Back in the day (before Trainerize), when I wanted to send a client a workout to do on their own, I had to take time out of my own schedule to sit down and type up an entire workout (including adding form instructions and youtube video links), save them to my computer, and then email to a client. Many times I wasn’t even sure a client was going to use the workout I put my own time into sending them, however, I felt I had to do this as part of my job to help motivate and educate them. This took a lot of my personal time after I got home from a long day of training. It would really get to me when I asked a client a week later if they have done the workout I sent, to get this response: “Oh sorry, I haven’t even opened the email yet because I’ve been so busy.” Grrrrrr!

I have all of my in-person one-on-one training clients download the Trainerize app so I can send them personal programs with ease.

After a few years of this, Trainerize came into my life! Now, being a more experienced trainer, a better time manager, and pretty much someone who has zero tolerance for people who waste my time–I have all of my in-person one-on-one training clients download the Trainerize app so I can send them personal programs with ease. I have an agreement that as long as they are paying personal training clients, they get to use Trainerize for free. Once they aren’t paying for training anymore, they are cut off or are given the option to continue by paying online training rates.

How does Trainerize make my life easier?

• I can send clients their workouts without having to type up all exercise form instructions, not knowing if they are even going to do the workouts or not. If I have clients of similar goals, I can copy workouts from one client to the next. Once you have copied the program or workout to another client, I can go in and make changes to certain exercises, sets/reps, and/or recommended weights, etc.
• I can schedule workouts into my clients’ calendars so they know what days they are supposed to be doing which workouts. Once it is in their schedule, I can see if they have even logged into their app, or if they have completed their workout. This also serves as motivation to the client, because they know I am going to check in on them. I get a summary email each day telling me which clients missed their workouts.
• I can store their before and after pictures in their Trainerize profile, so I don’t have to waste the memory on my phone to have a bunch of “mug shot” like pictures in my camera roll (#trainerlife). This way, the client and myself can view their pictures, measurements, and I can add a reminder in their calendar so we both know when we are going to do a progress check. At the same time, I can upload PDF meal plans into my clients profile so they can see it.
• Instead of texting me constantly, I tell clients to message me through their Trainerize app. That way, I do a better job of separating business and personal life. I check my Trainerize messages a few times a day and don’t feel like my phone is constantly being blown up with text messages (it gets overwhelming!). Not only can I message clients one at a time, but if I have something to say to a number of my clients at once, I can send a group message!

Those are just a few of the ways that Trainerize has saved me a ton of time. I am going to do a series of blog posts over the next few weeks to discuss the points above in more detail.

Let’s get started right here with Part 1:

How to Create Client Workouts in Trainerize with Ease

If you are new to using Trainerize, it might take some time to learn to navigate the many different exercises, upload your own workout videos (if you choose to do so), and create workouts and/or entire programs. The first few workouts might take longer to create, but once you get the hang of using the software, you will be creating programs in no time!

Here is a play-by-play of how I create workouts for new clients in Trainerize:

1. Make sure the welcome email has been sent to the client and they have downloaded the app. You will have a profile for them in your Trainerize account that you can use to begin to build their program, send messages, set reminders in their calendar, upload meal plans, etc.
2. A client intake form can automatically be emailed to the client with their welcome mailer. Once I have done my assessment with them and checked out the form (for either online or in-person training clients), I am ready to build a program for them.
3. Before I build a new training program, I see if I have I already have a training client with a similar program that I would be building for this new client. If I do, I simply click on the new client’s profile, click “copy to”, select the client’s training program I am copying from, and drag it over to my new client. Once the training program is copied to my new client, I now have the skeleton to build this new training plan without having to start from scratch. I can swap out exercises, add more or take away certain workouts, change sets and/or reps without having to change it in my main workout templates. If I don’t want to copy a whole training plan from client to client, I can choose to just copy specific workouts and then adjust them accordingly to better suite each individual client
4. If I decided I don’t want to copy a training plan or workout from another client, I create a new training plan name, start date, end date and instructions for the client. Then I head to the workout planning and begin to create a new workouts to add to their training plan. Dragging and dropping exercises into the workout template, adding set and rep numbers, instructions for each workout, and searching my own videos (if you uploaded them), Trainerize provided videos (there are tons of them!), and I can search YouTube right through the software as a last resort.
5. Once all the workouts are created, I can add them into my client’s training plan and they will automatically be sent notification that I have done so!

And that, my friends, is how easy it is to create both an entire training plan or single workouts in Trainerize.