CLEVELAND — Artificial Intelligence is taking over the world in many aspects of everyday life, including exercise.

What You Need To Know

  • One gym in Northeast Ohio is using artificial intelligence 

  • The equipment is called Exerbotics 

  • These AI incorporated workouts are for any age and conditioning level

Paul VanderEyk owns and operates the Exercise Coach in Avon.

The gym uses AI to develop and execute personal training plans.

“The AI is built into our machines and it controls the motor that drives the machine in the way that it works,” VanderEyk said. “So the AI allows us to set the range of motion and control the workout for the client and the speed that it moves.”

Paul owns the gym with his wife, Amy.

They have developed an approach that lets its clients use these machines, called exerbotics, starting from the very beginning.

“When we first put someone on here, it’s a test and we can test how strong they are, and we use that test to go into an exercise menu and in here we can run a number of different protocols,” VanderEyk said.

But it does not stop there. The AI technology is used throughout the entire workout, tracking progress along the way.

“When we hit the start button what’s gonna happen is she’s going to start pushing on it and you’re going to see another line come up and that line needs to stay within this green area and that’s our strength index,” VanderEyk said.

He said this is the most effective way to provide force against the plate during the exercise. 

And he said it is safe on joints, something that is important for Amy after multiple knee injuries. 

“I was a gym rat, but I was afraid to go back to the gym because I was really concerned I was going to hurt my knees and continue to do so whereas on the exercise coach machines the exerbotics machines I don’t have that concern,” VanderEyk said.

“We’re controlling the range of motion to help from a safety perspective to make sure it’s a very safe movement, but it’s also a very effective movement,” VanderEyk said.

Many people are used to using technology like an Apple Watch to track their progress. The exerbotics machines use AI to track all the information from the workouts in real time. 

“This is giving us real time feedback, adjusting accordingly throughout the workout, and then when we’re done we can actually do a comparison to our previous workouts and see how we’re trending up or what we might be doing,” VanderEyk said.