Coaching check-ins: what to ask, how often, and how to read the answers

Why a check-in is separate from a message

A message is a conversation. It arrives when the client feels like writing, and it scrolls away. A check-in differs in three ways.

It is asked by you. The client answers the questions you chose, in the order you chose, so every week looks the same. It has a due date. The client knows when it is coming and you know when to expect it. And it is kept. A check-in from week two sits beside the check-in from week six. You can compare them without scrolling a chat.

A chat tells you what the client wanted to say. A check-in tells you what you needed to know, in a form you can read in two minutes.

What a weekly check-in should ask

Keep it short. A client who faces twenty questions every Sunday stops answering by week four. Six to eight cover what a coach needs.

Training adherence and effort. Which sessions did they complete, and how hard did the working sets feel. Your log shows the sets. The client tells you how the sets felt.

Recovery and sleep. Hours of sleep on a typical night, and how recovered they feel on a simple scale. Two numbers are enough.

Pain or injury by region. Ask for a region and a rating, so "my knee" becomes "left knee, 3 of 10, during squats". A pain question with no region gives you nothing to act on.

Bodyweight or a measurement, when agreed. Ask for it if the client agreed to share it and the goal depends on it. Skip it otherwise. A client chasing a first pull-up has no use for a weekly waist number.

A photo, when relevant. Same rule. Ask for a photo in a named pose when the goal is visual. Ask every fourth week rather than every week. Lighting and time of day swamp a seven day change.

One open question. "Anything else I should know?" catches the missed session, the new job, and the holiday. It also catches the thing they were embarrassed to write under pain.

A weekly template you can copy

1. Which sessions did you complete this week? (yes or no per session, or a written answer)
2. How hard did your working sets feel on average? (rating, 1 to 10)
3. How many hours did you sleep on a typical night? (number)
4. How recovered do you feel today? (rating, 1 to 10)
5. Any pain or injury this week? (pain or injury, with the region)
6. Bodyweight this morning, if you are sharing it. (measurement)
7. Front relaxed photo, every fourth week. (photo)
8. Anything else I should know? (written answer)

Drop questions 6 and 7 for a client whose goal does not need them. That leaves six.

What an intake asks once

An intake is a different form. You ask it once, when a client joins. The answers stay with the client for the length of the relationship.

Ask for the goal in the client's own words, and a date if there is one. Ask for training history, including years of consistent work and what the last program looked like. Ask for current and past injuries with a region and what aggravates each. Ask what equipment they have and where they train. Ask for the days and times they can train, and how long each session can run. Ask about medical history, and tell the client before they answer that you are asking and why.

Keep it to ten minutes of answering. A long intake delays the first program.

How often, and for how long

Two rhythms cover most clients.

Weekly on a fixed weekday. This fits a client on a written program with a weekly shape. Sunday evening or Monday morning works well. The training week is complete and the next one has not started.

Every N days. This fits a client whose week has no fixed shape. Shift workers, people who travel, and clients on a rolling training cycle fall here. Every five or every ten days keeps the check-in close to the training rather than to the calendar.

Set an end date when the rhythm belongs to a block. A six week block gets six check-ins, then you decide again. An open-ended rhythm drifts. A client who stops answering in week nine is easy to miss when the check-in was never meant to end.

Read the answers beside the log

A check-in answer means little on its own. "Sets felt hard" is a fact about the client. It becomes useful next to the sets. Open the training log for the same week before you write anything.

Some pairs worth reading together.

• The client rated effort 9 of 10. The log shows every set at the written RIR target. That is a client who finds the target hard, or a client whose RIR estimate has drifted. Ask which.
• The client rated recovery 4 of 10 and slept five hours. The log shows two of four sessions completed. The missed sessions now have a cause you can name.
• The client reports left knee pain at 4 of 10. The log shows the pain started the week the squat loads went up. Or it shows nothing changed. Either way you know where to look.
• Bodyweight moved one kilogram. Read it against three weeks, since one number is noise.

Say what you see in plain words. Name the number, the session, and the set. Describe the change and leave the labels out. The client needs the specific thing that changed and what to do about it.

Reply so the client can act

A good reply has three parts and fits on a phone screen.

State what you read. Quote the answer or the set so the client knows you looked. Name one change for the coming week, or say that nothing changes and why. End with a question if you need one more fact.

Reply on a fixed day too. A check-in answered on Sunday and read on Thursday teaches the client that the form does not matter. If you cannot read it that day, tell them when you will.

How Method does each of these

Templates from your own questions. You build a check-in template in your Coach Workspace on the web. Question kinds are written answer, yes or no, choice, rating, number, pain or injury, measurement, and photo. Section headings group them. A measurement question asks for a specific body measurement, with a side where that applies. A photo question asks for a photo in a named pose. The weekly template above maps onto these kinds.

Published revisions. A template is published as a revision before you use it. Editing it creates a new revision. Check-ins already sent keep the questions they were sent with. A change in week five never rewrites the answers from week two.

Intake as a second template kind. A Client intake template is asked once. Its pinned answers stay on the client's overview. It can carry a medical history section the client is told about before they answer. Mark one intake as the default for new clients, and an invitation can attach it. The client sees the questions before accepting, and the intake is due a week later.

Rhythm per client. From a client's Check-ins page, start a rhythm from a template. Choose weekly on the weekdays you pick, or every N days from a start date, with an optional end date. Method sends each check-in when it is due. You can also send a one-off check-in from the same page.

Submitted check-ins under Review. The client answers in the iPhone app. When they submit, the check-in appears under Review on your workspace home. Open it to read the answers beside your review area. The same client record holds Training and Trends. Training lists every completed session with weight, reps, and effort per set. Trends shows estimated 1RM per exercise with the sessions behind each change. Every completed workout keeps the prescription it started from, so a partial session reads as partial.

Feedback in the app. You send feedback from the review. The client reads it in the iPhone app. The check-in and your feedback stay on the client's Check-ins page rather than in the conversation.

Pain by region. Pain or injury has its own question kind. The answer arrives as a pain report rather than as free text buried in a written answer.

Measurements when granted. A client's Measurements page appears on their record when they have granted that view. The invitation lists the grants you ask for, and the client accepts before anything is shared.

Two things that belong somewhere else

A check-in is a poor place for a form video and a poor place for a scheduling change.

A form video is a form check. In Method either side can start one. You ask for a form check on an exercise. Or the client sends a video of a lift from a session. You pause the video, draw on the frame, and leave a note at that timestamp. The client sees the drawings and notes in the app. A video in a written answer gets none of that.

A scheduling change is a message. "Can we move Thursday to Friday this week?" needs an answer today. A check-in due on Sunday cannot carry it. Method keeps one conversation per client in the Inbox. Unread messages sit under Reply on your workspace home, beside the check-ins under Review.