As a former group health coach, I used to be skilled to trace my objectives in numbers: energy in, hours skilled, kilograms lifted. Numbers do not lie.
Nevertheless, monitoring them was messy. I bounced between MyFitnessPal for meals, Apple Look ahead to exercise period, and the Notes app for lifting logs. After I wanted assist with the shape, I might scroll via movies on-line between units. It took the enjoyment out of the gymnasium.
At a vibe-coding workshop in Singapore in February, I examined a easy concept: What if all of this lived in a single place?
I got down to construct a private coach app that might generate a exercise program, log my lifts, and floor train cues once I wanted them. By the tip of the weekend, I had a working model — and I noticed why large apps must be frightened.
Constructing the app was easy
I used to be given about 9,000 credit on the AI software Manus — price roughly $40 to $50 — to construct an app.
Manus, which Meta acquired just for the Chinese language authorities to dam the deal earlier this week, is not positioned as a devoted coding software like Cursor or Lovable. It is a general-purpose AI agent: one that may write code, however is not constructed solely for it.
On the workshop, I realized the best way to kick issues off with a easy, plain-English immediate. I advised the AI what the app ought to do, who it was for, and the important thing options, like recommending workouts primarily based on a person’s objectives.
Anybody with a transparent concept might construct one thing simply by describing what they need — no coding expertise required. The important thing was scope: not too broad, not too slender.
As soon as I locked that in, Manus started working. About half-hour later, my app appeared. I did not contact a line of code. I simply watched it construct.
The outcome was an internet app known as “TrainerPro.” It got here with a grungy black-and-orange interface, which Manus described as an “Iron Forge” industrial brutalist aesthetic.
The app got here loaded with a full train library of about 200 actions, full with GIF demos, teaching cues, and filters by muscle group, tools, or atmosphere.
It might additionally generate structured eight- or 12-week coaching packages primarily based on a preferred teaching framework — adjusting for objectives, health degree, and beginning weights, whereas factoring in de-load weeks and progressive overload.
There have been a couple of early bugs, like some workouts not loading correctly. However fixing them was easy. I simply advised the AI what was mistaken, and it fastened it. By the tip of the weekend, I had one thing usable.
Lee Chong Ming/Enterprise Insider
The satisfaction of utilizing one thing I constructed
After I stepped into the gymnasium and opened my app, I felt a small jolt of delight.
I might constructed this in a couple of hours. Now I used to be utilizing it.
I generated an eight-week coaching plan utilizing the app, mapping out precisely what I ought to elevate every week, full with cues for each train.
On the floor, it wasn’t radically completely different from how I already skilled: bench presses, break up squats, deadlifts.
The distinction was within the construction. The app advised me precisely what to elevate and for the way lengthy on any given day. No extra flipping between apps or checking my notes mid-workout.
I might additionally depend on it for train cues, which meant I now not needed to browse YouTube or TikTok to repair my kind between units.
Lee Chong Ming/Enterprise Insider
After all, there have been moments I ignored the depth and dialed it down, particularly after an extended day.
There have been limitations. I could not tweak this system to swap within the workouts I most popular, as I had run out of credit to construct that function. I additionally forgot to combine a meal tracker, so I nonetheless needed to depend on the MyFitnessPal vitamin app.
However that was the factor — all of it felt fixable. I simply wanted extra credit.
With a couple of extra prompts, a bit extra time, I might form it into one thing that match me precisely.
There have been additionally days that I wished to coach with associates and to observe their lead as an alternative of my display. Generally, you simply must unplug.
Vibe coding is a sport changer
Within the health world, giants like Apple Health+, Strava, and MyFitnessPal dominate.
They’re extensively utilized by health fanatics and are now not simply instruments. Platforms like Strava have grow to be social networks in their very own proper, the place exercises double as content material and neighborhood.
Here is what I feel: Apps which have advanced into full ecosystems aren’t going away anytime quickly. However the remainder of the stack — the extra useful, remoted instruments — look way more susceptible.
If a non-technical person like me can construct a working, personalised coach in a weekend, why pay for one thing off-the-shelf that may’t adapt?
To be honest, constructing an app nonetheless prices money and time — however a one-time $50 to $100 might be extra economical than paying month-to-month.
With my vibe-coded app, I additionally did not want separate instruments to log exercises, generate packages, and even purchase coaching plans from Instagram coaches. It was all there, tailor-made to me. If one thing did not match, I might change it.
Health apps have lengthy been constructed round scale — one product for tens of millions of customers. Vibe coding flips that. It makes hyper-personalization low-cost, quick, and accessible.
It additionally opens up one thing else: distribution. In the event you clear up a typical ache level, your app can grow to be a aspect hustle or a enterprise, one thing you share and even promote.
In spite of everything, customers usually perceive their very own frustrations higher than any product group.
There’s additionally a extra intangible pull. Utilizing one thing you constructed — with your personal design decisions and logic — feels completely different.
In a world the place everyone seems to be attempting to face out, that form of customization has worth.
Do you will have a narrative to share about vibe coding? Contact this reporter at cmlee@businessinsider.com.