How to track your clients' workouts without a spreadsheet

Most coaches start with a shared spreadsheet, or clients sending screenshots of their notes app. It works for three clients. By ten, you spend Sunday night copying numbers instead of coaching, and the client who quietly stopped training two weeks ago slips through.

What you actually need to see

• Did they train? Workouts per week against the goal you agreed. This is the number that predicts results.
• Did they hit their reps? Missing target reps three sessions in a row usually means fatigue is building, not a lack of effort.
• Is the main lift still moving? A lift with no new best in three or more weeks needs a change: a new rep range, an extra set or a close variation.
• What went well? New bests are worth a message. Progress someone notices keeps them coming back.

Everything else (every set's rest time, every warm-up) is nice to have, but it shouldn't be the first thing you read.

A weekly review in ten minutes

1. Start with whoever hasn't trained in a week or more. Send a short, friendly check-in before anything else.
2. Next, anyone behind on their weekly goal. Ask what got in the way, and plan fewer, shorter sessions they can keep up if that's the answer.
3. Then anyone missing reps or stalled on a lift. Adjust one thing for the next three weeks, not five.
4. Finish with the wins. A one-line note about a new best takes seconds and lands well.

Let the client log, not report

The data is only as good as the logging. Ask clients to log in an app as they lift, set by set, rather than writing a summary afterwards: it's quicker for them and far more accurate for you. A pre-filled next set and a one-tap log make it easy to keep up. See how to track your workouts.

In Liftsmith

Clients log their workouts in the app as usual. You make one invite link in Settings › Coaching, and each client's report opens with what to do first: gone quiet, behind on their weekly goal, missing reps, stalled lifts and new bests. Then come their weeks, recent workouts and new bests. See coaching in Liftsmith.

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