Part 2. Creating the strength training plan with our ChatGPT ‘physical trainer’

Now that we have our goal, let’s make the plan to get there. One of the best prompt techniques, is to tell ChatGPT to “act as an x...” before giving it your prompt. Here, we asked ChatGPT to act as a physical trainer. Then, we gave it our prompt for the plan including the type of plan, duration, some specifics around frequency and timing, and the goal we set in the previous step.

You’ll notice we gave it a pretty specific type of plan called block periodization. I’m well-versed on the types of training plans, but if you are not, you could just as easily ask for different types of plans, their purposes, pros, and cons and choose from there.

Off to a good start. ChatGPT did just what we asked for, but the gym days back to back obviously don’t make sense. I have a history of hamstring and lower back injuries, so let’s also swap out the deadlifts. Using a small adjustment prompt, we can update the plan accordingly.

Woof, not quite what we asked for. Let’s try again with some clearer worded instructions.

Back on track. We have a version of the plan that works just as expected. In order to make this more usable, let’s convert it to a table so we can simply drag it into a Google Sheet.

Almost there. ChatGPT appears to be getting lost trying keeping up with previous instructions. One thing we could do better, is rather than add new prompts when making changes, we should edit the previous prompt and regenerate a response so we have a cleaner dialogue with less undesirable results in our chat history.

Now with our goal and our overall plan in hand, we can make more targeted adjustments.

It goes without saying, but before performing any exercises or making changes to your diet, consult with a professional.

Continue to Part 3. Making targeted adjustments using ChatGPT