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Programming & client experience
Make me a workout plan for my client
If you ask AI to make a workout plan, the prompt matters more than the model. And the plan is the easy part: real coaching starts after the prompt is run.
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The short answer
If you ask AI to make a workout plan for a coaching client, the first step is not asking for sets and reps. It is briefing the system properly: goal, training age, schedule, equipment, injuries, current lifts, recovery, and preference. A well-briefed AI returns a draft a coach can refine in five minutes. A vague prompt returns a generic template that takes longer to fix than to write from scratch. Either way, AI can draft structure. The coach still owns exercise selection, load anchoring, progression, and intervention. You can deliver and manage this properly through TrainedBy.
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Use AI well
The right question is not just "make the plan."
AI is much more useful when the coach briefs the client properly. A generic "make a 4-day plan for hypertrophy" produces a generic template. A briefed request produces a draft that is close enough to a coach's first pass to refine in five minutes. The prompt below is the shape that actually works. Paste it into Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini, replace the bracketed inputs with real numbers, and the output is good enough to start from.
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Copy this prompt
A working AI workout-plan prompt for a coaching client.
Replace every bracketed value with your client's real input. The structure is what makes the output useful, because the AI builds around constraints instead of around its averages.
You are helping me design a 4-day workout plan for an online coaching client. I am the coach. You are not the coach. I make the final decision. Client: - Sex: [male] - Age: [29] - Bodyweight: [75 kg] - Height: [178 cm] - Training age: [18 months consistent, last 12 months progressive] - Goal: [hypertrophy with chest and back priority, recomp] - Days per week: [4] - Session length cap: [60 to 75 min] - Equipment: [full commercial gym] - Injuries: [none current; mild lower back from deadlifts 2 years ago, fully recovered] - Current working sets: - Bench press: [80 kg x 6 @ RPE 8] - Back squat: [110 kg x 5 @ RPE 8] - Conventional deadlift: [140 kg x 4 @ RPE 8] - Lat pulldown: [70 kg x 8 @ RPE 8] - Recovery: [7 to 8 hours sleep, no cardio, eats around maintenance] - Preference: [enjoys pressing and rows; dislikes high-rep leg work] Targets for this cycle: - Block length: 8 weeks before deload - Weekly volume per muscle group: chest 14 to 18 hard sets, back 16 to 20, quads 10 to 14, hamstrings/glutes 8 to 12, shoulders 8 to 12, arms 6 to 10 - Intensity: most working sets RPE 7 to 9 - Rep ranges: 4 to 6 on main compound, 6 to 10 on secondary, 10 to 15 on isolation Rules for the plan: - 4 sessions across the week, ideally 1 day rest between hard upper days - Main compound first in each session - One hinge or one squat per lower day (do not stack both as main) - Substitution suggestion next to any movement that needs equipment - Show sets, rep range, RPE, rest in seconds, and a one-line progression rule - Include a one-line warm-up suggestion for each main compound Do not invent injuries, do not prescribe medical advice, do not change loads based on percentages I did not provide. Output the plan only. No preamble.
The output is a draft. The coach decides what to keep, what to swap, and what loads to anchor.
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Sample output
A sample plan for the prompt above.
This is the kind of structure a well-briefed AI returns. Numbers will vary slightly between models. The value is the shape of the plan and the constraints it respected, not the exact loads.
Day 1. Upper, push-emphasis
Warm-up: 5 min easy bike, then bench warm-up sets to working weight. Bench press 3 sets of 6 at RPE 8, 180 s rest, add 2.5 kg when all sets hit top of range. Incline dumbbell press 3 sets of 8 at RPE 8, 120 s, add 2 kg when reps land at RPE 7. Cable row 3 sets of 8 at RPE 8, 120 s. Lateral raise 3 sets of 12 at RPE 9, 75 s, add reps before load. Triceps pushdown 2 sets of 10 at RPE 9, 75 s.
Day 2. Lower, quad-emphasis
Warm-up: 5 min easy bike, then squat warm-up sets to working weight. Back squat 3 sets of 5 at RPE 8, 180 s, add 2.5 kg when all sets hit top of range. Romanian deadlift 3 sets of 8 at RPE 8, 150 s. Leg press 3 sets of 10 at RPE 8, 120 s. Walking lunge 2 sets of 12 each leg at RPE 8, 90 s, sub split squat if space-limited. Standing calf raise 3 sets of 10 at RPE 9, 75 s.
Day 3. Upper, pull-emphasis
Warm-up: 5 min easy bike, then lat pulldown warm-up sets to working weight. Lat pulldown 4 sets of 8 at RPE 8, 120 s, sub pull-up if pulldowns are unavailable. Chest-supported row 3 sets of 8 at RPE 8, 120 s. Incline dumbbell press 3 sets of 8 at RPE 8, 120 s. Face pull 3 sets of 12 at RPE 9, 60 s. Hammer curl 2 sets of 10 at RPE 9, 75 s.
Day 4. Lower, hinge-emphasis
Warm-up: 5 min easy bike, then deadlift warm-up sets to working weight. Trap-bar deadlift 3 sets of 5 at RPE 8, 180 s, sub conventional if trap bar unavailable. Front squat or hack squat 3 sets of 6 at RPE 8, 150 s. Lying leg curl 3 sets of 8 at RPE 8, 120 s. Hip thrust 3 sets of 8 at RPE 8, 120 s. Seated calf raise 3 sets of 12 at RPE 9, 75 s.
Progression rules
When all working sets hit the top of the rep range at the prescribed RPE, add the listed load next session. If RPE drifts above 9 for two sessions, hold load and aim to add one rep instead. Week 8 ends the block: drop volume to roughly 60 percent of working sets and reduce intensity to RPE 6 to 7 across the deload week.
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What AI does not solve
Selection. Loads. Progression. Intervention.
AI can give you a clean draft. AI cannot watch the first week's logs land, see that bench actually fell short of the prescription, and decide whether to drop the load five percent or to keep the load and cut a set. That is coaching work, and it lives in a system. You can deliver and manage this properly through TrainedBy. The plan goes to the client app, structured logs land on the same account, and the Weekly Cockpit surfaces missed sessions, plateaued lifts, and exercises the client substituted out without telling you.
For the inputs and worked example without the AI lens, the workout-plan post is the matching read. For the week-to-week progression logic, the progression post is next.
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Common questions.
What should I give AI if I want a usable workout plan?
Goal, training age, days per week, session length, equipment, injuries, current working weights, recovery, and preference. The same eight inputs a coach would build the plan around manually. Bad prompts produce template plans. Briefed prompts produce drafts.
Can AI replace the coach for programming?
No. AI can draft structure. Exercise selection, load anchoring, progression, and intervention still belong to the coach. AI is a faster typewriter, not a coach.
What should happen after the plan is generated?
Deliver it through a system that captures logs, surfaces signal, and supports weekly progression. The Weekly Cockpit is the cockpit-level view. The coach operating system covers the broader frame.
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Related
Read next.
- Programming & client experience
How to make a workout plan for an online coaching client
The plan is the easy part. The hard part is progressing the client through it once life, recovery, and adherence start moving the numbers.
- Programming & client experience
How to progress a client's workout plan week to week
Progression is the real coaching job. The plan only sets the starting point. Whether the client gets stronger comes down to the decisions made between weeks.
- Programming & client experience
How to analyse workout logs without reading every set manually
Reading every set across every client every Monday does not scale past 10 clients. The job is to extract the signal, not to consume the data.
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A good prompt drafts faster. A real system progresses better.
AI can give you a clean first draft. TrainedBy turns that draft into a coached plan that progresses with the client every week.