Fitness Ally can help, but where ’ s the love?
GO AHEAD, DOWNLOAD THE APP. SPEND THE MONEY IF YOU’RE SO INCLINED BUT DON’T EXPECT MIRACLES
QShould I download the Fitness Ally app?
AIf you want to place your fitness destiny in the silicone hands of SkyNet, hasta la vista, baby.
For those who don’t know, Fitness Ally is a fitness app powered by artificial intelligence (AI). The app has a virtual personal trainer, Allie, who watches you in real time through your phone’s front camera and takes you through a host of workouts. The big sell is that she corrects your form in real time.
The makers claim that her brain was programmed with input from “world-renowned fitness trainers to programme the AI that powers Allie, enhancing her understanding of proper technique and exercise psychology”.
The subscription is $10 a month, or $60 if you pay for the year. That’s R150 a month or R910 for the year. And apparently it is only available using bionic A12 and A13 chips in the latest Apple devices.
PayScale says the mean personal trainer rate in SA is R200 an hour, though anyone who has tried, knows that in the cities at least, you’ll be lucky to find R250 an hour.
Well, there you have it. The first app to disrupt the online training industry and make personal trainers irrelevant. SkyNet 1, humans 0.
Not so fast, Sarah O’Connor. Humans who are pursuing health and physical goals will gain nothing from this gimmick, even though it is a great idea to get beginners moving.
We all remember the novelty and excitement when Siri first spoke and we’d ask her (isn ’ t it amazing that we assign human identities to gadgets?) silly things and be entertained by her answers that were coded by scruffy millennials in Silicon Valley.
That an app with a humanoid avatar can watch you exercise, motivate you and correct your form is definitely enough to get some people moving, for a little bit. It includes fat-loss programmes and even ones for arms and abs”.
The developers write: “Allie is programmed to offer tips and feedback in a friendly, nonjudgmental manner when she sees you’re having trouble or doing something wrong at any point during an exercise. She does this to maximise your workout efficiency and to prevent injuries.”
What if you have an injury or mobility limitation? Their website has an answer for that too. No problem! You can go to your settings and disable exercises you aren’t comfortable with or want to avoid because of an injury. Always listen to your body!”
The number of exclamation marks on that website could make anyone sick.
Listen to your body, they say. Fair enough, but when paying money to be taken through exercise, one would usually listen to a professional. For instance, you may have no clue about a dangerously tight posterior chain. A qualified professional would pick up this limitation in your screening, or even while teaching you a new movement pattern and then put you on a rehabilitation programme. With this app, it would seem, you’d find out when your sacroiliac ligament prevents you from finishing your hip thrust. Nevermind, just go to the settings and disable the exercise.
To be fair, the fact these pixels with a personality can spot” incorrect form makes this better than traditional workout apps, but nowhere near as effective or safe as a qualified trainer. Heck, it is better than watching Jane Fonda or Billy Blanks on repeat.
However, where’s the individualised programme tailored to specific body types, sedentary levels, comorbidities and exercise tolerance?
Would you send your 17year-old daughter out with your new Toyota Fortuner with an app called Driver Ally to teach her how to drive? No, but you’d surely encourage her to interact with an app teaching her the rules of the road.
Fitness Ally should be seen the same way. A great gimmick to encourage exercise; a moneymaking start-up finding an application for AI that is a talking point. But in no way can, or should, it ever replace responsible exercise prescription.
Go ahead, download the app. Spend the money if you’re so inclined but don’t expect miracles. The Terminator would say: “You ’ ll be back” for some human love.