As the calendar flips over to a new year, it's common for gyms to become busy with new members hopping aboard the fitness train.
This year, however, there's something new coming down the track. With 2024 giving way to 2025, gym goers are increasingly looking to artificial intelligence for help pursuing their health goals.
Jon Boldireff, who owns Bold Fitness Training in St. Albert, has been a personal trainer for 12 years. He keeps an eye on trends sweeping the industry, and although fads mostly come and go, some stick around long enough to become worth trainers' attention.
Technology and AI have taken a grip on many industries, and fitness is no different. What started with wearable tech like smart watches and heart rate monitors has given way to full programs like Fitness AI and Planfit, an AI-powered training app up to help people create personalized workout plans.
But whatever tools they use, Boldireff hopes people just get active and move around.
"I think whatever gets people moving is good," Boldireff said. "There's positives and negatives to everything, but overall I just want people to move, and whatever gets them doing that is fine."
Boldireff understands a personal trainer might not be financially feasible for everyone, and thinks that whatever introduces people to the world of fitness is good in the long run.
"Everyone's motivated by different things and finding something that you actually enjoy doing is the most important part," he said. "If you think the AI stuff is cool and you're going to give it a shot, and if all of a sudden you like the workouts that are being built for you, then fantastic."
Robin Mungall, a personal trainer since 2003, is keeping an eye on the trend, and even uses it to assist him in his business.
"I spent about six weeks implementing my system, like how I train clients, into it," he said. Despite his own use, he is still tempering his expectations of what it can do and sees it more as a complementary tool than a replacement for personal trainers.
"The one thing about AI is obviously you don't get the personal touch, they can't see you in real time," Mungall said. "It doesn't correct on the fly too. It doesn't always know a personalized strategy because using AI requires you to ask the right questions and the average person probably can't ask the right questions because they don't know what questions to ask."
Mungall isn't the only one who questions the impact AI might have on the personal nature of fitness training. Jessica Rose has been a trainer for about eight years, and said personal interaction with clients is a big reason she got into the industry.
"One of the reasons I got into personal training is because it provides that one-on-one personal service, so I'm able to see and I'm watching my clients the entire time," she said. "So when or if something is out of alignment or there's a muscular imbalance, or somebody twisted something a certain way, we can make those immediate corrections."
"With AI it's more challenging of course, because there's nobody actually watching you, right? So those are all guided programs and they explain to the person that's doing the fitness how it should be done. But that doesn't necessarily mean that it's actually getting done that way," she said. "There are hazards to it."
Despite the industry seeming to move in this direction, Boldireff doesn't see it as much of a threat to his job.
"I like to say you've got to put the personal in personal trainer. You've got to check in on people and build relationships and that's part of keeping people accountable," he said. "If that's going to get people more into the world of exercise, then I think it's only a good thing."
