How to Write a Workout Your Client Can Follow on Their Phone

A workout can be perfectly designed and still fail because the client can't read it at the gym. Ambiguous notation, missing rest times and exercise names that mean three different things lead to guesswork, and guesswork leads to clients doing their own thing. This guide covers how to write each line of a workout so a client can follow it on a phone, mid-session, without messaging you.

One line per exercise

The simplest rule is also the most useful: every exercise gets one line, and that line holds everything the client needs.

3x10 goblet squat @20kg rest 90s

Sets, reps, exercise, load and rest, in one place. The client never has to look in two places to know what to do next. Avoid paragraphs of instructions between exercises; put coaching cues in a short note or, better, in the exercise's video.

Sets and reps, written the same way every time

Pick one notation and never change it. The most widely understood is sets x reps:

• 3x10: three sets of ten.
• 4x6-8: four sets of six to eight reps. A range lets the client succeed on a hard day and earn more weight on a good one.
• 3x10/side: ten per side for single-leg or single-arm work, so nobody does five each way.
• 3x30s: timed sets, for planks and carries.

Mixing "3 sets of 10" on one line and "10, 10, 10" on the next makes the client stop and think. Consistency is a feature.

Load: weight or effort

There are two ways to tell a client how heavy to go, and both work if you're clear:

• A weight: @60kg or 135 lbs. Precise, best when you know their numbers.
• An effort: RPE 8 (about two reps left in the tank). Best in the first weeks, for clients who train at different gyms, or when energy varies a lot.

For a brand-new client, effort targets are safer. After a couple of sessions, their logs give you real weights to write.

Rest times

Rest is the most commonly missing piece of a written workout, and it changes the session completely. Roughly:

• Heavy compound lifts (3 to 6 reps): 2 to 3 minutes.
• Moderate work (8 to 12 reps): 60 to 90 seconds.
• Accessories and pump work: 45 to 60 seconds.

Write it on the line, rest 90s, or once at the top of the workout if it's the same throughout.

Supersets and circuits

Pair exercises with a letter and number: A1 and A2 are done back to back, then rest, then repeat.

A1 3x12 dumbbell row A2 3x12 push-up

It's the standard notation in most gyms and programs, so clients who've trained before already know it, and new clients learn it in one session.

Exercise names and videos

"Row" could be a cable row, a barbell row or a machine. Use the full, common name: seated cable row, chest-supported dumbbell row. And attach a demonstration wherever you can. A ten-second clip answers more questions than a paragraph of cues, and it's the difference between a client trying a new exercise and quietly skipping it.

You don't need to film everything yourself. A good library of short, clear demos covers most exercises; film your own only for the movements you coach in a specific way.

Put the workout where the client already looks

Even a perfectly written workout fails if it's buried in a chat or a PDF. Deliver it somewhere that shows today's session first, with what they lifted last time next to each exercise, and lets them tick sets as they go.

In SendFit you write the workout on the day's card exactly like the lines above. Each line is read as you type (sets, reps, load, RPE, rest, supersets), matched to an exercise with a clip where one exists, and saved on its own. On the client's link, every set is prefilled from your line, "Last time" shows the previous session's numbers and a rest timer runs after each set. If you'd rather start from something ready, the workout library has dozens of sessions with every exercise already matched to a clip.

For delivering the whole program, read how to send workout programs to clients, and for keeping clients moving forward, progressive overload for online clients.