Move over personal trainers, AI may soon predict the best exercise routine for you

We all think we know that exercise helps you build muscle. But do we? Turns out, we know very little about why or how exercise builds muscles. Most of our knowledge comes from personal anecdotes and there just isn’t enough proven data on the subject, say the scientists behind a new fitness study.

If you want to work out, you generally have to rely on a personal trainer. But researchers from the University of Cambridge claim that a mathematical model could soon predict the ideal exercise regime for building muscle.

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The team has developed a model that could form the basis of a software product, where users just have to key in a few details of their physiology and the technology will tell them how to optimise their exercise routine.

Publishing in the Biophysical Journal, the team explained that there is an optimal weight at which to do resistance training for each person and each muscle growth target.

The Cambridge researchers have been working with the English Institute of Sport for several years and used theoretical biophysics to construct the model, which can tell how much a specific amount of exertion will cause a muscle to grow and how long it will take.

The team hopes to produce a user-friendly software-based application that can eventually design personalised workout plans for specific goals.

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