[00:00:00] Welcome to the UFFDA! Podcast, hosted by Emily O'Connor and Jordan Rudolph. The UFFDA! Podcast brings you a surprisingly fresh take on everyday topics in health, fitness, and everything in between. We want to open the door to explore new information and new solutions in a way that's easy for you to understand and apply to your own life.
Let's get into today's episode.
Introduction and Episode Overview
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Hello everybody. Welcome back to the UFFDA! Podcast. I'm Jordan Rudolph.
And I'm Emily
Morris.
Impact of COVID-19 on Human Connection
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We are here for season four, episode 44, and today we're talking a little bit more about relationships, maybe human connection, maybe things that people lost a little bit of, [00:01:00] um, value gratitude.
Um, incentive and maybe just overall, uh, awareness of when Covid hit. Mm-hmm.
Rise of AI and Its Effect on Relationships
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And obviously now with the rise of AI and the rise of, uh, influencers and all these other things that are kind of come out there from the social media side, uh, it seems that human connection and human relationships continue to, uh, be devalued or.
Not, uh, appreciated. And I think, from what I'm understanding, seeing, hearing, researching, studying the younger population that's coming up, I don't remember their generation right now. Is it, is it Gen Z? Is it Z?
Uh, well, there's Gen Z and then there's Gen Alpha is after Gen Z. That's the,
okay, so the Zs are entering like more of the workforce right now?
Mm-hmm. Like the professionalism workforce in theory. Um. They, they, they're, they're having stronger relationships with their screens and, and pushing that out there rather than through human. And, and they're [00:02:00] using more and more and more of the chat GPT to AI stuff. And everybody should be using this to some extent.
Um, but they're becoming, uh, again, less value or emphasis importance on relationships and, and connection. And we know from a lot of different studies going on that. Uh, especially if you wanna live long, longevity has to be a part of that path. Uh, but we believe it should be a part of your entire path all the way through because we value education, guidance, and mentorship.
Absolutely.
The Role of Coaches in Building Relationships
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Well, and while you were talking there, it, this topic especially hits close to our hearts as coaches and people in a very person forward relationship. Uh, business, if you will, right? A lot of our day is connecting with people as opposed to connecting with screens or, you know, the internet or people who we don't know, [00:03:00] right?
There can be those like parasocial relationships of you feel like you know, the influencer or whoever on Instagram really well, but they have no idea who you are. Versus a true two-way relationship where you both might understand each other better and better each time you speak. And building that relationship between both parties.
So as we dive into like human connection and just those relationships and the importance of, in a world that's becoming more and more digital, it becomes. Equally, if not more so, more and more important to continue to foster and continue to build those relationships. Because a large part of our overall health is our relationships with other people, not other screens or AI or digitally.
But truly connecting with people is a [00:04:00] huge part of us as humans, overall health, and one of our kind of core needs, if you will.
It is interesting to think about how we can use ai. Like AI is extremely powerful and it, and it can, it can, uh, it can give us answers. It can ask questions back. It can give us details.
It can give us action steps like you ask for it and it can generate all these things.
AI vs Human Mentorship
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The, the scary part is how quickly people are developing relationships mm-hmm. With. Ai, and that's not necessarily a bad thing, but again, it's in place of human right. And, and the human part of it is like a, a as smart and as brilliant and, and awesome as this AI stuff can be, it, it's hard to, uh, get the same experience as someone who's done it before.
As someone who's had a million conversations or a thousand conversations of these before, like we can't. We can't one up that. And, [00:05:00] and that's where that mentorship comes into play and, and goes through this. And I think the other interesting part that we're seeing right now, and it's, it's from people that I'm not sure if understand, like what we, like m you and I like what we truly do to the fullest extent.
And I, and I, and I feel like at the minimum are we personal trainers? Yes. But we believe ourself more as coaches. Like there's a, there's a level up there and um, in terms of how we. E essentially define or describe it here at Unity Fitness. Um, but there's a lot of people that are like, oh, well, AI's coming out, look it.
I can build a golf program. Like I've had people send me their screenshots of what AI put together for a golf program. Like, cool. Are you doing it? Mm-hmm. Uh, like, why aren't you doing it? It's a good program. Okay. Like, like they just built you one and you had, you showed me the time it got done. Point eight, two seconds.
Like, why aren't you building it? Or why aren't you doing it? That's where there's like the, the, the AI cannot ask us that yet. Mm-hmm. Right. But you can ask, why am I not [00:06:00] doing this program? How do I get motivation? Well, if you go back to one of our like 17 episodes that we talked about in motivation, you have to start doing something first.
So just because you have the information and you're using AI now and feeling good about it, rather than a Google search, you're still gonna get what you plug in. Like you're still getting the biased result of what you do. And there's still pieces that aren't gonna be fulfilled from that because that's where this human connection, these relationships come into play.
The Value of Professional Guidance
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When people come and do this stuff with their coach or their trainer, typically they're not feeling like they're joining X or Y fitness. They're thinking that they're maybe a member there, but they're developing the relationship with the coach or trainer. It's like the same thing with your hairdresser or your stylist or your barber.
You develop the relationship with them, not the business. And if they leave or they start their own or they go to another business, you're more than likely following them if they're still in town, does not matter where they're going. I can ask Mandy that she's got her girl, [00:07:00] Shay Shay's been to like three or four different places.
Mandy now drives out to on Alaska, almost out of town. Mm-hmm. To get to her now. And she used to be just right downtown. Manny's gonna follow her wherever she goes, as long as she's still in the, in the county
for sure. Well it's, it's that human connection piece where AI or whatever can give you a program and they can tell you the how, and they could probably tell you the how and you know, summarize a research article.
Faster than it takes us to read and summarize the research article that's, you know, it's literally what it does. That's why that's,
I use a majority of mine for, that's
why we use it right as well to kind of get us there. But to your point of like, Hey, it generated this program, but we're not doing this program.
There's still that follow through. There's still that accountability piece that can be felt human to human. There's that empathy piece that can be felt human to human when we are struggling with something where. The AI or the internet might be able to tell you why you might be struggling, but it isn't going to [00:08:00] give you the same empathy that a coach might in that situation or in that conversation as well.
So making sure as we stress and as we build these, you know, human relationships, that that takes the priority over and we're utilizing each of these things. To their own unique abilities, if you will, or unique individual traits versus allowing the technology to try to replace the humanness of it. There are some things that humans will always be able to do that again, AI is pretty, pretty scary and changing rapidly, but at this time, can't do that.
We need that human peace. It's that innate ability and innate need inside of us. To want to connect with other humans on that deeper level, not just on that surface level of knowledge.
Yeah. And let's not get caught in this triggering moment of [00:09:00] thinking how much like AI can put together for us in a fitness program.
Are they doing our job for us? Uh, maybe to an extent, maybe to help you on that side of things. But all of these other little components that we're talking about that it can't do are where we accelerate at better than I would argue anybody else. Well, clearly because you just won Best Trainer
and we just won bus gym.
Yeah. So I think it goes for everybody. Yeah.
Suck at Lacrosse County. Um, no, and also
thank you for your support.
Yes. Going back to this part of it, like I, I had other people message me like, oh, well, uh, I can do this for free now. I'm like, but you're still not. And you're still not there. And there's the argument, well, fitness is free.
We can just look this up. In AI Fitness has always been free, fitness has always been free. Mm-hmm. At a minimum, when you're going to a co, like doing your own accounting has also been free too. But we still, we still pay an accounting, doing your own plumbing, doing your own electricity work. That's always been free, [00:10:00] but you can also pay somebody to do it, like a professional to help you get there.
AI can show you how to do all those things too, by the way, so can YouTube, which I learned for a furnace. But when, when you're going through this, this next stage and, and like all of this stuff is still being free, this is where you're hiring a professional or you're hiring a mentor, you're seeking a mentor, uh, or a coach, train a professional, whatever it is to help you get to do something that you cannot do alone.
AI can have some backing power and give you more information, but they still can't do this for you. Being with somebody like one of these professionals that we're talking about in any type of field. Um, but ours in particular, it's helping you go through it and do it, uh, with guidance and, and, and to get you there because you cannot do it alone.
And it's okay to acknowledge that.
Fitness and Human Connection
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But fitness has always been free. Mm-hmm. You can walk, you can do squats, you can do pushups, you can do planks, [00:11:00] whatever it is anywhere. You do not have to pay to do that.
Right, and in a world that we constantly want things faster and faster and faster, often working with that professional has the efficiency piece to it, right?
Like AI or the internet or wherever technology we look this up probably will not take into consideration to the degree at which we take into consideration all of the different variables we're working with to build out a true full solution to efficiently. Get us there. It might be one piece at a time, and we might be able to improve one element of our fitness and get the information to improve another element of our fitness.
And we're kind of piece by piece, putting this together as opposed to the efficiency of hiring the professional to get us there fully and completely the first time through. Not paid for the
result
exactly. Not the fourth time through
to, to, to hammer that home point more of paying the result. Just to be [00:12:00] really stickler about this living in La Crosse as where we're doing this and thinking that we are literally seconds away from the Mississippi River.
If we wanted to go from here to New Orleans, we have three options. We can drive, we can go down the river, or we can fly. We could do more options. But those are the three. Each one of those has a cost, not just a monetary cost, but also a time cost. The flight is the most expensive. But it's the fastest way we get there.
You're paying for the result. You're getting the same destination with all three, but you're paying for a result. That's what the professional, or the coach, or the human network, the human connection, the human relationships, that's what we're, that will get you there. That will get you closer to that result.
And I get that. There's a lot of social anxiety and a lot of different stuff that people don't wanna share. You don't have to share everything. We don't have to do anything like that. But this power of relationships has been shown, proven time and time again. To get you to think differently, to move beyond next level, [00:13:00] especially positive, influential relationships, like those type of things.
It, it, and the longevity piece, like the studies have shown time and time. The people that live the longest have their human relationships have the best relationships. Mm-hmm. It's crucial.
Mm.
And. Part of what we brought this up is that's part of what we love the most. Like we want to dive in and build that relationship from a professional level because we know that we can help you more that way and working on you as a person along with this.
Like at a minimum, this is gonna be something that's on our website soon. At a minimum, when you join a gym, at a minimum you should be getting stronger or losing weight at, at the least. The very bottom effect of what you joining a gym should do. Every gym should do that. Every single one you hiring a coach should help you do it faster.
At a minimum, you should still be able to lose weight or get stronger if that is your goal with a gym or with a coach. [00:14:00] You're just doing it faster, paying more with the coach to get there. So if that is true, we look at it as what else can we do to help this person? And what else are we best at? So we layer those things into this and we build this up.
And again, that starts with the, the relationship. We're not just having somebody come in to just do squats. What are we doing the squats for? Why are they important to you?
Well, and it's that, that piece right there, right? Like what does fitness bring to your life? What is the value you're gaining from that, not just.
Getting stronger for the sake of getting stronger. But why are we getting stronger? Why are we doing the things in the gym that we are? Where does that level up and where does that bring the next element of your life? Where does that improve and allow you to live longer and allow you to live with more control, allow you to live?
And make decisions around the activities that you are doing without hesitation and without thinking about, oh, is this gonna hurt or can [00:15:00] I really do this right? It opens up the doors to live the life that you want to live without restriction and without wondering what might be around the next corner.
And that comes from the relationship built from. The coach to the client and then impacting all the relationships outside of the gym as well. Mm-hmm. It all extends from there.
Yeah.
Conclusion and Final Thoughts
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So when you're thinking about doing this next part of it and the human connection, the human relationship piece that we're emphasizing on here, obviously we have a bias towards what we're telling you and why we're doing it, but think about like when you're doing your next thing, going through your next goal, your next adventure, your next win, whatever it is that you want, like part of that process is, is developing that personal professional relationship to help you.
Get there faster, better, stronger, whatever it is, like it's, it is for you at the end of the day. And, and thinking to doing this alone and being a tUFFDA!Lly wolverine or individual, rugged individual about it can get you only so far, and you [00:16:00] don't have to prove anybody else anything, anytime, right or wrong, including yourself to do this.
The big thing that I've been telling people a lot right now is you don't have to be right, but you should get it right. Like there is a big distinct difference of that. And when you get that through your head and realize it's not a right or wrong thing anymore, it's just about getting better. Part of the relationship piece is within that.
Absolutely. I think that about wraps it up. As always. Thank you guys so much for listening to this week's episode of the UFFDA! Podcast. Share this with someone who you think will find it valuable. Leave us a rating, a review, subscribe, download all the things that help us to organically and we'll catch you in the next episode.
Bye everybody.
Thanks everyone.
