HELLO FUTURE: NEW YEAR, NEW TECH — Using AI to Actually Stick to Your 2026 Fitness Plan

Speaker 1 (00:08):
So now it's that side of the year.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
You know what I'm gonna say when all of the
gym rats roll their eyes because what do they see?
They see the New Year's resolution. People clog in the
line for the treadmill, clog in the line for the elliptical,
clog in the line for the water fountain. Hello, Future,
it's me Kevin. This is a dispatch from the Digital Frontier.
The year is almost twenty twenty six.

Speaker 1 (00:35):
The planet is Earth.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
My name is Kevin Sarili, and today I'm trying to
figure out how we can use technology for our New
Year's resolutions and fitness. And I thought who better than
to bring back to the program then the guy who
used to run the gym at the White House. Yes,
doctor Ted Vicki, the former executive director of the White
House Athletics and the author of the great new book,
The Fitness Professional's Guide to Chat GPT. Ted and welcome
back to the program, Kevin, Thanks for having me so okay,
news resolutions. Everybody wants to be healthy, everybody wants to
cut out sugar. I still am working on the Christmas cookies.
I'm not gonna lie, but how are people using AI
to get back to the gym this January.

Speaker 1 (01:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:28):
I think there's a couple of ways that the general public,
your listeners can do. That is go to chat GPT
and ask the question, I want to stick to my
news resolution this year. Help me create a workout plant
and you'll be surprised with the amount of information with
just that simple prompt that you can get. There are
trainers now that are that are adopting AI. There are
gyms that are adopting AI that they can help you.
But guess what, you don't need to go to a trainer.
You don't need to go to a gym. What you
need to do is start being active. And if we
go from a very simple perspective steps, create a workout
plan and if you have a wearable, right, here's the plan.
At least I charge people thousands of dollars for this, Kevin,
I'll give it to you for free.

Speaker 1 (02:11):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
That's why listening to Hello Future counts, folks, because I
give you free information.

Speaker 3 (02:17):
Go ahead, dead the first week. I want you to
have a wearable I want you to see how many
steps you take per week? Now, Kevin, if I ask you,
how many steps does the media say that you should
take what's the number. You've heard it before, ten thousand.
There is no scientific basis on ten thousand. You know
where they got it from back in the forties and fifties.
It was a Japanese company at Rhyme. That's the only
reason there's no science for real sciences. If you take
about six thousand steps a day, you get benefits, and
the more you take, the more impact you'll have. But
for that first week, let's say, let's take my dad.
My dad's ninety years old. Can you imagine his doctors saying, okay,
you need to take ten thousand steps a day.

Speaker 1 (02:55):
He can't do that. He might be taking two thousand steps.

Speaker 3 (02:59):
So what if done we put a barrier in front
of my dad right now because it says you gotta
take ten thousand, you're only getting two. He's gonna feel like,
you know what. So if you have a baseline for
the first week, what I want you to do next
week ten percent more so the second week of January,
if you have two thousand, you're doing twice two hundred.
That's your goal for the day the following week ten
percent more so. Now what you're doing is you're doing
something that you know that they can do and you're
progressively increasing the load.

Speaker 2 (03:24):
So ted, So I've done AI, and you know I've
I've done a couple of marathons and a half marathons.
And this year my New Year's resolution is I really
want to do a half iron Man. It's been a
bucket list item. I trained for one, but then my
friends got married and it was a last minute wedding
and it was day eloped, and then I got invited
to the dinner and it was the day of my
half iron and I said, I gotta go to the wedding.
And it was a old debacle. This year, I am
saying publicly on the Hello Future program that I want
to do my half iron Man. Okay, So the problem
that I have is that I do the chat GPT
and I put in the work outs, and then I
miss a workout because maybe, you know, maybe I sleep
in one day, or maybe my dog it takes a
little longer for him to do his business in the
morning and it throws me off a half hour. So
how do I then reprogram or how are people using AI?
Because listen, I'm not the only one out there who's
gonna hit snooze button a couple times in January. Okay,
it's dark out. They should get rid of daylight savings.
That's the most political statement I'll make. But daylight savings
is the dumbest thing. It should be eradicated. It makes
everybody seasonally depressed. They should get rid of that. But
if you do hit the snooze button, how do you
get back on tracket? How do you use AI to
hold you accountable?

Speaker 3 (04:40):
Well, a question I have for you, then, Kevin, is
why because you missed one workout, is your workout plan disrupted?

Speaker 1 (04:46):
Because it's mental ted?

Speaker 2 (04:48):
Because well, that's my point is I get down on
myself and I say to myself, I missed that workout.

Speaker 1 (04:54):
I'm so lazy. I didn't do my swim this morning.
So you know what you do?

Speaker 3 (04:58):
You create I have done this for clients. Look, I
played waterpol in Penn State. I had a drill sergeant
as a coach. Right, So some people like that drill sergeant.
Some people want more of a compassionate, caring person.

Speaker 1 (05:10):
Now I did somebody yell at me all right, So
you know what we do?

Speaker 3 (05:13):
We create a drill sergeant coach for you where if
you miss your workout, you type in I missed my
workout today and the chat GPD you flies, you lazy
stun of a gun. You missed your workout, drop a
give me twenty love it Now. Some people relate to that.

Speaker 1 (05:27):
I don't.

Speaker 3 (05:27):
I would want to say, you know what, ted LIKEE
gets in the way, you missed your workout today, that
doesn't mean that you're a failure when I watch you
do tomorrow, regroup, go off and do your work out.

Speaker 1 (05:36):
Okay. So this is fascinating to me, is what you're saying.

Speaker 2 (05:39):
And I just had to meet the future moment where
the lms can actually tailor and cater to your persona
and your personality. So whereas me is, I'm like, I
grew up in Delco, tell me like it is, yell
at me, tell me you know, blah blah blah, mister
Erie Pennsylvania. Over here, VICKI, where he grew up in
your EPA, he's much more polite. I'm more politically yeah,
a little more politically correct. Okay, So that's fascinating.

Speaker 1 (06:08):
So it so.

Speaker 2 (06:09):
But the fact that AI can can be trained to
deliver a message, can be trained to communicate a message
in a way that is customed, I mean, wow, that's
pretty fascinating, Ted.

Speaker 3 (06:21):
Well, we're doing it in the fitness industry. In fact,
with some of the onboarding. Now, we asked the question
what type of coach do you relate to? And there
are questions right, so for you be that drill sergeant,
next question is how do you like to be communicated? Text, email,
social media or phone call? Right, if my trainer calls me,
I'm not answer it. But if I get a text
message would be different. So now I know that you
like a drill sergeant. I know that you take a
phone call. I can create the behind the scenes that
what I know. By the way, because you didn't take
your steps today and you didn't get your work cut in,
I'm gonna call saying you lazy son of a gun,
get your ass on the floor, give me twenty.

Speaker 1 (06:56):
But that would break me up, to be blunt exactly.

Speaker 3 (07:01):
And I'm doing that and you're not saying me right,
you're not waiting till the next Friday when we have
the workout. I'm doing that from my home and I
know that you're being lazy. And now I as your trainer, kid.

Speaker 2 (07:10):
So if you're listening to this and you're trying to
get back on track. I guess a pro tip that
Ted Vicki, the author of The Fitness Professional's Guide to
Chat GPT and the former executive director of the White
House Athletics Center, is and both for Bush and Clinton,
is to actually ask the LM or whatever AI you're using,
not just to give you the workout, but to deliver
the workout in the way that is most likely to
get you to take the first step. What excites you,
Ted Vicki, about the applications of artificial intelligence in the
next decade and even you know, workouts two hundred and
fifty years from now. I've done VR workouts and I
had so much fun during Lockdown the most.

Speaker 1 (07:55):
I mean, Lockdown is a.

Speaker 2 (07:56):
Horrible time, but it is where I first got the
idea for MTFT TV's meet, which led.

Speaker 1 (08:00):
To Hello Future.

Speaker 2 (08:01):
But I bought a VR headset and I put it
on and I started doing VR workouts and it was
aweso and I was doing it. May I don't like
doing if anyone as a fitness person, air squats, body
weight squats, They're really not fun and they're really boring.
Burpies are also the worst. I cannot stand doing burpees.
Suddenly I'm in my virtual reality headset and I'm in
outer space, and I'm like jumping over ash through it
some meteors and dodging you know, comments and whatnot. But
I'm doing a workout and I don't even feel like
I'm doing a workout. Is VR something that you've thought
about at all in terms of the future of fitness?
I have.

Speaker 3 (08:45):
In fact, two years ago, Zuckerberg hired me as part
of a big court case the federal government had. They
were Zuckerberg believes for VR to work, one of the
pillars has to be fed. Yes, So they were trying
to buy this company out of LA and the FTC
came in and said, you can't do that. You'll be
a monopoly. So they hired me to come in during
the court cases say look, this is the fitness industry,
this is this is VR. It's not a monopoly in fact,
So what we did was, you know, Beat Saber.

Speaker 2 (09:14):
You know I love Beatsaber and no, no, I mean
that game is if you've never played it. Because if
people are listening to this, first of all, if your
kids got Beat Saber or VR headset, get Beat Saber,
you essentially it's air guitar and VR but better sorry,
or Guitar.

Speaker 1 (09:30):
Hero and VR but better. So millennials have got that reference.

Speaker 2 (09:33):
Essentially, you put on the VR headset and you have
to you're not dancing, you're like jumping and you're using
your hands and your legs, but just songs, and you
will definitely start sweating as you advance and get better.

Speaker 1 (09:47):
It's a fitness game.

Speaker 3 (09:49):
Well any of the fact, we actually figured out how
many calories a person burns by doing that, so then
we could take it to the court and say, look,
even this simple beatsaber game is burning calory. So we
blew the government arguing out the water and they end
up buying buying the company, and it's it's been very
successful for them. But you're absolutely right, VR is going
to be incredible. Now is the fitness industry going to
adopt that? There there's a place in San Diego I
used to live there for twelve years that actually their
entire gym is at VR gym. You're walking, you put
the glasses on and that's how you're doing a workout.
So there are some some gyms that are that are
adopting that. But you can do the same thing at home.
Now you adding the AI component to it, and you've
got your your virtual you know, I use chat JBT.
My guys called Jarvis. I'm an iron man pan, so
I talked to Jarvis. Jarvis, give me work out for
the day. Put my goggles on. Boom, there's my workout.
I'm at Pebble Beach, you know, doing my jump at
Jackslon on the eighteenth gree.

Speaker 2 (10:42):
And so essentially, and for folks who are saying, well,
wait a minute, fitness industry, what Ted is saying is
that the tech sector is different than the fitness industry,
and that the tech sector is deploying the new technology
to the industry, which, by the way, they do for
every industry education, journalism, doctor's health, law, first responders, military.
I mean, you name it, it starts in the tech
hub and then that it disseminates in So that's what.

Speaker 1 (11:04):
He means by that. But you know, we've done this before.

Speaker 2 (11:07):
I mean, if anyone's ever sat on a stationary bike
and they're like, ride through the beach, suddenly with VR
you can actually go to that world. I'm also really
fascinated by technology and wearable tech technology with AR and
augmented reality, which you know, I think you know, I
don't want to you know, knock necessarily any specific tech company,
but I do think that the industry as a whole
has struggled a little bit with trying to think of
which communities will outside of first responders and military capabilities,
will adapt to AR and VR. To me, it's the
type a personality athletes who are wanting to do half
iron bands and half marathons and whatnot, because the fact
I can't state this is how my brain works, which
is probably getting a little personal Doctor Ted VICKI, but
I can't count lapse when I'm in the pool, I
can't count lapse. My mind is thinking of eight million
other things that I should be doing at Ork, what
I'm having for dinner that night, How I really want
to stop at the Fast Fred place on the way home,
but I shouldn't. I should try to get a vegetable
in me. I'm not counting the laps. Then I'm like, oh,
there's the wall. I gotta do a flip turn. I
can't do a flip turn. Blah blahlah blah blah. These
AR goggles, which are augmented reality AR augmented reality. You
put on the goggles and Essentially, it's like you're in
a video game in the pool and it's counting your
laps and you can listen to the music underwater, and
I'm thinking to myself, suddenly I'm swimming on Titan, you know,
or Jupiter's moon, because this is the coolest thing ever.
Do you think that the fitness industry plays a role
in adopting new technology for middle class Americans?

Speaker 3 (12:49):
I would program us as a shark.

Speaker 1 (12:50):
But yes, so do that?

Speaker 2 (12:52):
Do that?

Speaker 1 (12:52):
I mean, because let's go back to the trainer. They
have it.

Speaker 3 (12:55):
Hey you slow son of a gun, Speed up right? So, yes,
AR is gonna is going to really make a different. Now,
it's a price thing, you said, middle class America. Those
those are expansive products. When the prices start to come down,
more people are going to adopt them.

Speaker 1 (13:12):
Yes.

Speaker 3 (13:12):
Uh, but we're talking about from from a vr R perspective,
not only fitness, but other things like you mentioned that
we can use that for.

Speaker 1 (13:21):
Like you said, it's it's.

Speaker 3 (13:24):
It it takes you away from reality. I'll tell you
something I started doing Kevin the other day. My doctor say,
I want you to get off these blood pressure medications.
They want you to be more grateful in life. I'm like,
I don't know what that means. You want to do now?
Every morning chat GBT stands me five reasons to be grateful.
As crazy as it sounds, I start my day now
reading five ways to be grateful, and my days are
less stressful.

Speaker 1 (13:47):
I love that. I don't know, so you know what
I love about that?

Speaker 2 (13:49):
Ted Vicky, he's my guest, the former executive director of
the White House Athletic Center and the author of The
Fitness Professional's guid to chatchyput. What I love about that
is that no amount of technology can replace gratitude. And
there have been get you know, I used to be
an intern in Men's Health magazine back in the day.
I don't want to date myself back when I first
graduated Appen State, and there's all of the men's health
is rooted in science, but their competitors, some of their
competitors are not. And there's all of these schemes eat
this and get six packer, you know, do this, you know,
and you'll get texts or whatever. But at the end
of the day, whether it's a robot or a trainer
or an AI bot telling you what to do, it
takes your work ethic and your ability to show up
and sweat, and I hope that never changes in the future.

Speaker 1 (14:39):
I hope we never sit in an.

Speaker 2 (14:41):
Egg for lack of a better word, and recharge and
get our health and wellness back together. No, I think
it has to require some sweat equity in order to
make your point. But the gratitude thing is huge. I've
done that. Some one of my good friends taught me
onto this. But it's a five minute gratitude thing in
the morning. And I'll tell you folks not to get
wishy washy, because I'm not a wishy washy kind of guy.
But I'll tell you you sit there at like five
am in the morning, and what you're grateful for when
your mind is just making up. You're grateful for coffee. Okay,
You're grateful for shelter, You're grateful for breakfast. And then
you're like, all right, maybe I should go and do
twenty pushups and listen to my angry robot telling me
that I'm lazy. Doctor Ted Vicki, former executive director for
the White House Athletic Center, author of The Fitness Professional's
Guide to CHATCHYPT, thank you so much. This is such
a fun episode. I had a lot of moments where
I understood the future a little bit more, especially this
idea of getting technology to communicate with me in a
tone of voice that gives me the desired outcome that
I want. Anything else you want to and to be
more grateful anything else, Ted VICKI, you want to leave
her a part before we all go to the gym
tomorrow at five in the morning to get started on
our kettlebell workout and half ironman training.

Speaker 3 (15:56):
Yeah, don't be so hard on yourself. Look the fitness industry.
If you look at the number of people that join
and then there's a decrease over the course of the month.

Speaker 1 (16:06):
Stick with it.

Speaker 3 (16:07):
You don't do it Tomorrow's do it the next day.
There's always another day. Don't get discouraged. If you need
any help, open up your chat GPT and say I
want you to pretend you're doctor Ted Bak. You figure
out how I can motivate myself to get my ass
in the gym the next day. And for you, Kevin,
I want you to remember this. I want you to
stay disrupted.

Speaker 1 (16:24):
Thank you. I appreciate that you're the best