Will Dean co-founder of Tough Mudder says he's reinventing personal training with a new venture – an AI-powered fitness company called CoachCube.
CoachCube delivers a personal training experience powered by AI, with sessions taking place inside private interactive smart rooms or pods, known as 'cubes'.
Combining "real-time AI coaching, digitally controlled resistance and advanced form tracking", Dean says CoachCube can "replicate the guidance, motivation and adaptability of a personal trainer".
Yet he insists the goal is not to replace the human touch of in-person trainers.
"Tough Mudder showed me the power of motivation, accountability, and community," he tells HCM. "It also exposed a ceiling.
"We could inspire millions to start, yet long-term progress still depended on getting access to great coaching, which is expensive, inconsistent, and hard to scale."
After Tough Mudder, Dean says he became focused on one question: how do you deliver elite level coaching outcomes without elite level cost or human bottlenecks?
"Strength training felt like the biggest opportunity," he says. "It's the highest impact form of fitness, but also the most intimidating and dropout prone."
Dean believes AI and sensing technology have reached the point where it's possible to automate the hardest parts of personal training – including form correction, progression, and accountability.
"CoachCube is the result of wanting to take everything that works about a great trainer and make it practical for millions of people, every day," he says.
"What if you could walk into a private space and a world class trainer already knew your history, your injuries, how you slept, and exactly how hard you should train today, every single time?
"Once we realised technology could do that better than a human at scale, it felt inevitable. That was the moment this stopped being a fitness product and became a mission," he says.
CoachCube workouts can be personalised and dynamically adapted in real-time based on individual goals, performance and progress.
Dean says the AI can respond to on-the-day constraints, such as arriving late to a session or managing a minor injury, adjusting the workout in real-time to suit a user’s needs.
The system also integrates with smartwatches and fitness apps, allowing users to track activity, progress and performance as part of a broader fitness ecosystem.
From 2 February until the end of March, CoachCube is inviting members of the public to put it to the test, running 30-minute taster sessions at Shapesmiths Gym in southwest London.
"What excites me is that this is not just fitness with AI layered on top. It is a fundamentally new category," says Dean.
"For the first time, we can combine real-time biomechanics, biometrics and behavioural signals into a single coaching loop that improves with every rep.
"Human trainers are great, but they don't compound. AI does. Every session makes the system better, safer and more personalised for the next user.
"We're not replacing trainers. We're turning personal training into infrastructure. Once that exists, the downstream applications across healthcare, rehabilitation, insurers and elite sport become incredibly powerful."
Tough Mudder was co-founded by Dean and Guy Livingstone in 2009. It was acquired by rival Spartan in 2020.
Dean launched his subsequent business, digital entertainment company Immersive Gamebox, in 2018.
