Human-First Fitness: Why Our Health is More Than Just Data Points.
It's the 22nd of August 2023, and as I look out of my window at beautiful summer clouds, I am reminded that life is wonderful and it should be enjoyed to the fullest.
I will be finishing work soon, and I can go home to my wife and two young boys.
In that moment of contemplation, I think to myself how fleeting these moments in time are and how fast they fly by. It feels like only yesterday that my kids were born, and now they are in primary school.
My family is the most important thing in my life.
I want to spend as much quality time with them as I can, now and in my old age. I bet you have had similar thoughts about your family. Maybe the thoughts surfaced when you have been at work for ten days straight and have hardly been home.
Or maybe when you were three hours late to your daughter's birthday, because of a late-running business meeting. Or even when you look at your out-of-shape self in the mirror and feel an immediate pang of concern for your long-term health?
Why do you do this to yourself?
The constant struggle for more success and more money started as a way to feed your family. But now it's more than that, it's an obsession.
You think about business 24 hours a day, you even dream about it and wake up at 3am with ideas and worries buzzing around your head. It's all you have ever known. You are great at it, but you love and hate it in equal measure.
You love the buzz you get from building a business, but you hate that it's slowly killing you, taking time away from your family, and negatively impacting your relationships.
You are a successful business leader, but you are an unhealthy one.
So where to next? To the gym?
You don't have the time.
A personal trainer?
You don't have the time
A crash diet?
That could work. It takes next to no time to do, and you lost weight last time.
Or maybe, simplest of all, you could leverage technology and use that.
You know it well, AI technology assists you in your business day to day and it saves you both time and money. It makes total sense. AI is the future, so why not use it to build you a nutrition, training and health programme?
Here are three reasons why it is a great idea.
It's going to create something for FREE, and it's going to take 20 seconds to create it. This will save you money and time..
It's going to use its database and the prompts you supply to create a plan that's just for you.
It will give you a structure to follow, and not too far into the future, you will be able to program an AI bot to talk you through it and connect it to a convenient app.
Sounds great, right?
Here are three reasons why it's a bad idea
The AI is not a coach. It has no real-world experience in working with a human body. It doesn't understand ranges, injury, mobility or pain. You could be on a one-way fast train to irreversible injuries.
It has no empathy. It doesn't understand mood, energy or when to push harder or pull back on intensities or loads. When your body feels sore and broken, it doesn't know how to fix it through rest, better nutrition, supplementation or advanced protocols.
If you had the choice, wouldn't you choose a human to help you achieve your goals? Someone who cares, someone who wants to see you achieve your goals and would love to celebrate them with you when you do.
I have been in the fitness industry for twenty years, and the unprecedented trend toward AI and tech has me worried. I worry that people see it as an absolute solution to their health and fitness problems.
I worry that our over-reliance on it will lead to an injury epidemic, societal nutritional issues and pain and inevitably create evermore frustrated people who want to get healthy but can't.
As the Western world paddles frantically to try and reduce diabetes and obesity, AI will seem like the obvious easy option.
With weight loss injections, fat-burning tablets and medication on the rise, it concerns me deeply that AI is just another fitness fad. But unlike the others, everyone will have it in the palm of their hand for free.
Me and my company TRUTH Fitness are taking a stand.
We are the world's number one choice for human-first fitness. We have a vision of creating a healthier global business community for all.
We believe that starts and ends with HUMAN experts who have years of experience and who hold the personal touch in the highest regard.
As the health and fitness industry goes AI crazy, TRUTH Fitness stands firmly next to its purpose-driven mission. To help people achieve their goals and live happier, healthier lives by providing expert guidance and inspiration in nutrition, fitness and habit optimisation.
Something that’s truly personalised. Not based on algorithms or generic data but on real human understanding, genuine interactions, and a deep-seated commitment to individual well-being and health.
Cameron Harris, CEO of TRUTH Fitness
30/08/2023