Planning training in Excel: how far it gets you

Training planning in Excel works well while you have few clients and you are the only one looking at the sheet: a grid of weeks by days, a tab with the sessions and little else. It stops scaling when each client needs their own copy, when you no longer know which version you gave to whom, and when the client cannot see the plan or note down what they do. Here is how to build the template properly and how to tell when you have outgrown it.

What a spreadsheet does well

Before changing anything, it is worth recognising why a spreadsheet is a good starting point:

• It is flexible. You decide the columns, the colours and the order, without adapting to anyone else's logic.
• You already know how to use it. There is nothing to learn or set up.
• You see the whole block. Weeks in rows and days in columns give you the complete map at a glance.
• It is yours. The file is wherever you save it.

If you coach a few clients in person and explain the plan to them in the gym, a sheet may be enough. The problem does not appear on day one, but when the number of clients and changes grows.

How to build a training template in Excel

A good training template in Excel separates three things that tend to get mixed up: what is due each day, what each session consists of and what the client has done.

The grid: weeks by days

One row per week and one column per day. In each cell, only the name of the session due, not the whole session. An empty cell is a day without a session.

Example	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday
Week 1	Routine A		Routine B
Week 2	Routine A		Routine B

This is an example of structure, with no values: which days carry a session and which session is due, you decide with each client.

The sessions, on a separate tab

Each session (“Routine A”, “Routine B”) is described only once on another tab, with its exercises and the columns you use: exercise, sets, repetitions, weight, rest and notes. The grid only names them. That way, if you change “Routine A”, you do not have to touch every week in which it appears.

What was done, kept apart from what was scheduled

If the client tells you what they did, note it on a different tab. What was scheduled and what was done should not share a cell: if you mix them, after a few weeks you will not know what was the plan and what was reality.

Where it stops scaling

The sheet holds up while the work is yours and nobody else's. These are the points where it starts to cost time:

• One copy per client. Each new client is another file or another tab, and an improvement to the base has to be repeated in all the copies.
• Versions. You end up with files called “final_plan_good” and you do not know which version each client has or what you changed between one and another.
• The client cannot see it. You have to send them the plan as a file or a screenshot, and every change is a resend.
• The client cannot log anything. What they do reaches you by message and you copy it to the sheet by hand, if you remember.
• Dates. Each client starts on a different day, and turning “week 3, Thursday” into a real date is something you do every time.

Signs that you have outgrown your sheet

1. You spend more time copying and renaming files than planning.
2. You have sent a client an old version of the plan.
3. To know what a client did last week you have to search the chat.
4. You repeat the same session by hand across several weeks and several clients.
5. A client asks you what they are due to do today.

If you recognise yourself in several, the problem is no longer the sheet itself: it is that the plan has to reach the client and come back with what they did, and a sheet that only you see does not make that trip.

From the sheet to a programme by weeks

Moving from a sheet to a tool is not about copying cells, but about separating what was together in the sheet:

1. The sessions, as templates. What was the sessions tab in your sheet.
2. The programme, as a grid. It only says which session is due on each day of each week.
3. The client's calendar, with real dates. It is where what is due each day comes from.

Build week 1 first, copy it over the following ones and change only the cells that vary. Before applying the programme to a client, check which days clash with what they already had in their calendar. And make the change in stages: start with new clients and let the current ones finish what they have in the sheet.

How Entrenify handles it

The first thing you need to know: Entrenify does not import from Excel or CSV. Sessions and programmes are built inside the tool, once. From there:

• Grid: programmes are built in a grid of weeks by days (four weeks by default), and a programme lasts from 1 to 12 weeks.
• Copying weeks: a week can be copied over others.
• Reused sessions: the programme does not store exercises or foods, but references to the days of your routine templates and to your menus.
• Client's calendar: the programme is loaded into the client's calendar, and week 1 starts on the day you say, without having to be a Monday.
• Preview: before applying it you see how many sessions it will create and which ones clash with something already there.
• Copy, not link: once applied, the plan belongs to the client. Editing it does not change the programme and changing the programme does not change their plan.
• Versions: templates keep versions with a note on what changed.
• The client sees it and records: they open their app, see the day's routine and record sets, repetitions, weight and RPE (rate of perceived exertion).

The programme builder is used on a computer, not on a phone. How to prepare the sessions that the programme then places is covered in how to create routines without wasting hours, and what to do with what the client records, in following up online clients. Prices and plans are on the Entrenify home page (in Spanish).