To Reach Their Fitness Goals, They Hired ‘CoachGPT’

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To Reach Their Fitness Goals, They Hired ‘CoachGPT’

Everyday athletes are turning to A.I. chatbots for training advice. How well does it work?

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While many fitness apps have incorporated A.I., some athletes are finding general purpose models like Claude or ChatGPT can also offer useful training advice.

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Roger Kisby for The New York Times

By

Chris Cohen

April 18, 2026,

5:00 a.m. ET

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Two months ago, I uploaded more than a decade’s worth of running data into the A.I. chatbot Claude and asked for help writing a half-marathon training plan. “The good news,” it told me, “is your engine is enormous.”

This is

the kind of flattery artificial intelligence is known for

— I’m not even in my run club’s fast group. Still, watching Claude scan the GPS files I had logged to the

fitness app Strava

and identify the highlights — a marathon personal best, a rugged ultradistance trail run — felt nice.

Then things took a turn. “The honest news,” it continued, “is where you’re starting from right now.” My mileage had fallen off a cliff. A standing Friday morning run with a friend was my only consistent workout. I was risking injury if I tried serious training too soon.

The reality check stung, but it also made me think the A.I. might be worth listening to. It then asked about my goals, my current fitness and workouts I’d enjoyed. Minutes later, I had a custom plan based loosely on the teachings of the running coach

Jack Daniels

. Soon I was checking in with my A.I. coach after workouts and even adjusting my pace mid-run to earn its approval.

A.I. has rapidly flooded the fitness world. One

industry survey

from last December found that two-thirds of gym-goers had used A.I.-powered fitness software in 2025. In 2024, Strava added an A.I. workout summary for subscribers. The fitness app has also acquired the automated coaching program Runna, which uses some A.I. to modify human-written plans. Last year, Peloton introduced an A.I. system that can count reps and give feedback on form using a built-in camera.

But many people are simply asking general-purpose A.I. models to coach them toward their next goal. While dedicated fitness apps tend to offer a narrower set of features, Claude or ChatGPT can be more flexible and will at least try to answer almost any training-related question.

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