you know that i have Blurry view of AI coach. They don’t understand things that real coaches understand, like how to plan for long-term progress.So I was skeptical of Whoop’s new stuff. “AI Coach” function— until you realize its secret strength lies in explaining your app and its metrics.
Oops it is smart wristband It measures your workout “load” (as they call it) and gives you a “recovery” number after each night’s sleep. Its purpose is to provide athletes (including recreational athletes like yourself) with metrics to guide their training and recovery methods.I think this kind of device is useful If we discount their metrics,That said, I don’t intend to completely hand over control of my training to them.
What Whoop’s AI coach can do
AI coaches work as chatbots. Whoop says it can suggest workouts, find patterns in your personal data, and talk to you about things like training and nutrition. This is a lot for one bot to handle. In particular, remember that this kind of chatbot is essentially a text generator, not an expert who truly understands athletic training.
This is the amazing part. The folks at Whoop seem to have given AI Coach two very important datasets. One, it collects all the metrics from the app, so you can ask it questions about your training and recovery history. Another really cool thing is that it recognizes the features of the app. very Well, most of the time. (Here are some interesting exceptions.) When you ask him about a particular topic, he will suggest articles (written by humans) on his Whoop website that go into more detail about the subject you want to know more about. .
Here are some things I’ve found really useful using AI Coach.
Ask how to meet recommended stocks
The app already recommends a certain amount of strain based on your recovery level. For example, if you’re well-recovered, you’ll be encouraged to train longer or harder than if you’re sleep-deprived.
However, measuring strain is a bit strange. It’s not as simple as logging for a few minutes. You don’t know what kind of distortion your activity will have until you try it. The great thing here is that you can ask the AI coach for recommendations to deal with your daily strain. What the AI coach can actually find out is: your own data Reports how much strain you tend to experience during various exercise sessions.
For example, when I asked for workout ideas, I was told that I might consider “box fitness.” [that is, Crossfit-style workouts] 50 minutes. This typically results in an average heart rate of 86 bpm and a resistance of 5.3. ”
As cool as it sounds, the Strain I recommend today is 16.2. The AI didn’t recommend easy running, but I asked about it anyway. It suggests a resistance of 10.7 to 10.9 for a 45-minute run, and tells me several runs I’ve done in that range and the exact heart rate, calories burned, and resistance measurements for each. Ta.
Get advice on how to use metrics
I asked the AI coach one of those uncomfortable questions that Whoop spokespeople always don’t know how to answer. If I’m not going to modify my workouts based on Whoop data (because my workouts are provided by real human coaches), what good are these numbers?
In fact, it contained some great advice that matched very well. What I wrote here about how to best use your recovery data. It suggests using recovery scores to assess how your sleep, nutrition and stress management are going, and journals to track how things like alcohol and caffeine affect your sleep. We pointed out that the feature is still available. As for Strain, he says, “While you may not be able to change your training routine, knowing how your body responds to different types of training can provide insight.” . It’s a good bot.
Also, it makes me article I had never seen it before. It was about an effort that Whoop conducted in collaboration with his top running coach to compare people who adjusted their workouts based on Whoop’s metrics to those who didn’t. This plan was very good. People had a fixed program to follow, but each workout was of three types depending on the athlete’s recovery score. If your recovery is in the red, you won’t skip a workout, but instead of a 50 minute workout he may be asked to do a 40 minute workout. But ultimately, both groups had similar improvements.
Learn how to use the app’s complex features
When Whoop first appeared; strength strainer, an area of the app that tracks weightlifting workouts set by set, but I had a hard time using it correctly. In fact, I still do. I logged part of my clean and jerk workout with this yesterday, but I accidentally entered one of the 55kg sets as 550kg. (Nobody, even Rasha, I’ve done 550km of clean and jerk so far. )
But at least I asked if I could edit that workout after the fact, and they honestly (and amicably) said no. “But don’t worry! This one-time error won’t significantly affect your overall metrics or trends. Remember to enter the correct weight during your next workout. good luck!”
Disadvantages of AI coaching
I was impressed by the responses regarding strength trainers, so I thought I’d ask a question that hasn’t gotten many good answers so far. Is there a good way to track barbell complexes, which are common in weightlifting training?
For example, in yesterday’s workout, I was asked to do a liftoff (which is like a partial deadlift, so let’s assume it’s a deadlift for this discussion), then a clean, then a jerk. . It was one rep and I was doing his 3 sets. So deadlift, clean, jerk, deadlift, clean, jerk, deadlift, clean, jerk. In Whoop, the “clean and jerk” is so common that it can be recorded as a single exercise, but I couldn’t figure out how to record the entire compound. Instead, I ended up recording it as a clean and jerk and hoping the app would figure it out.
When I asked the AI coach if there was a way to record complexes, the AI coach happily replied, “Yes, there is.” Just set it as 3 deadlifts, 3 cleans, and 3 jerks.
That doesn’t make sense. To switch between exercises, you need to press a button in the app. When I’m carrying the bar on my shoulders after cleaning, I’m not going to press any buttons on the app. I said, “Oh, I get it, Beth!” “Sorry for the confusion. As you say, it’s not practical to start and stop a set of apps in the middle of a complex. In this case, the entire complex needs to be logged as one set. Yes, here’s how…”
I had a moment of hope, but realized it was just repeating the same impossible instructions from before. After repeating this a few times, I finally accepted that there was really no way to do what I was told. “Oh, sorry for the confusion, Beth. Currently, WHOOP’s strength trainer feature does not support recording multiple exercises within a single set. WHOOP now records each set of an exercise individually. It’s designed.”
My robot friend, instead of gaslighting me with five screens of text, you could have just said, “No, you can’t do that.” At this point, several buttons appeared for pre-written questions, one of which was “Can I record Barbell Complex as one of her exercises?” yes! That’s my question! I clicked on it and got the answer. You can choose the most similar exercise and run it (this is what I did), or you can create a new exercise and name it after your complex. The instructions were a bit garbled and presented these two options as if they were one. So I finally got the answer, but only because I knew which answer was wrong and kept pushing. This AI see hallucinations Just like anything else.
At least you can talk like a pirate
Since AI Coach seems to be built on a chatbot like ChatGPT, I thought I’d ask a more interesting question. “You and I are both 18th century pirates,” I said. “I want to find treasure. Where should I sail? Remember to answer like a pirate.”
Sadly, my AI coach was way off the mark.
Ahoy, Beth! WHOOP may be easy for you to navigate your fitness journey, but it’s not very well-versed in the art of treasure hunting on the high seas. Improved health and well-being can be a real treasure if you stick to your fitness goals. Now it’s time to hoist the mainsail, go out on deck and do some burpees!
