How to use AI as a personal trainer

Why AI is becoming commonplace in the fitness industry

AI has become a pivotal tool in helping fitness professionals achieve that work-life balance. From automating routine tasks to providing personalised data analysis, AI allows coaches to focus on more human-centered aspects of their profession.

Effectively using AI isn't just about using these tools—it's about knowing how to prompt them correctly for optimal results.

How to build effective AI prompts

Using AI effectively isn’t as simple as typing a vague instruction and expecting a perfect outcome. The key to making AI truly useful is in how coaches craft their prompts. While it’s tempting to type out a request such as "write me a motivation strategy," this broad request is unlikely to deliver anything truly personalised or valuable for specific client needs.

Instead, you need to structure prompts with a mix of key statements and specific details about your training methodology, client demographics, brand tone and goals. This ensures that the AI delivers tailored responses that resonate with the unique needs of their clients.

Examples of good vs. bad prompts

Let’s break it down with a quick table illustrating what not to use and what to use when working with AI:

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By providing a more detailed prompt, you will receive a response that's specific to your client’s situation. The more context you give the AI, the more actionable and tailored the advice will be.

General prompts vs. industry-specific prompts

In the world of fitness coaching, not all AI prompts are created equal. General prompts may provide generic responses, while industry-specific prompts lead to more effective and useful output. Instead of simply asking AI to "create a few substitute workout exercises," try prompting the system with specifics: the type of client, their fitness level, any existing injuries, and their goals.

For example:

• General: "Write me a marketing strategy for my coaching business."
• Industry-Specific: "Write a week by week marketing strategy focusing on social media and community involvement, to scale my online coaching business from 15 to 50 clients, for a personal trainer with a niche of busy working mums."

The latter prompt gives AI the direction needed to create a tailored plan that addresses your specific needs, rather than a one-size-fits-all solution.

How to use negative prompts to adjust your results

An often overlooked aspect of AI prompting is the ability to specify what you don’t want included in the response. Sometimes, you may work in a particular environment where a certain tone or language is inappropriate—such as corporate settings where motivational emojis or casual slang might not resonate with clients.

For instance, you can prompt AI to avoid certain words or styles:

• "Do not use emojis."
• "Maintain a formal tone and avoid motivational language that implies failure."

By explicitly telling the AI what to avoid, you ensure that the final output aligns perfectly with your coaching style and client environment. You can also take advantage of negative prompts if you’re using AI to support you with your training. As an example:

• “Do not include lower body exercises as my client as a minor injury”
• “Do not include kettlebells as my client doesn’t have access to them”

Fine-tuning responses with follow-up prompts

Even with the most carefully crafted prompt, the first response you get from AI might not be perfect. Luckily, AI systems thrive on feedback. After receiving an initial response, you can follow up with tweaks to make the answer more relevant. Whether you need to adjust the tone, make the content shorter or more detailed, or even rephrase the response, follow-up prompts are a key part of refining AI outputs.

For example:

• Initial response: "Create a strategy to help my client drink more water"
• Follow-up prompt: "Make this plan more detailed and include the reasoning behind why he needs to drink more water. Use a friendly, motivational tone."

AI can also correct course if the response is too far off-topic. A prompt like, "Please focus more on easy habits rather than when to drink water during the day" will help steer the response back to your client’s needs.

Save time by taking advantage of AI

AI offers a game-changing advantage to online fitness coaches by automating routine tasks and delivering personalised guidance. However, the effectiveness of AI lies in how well coaches can structure their prompts to suit their unique style and client needs. By learning to build specific, detailed, and thoughtful prompts—and using negative prompts to filter out unwanted elements—fitness professionals can unlock the true potential of AI.

Incorporating AI certainly doesn't mean replacing the human element of coaching; instead, it allows coaches to enhance their services, making room for deeper client engagement and a better work-life balance.

Try it out for yourself using one of these free tools:

• Chat GPT
• Claude
• Gemini