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I use AI in my business. I'm telling you up front because how I use it matters more than whether I use it.
AI is fundamental to how I work, but it doesn't build my programs. I do. What it does is consolidate the information and take my outline, the kind I keep in Excel sheets, and turn it into a clean, finished format.
AI helps me research, organize my thinking, clean up my wording and handle data entry. It does not make the coaching decisions, and it does not talk to my clients. Every program that reaches a client is written and approved by me. If AI gets something wrong, that's on me, not the software.
It also helps with my ADHD moments. I can talk things through with it, consolidate and coordinate information, build workflows and timelines, and have it ask me interview-style questions, so I can answer them and keep moving forward.
AI is going to be part of business, whether people think so or not. I'm a solo operator, and it's one of the ways I get time back without lowering the quality of what clients get. If it ever lowers quality, it's out.
Your First Step: If you're using AI for your own training plan, take the program it gave you and ask one question about every exercise: "Why is this here, for me?" If you can't answer it, the plan isn't finished.
The Breakdown
Where AI Fits in My Process
Every program I write runs through the same framework: the 8 Building Blocks, built around a person's meat and potato lifts, with every rep coached to S.S.I. (Setup, Stabilize, Initiate) and the Five Essentials. That framework comes from years of coaching, not from a chatbot.
Each tool I use has a job:
- Perplexity is for research.
- Sandcastles is social media research: what's actually working before I post.
- Grok is where I think out loud and organize. I have live voice conversations with it to bounce ideas around, and I've built personas of myself at different stages: beginner me, intermediate me, advanced me. I can ask what actually helped me at each level. Every morning it also reads each client's logged workouts, food logs, weigh-ins and end-of-week survey, and gives me a spoken-style synopsis of each client, no differently than an audiobook: leg day peak set up 20 pounds from last week, calories hit every day, weight down 3 pounds, no complaint messages, and the weekly survey says the left knee and hip feel off. It links to Notion, and when a client messages me, it flags it so I see it.
- Claude keeps my wording on track. I talk differently than I write, and it helps me keep the swearing and the rough edges out: dialed back, dialed in, professional. It also helps me scale my programs into beginner, intermediate and advanced versions of my own methodology, and condense or expand a program, say from 24 weeks to 52, from my workouts, methodology and parameters, in a fraction of the time. A beginner shouldn't be thrown in the deep end hoping they can swim.
- ChatGPT and Canva make things look clean: images and formatting. ChatGPT also relays things like code between tools.
- Notion keeps me organized alongside Grok. It connects to my calendar, and it's where ideas get captured and ranked. If I have an idea at 2 a.m., I record a voice note, and it becomes a Notion item I can work through later.
I may add Higgsfield later for video.
One Step I Hand to AI
In a client's actual program, there's one step I hand to AI right now: data entry. I write my programs in Excel. Once one is done and approved, AI transcribes it into Trainerize exactly as written. My instruction is literal: you are transcribing it, you're not changing anything. If an exercise isn't in the library, it puts in a placeholder and sends me a push notification. I answer, and it goes back to work. It runs overnight or while I'm with clients, and it has made next to no errors because I make sure the exercises are in there first.
By hand, one workout takes me 5 to 7 minutes to enter. One 6-week block takes me about an hour and a half by hand. That's time I'd rather spend coaching, when AI can do it overnight while I sleep.
This works because the decisions are already made. When something comes back wrong, I spot it fast because I know what right looks like.
Documents and Content
For my ebooks, Grok organized a stack of my documents, ChatGPT made them look good, and then I went through all of it myself. Everything has a purpose, or I remove it, and I make sure I don't contradict myself. Every post begins as a voice note from me. AI helps reword and format it, and nothing goes out until I've reviewed it.
What I Never Hand to AI
Anything client-facing. AI doesn't message or communicate with my clients. I've set rules: it communicates with me, not with clientele. Anytime someone messages me, they're talking to me.
- Substitutions. A client is traveling with no belt squat. AI doesn't pick a swap. I message them and ask what they have: leg press, hack squat, a trap bar? If all they have is a leg extension, I program leg extensions and goblet squats, and we get the best of it.
- Pain reports. I ask whether they've been doing their PT and recovery. If it persists, I send them to a physician who can get imaging, like an MRI, X-ray or ultrasound, and give a true diagnosis. I'm not a medical professional, and I'm not there in person.
- Program decisions. What goes in, what comes out, and when a block changes.
I'm not willing to give AI full range and autonomy. It doesn't have enough backing for that. It's a reference point, not the final decision. The human side of coaching is the accountability and the real-world application.
Like many coaches and trainers, I've had clients who tend to slip up around holidays and family gatherings, and their kids' birthdays most of all. AI might remind me that Jane Doe's daughter turns 7 this weekend, no different than a Facebook notification telling you to wish somebody a happy birthday. The message itself is mine, because I know her.
Before her daughter's birthday on Saturday, I sent a short video and a message: "I know you're going to enjoy yourself. I know you're going to have cake, so don't tell me you won't, and don't tell me you didn't. I want you to enjoy it. Take the time. Celebrate with the family. Cherish the memories. Don't treat the act of having cake as a punishment. On Sunday, keep up with your normal routine: your cardio and your workout. Remember that you still have all day to meal prep, and Monday is the start of a new week."
That's the rapport you want to have with a client. The reminder comes from AI. The message comes from me.
My Rules for AI on Program Work
- I control what AI has access to. I give it specific restrictions. For example, Grok can read each client's logged workouts, food logs, weigh-ins and end-of-week survey and summarize them for me. What it can't do is message clients or make coaching decisions. It doesn't get to wander. It gets access to what I give it access to, and nothing else. I read the summary and make the call.
- Judgment calls stay human. Pain, injuries, substitutions, block changes and anything that depends on knowing the person are mine.
- Time saved goes back to clients. The summaries and the overnight data entry are how I keep up with VIP clients who want feedback several times a day.
My privacy policy says the same thing: its Use of AI Tools section lists the platforms I use to organize and summarize what clients submit, and says they don't message clients or make coaching decisions.
Will I hand AI more later? Maybe, once it meets criteria I trust. Right now, while I sleep, the only thing it does in a client's program is enter what I've already approved.
Why I'm Telling You This
I'd rather be transparent than have you wonder. My rates are set on expertise, not on hours. When my knowledge grew, my rates grew with it. If AI saves me an hour entering a program, you're not paying for that hour. You're paying for the decisions that make the program fit you. If someone sells you a "custom" program that's a chatbot output with a logo on it, that's a cookie-cutter plan. I've paid for a cookie-cutter plan myself. It wasn't worth it. I know how that ends.
Can AI Replace Your Trainer?
You can go out and try ChatGPT, Claude or Grok, and use the free version or pay anywhere from about $20 to $300 a month for an upgraded plan. Can you have your own personal AI trainer? Can it do the job for you? It might be able to.
The problem with AI right now is that you still need enough knowledge to train it to give you the feedback you need. Can it keep you accountable? Can it interpret your data? Do you know where to look, or where to start? Does it? AI accountability is not human accountability.
That's what people have to understand. Just because AI exists, and someone has learned how to prompt it or operate it, doesn't mean they're getting value from it. The individual also needs to have a strong enough foundation of their own to judge the validity of the information AI gives back. That's the only reason it works in my business. I know what right looks like, so when something comes back wrong, I spot it fast.
If you still want to use AI for your own training, give it real parameters: days per week, time, equipment, injuries and experience. Cut anything it gives you that you can't explain. And if something hurts, see a doctor or physical therapist, not a chatbot.
Bro Science Check: "AI can write you a perfect program now. You don't need a coach."
What the Research Says: Researchers had GPT-4 write exercise programs for five hypothetical people with different health conditions and goals. The programs were generally safe and progressive, but not precise enough for each person, often leaned so hard on safety that they gave up effectiveness, and were only tested on a single exchange. The authors concluded AI isn't yet a substitute for personalized prescriptions from qualified professionals (Dergaa et al., 2024).
Verdict: Keep. AI can give you a reasonable starting point. Personalizing it, progressing it and adjusting it when life happens still takes a coach, or a lot of honest self-coaching.
That's why most people will never have success with AI training them, and why AI will more than likely never replace a human trainer, at least not in the near future. That's my personal takeaway.
If you're starting from zero, Strength Training 101 covers the basics. Next: Training on a Busy Schedule: The 3-Day Plan in 45 Minutes.