications when necessary, reducing the time trainers spend chasing after clients and sending reminders.
Social media made easy.
AI tools can analyze a personal trainer’s social media presence and provide suggestions for new content ideas that align with their brand and target audience. This can help trainers save time and effort by providing a list of ideas rather than having to come up with them on their own.
In addition to content ideas, AI tools can also assist with scheduling social media posts, helping them stay consistent without putting in too much effort.
Trainers can also train the AI to engage with their followers in real-time, building a stronger connection with their audience and creating a more involved community of fitness enthusiasts.
Finding your demographic
It is essential for any freelancer to find a specific problem to solve and cater to the audience having that problem. There are thousands of physical trainers out there… what is your focus? Fat loss? Weight training? Nutrition?
AI tools can analyze a trainer’s social media followers and provide information on your demographics, interests, and behavior. This can help you understand who your audience is and what they are interested in, allowing you to tailor your marketing efforts and services.
These tools also analyze data from other sources, such as email lists or customer databases, providing a comprehensive view of your audience.
Keeping up with the latest research
Even if trainers are using AI tools to save time, there still remains the task of searching for, finding, and reading relevant research in their field.
Luckily, AI tools can actually provide personalized recommendations and alerts for new studies and articles.
ChatGPT, for example, can analyze a trainer’s interests and areas of expertise and provide alerts for new research or recommendations for articles and studies that align with their needs.
Explaining the science
Though still in its initial stages, there are AI platforms out there that can take text and convert them into video. Trainers can use this incredible tool to explain complex bodily functions to their clients.
Sometimes, it so happens that some trial and error is required to arrive at the correct meal and workout plan. The lack of results might therefore frustrate some clients. Having a visual explanation of why one method isn’t working but the other might gives the client a feeling of control and assurance while saving the trainer valuable time.
Move to AI
AI definitely makes you more efficient, but I don’t want to focus on how many more clients you can onboard. You can if you wish to, of course, but the point here is you can make the same amount of money per month while reclaiming time for yourself.
Personal trainers, more than anyone, know the importance of dedicating time to self-care and emotional well-being. With the time AI tools can save you, you have the opportunity to focus on your mental health, spend time with the ones you love, or indulge in a hobby you’ve wanted to do for a long time.
If you are more entrepreneurial by nature, you can use this time to set up a side hustle, too… although that should only happen once you have carved out time for yourself.
