Claude Projects for fitness coaches: the four-project setup.
Half of every prompt a coach types is context they typed yesterday: who they coach, how they talk, what they sell, what the model must never do. A Claude Project holds that once per job. This page is the four-project setup for a coaching business, with the instruction block for each project written rules-first so it gets followed, the list of what to upload and what must never be uploaded, a side-by-side with ChatGPT Projects and Gemini Gems, the reason Claude sometimes ignores its instructions, and a five-minute test per project.
By Markus Evers · Updated September 2026
the short version
A Claude Project is a workspace with its own instructions and uploaded files that every chat inside it reads, so a coach sets the niche, voice and rules once per job instead of per prompt. Four projects cover a coaching business: Content, Client comms, Programming assistant and Business numbers, each with a copyable instruction block below.
What are Claude Projects, and why should a coach use them?
A Project is a workspace with its own instructions and uploaded files that every chat inside it reads, so a coach sets the niche, the voice and the rules once per job instead of once per prompt; four projects cover a coaching business. The reason to use projects rather than one long set of standing instructions is scope. A coach in a 117-point r/ChatGPTPro thread put the case for a clean slate: "Claude's context window is impressive but I don't want it making assumptions. When I start a new chat I want a blank slate." A project gives you both: the standing rules inside it, and a blank slate outside it. Another reply, in a thread on favourite custom instructions, made the other half of the argument: "Project Instructions are better ... you can tailor them to specific tasks."
Coaches already do the crude version. In a thread on how AI has been helpful, one wrote "I fed it my entire database of programs I've created"; in a thread on using an assistant as a personal coach, people describe uploading their own answers to a project and asking it to hold them to their plan. The four-project setup is that habit with the rules and the privacy line written down. The two standing instruction boxes that go at the top of every project are in ChatGPT custom instructions for fitness coaches; this page is the Claude-side setup around them.
Which four projects should a fitness coach create?
Content, Client comms, Programming assistant and Business numbers: one per job, because the rules for a caption contradict the rules for a program review, and a single project has to guess which apply. Each row gives the purpose, the instruction block in one line, and the files that belong in it; the blocks themselves follow.
| Project | Purpose | Instructions, in one line | Files |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Content | Captions, carousel slides, Reel scripts, Story frames, the monthly calendar. | Voice from the files, one specific first line, one ask, banned words, never an invented result. | Ten captions you wrote, your style card, your three content pillars, your offer page, this month's calendar. |
| 2. Client comms | Check-in reply drafts, onboarding emails, replies to enquiries. | Anonymised input only, four-part check-in reply, 120 to 180-word emails, bullets only for a struggling client. | Five check-in replies you wrote with names removed, your onboarding emails, your offer and price, your process facts (check-in day, reply hours, notice period). |
| 3. Programming assistant | Reviewing blocks you wrote, substitutions, progression rules, deload checks. | Reviewer, never author; asks for the missing facts; one variable per progression; never loads the pattern that hurt. | Your block templates, your exercise library, your constraints sheet template, your periodization notes. |
| 4. Business numbers | Renewal rate, months per client, revenue per lead source, pricing maths, the monthly review. | Anonymised export in, three numbers out with the formulas shown; I verify one figure by hand before trusting any. | A sample of your anonymised client export (ID, start, end, price, lead source, renewed), your prices and billing terms, last month's review. |
What goes in each project's instructions?
Rules first, then the job, then the voice, then the output shape, in under 250 words. The setup guides that rank for this term agree on three rules and none of them are about coaching: instructions define behaviour and files provide information; the most important rules go first; knowledge documents stay at one to three pages each. The four blocks below follow all three, and each carries the two rules a coach cannot skip: never invent a client or a number, and never let client health data in. Paste your two standing boxes above the block if you use them, and fill the [BRACKETS].
Content project instructions
When to use it: Captions, carousel slides, Reel scripts, Story frames, the monthly calendar.
What to paste in: Your [BRACKETS], then the files: Ten captions you wrote, your style card, your three content pillars, your offer page, this month's calendar.
RULES FIRST. 1. Never invent a client, a number, a result or a quote; write [NEEDS MY NUMBER] where one belongs. 2. No health claims, no before-and-after bodies, no "transform". 3. Every draft is labelled DRAFT and ends without a summary line or an offer line.
This project is for my marketing content only: Instagram captions, carousel slides, Reel scripts, Story frames and the monthly calendar. I coach [WHO] towards [RESULT, plainly]. My three pillars are [PILLAR 1], [PILLAR 2], [PILLAR 3].
Voice: copy the length, openers and repeated phrases of the captions in this project's files, and the style card. Read those before every draft.
Shape: one post, one point, one ask. The first line names a specific thing (a number, a food, a lift, a client moment), never a rhetorical question. No contrast framing ("it's not X, it's Y"), no groups of three, no emoji unless my captions use them, no elevate, unlock, journey, game-changer, empower, seamless, "in today's".
Client stories only when I paste them and mark them "with permission"; keep the client's own words and never describe their body.
When I ask for a caption, return one caption and two alternative first lines. When I ask for a calendar, use the pillars and the offer page in the files, and leave the launch dates blank for me. Client comms project instructions
When to use it: Check-in reply drafts, onboarding emails, replies to enquiries.
What to paste in: Your [BRACKETS], then the files: Five check-in replies you wrote with names removed, your onboarding emails, your offer and price, your process facts (check-in day, reply hours, notice period).
RULES FIRST. 1. Everything I paste about a client is confidential: first names or initials only, never repeat a health detail back, never diagnose. 2. If the client is struggling, discouraged, in pain or thinking about leaving, do not draft a reply; give me five bullets of what they said and stop. 3. Every draft is edited by me before it is sent; write it as a draft for me, not a message from you. This project drafts client-facing messages. Voice comes from the replies and emails in this project's files; match their length and their sign-off. My process facts are in the files (check-in day [DAY], reply hours [HOURS], notice period [WEEKS]); use them, never invent a policy. Check-in replies have four parts: acknowledge one specific thing with its number, assess the week in one or two sentences, one adjustment with the reason and the day it starts, one question they can answer with a yes or a number. Four to eight sentences, no "great job", no "you've got this". Onboarding emails are 120 to 180 words with one job, one ask and one link, about my process, never about results. Enquiry replies answer the question in the first sentence, state the price once from the files, and end with the next step, never with a discount.
Programming assistant project instructions
When to use it: Reviewing blocks you wrote, substitutions, progression rules, deload checks.
What to paste in: Your [BRACKETS], then the files: Your block templates, your exercise library, your constraints sheet template, your periodization notes.
RULES FIRST. 1. You review programs I wrote; you do not write programs. If I ask for a program, ask me for the block I drafted instead. 2. Before any review, check the client facts (training age, goal, sessions and minutes per week, equipment, limitations in general terms, anchor lifts, block length) and ask for what is missing rather than assuming. 3. Never change a load without a reason I can read, and never load the movement pattern that caused discomfort. This project is my second pair of eyes on training blocks. Use the templates and the exercise library in this project's files as the reference for what I consider normal. Review format: red flags first (anything unsafe for the stated limitations), then volume per pattern against my notes, then progression (is there one, is it one variable per lift, what is the trigger and the fallback), then recovery and deload placement, then what a client would misread in the way it is written. Quote the line you are reviewing before each comment. Substitutions: five, ranked by closeness of movement pattern, with the reason and the coaching cue, matched to the equipment in the facts. Never add nutrition or medical advice; if a fact I gave you implies a medical question, say "refer out" and nothing more.
Business numbers project instructions
When to use it: Renewal rate, months per client, revenue per lead source, pricing maths, the monthly review.
What to paste in: Your [BRACKETS], then the files: A sample of your anonymised client export (ID, start, end, price, lead source, renewed), your prices and billing terms, last month's review.
RULES FIRST. 1. Show every formula and the arithmetic for every figure; I verify one by hand before I trust any of them, so make that easy. 2. No business advice, no recommendations, no "you should"; restate the numbers and stop. 3. Only anonymised exports go in this project: client ID, dates, price, lead source, renewed. If a row contains a name or anything that looks like one, tell me and skip the row. This project turns my client export into the three numbers I track every month: renewal rate (renewed divided by clients whose first package has ended), months per client (average and median from start to end, active clients counted to [TODAY]), and revenue per lead source (clients, average months, price times months, sorted by total). Output one table with those three sections, then three one-line observations that are only restatements of the numbers. For pricing maths, use only the prices and terms in this project's files, state every assumption in a list above the table, and mark anything that might need an accountant with [CHECK WITH A PROFESSIONAL]. Use my currency as written and never convert it.
All four blocks and the three tests are in the free AI prompt pack for online coaches. The style card the Content and Client comms blocks refer to comes from how to train ChatGPT on your coaching voice; the reviewer-not-author rule in the Programming block is the whole of how to use ChatGPT for program design; the three numbers in the Business block are worked through in coaching business numbers with ChatGPT.
What should I upload, and what must never be uploaded?
Upload what you wrote and what is true of your business; never upload what a client wrote about themselves. Project knowledge stays in the project and is governed by the plan's data terms, which change; check the current settings for training use, retention and region before the first file goes in. The client-side rule does not change with the vendor: a check-in with a name, a date of birth or a health detail is personal data and some of it is special-category data, and it does not belong in a vendor's project. The full yes, no and only-if table for fourteen kinds of client data, the anonymisation template and the disclosure line are in can you put client data in ChatGPT.
Upload
- Ten captions you wrote, unedited, and your style card.
- Five check-in replies you wrote, with names and health details removed.
- Your offer page, your prices, your billing terms and your policies as they are today.
- Your block templates, exercise library and the blank constraints sheet.
- A sample of your anonymised client export: ID, dates, price, lead source, renewed.
- Your FAQ answers and your onboarding emails.
Never upload
- Intake forms, PAR-Qs or check-ins with names, dates of birth or health details.
- Progress photos, or any photo of a client.
- Messages a client sent you, as sent.
- Payment records with names or card details.
- Anything a client has not agreed may leave your platform.
Claude Projects vs ChatGPT Projects vs Gemini Gems: what is the difference?
The same idea under three names, and the same setup works in all three: the two boxes, the four projects, the anonymisation rule. What differs is what carries over between chats and where each is stronger, which comes from the twelve-task tests in ChatGPT vs Claude vs Gemini for fitness coaches; the ChatGPT-side setup with the two boxes is in ChatGPT custom instructions for fitness coaches. File and size limits are deliberately not listed: they change with the plan and the month.
| Claude Projects | ChatGPT Projects | Gemini Gems | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | A Project: instructions field plus uploaded files, read by every chat inside it. | A Project: instructions plus files, read by chats inside it; custom instructions and memory apply on top. | A Gem: saved instructions plus files, opened as its own assistant. |
| What carries over between chats | Instructions and files. Each chat starts clean otherwise, unless memory is enabled on your plan. | Instructions and files, plus account memory unless you turn it off. | Instructions and files. |
| File limits | Check the current limits for your plan. | Check the current limits for your plan. | Check the current limits for your plan. |
| Where it is stronger, from the tests | Drafts that read less generated out of the box; long documents; a clean slate per chat. | Memory across chats for coaches who want it; the widest set of add-ons. | Anything that lives in Google Docs, Drive and Sheets already. |
| Where the setup is the same | The two instruction boxes, the four projects, the anonymisation rule. | The same. | The same. |
Why does Claude ignore project instructions, and what helps?
Because the instructions are long, the important rules are buried, or the chat has run so far that the rules are a long way back; the fix is short instructions, rules first, and restating the two critical rules in the prompt when it matters. A 124-point r/ClaudeAI post titled "How I feel when Claude ignores project instructions" is a coach's Tuesday: the reply thread is people "having to prompt 'check project instructions'". Another thread describes project instructions being sent with every message, which is why the blocks above are short: whatever the mechanism in a given month, a 200-word block costs little and a 2,000-word one gets skimmed. The positive case is the 484-point thread on things people had Claude do that saved hours: nearly every example is a narrow job with clear rules and a few good files, which is what a project is.
Three habits that hold: keep each block under 250 words with RULES FIRST at the top; start a new chat for each new piece of work instead of running one chat for a week; and when a rule matters (never invent a number; do not draft for a slipping client), repeat it in one line at the end of the prompt. The same fix, for the ChatGPT side, is in the custom instructions guide.
How do I test a project in five minutes?
Three prompts, one per project, each designed to make the rules fire. A pass is not a good caption; a pass is the project doing what the block says when the prompt tempts it not to. Run them once after setup and again after any change to the files.
| Project | Type this | A good answer |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Content | Write a caption about protein for my audience. | It reads the files first, uses phrases from your captions, opens with a specific thing, gives one caption plus two first lines, labels it DRAFT, and writes [NEEDS MY NUMBER] where a figure belongs. |
| 2. Client comms | Here is a check-in: [paste an anonymised week: sessions done, adherence, weight trend, one line of their words that sounds discouraged]. | It refuses to draft and returns five bullets, because rule 2 fired. Paste a routine week instead and you get the four-part reply under eight sentences. |
| 3. Programming assistant | Write me a 3-day program for a client. | It asks for the block you drafted and the missing client facts instead of producing a plan. If it writes a program, the rules are too long or too far down; shorten them. |
For the Business numbers project the test is simpler: paste ten anonymised rows, check one figure by hand, and keep the project only if the arithmetic it shows matches yours.
Where do the outputs go?
Into your own tools, edited: the caption into your scheduler, the check-in reply into the client's thread after you have rewritten it, the program review back into the block you wrote, the three numbers into your monthly review. The project is a drafting room; the record of the client stays where the client is. In Coachway that record is the client screen with the check-in form, the plan, the message thread and payments through your own Stripe, with every feature included at EUR 69 per month for up to 5 clients plus EUR 9 per additional client; the numbers are on pricing, and the best AI tools for online fitness coaches lists what sits around it. The hub for the whole AI setup, from the voice profile to the seven workflows, is how to use AI as an online fitness coach.
Frequently asked questions.
What is a Claude Project?
A workspace inside Claude with its own instructions field and its own uploaded files, which every chat started inside it reads before answering. Outside the project, none of that applies, so a coach can keep a Content project that knows their captions and pillars, a Client comms project that knows their process facts, and a blank slate for everything else. It is the Claude equivalent of a ChatGPT Project or a Gemini Gem.
Can I upload client check-ins to a Claude Project?
Not as they arrive. A check-in with a name, a date of birth, a medical detail or a photo is personal data, and some of it is special-category data under GDPR; it should not sit in a vendor's project knowledge. Upload your own replies with names removed, your process facts and your templates; paste an anonymised week into a chat when you need a draft, and delete the chat when you are done. The yes/no table for fourteen kinds of client data is in the client data guide on this site.
Do Claude Projects remember between chats?
The project remembers its instructions and its files; each chat inside it starts from those and not from the previous chat, unless the account has a memory feature enabled and you have chosen to use it. That is the behaviour many coaches prefer: the standing rules carry over, yesterday's conversation does not. Check the current memory and data settings in your account rather than trusting a summary, including this one.
How many files can a Project hold?
Enough for a coaching business, and the exact number and size limits change with the plan and the month, so check the current limits on the vendor's help page before you plan around them. The practical rule from the setup guides is one to three pages per knowledge document: ten captions, five replies, one offer page and one template set is a small project that behaves well; a hundred PDFs is a project that starts ignoring its instructions.
Is a Claude Project better than ChatGPT custom instructions?
They do different jobs. Custom instructions hold what is true of you in every chat: niche, voice, the no-go list. A Project holds what is true of one job: the files and the rules for content, or for client comms. Most coaches want both: the two custom-instruction boxes from the ChatGPT setup guide on this site, pasted into whichever assistant they use, plus the four projects on this page. In Claude the two boxes go at the top of each project's instructions.
Should I use one project for everything?
No. One project with every file and every rule is the setup that ignores its instructions, because the rules for a caption contradict the rules for a program review and the model has to guess which apply. Four projects with short, rules-first instructions each behave; the r/ChatGPTPro reply that "Project Instructions are better ... you can tailor them to specific tasks" is the whole argument in one line.
Is Claude GDPR compliant for coaches?
No vendor is "GDPR compliant" on your behalf; compliance is the coach's, and it depends on what you put in. What to check on the vendor side: the data processing terms for your plan, whether conversations are used for training and how to opt out, retention periods, and where the data is processed. What to do on your side regardless: never upload client health data, anonymise anything you paste, tell clients in one paragraph what you use AI for, and keep the client record in your coaching platform, not in a project. The disclosure line and the AI use policy are in the client data guide on this site.
Keep reading
all guidesChatGPT Custom Instructions for Fitness Coaches (2026 Setup)
The complete copy-paste ChatGPT setup for an online fitness coach: the "about you" and "how to respond" boxes at about 1,400 characters each, four Project instruction blocks (content, client comms, programming assistant, business admin), what to upload and never upload, the same setup in Claude and Gemini, memory and privacy hygiene, and a five-minute test.
Read the guideChatGPT vs Claude vs Gemini for Fitness Coaches (2026): 12 Tasks
ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini compared across the 12 tasks a fitness coach actually gives them, with a lean per task, the honest line that none of them programs unsupervised, the client-data rules that apply to all three, and three identical paste-in tests with a score sheet so you judge them in your own voice.
Read the guideHow to Train ChatGPT on Your Coaching Voice: The Voice-Profile Method
The voice-profile method for fitness coaches, done once in about 30 minutes: the ten samples to collect across captions, check-in replies, emails and DMs, the profile prompt that turns them into a style card, an example card, the header prompt that uses it, three tests that show whether it worked, and the six messages never to let AI write in your voice.
Read the guideCan You Put Client Data in ChatGPT? A GDPR Guide for Coaches (2026)
Whether a coach can put client data into ChatGPT: a yes, no or only-if table for 14 data types, the anonymisation template with a worked before-and-after, the three settings to change first, a plain GDPR summary for a solo coach (controller, lawful basis, Article 9, processor, retention), a disclosure line for the agreement and a 10-line AI use policy.
Read the guideFree tools for this: Protein Calculator · Calorie Deficit Calculator · TDEE Calculator
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