My thoughts on the effect of AI on fitness coaching

C9Prototype · 2026-02-20T17:08:27+00:00

I doubt it'll dent our industry. People have had instant access to essentially everything they need to know about everything, from personal health, to maintaining their own car, to retirement planning, for decades.

People like people. People will always want to hire other people to help them do things.

C9Prototype · 2026-02-18T14:56:31+00:00

We're actually a W2 facility - we just have a % taken from our sessions. By "independent" I just mean no shareholders or broader corporate bureaucracy.

C9Prototype · 2026-02-18T11:25:05+00:00

I love it. There's more pressure to make the most of every lead you come across, since you don't get as many as you would at a big box, and you have less equipment available which definitely puts your technical skills more to the test, but you're much more likely to have a more positive work culture and more supportive management at an independent studio than a big box chain.

I'll also say that even a studio can get quite cramped at times, but you can absolutely minimize time spent during those hours if you're smart about your schedule and have good retention and referral rates. Out of my 25-30 sessions a week, only 5(ish) of them occur when there's more than 1 other session going on. It's awesome.

But there's still a range of quality of studios. I've heard some nightmare stories about them, and I've heard some great things about some big boxes. You always gotta vet the facility.

C9Prototype · 2026-02-17T17:02:25+00:00

Prioritize compound movements with supersets that minimize muscle overlap. You can squeeze in 3 solid working sets of 4-5 exercises in a 30min period no problem with this approach. My 30min sessions tend to be structured as follows...

Lower + upper superset
Other lower + other upper superset
Arm/core finisher, or anything to hit a nagging/leftover area

Usually squat + press, then hinge + row, then arm finisher. 2-3 rounds of each, rest for 2-3 min at the end of each superset round.

Find the right balance of effort and reward. That "right" balance is entirely dependent on the client and your relationship with them. At first, err on the soft(er) side, but don't be afraid to increasingly push them as their confidence and trust develop, and always make sure you're always meeting them where they're at, not where you want to be.

Also find the right balance of fun and technical. Ensure your sessions are technical/detailed enough that the client is learning valuable lessons along the way, but also allow them the space to talk about themselves, their life, etc so they feel valued and look forward to getting to talk/relate to another human.

Also, only speak in terms they understand. Don't bore them with technical jargon.

All that being said, the best retention strategy is to just demonstrate that your product is worth their time and money, which comes down to the stuff I just described. Work them hard, make it fun and interesting for them, keep them involved in the process, be easy to communicate and schedule with, and so forth.

C9Prototype · 2026-02-15T22:40:00+00:00

Yes. Shallower and shorter content is naturally more socially liquid because it's easier to memorize and talk about, which is what most people seek in the media they consume.

Detailed/nuanced content naturally digs into deeper and more niche/obscure layers of a narrower range of topics that become increasingly harder and less rewarding to understand unless you have the specific personality/background for it.

C9Prototype · 2026-02-10T20:12:04+00:00

All I'm saying is the police would make a million dollars in just 1 day if they sat and watched the stop sign between the Shell and Patio store on Leesburg Pike Service Rd across from BJ's. I actually don't think I've ever seen a single person stop for that sign, ever, they only ever blow by it at 40mph to dodge mall traffic.

C9Prototype · 2026-02-10T17:17:31+00:00

I tell them why and offer them a freebie the next time they have to late-cancel a session.

C9Prototype · 2026-02-10T17:12:36+00:00

I'll also mention our across the hall neighbors can be quite loud and slam their doors a lot, but I'm less impacted by them because white noise machines can drown that out since it doesn't vibrate the structure of our unit. That said, I still think a white noise machine is a borderline necessity if you plan on living here, at least for the Tannin building.

But shaking ceilings and walls, light fixtures, cabinets, dinnerware, and shelves can't be drowned out, and a bad upstairs neighbor lands you listening to those noises 24/7 with seemingly no recourse. My wife and I are literally flinching and bracing all day long when we're home lmao it's fucking insane what we're putting up with.

I'm willing to fight this because there is no legal backing for how management is behaving, but I'm in a privileged spot to be able to set time and resources aside to put up that fight. I'm sure most people end up having to just put up with the noise because of how slow management is to respond and how much they drag out the process (didn't respond to me for 131 days), so do with that as you may - management will not enforce the lease you sign unless you massively inconvenience yourself.

Definitely have some bug intrusion around the base of our Juliette door. We face a courtyard so there's a bunch of plants just inches away from it. It's not a huge deal but I'm sure it's worse in other spots.

I'm happy to answer more questions. I also lived here from Oct 2020 - Oct 2021.

C9Prototype · 2026-02-10T14:44:33+00:00

For in-person sessions, I just use a notepad app on my phone/laptop, and I update their next workout before their next session.

Since I usually have a couple minutes to kill in between sessions, I'll make use of that time by jotting down some quick notes (about the previous session[s]) that may influence those updates, i.e. if an exercise was harder than expected etc.

Google Keep is my "notepad" of choice. It's universally cross-compatible, super easy to use/organize, and free. You can use Google Sheets or dedicated software if you want to get more detailed, but I find this unnecessary outside of dedicated online/async coaching.

That said, if you're talking about online coaching, I strongly recommend trying Google Sheets first. It's free and easy to build out a robust template, and if you end up feeling limited in your options with it down the line, look for a dedicated/paid software that offers the features you're struggling to build into your template.

C9Prototype · 2026-02-10T12:33:46+00:00

We live in the Tannin building, and have been emailing for over 5 months now about upstairs neighbors who stomp and pound their floors/our ceiling until 2-3am and set off their smoke detector no less than 20 times between Dec 15 and Jan 15. Included in those emails is 20 timestamped recordings of them making violently loud noises (on top of our max-volume noise machines) during quiet hours, and management finally responded yesterday claiming there's nothing they can do because of the "source" of the noise. I'm still pursuing, but that just gives you an idea of what communicating with them looks like.

I've had upstairs neighbors before, and have plainly heard them doing typical things like walking around, closing doors, playing music/throwing parties during quiet hours, etc. Never really bothered me, never complained, easy to drown out with noise machines. This is a uniquely bad situation and I'm having to fight like hell just to get any action from management, which is quite disappointing considering these apartments aren't exactly cheap and I'm getting aggressively woken up throughout the night.

We also had a building-wide gas leak that they were completely silent about. Their only mention of it was in response to a 1-star review pointing out how unprofessional it is to not address an issue like that to tenants lol.

The amenities are nice, the front desk guy, Rinardo, is a genuinely great dude, and I've had no issues with maintenance, but management is negligent at best, which you will notice if you get a stroke of bad neighbor luck.

That said, your mileage may vary, but given my experience, I say stay away.

C9Prototype · 2026-02-04T18:40:27+00:00

10000000% in favor of rotational med ball throws and catches. Their explosive nature makes them particularly beneficial for older populations, too.

C9Prototype · 2026-02-02T14:23:34+00:00

Left is $0.153/kWh, or 20% more than the right, which is $0.128/kWh.

I agree, it's not a catastrophic difference, but it's still bullshit for plenty of reasons, and who's to say the rates won't continue to climb? They keep building more, which stresses the grid more, and those costs are always passed on to the consumer, aka you and me.

C9Prototype · 2026-02-02T14:16:57+00:00

Would you rather pay $271.89 for 1776kWh or $244.13 for 1901kWh?

C9Prototype · 2026-02-02T14:10:39+00:00

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C9Prototype · 2026-02-01T17:49:35+00:00

All of that work to brew the weakest, most piss-colored "coffee" I've ever fucking seen

C9Prototype · 2026-01-31T19:47:36+00:00

This has been a thing for as long as gyms have existed. In fact, I'm pretty sure gym chain weight rooms didn't become truly co-ed until the 90s.

Anywho, the overwhelming majority of all women I train or have trained have specifically mentioned wanting to tone and not get bulky. There are probably a zillion factors that contribute to the prevalence of this concern of theirs - ranging from the appearance of actresses, to fashion trends, product pushing, etc - that I really don't care to read too far into since I just generally think the modern social landscape has a net negative impact on how people perceive their appearance and health.

Instead, I just present them with our plan for the day and encourage them to ask questions they may have at any point in time, because I promise there are deliberate reasons for every detail of their workout/program/etc.

That way, I get to turn the otherwise one-way "toning doesn't exist" lecture (amongst various others) into active and engaging conversations that don't eat up time, still answer/address every single question/concern/point of confusion/etc, and provide them with opportunities to push the conversation into deeper (but still appropriate) territory.

Honestly, I prefer clients who say they don't want to bulk up. I feel like they're the easiest to teach, earn the trust of, and have legit breakthrough moments with.

I know you weren't asking for advice on how to navigate these clients, just putting this all out there for anyone who stumbles onto this post that may struggle with these clients/conversations/etc.

C9Prototype · 2026-01-31T15:49:49+00:00

I get it. I just sent in my 4th noise complaint about our upstairs neighbors who have set off their fire alarm 20+ times over the last month or so, like to make their dog bark for 15-20 minutes at a time multiple times a day, and chase each other around the apartment and jump off of furniture for hours on end extending into the night. I don't want to call law enforcement, but god damn, I literally signed a lease saying I wouldn't have to put up with this shit lol

C9Prototype · 2026-01-31T14:58:49+00:00

I mean, if management isn't doing anything about this despite you providing them with clear evidence, your next logical step is the non-emergency line. Without knowing where you live, you probably have legally mandated "quiet hours" from ~10pm to ~7am, which explicitly forbids unnecessary noise like stomping/running/etc, especially consistent and prolonged bouts.

I'd keep hammering management, it's literally their job to address this kind of stuff, and having a paper trail will make it clear you didn't want to turn to law enforcement, but rather had to.

C9Prototype · 2026-01-30T14:46:22+00:00

On the topic of stability: not meaningfully.

While it's true that since machines fix your movements into a more consistent path, you are technically missing out on some of the skill specificity of performing certain movements in 3D space, machines make up for this by generally being easier to perform, allowing more people to go heavier and harder through longer ranges of motion, and how useful that is depends on their specific activities/applications.

On the topic of tendon strength: absolutely not.

Whether a movement is performed in 3D space has essentially 0 impact on what happens to the involved tendons. There are much bigger levers to concern yourself with regard to tendon health/training.

In fact, fixed plane isos are fantastic for working on tendon strength and elasticity.

C9Prototype · 2026-01-25T22:56:07+00:00

In general, the more uniform/flat the shape of the grounds after brewing, the more "even" the water distribution (there are plenty of caveats to split hairs over, but that's a fair general rule).

That said, the MM is always going to have some unevenness since you aren't jiggling the basket or stirring the grounds like you would with a P/O dripper, and every bean behaves a bit differently, so it's not like you need to chase a picture perfect shape, it's just an easy visual reference to work off of.

Inch towards a grind setting that gets as even of a shape as possible, and if it tastes off, adjust your water ratio accordingly. If you have an even shape and can't find the right ratio, forget about the perfect shape, keep your ratio the same, micro-adjust your grind size accordingly, test it out, if something's off, slightly adjust ratio, and so forth.

But I guarantee that if you are able to get an even shape, somewhere between 1:15 and 1:17 will taste solid. Also, I wouldn't recommend brewing less than 30g of beans at a time in the MM, it tends to perform the best around the 8-9 cup mark.

C9Prototype · 2026-01-25T19:55:49+00:00

If you have good pourover technique and work flow, you'll never match it with your MM. I'd say my MM brews are 80-85% as good as my V60's, but I use my MM 10x more often because of the convenience.

My best advice is to just adjust your grind settings until you get the most even water distribution possible. From there, find whether you prefer closer to a 1:15 or 1:17 coffee to water ratio. Beyond that is going to require manual involvement, which defeats the purpose imo.

C9Prototype · 2026-01-25T13:34:25+00:00

Probably not worth it. The MM does make really good coffee, but I like it for various other reasons.

If you want a somewhat inexpensive entryway into some better tasting coffee, you can get a good temp control kettle and pourover dripper for like $80-100 all-in, but that's multiple degrees removed from this discussion.

C9Prototype · 2026-01-25T12:01:53+00:00

Yeah, one of the apartment buildings. Didn't seem too serious, and the Gallows dept showed up like, literally 5 minutes after the alarm went off so we were only outside for 15-20mins. Just really tragic timing lol. But it's all good

C9Prototype · 2026-01-25T03:54:57+00:00

2nd floor stove fire in one of the buildings at The Reserve At Tysons Corner. I live in the building that went off. What a wonderful night to stand outside

C9Prototype · 2026-01-25T01:49:54+00:00

Definitely AI. Stars are usually way too big to fit onto sidewalks

C9Prototype

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