How to create routines for your clients without wasting hours

To create workout routines for clients without wasting hours you do not need to write faster: you need to stop starting from scratch. You build each structure once as a template, assign it to the clients who need it with a separate copy for each, and adjust only what changes for that person. The rest of the time is lost searching for exercises, redoing documents and undoing changes, and that can be put in order too.

Where the hours go

If you keep your routines in loose documents, you will probably recognise these tasks:

• You copy one client's routine for another and change by hand whatever does not apply to them.
• You look up the name of an exercise, or an image that explains it, every time you add it.
• You tweak the base document for one client and lose the version you were using with the others.
• You resend the updated file and the client keeps looking at the old one.
• After a few weeks you cannot remember what you had put for them or why you changed it.

None of those tasks is designing the training: they are copying, searching and resending. And they grow with every client you add. The time you recover does not come from working faster, but from not repeating what you have already done.

Keep the template apart from the client's routine

The first change is one of method: distinguish between the template, which is yours and serves as a base, and the client's routine, which starts from that template and is adjusted to one specific person. The template holds a structure you repeat often, with its days and its exercises. For example, a “Routine A” and a “Routine B” that you use with a similar type of client.

What to save in each template

• A name that tells you who it is for without having to open it.
• The session days and the order of the exercises.
• The fields you later adjust for each client, so you do not have to add them every time.
• A note for yourself: when you use that template and what you usually change.

Save what has already worked for you

When you adjust a client's routine and that adjustment is useful for others, turn it into a template. That way your library grows with the work you already do, not with extra hours at the computer.

Assign once to several clients

If three clients start from the same base, there is no point building it three times. What saves time is assigning the template to all of them at once and having each receive their own copy. The copy matters for two reasons:

• You can adjust one client's routine without touching the others' or the template.
• If you improve the template tomorrow, you do not change the workout mid-week for someone who is already following it.

With documents the opposite happens. If everyone looks at the same file, every tweak affects everyone. And if there is one file per client, every improvement to the base has to be repeated by hand in each copy.

Change without fear: versions with a note

Tweaking a template is daunting when there is no way back. A version history solves that: you save the state of the template with a note on what you changed, compare two versions to see what moved and, if the change does not convince you, go back to the previous one.

Three moments when it is worth saving a version:

1. Before assigning the template to a new group of clients.
2. Before a big change you are not sure about.
3. When you finish an improvement that you want to be able to explain later.

The note is what makes the history useful. In a few months, “changed the order of day 2 and removed a repeated exercise” will tell you far more than “version 3”.

An exercise library you do not have to redo

A good part of the time goes on the exercises themselves: writing the name so the client understands it, looking for an image that clarifies it and repeating the same instruction in every routine. A library of your own avoids that, because each exercise is described once and reused in all routines.

To make it really save you time:

• One name per exercise, in your clients' language and always the same: if you call it two different things, the client will think they are two different exercises.
• One image per exercise, so the client knows which one it is without asking you.
• Only the exercises you use, so you do not search among hundreds every time you build a routine.
• Instructions written on the exercise's page, not copied into each routine.

Checklist before your next routine

1. Do you already have a similar template? Start from it.
2. Will it be for more than one client? Assign it to all of them at once.
3. Adjusting something for one client? Do it in their copy, not in the template.
4. Going to change the template? Save a version with a note first.
5. Did a useful variant come out? Save it as a new template.
6. Does the client want their plan as a file? Produce it from the routine; do not maintain a separate document that goes out of date.

How Entrenify handles it

In Entrenify, each step of the method above has its place:

• Routines: routines carry sets, repetitions, weight, rest and a target RPE (rate of perceived exertion) for each exercise.
• Assigning to several: a routine is assigned to several clients at once and each client receives their own copy. From that moment each one trains with their copy: if you edit the template, their workout does not change mid-week.
• Adjusting for one: you can edit a client's plan without touching the others, and a client's plan can be saved as a reusable template for other clients.
• Versions: templates keep versions: you can save a version with a note, compare two versions and restore an earlier one. Restoring changes the template; it changes nothing for those who received their own copy.
• Library: it comes with 873 exercises as standard, each with an image; you can copy them to your own library. The catalogue exercises have an image, not a video.
• PDF: the plan can be generated as a PDF and is kept in the client's documents.
• On the client's phone: the client opens their app and sees the day's routine; they record sets, repetitions, weight and RPE.

If you also plan several weeks in a row, there is a separate programme builder; we cover it in training planning in Excel. And what your client sees when they open their routine is in the app for your clients. The plans and the rest of the features are on the Entrenify home page (in Spanish).