Start Here
I run my coaching on Trainerize. It's where my clients see their program, log their training and food, and talk to me. But the app isn't the coaching. It's the delivery truck. What's inside is still my job.
I'm a solo operator. My system has to keep clients from falling through the cracks without lowering the quality of what they get.
Your First Step: If you coach, you should be able to list every place your clients’ information lives: check-ins, messages, food logs and photos. If it’s scattered across too many places, more hours won’t fix it. A better system will. What’s your SOP? Can you clean it up to be more efficient?
The Breakdown
What Trainerize Is (and Isn't)
Trainerize is a coaching app built for trainers: programs, messaging, meal tracking and payments (Trainerize, n.d.). It isn't a coach. It puts the information in front of you. Reading it is still on you.
Before Trainerize, I ran everything on Google Calendar, spreadsheets and notes. I tried dozens of trainer apps before I set up with Trainerize.
Trainerize had the best client interface. Its trainer interface could be better, but the clients are the ones paying, and they deserve the best experience.
Onboarding
Onboarding happens before anything else. It’s the call before you choose a program, where we talk through your goals, your experience and what you’re looking for in a coach. If we’re a good fit, I’m as forthcoming as possible about the services I offer and what they cost. Personal training is an investment, and I want you to have all the information you need to make the best decision.
One-on-One and VIP
My one-on-one coaching comes in two tiers. Both are an individualized plan delivered through Trainerize and built around your goals, your experience and your schedule, with ongoing coaching and program adjustments as your day-to-day life changes. I offer 16-, 24- and 52-week programs, and most people sign up for 24 or 52 weeks.
For most people, my entry one-on-one coaching covers everything they need. VIP includes everything in one-on-one, with a higher level of involvement: faster responses, more of your questions answered, an extra coaching call and more hands-on help. It’s for people who want me as a sounding board and want information the moment they need it. Both tiers get the same app, the same information and access to me. I only suggest VIP if your needs lean that way, and I break down the differences on the onboarding call.
Once You’re a Client
Once you sign up and pay for a program, you’re a client, and we’ve entered into a contract together. It’s a mutual one: I outline what’s expected of you, and I tell you what services I’ll provide and when. I meet or beat my deadlines, and I expect the same from my clients. I’ll match your effort tenfold, but I can’t do the work for you.
Payments run through the app, including invoices, card payments and any auto-recurring billing, if applicable. I don’t issue refunds once I’ve started the work.
Once you’re enrolled and payment comes through, you get an email link. Most of the time, within 30 minutes you’ll have access to the app, where you’ll be prompted to fill out an intake questionnaire. Within 90 minutes of finishing that questionnaire, your workout calendar, your program, your macros and your first-week objectives will be in your portal. At the latest, you’ll have everything within 48 hours. You can see your entire first block from day one, which can be up to 6 weeks of workouts.
What I Build Inside Trainerize
I have upwards of 150 premade templates set up as 24- to 52-week programs. All told, I have hundreds of workout programs for all demographics, and I use them to build each client’s program. Everybody’s program follows the 8 Building Blocks in some way, shape or form, and every program starts with Foundation: I reinforce the fundamentals and lay the groundwork I’ll build on for the rest of the program.
Every program has flex time built in, roughly 4 weeks, or about a month of the year, for travel, work, getting sick, getting overwhelmed or unforeseen circumstances. I build that contingency into everybody’s program for one reason: Murphy’s law.
If someone messages me not long into their program and tells me there’s been a life-changing event or an unforeseen circumstance, I work with them and adjust. I want to help, and I do as much as I possibly can during those times, but there’s only so much I can do. Before it comes to pausing, adjusting or ending the contract, I exhaust every option at my disposal. It’s ultimately at my discretion which route we go.
Inside the app, you’ll have:
- Your workout program, with a demo video for every exercise
- A weekly check-in form
- Messaging with me
- Food logging, where you can view and record what you eat
Trainerize syncs with third-party apps like MyFitnessPal, Fitbit, various smartwatches and smart fitness scales.
I tag clients by what we're working on: lifestyle client, lose body fat, snacking, water intake, takeout. Tags let me group people and see what each one needs. I've recently started using groups too, and I'm still learning how to get the most out of them.
What I Keep Outside It
Programs in development, revamps, business records, paperwork and my personal notes on clients live in a master log on my computer that I update every week. A few tools sit beside the app:
- Grok. It reads each client's logged workouts, food logs, weigh-ins and end-of-week survey, and gives me a spoken-style synopsis of each client, no differently than an audiobook. Something like: leg day peak set up 20 pounds from last week, calories hit every day, weight down 3 pounds, no complaint messages, and the weekly survey says the left knee and hip feel off.
- Notion. Brainstorming and push reminders, so a client message doesn't sit.
- WhatsApp and Discord. Options for clients who’d rather send form videos and progress photos outside Trainerize. More on that below. Hybrid clients also have my personal number, and I see them once or twice a week.
Progress Photos & Form Videos
Check-in photos are required for every one-on-one coaching client. For most clients, that’s once a week.
A lot of people don't want body photos stored in an app, and I don't blame them. You can still do everything in Trainerize, which is secure and keeps it all in one place. But if you’d rather send your photos and form videos somewhere else, I give you options: WhatsApp, Discord or email. Either way, you keep everything private. I keep every photo in a private file on my computer, organized by client name, and faces can be blurred.
My goal is a unified setup, where your photos and videos all come together in one place. Email often has limits on the size of files you can send, which is why WhatsApp and Discord are great alternatives. More often than not, WhatsApp is the better all-around platform. Discord works too, but you have to pay for an upgrade to send larger files. My ranking: Trainerize first, then WhatsApp, then Discord, then email.
I ask for the same setup every time and send a posing guide, so the photos actually compare.
The Check-In
I look at Trainerize every day, multiple times a day. It stays open on my desktop with push notifications on, and I review stats across two large monitors. I'm more critical on a big screen than on a phone.
The weekly minimum: log your weight, log your food and fill out the questionnaire. Formal check-ins are usually Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Grok reads the form and gives me the summary. Then I go through aches and pains, progression, nutrition, the weigh-in, supplements and sleep, and make small tweaks if I have to. Otherwise the program runs on its periodization.
VIP clients get feedback from me as often as they need it. Some days that's multiple times a day, and they can send a video check-in up to twice a week. It's most hands-on during Foundation, then it tapers as they learn. Most of what I say isn't a program change. It's validation: you're doing good, you're on the right track, you're not overthinking this.
Every reply comes from me, written, voice or video, and most are short and to the point. If I'm busy, I tell you I'll get right back to you and set a reminder. If three hours go by, don't be shy about messaging again.
If you send me a long text or email, I’ll answer your questions in bullet points and be as respectful as I can, but I can’t spend an hour on one email. If you like longer conversations and more individualized attention, choose VIP over my entry one-on-one coaching. The only difference is that VIP gets more hands-on attention. From there on, it’s check-ins and video coaching calls. Zoom calls are recorded so I can go back and reference them.
Bro Science Check: "Logging your workouts and food is busywork. Just train hard and eat clean."
What the Research Says: A review of 22 studies found a consistent link between self-monitoring (tracking food, exercise or body weight) and weight loss, though the authors rated the evidence as weak, mostly because it relied on self-report (Burke et al., 2011).
Verdict: Cut. Tracking isn't busywork. It's the information your coach uses to make decisions.
Nutrition in the App
My nutrition approach is macro and calorie tracking with food swaps. If you're not a client, the Macros and Meal Planner Quick Start is free and always will be.
For the first couple of weeks, clients log their food so I can see what's actually going on before I change anything. Some VIP clients want feedback after meals, three to five times a day.
Some clients log once a week: "This is my meal prep." That works until they waver. Meal prepped but missed five meals and added four takeout meals? Now you're logging every day.
I'm not throwing the kitchen sink at anyone. For a lot of people, the program alone is enough of a shock. From there we dial it in. A plate of pasta out gets a quick note on serving size. Just because it's Friday doesn't mean one meal gets to undo your week.
What I'd Tell Another Solo Coach
- Build templates, then customize. A template sent unchanged to everyone is a cookie-cutter program. I've paid for one of those myself.
- Meet clients where they are. Their goals, expectations and availability. If you won't work with that, you might not keep the client.
- Know where your line is. If you're too available, people can walk over you. I bend over backwards for clients, but I'm also fine saying no.
Where It Falls Short
There's a lot I wish Trainerize did better, on both the trainer and client sides, and I've told them so more than once. I need information to flow easily, which is a big reason I use the Grok summaries. My other gap is consolidation. I'm working on my own web page to bring more of it together.
Maybe one day I'll build my own app, but that isn't in the cards right now, for money or time. Until then, this is the app my clients like best, and that's the boat I'm in.
New to lifting? Start with Strength Training 101. Next: What Counts as a Working Set (and What Doesn't). To see it from the client side, apply for coaching.