I’ll admit it. I just tried to cheat the system.
I tried to take a shortcut. I justified it to myself by saying everyone was doing it. By telling myself that no one would find out and that I’d be able to help more people by doing it.
By this point you could be forgiven for thinking that I was talking about doping…always a controversial and relevant topic at this point in the competitive season, but no dear reader, I’m talking about the other most popular method of cheating….using AI.
Now opinions differ on whether using AI for tasks is just efficient or whether you are cheating the system and thats a discussion we could have all day…but all you really need to know right now is that there is one key reason why this blog post is not generated by AI.
It sucked.
Now maybe that comes down to user error or ignorance (ie me) but I thought I would just be able to whip up a quick AI blog post on how increased leg strength translates to an increased ability to lift the bar in Olympic weightlifting…I was wrong.
Now I wasn’t expecting a completely nuanced article talking about the benefit of plyometrics and force generation through the legs leading to increased ability to use hip extension…but I was expecting something that didn’t resemble the filler text found on ready to use websites.
“Don’t forget to use the leg press machine, as it is a great exercise for developing the quads and hamstrings!”
I’d like to give you guys a little more credit and training knowledge than that, and I’d like to make sure that anything I put out there into the world is actually of value to at least one person, and not just filler text in a blog post that I feel I “need” to do because our blog has been caught lacking….
So I’m going to pivot here and save the blog post on leg strength yada yada weightlifting yada yada lift more weight yada for another day.
I’m going to talk about the reason why it’s important to have a coach still with human thoughts, emotions and reactions.
Because at the end of the day we are dealing with something that is either your passion, your outlet or your livelihood…and I don’t think we want to leave that to AI just yet when its still generating images of weightlifters with a barbell that is disjointed and in what looks to be an anatomically improbable position to me…
I often say that the magic in what we do is not in the programming, it’s in the coaching and the feedback we provide, but that’s not 100 percent true. Programming is harder than I often make it out to be.
Why? The human element. The variables in how different people react to different stimulus. Thoughts. Hopes. Dreams. Feelings.
The real magic in coaching is when the programming and the feedback and coaching works together. When your coach has the ability to change your program and adjust depending on how you performed yesterday, or last week, and pinpoint pinch points in your training where we can make small tweaks for massive outcome differences.
In your coach knowing that you have a busy week at work and are travelling so can adjust not just the exercises and loads to cater for hotel gyms (any AI can do that) but taking into account how you’re feeling after a long day of travel or conferencing.
In your coach knowing that too much volume of snatches or overhead squats leads to your old injured shoulder becoming inflamed and holding you back on other movements.
Am I trying to justify my job and keep myself relevant just a little longer?
Maybe. And if you are on board with that then here is the link to sign up.
But maybe what I’m trying to do is point out that AI is a brilliant tool in so many areas, but currently your best bet is to still have a human overseeing your training. Maybe I’m trying to point out that trying to take shortcuts and cheat the system can often just leave you further behind, or with results you’re not proud of (again see above photo 🤣).
What I am trying to do is get back into the habit of providing you all with things of value. Whether it is a blog post about shortcuts coming back to bite you in the ass…or maybe next week (sooner if I get my act together) it will be a well informed and nuanced blog post on the benefits of leg strength and plyometrics for Olympic weightlifting…but either way the blog posts are back and given that AI is also not the best for generating topics of real interest…any suggestions you want to fire off to nick@thebuffalotribe.com would be much appreciated.
PS if you made it this far click this link and I’ve got something for you….
Peace out,
Coach Nick
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