As personal trainers, we understand the balance between sculpting bespoke fitness journeys for our clients and managing the intricacies of our business. Every client’s path to fitness is as unique as their fingerprint, and crafting the perfect workout plan is both an art and a science.
In this guide, you’ll discover the core components of an effective workout plan template tailored to the individual needs of your clients. I will walk you through a step-by-step process to build workout plans that are not just effective but also engaging and adaptable. Whether you’re juggling multiple clients or striving to keep each session fresh and challenging, this article is your compass.
Our focus here is practicality — providing you with actionable insights grounded in real-world application. Remember, the goal is to enhance your client’s fitness journey and, by extension, grow your business. So, let’s dive in and explore how to elevate your training regimen, one personalized plan at a time.
The Pre-Training Plan
Before you dive into setting up a series of exercises and reps for your client, you need to find out certain things first – that’s why I recommend a pre-training survey. A pre-training survey or interview is essential to gather information about the client’s health, fitness level, and goals.
The pre-training survey is good to complete before you work with a client and then at predetermined intervals. I recommend setting up a quarterly review program with your client (don’t forget to charge for it). That way, you can quickly get clients to commit to a regularly scheduled performance and physical fitness review to adapt their fitness strategies better to obtain their desired goals.
Here’s a straightforward pre-training list of ten questions that you would be wise to ask and document (surveys work well for this):
Health and Medical History:
- Do you have any chronic health conditions or past injuries?
- Are there any exercises or activities you need to avoid for medical reasons?
Fitness Level and History:
- What is your current level of physical activity?
- Have you followed any workout regimes in the past?
Goals and Preferences:
- What are your primary fitness goals? (e.g., weight loss, muscle gain, improved endurance)
- Do you have any specific preferences or dislikes regarding types of exercises?
Lifestyle and Availability:
- How many days per week are you willing to commit to exercise?
- Do you have any dietary restrictions or preferences?
Mental and Emotional Well-being:
- How would you describe your current stress levels?
- What motivates you in your fitness journey?
Once you’ve found out all the points you need before you build out the client’s workout plan, it’s time to consider what the workout plan entails. Let’s review practical workout plan elements next.
The Anatomy of an Effective Workout Plan
An effective workout plan must consider seven topics or concepts. These equate to doing an initial survey of the client’s health and relevant medical history and determining reasonable goals and a timeline. Only with this information can you customize a balanced routine for your client.
According to the Mayo Clinic, there are five elements of fitness you should consider adding to your client’s workout plans(1):
- Aerobic fitness
- Strength training
- Core exercises
- Balance training
- Flexibility and stretching exercises
Furthermore, you’ll need to examine the client’s nutrition and lifestyle to make an appropriate schedule for their workouts. However, don’t forget to include safety and injury prevention measures, including teaching proper form and technique as well as appropriate warming up and cooling down.
Lastly, you’ll want to get feedback from your client so you can adjust the workout plan to suit the client’s needs, goals, lifestyle, and health better. Here is a quick rundown of the strategy I recommend to use as a template for building out workout plans for clients:
Client Assessment and Goals:
Ensure you clarify goals with your client (and make sure they are reasonable). Remember, setting unreasonable goals will translate to the client’s losing motivation when the goals are not achieved(2).
- Health and Medical History: Understand any medical conditions, past injuries, or physical limitations.
- Fitness Level Assessment: Evaluate the client’s current fitness level through tests or observations.
- Goal Setting: Establish clear, realistic, and measurable goals based on the client’s aspirations and capabilities.
Customization:
- Personalization: Tailor the workout plan to the client’s goals, fitness level, and preferences.
- Adaptability: Be prepared to modify the plan based on the client’s progress and feedback.
Balanced Routine:
- Variety of Exercises: Incorporate a mix of cardio, strength training, flexibility, and balance exercises.
- Progression and Intensity: Plan for gradual progression in intensity and complexity of exercises.
Nutrition and Lifestyle:
- Dietary Guidance: Offer essential advice on nutrition to support the workout goals.
- Lifestyle Factors: Consider the client’s sleep, stress, and daily activity levels.
Safety and Injury Prevention:
- Proper Form and Technique: Emphasize the importance of correct form to prevent injuries.
- Warm-up and Cool-down: Include warm-up and cool-down routines to prepare and recover from workouts.
Tracking and Feedback:
- Progress Monitoring: Regularly assess the client’s progress towards their goals.
- Adjustments: Be ready to make changes to the plan based on client feedback and progress assessments.
Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Workout Plan Template
I recommend setting up your clients with a professional training platform that will make it easier for you to manage and will look more professional than not using one. What I’m talking about is Elite Trainr – the app of all apps for personal trainer client management. Here’s a simple step-by-step guide to getting started: creating your workout plan template and delivering the workout to your client.
- Step One: Sign up for Elite Trainr.
- Step Two: Get to know the app’s features and operation. It will only take you a few minutes unless you dive into the 3,000+ animated GIFs that you can use to build workout fitness exercise plans for your clients.
- Step Three: Upload your business logo to personalize the app experience for your clients.
- Step Four: Invite your clients right inside the app. Furthermore, you can select several forms to send to request information from your new clients.
- Step Five: Start Training! You’ll also notice that the app handles everything from tracking to invoicing, so it’s your all-in-one solution for managing your fitness business. Let’s look a little more into how you can take advantage of all the intuitive features.
Adapting Workout Plans to Client Progress
Remember to add the information you get about your clients into your client management platform so you can reference it later with ease. Furthermore, as you set up clients and start tracking their progress, you’ll be better suited to adapt and evolve their workouts as required. Remember, your clients may want to work out before or after their work, so unless you’re setting them up with a workout via Elite Trainer, be prepared to adapt your plans and train your clients in the early morning or evenings(3).
Incorporating Variety and Challenge in Workouts
One of the best lessons I learned in my first few years of personal training was that incorporating variety and fun (like simple games and challenges) can significantly help retain clients’ interest and motivation. If you can find a way to challenge them to stay motivated, then you’ve done good work, and you’ll have higher client retention.
Managing Multiple Clients and Their Unique Plans
Effectively managing your business by scaling up and getting more clients is easier than you think. Sure, there are a lot of considerations. Still, if you’re using a client management app like Elite Trainer, then it’s easy to manage and scale your PT business. Sign up for a free trial – no credit card necessary; we stand by our app and know you’re going to love it.
Transition to Technology: Enhancing Workout Plans with Elite Trainr
The reason I built Elite Trainer was that I just wasn’t satisfied with other, more expensive apps that boast similar features. The truth is, I just wasn’t happy paying a premium price for partial solutions. I mean, who wants to use email, a messenger, and two different (or more) dashboards and software to cover all your business needs? With Elite Trainr, you’ve got everything in one place.
Transitioning your clients to the Elite Trainr platform is easy once you tell them and show them the benefits. Clients will love how it’s branded for your business, making your dashboard look as professional as your business should look. It’s intuitive, easy to learn, and straightforward to use every day for your personal training business.
Elite Trainr: Your Partner in Fitness Business Growth
One of the biggest challenges personal trainers face is what’s called an opportunity ceiling. An opportunity ceiling happens when you sell your time for money, and you run out of time (or hit the ceiling of how much you can grow your business). For example, if you have 30 clients and give each of them an hour, you likely won’t have any spare time. Furthermore, you won’t be able to make any more money because you’ll run out of time to serve more clients.
Elite Trainr is the game changer to smash through your PT business growth ceiling.
Due to the 3,000+ animated GIFs built into the Elite Trainr platform, you can take on as many clients as you want, set up workouts for them in the app, and disseminate those workouts to your clients – all without having to give more than the time to set things up in the app. Furthermore, the app is easy to use, so it’s highly efficient and effective to use to manage more clients than ever before.
Empowering Transformation: Elevating Your Training Expertise
In summary, successful personal training hinges on personalized, adaptable workout plans deeply rooted in understanding each client’s unique needs. We’ve explored how to craft these plans, balancing fitness elements and customizing them for individual goals and lifestyles.
Elite Trainr emerges as a critical ally, offering an all-encompassing platform to manage and grow your training business. Its features enable you to scale your services efficiently, breaking traditional limits of personal training.
Embrace these insights and Elite Trainr to transform your approach, maximizing both client success and your business growth. It’s more than a tool; it’s your partner in revolutionizing personal training.
Discover Elite Trainr, your next step in fitness evolution.
Further Resources
- How to Design Personal Training Packages: A Fitness Instructor Guide
- Cashing In On The Crash: Post-Holiday Strategies for Fitness Professionals
- The 17 Best Winter Workouts To Keep Fitness Clients Motivated
- A Step-by-Step Guide to Opening a Personal Training Studio
Article Sources
- “5 Basics of a Well-Rounded Fitness Routine.” 2022. Mayo Clinic. 2022. https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/fitness/in-depth/fitness-training/art-20044792#:~:text=Aim%20to%20have%20aerobic%20fitness,to%20have%20fitness%20for%20life..
- “How to Make a Workout Plan from Scratch (LiveStrong).” 2023. Acefitness.org. 2023. https://www.acefitness.org/about-ace/press-room/in-the-news/8249/how-to-make-a-workout-plan-from-scratch-livestrong/.
- Gomez, Francisco. 2012. “How to Make a Workout Plan (with Pictures) – WikiHow.” WikiHow. wikiHow. August 14, 2012. https://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Workout-Plan.