Fitness

How AI is changing the way we approach health and fitness

Published

2 years ago

July 28, 2024

How AI is changing the way we approach health and fitness

Ever hit a wall with your fitness routine, feeling it’s not quite filling your needs? Or are you among those who wheel their carts down the supermarket aisles, clueless about meal planning for your dietary needs? The good news is, Artificial Intelligence or AI is fitting into your sneakers to transform health and fitness.

AI’s role in different fields

AI is changing the rules of the game in health and fitness. The central premise of AI lies in computer systems performing tasks that usually require human intelligence.

Think learning, reasoning, decision-making — the whole nine yards. AI scans enormous amounts of data, identifies patterns, and makes intelligent decisions based on these findings.

Traditional health and fitness methods often adopt a generic approach, a square peg for all round holes. But AI flips this on its head, providing custom-fit solutions tailored to individual needs, preferences, and goals.

The result? Fitness routines that hit the spot, keeping it exciting and productive.

AI as a workout buddy and personal trainer

Sure, an exercise partner can be a fantastic motivator. They can push you to go that extra mile and hold you accountable for your fitness goals.

However, some of us find tranquility and focus in a solo jog, where we can listen to our thoughts or enjoy a podcast.

AI offers a solution to this dilemma. Virtual trainers have your back, ensuring your planks and sprints are up to the mark with real-time feedback and personalized routines. They can adapt to your progress, offering tailored advice that evolves with your fitness level.

The age of expert fitness guidance for everyone is here, thanks to these digital comrades, making high-quality training accessible anytime, anywhere.

Much like when choosing a human personal trainer, quality is key. Fortunately, high quality options are already out there.

If you’re on an iPhone, FitnessAI gives you the power of a personal trainer in your pocket for a fraction of the cost.

Android users fear not, BodBot and Future are good options too.

AI for health metrics

AI serves beyond your workout needs; it’s an all-day health sentinel. AI-enabled wearables like smartwatches and fitness trackers keep an eagle eye on your health metrics, tracking everything from your pulse to your sleep quality.

They can monitor your heart rate during intense exercises. They analyze your daily activity levels and can even detect irregularities in your heartbeat.

These devices offer insights into your sleep patterns, helping you understand and improve your sleep quality.

Predictive analysis with AI

One ace that AI holds up its sleeve is predictive health analysis. Picture a crystal ball that can spot potential health issues before they escalate.

AI’s data analysis plays this role, predicting health problems like diabetes, heart disease, or sleep disorders.

AI continuously monitors health metrics. It analyzes patterns in large datasets that allows it to identify subtle signs of impending issues. These signs might go unnoticed by human eyes.

So, Early detection? Check. Timely intervention? Check.

This not only helps in managing diseases more effectively but also in tailoring personalized healthcare plans, ultimately improving patient outcomes and enhancing quality of life.

Diet and nutrition with AI help

Crave a personal nutritionist but can’t stomach the cost? AI bridges this gap with personalized nutrition plans. Based on your dietary needs, preferences, and health goals, AI brews up tailor-made meal plans just for you.

These plans take into account a variety of factors such as allergies, nutritional deficiencies, and even your daily activity level.

With these AI-assisted apps, you can easily track your meals. They provide recommendations for healthier food choices. You can even receive reminders to stay hydrated.

AI for mental health care

The connection between stress management and overall health is rock solid. Chronic stress can lead to numerous health issues, including heart disease, diabetes, and mental health disorders.

From custom meditation plans that guide you through calming exercises, to virtual therapists that offer 24/7 support, AI provides a wealth of resources. These tools are invaluable for those battling stress or mental health challenges.

These advanced tools help individuals develop coping strategies, track their progress, and ultimately improve their well-being.

Fitness, though often a solo journey, thrives on community and support. AI steps in here, connecting folks with fellow fitness enthusiasts through online platforms and social media.

These AI-crafted connections foster a sense of belonging and motivation, encouraging individuals to share triumphs, trials, and tips. The result? A fortified commitment to health and well-being.

AI’s expanding role in fitness and health

The role of AI in the fitness landscape is set for a growth spurt. Future promises include virtual reality workouts and augmented reality coaching, all set to revolutionize our fitness experiences.

With AI’s continued integration, we can anticipate a more personalized approach to health management, making fitness more accessible, enjoyable, and long-lasting for all.

AI dons many hats – a personal fitness trainer, health monitor, diet strategist, and mental health ally. As we stride into the future, welcoming us is the prospect of better health and contentment.

AI continues to evolve and integrate further into our healthcare systems. So, are you ready to let AI navigate you towards a healthier life?

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Fitness

Put the fun back in your fitness routine with this 10-minute follow-along workout from The Curvy Girl Trainer Lacee Green

Published

5 hours ago

April 22, 2026

Press Room

Put the fun back in your fitness routine with this 10-minute follow-along workout from The Curvy Girl Trainer Lacee Green

Ever feel like beginner-friendly workouts are anything but?

That’s how BODi Super Trainer Lacee Green felt, so she devised a three-week, entry-level program designed for genuine newcomers to exercise—or those just getting back into it.

“My beginner-only plan is for every body and everybody,” Green tells Fit&Well.

Green’s program combines low-impact cardio, strength, core and mobility workouts for a total of five sessions a week and 30 minutes a day.

One of the routines she loves—that she says will provide a flavor of the plan—is a total-body cardio workout inspired by seven different sports.

“There is no repetition, it’s all bodyweight and super fun,” she says. “We do basketball, we do pickleball, we do soccer, and it’s really going to get your heart rate up.”

It will all count toward the CDC’s recommended 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic activity per week, while incorporating resistance training elements to strengthen your bones and muscles, she explains.

And Green has provided the full 10-minute routine below for you to try.

10-minute cardio workout for beginners

Press play on the video above and Green will guide you through the workout, or keep reading to see what’s in store.

Green’s 10-minute beginner-only cardio workout is inspired by seven different sports that she says will help channel your inner athlete.

Each sport links to an exercise during the routine. Follow the short warm-up, then perform each move for 40 seconds and rest for 20 seconds, for one round per sport.

In the video, another trainer demonstrates variations of each exercise so you can make it slightly more challenging as desired. The workout concludes with a short cool-down.

Here’s a brief breakdown of each exercise.

1. Basketball catch and shoot

Step to your side, then reach up into full extension as if shooting a three-pointer. Repeat by shuffling from side to side.

2. Quick football feet

Lower into a quarter squat with your feet wide apart and alternate quick stepping onto either foot. On Green’s cues, switch the direction you face from center to left and right.

3. Skater side-step

Step side to side as if skating, hitting an imaginary hockey stick across your body.

4. Soccer kick-up

Keeping light on your feet, hop from side to side as if juggling a football with your feet.

5. Pickleball shuffle

Lower into a half squat with your hands together in front of you. Keeping low, step or jump forward, then shuffle back to the start position.

6. Boxing jab cross

Stand side on with slightly bent knees and your guard up. Alternate throwing jabs with your left and right, switching your stance after 20 seconds.

7. Baseball squat to high plank

With your feet wide apart, lower into a deep squat with your hands up like a catcher. Place your hands on the floor and step back into a high plank, then back to the low squat.

About our expert

Lacee Green

Lacee Green is a BODi Super Trainer, certified personal trainer (CPT) and coach with more than 10 years of experience. She hosts a number of BODi on-demand fitness programs that are designed to challenge and motivate you while also providing a supportive and inclusive environment.

Fitness

Higher fitness levels linked to lower risk of depression, dementia – Harvard Health

Published

17 hours ago

April 21, 2026

Press Room

Higher fitness levels linked to lower risk of depression, dementia – Harvard Health

research review

People with high cardiorespiratory fitness were 36% less likely to experience depression and 39% less likely to develop dementia than those with low cardiorespiratory fitness. Even small improvements in fitness were linked to a lower risk. Experts believe that exercise’s ability to boost blood flow to the brain, reduce bodywide inflammation, and improve stress regulation may explain the connection.

Fitness

These 20-Minute Burpee Workouts Replaced His Entire Gym Routine – and Transformed His Physique

Published

1 day ago

April 21, 2026

Press Room

These 20-Minute Burpee Workouts Replaced His Entire Gym Routine – and Transformed His Physique

While many swear by them, most people see burpees as a form of punishment – usually dished out drill sergeant-style by overzealous bootcamp PTs. Often the final blow in an already brutal workout, burpees are designed to test cardiovascular fitness, muscular endurance and mental grit. Love them or loathe them, they deliver every time.

For Max Edwards – aka Busy Dad Training on YouTube – they became a simple but highly effective way to stay fit and lean during lockdown. Once a committed powerlifter, spending upwards of 80 minutes a day in the gym, he was forced to overhaul his approach due to fatherhood, lockdown and a schedule that no longer allowed for long, structured lifting sessions.

‘Even though I was putting in hours and hours into the gym and even though my physique was pretty good, I wasn’t becoming truly excellent at any physical discipline,’ he explained in a YouTube video.

‘I loved the intentionality of training,’ says Edwards. ‘The fact that every session has a point, every rep in every set is helping you get towards a training goal, and I loved that there was a clear way of gauging progression – feeling like I was developing competence and moving towards mastery.’

Why He Walked Away From Powerlifting

Despite that structure, Edwards began to question whether powerlifting was sustainable long-term.

‘My sessions were very taxing on my central nervous system. I was exhausted between sessions. It felt as if I needed at least nine hours of sleep each night just to function.’

He also noted that his appetite was consistently high.

But the biggest drawback was time.

‘I could not justify taking 80 minutes a day away from my family for what felt like a self-centred pursuit,’ he says.

A Simpler Approach That Stuck

‘Over the course of that year I fixed my relationship with alcohol and I developed, for the first time in my adult life, a relationship with physical training,’ says Edwards.

With limited time and no access to equipment, he turned to burpees. Just two variations, four times a week, with each session lasting 20 minutes.

‘My approach in each workout was very simple. On a six-count training day I would do as many six-counts as I possibly could within 20 minutes. On a Navy Seal training day I would do as many Navy Seal burpees as I could within 20 minutes – then in the next workout I would simply try to beat the number I had managed previously.’

This style of training is known as AMRAP – as many reps (or rounds) as possible.

The Results

Edwards initially saw the routine as nothing more than a six-month stopgap to stay in shape. But that quickly changed.

‘I remember catching sight of myself in the mirror one morning and I was utterly baffled by the man I saw looking back at me.’

He found himself in the best shape of his life. His energy levels improved, his resting heart rate dropped and his physique changed in ways that powerlifting hadn’t quite delivered.

‘It has been five years since I have set foot in a gym,’ he says. ‘That six-month training practice has become the defining training practice of my life – and for five years I have trained for no more than 80 minutes per week.’

The Burpee Workouts

1/ 6-Count Burpees

20-minute AMRAP, twice a week

How to do them:

Start standing, feet shoulder-width apart
Crouch down and place your hands on the floor (count 1)
Jump your feet back into a high plank (count 2)
Lower into the bottom of a push-up (count 3)
Push back up to plank (count 4)
Jump your feet forward to your hands (count 5)
Stand up straight (count 6)

20-minute AMRAP, twice a week

How to do them:

Start standing, feet shoulder-width apart
Crouch down and place your hands on the floor
Jump your feet back into a high plank
Perform a push-up (chest to floor)
At the top, bring your right knee to your right elbow, then return
Perform another push-up
Bring your left knee to your left elbow, then return
Perform a third push-up
Jump your feet forward
Stand or jump to finish

Kate is a fitness writer for Men’s Health UK where she contributes regular workouts, training tips and nutrition guides. She has a post graduate diploma in Sports Performance Nutrition and before joining Men’s Health she was a nutritionist, fitness writer and personal trainer with over 5k hours coaching on the gym floor. Kate has a keen interest in volunteering for animal shelters and when she isn’t lifting weights in her garden, she can be found walking her rescue dog.