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How to create your own AI performance coach: Optimizing your unique nutrition, recovery, and injury management needs | Lucas Werthein (Cactus)

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How to create your own AI performance coach: Optimizing your unique nutrition, recovery, and injury management needs | Lucas Werthein (Cactus)

How I AI

2025/11/24
How I AI

How I AI

2025/11/24
OverviewShownoteHighlightsTranscriptChaptersPins

Shownote

Lucas Werthein, the COO and co-founder of Cactus, shares how he built a personalized AI wellness coach using ChatGPT to optimize his athletic performance while managing past injuries. After multiple surgeries on his knees, shoulder, and foot, Lucas created...

Highlights

Lucas Werthein, a tech entrepreneur and lifelong athlete, has turned to artificial intelligence to navigate the complexities of maintaining peak physical performance while managing the long-term effects of multiple sports injuries. As he balances competitive tennis, strength training, and executive leadership, Lucas has developed an innovative system that leverages AI to unify fragmented health data into a cohesive, actionable strategy.
06:28
The AI acts as a performance strategist, compiling disparate health information to drive the last mile of optimization
13:56
AI flags early signs of overtraining and inflammation using real-time physiology data
16:33
The AI coach includes a nutrition plan as part of its recommendations.
17:57
AI can integrate the expertise of multiple health-care providers more effectively than a real-world team
21:48
AI coach should not push users past recovery limits or recommend unproven supplements
24:25
The guest uses GPT to adjust his lunch carbs after showing it a picture of his breakfast
27:34
An on-demand feedback loop makes basic tactics more accessible and implementable
28:24
AI reacts instantly when plans change from dinner to a party
29:34
AI's recovery predictions match physical therapist advice, easing patient anxiety
34:19
AI could solve healthcare interoperability by synthesizing personal health data and guiding basic health goals
40:59
AI is a precision tool for consistency, offering high-ROI choices with population-level impact.
46:38
Synthetic Claire could help my husband when I'm not available

Chapters

Introduction to Lucas’s athletic background and injury history
00:00
The challenge of synthesizing siloed health data
04:55
Building a GPT to optimize performance and recovery
06:11
Demonstrating the data types integrated into the AI coach
09:57
Configuring the GPT with clear performance goals and boundaries
13:54
Setting realistic expectations for the AI coach
16:31
Creating nutrition, training, and recovery frameworks
17:50
Establishing hard boundaries and anti-prompts
21:47
Example: Managing nutrition around special events
24:25
Accessibility and affordability of on-demand coaching
27:30
Practical examples and real-life scenarios
28:24
Using AI for injury management and recovery planning
29:31
Validating expert opinions and translating medical advice
34:19
Vision for the future of AI in personal health coaching
37:25
Other AI workflows: synthetic clients and AI co-founders
43:27
Final thoughts on AI reliability and evolution
48:48

Transcript

Lucas Werthein: I have always been super active into sports, really constantly pushing myself to the limits of what my body can do. And naturally, that means injuries, right? And for me, it became a little bit too much. And so, as soon as ChatGPT launched,...