Online coaching glossary
Plain-English definitions for the words that come up when you run an online coaching business: the software terms, the growth and content terms, the numbers you should actually watch, and the training and nutrition language you use with clients every day. No jargon for the sake of jargon. Just clear answers, grouped so you can find what you need fast.
By Markus Evers · Updated June 2026
the short version
An online coaching glossary is a single reference page that defines the core terms of the trade: the platform and software words, the growth and content words, the business metrics, the training terms, and the nutrition terms. We grouped ours into clear sets so you can scan to the part you care about, and many entries link to a full guide where you can see the idea in practice.
Five groups, one page.
We kept this simple. Most of the language around online coaching falls into a handful of buckets: the software you run on, how you grow, the numbers worth watching, and the training and nutrition terms you use with clients every day. Almost every problem you hit lives in one of them, so that is how we split it.
Platform and software
The tools you deliver coaching through: the app your clients log into, the inbox you reply from, the forms you collect check-ins with, and how all of it is priced.
Jump to these terms →Growth and content
How people find you and decide to work with you: the niche you pick, the content you make, the hooks that stop the scroll, and the proof that closes.
Jump to these terms →Metrics
The numbers that tell you whether the business is healthy: recurring revenue, churn, retention, lifetime value, acquisition cost, and how many clients you can hold.
Jump to these terms →Coaching and business model
The shape of the business itself: the offer you sell, the niche you own, how you onboard and keep clients accountable, and where your scope of practice ends.
Jump to these terms →Training
The language of the workouts you write: progressive overload, RPE and reps in reserve, supersets, tempo, deloads, periodization, and the rest.
Jump to these terms →Nutrition
The words behind every meal plan: macros and micronutrients, TDEE and maintenance calories, deficits and surpluses, protein targets, reverse diets and refeeds.
Jump to these terms →Platform and software
The tools you deliver coaching through: the app your clients log into, the inbox you reply from, the forms you collect check-ins with, and how all of it is priced.
Jump to these terms →Growth and content
How people find you and decide to work with you: the niche you pick, the content you make, the hooks that stop the scroll, and the proof that closes.
Jump to these terms →Metrics
The handful of numbers that tell you whether the business is healthy: recurring revenue, churn, retention, lifetime value, and how many clients you can actually hold.
Jump to these terms →The tools you deliver through.
These are the words you will run into the moment you start comparing software and setting up how clients experience your coaching.
Online coaching platform
The software you run your coaching business on, where you build programs, send check-in forms, message clients, and give them an app to log into. It replaces the patchwork of spreadsheets, chat apps, and PDFs most coaches start with.
See in practiceCheck-in form
A structured form your client fills in on a set rhythm, usually weekly, with their weight, photos, training, sleep, and how the week actually felt. It is how you stay close to someone you never see in person and spot problems before they quit.
See in practicePower Panel / unified inbox
One screen that pulls every client conversation, check-in, and to-do into a single view, so you are not jumping between five apps to coach ten people. In Coachway this is the Power Panel: you sit down once a day, work the list, and you are done.
Branded client app
The mobile app your clients use day to day for their program, meal plan, messages, and progress, carrying your name and look rather than feeling like generic software. It makes a one-person coaching business feel like a real, finished product.
See in practiceWhite-label app
A client app that carries your brand instead of the software company's: your logo, your colours, and your name on the app the client uses. White-label just means the platform runs underneath while your name is the one the client sees.
See in practicePer-client pricing
A pricing model where you pay for the software based on how many active clients you coach, charged by how many active clients you coach rather than as a flat unlimited fee. Coachway uses per-client pricing: EUR 69 a month up to 5 clients, then EUR 9 per additional active client, so the cost scales predictably with your client count. You keep your own Stripe.
See the pricingAutomations
Rules that handle repetitive steps for you: a welcome sequence when someone signs up, a nudge when a check-in is overdue, a reminder before a renewal. They protect the parts of coaching that are easy to forget when you get busy, especially onboarding.
See in practiceAsync coaching
Coaching that happens without you and the client being online at the same time, through messages, voice memos, and check-ins answered when each of you has a moment. It is what lets one coach support clients across time zones without living on a calendar of live calls.
How people find you and decide.
This is the language of getting attention and turning it into clients. Most of it lives on Instagram, and most of it comes down to one idea from our masterclass: you cannot monetize an audience you do not have.
Niche
The specific group of people you choose to coach and be known for: busy men over 40, mothers in menopause, career people short on time. As we say in the masterclass, if you try to stand for everyone, you are not going to stand for anything.
See in practiceIdeal client
A clear picture of the one person you most want to help: their pain, their dream outcome, where they are stuck. When your content speaks straight to that person, the right people follow and the wrong ones scroll past. They pick you, not the other way around.
See in practiceContent funnel / content onion
The path from stranger to client across five layers: eyeballs, relation, social proof, sales, and delivery. The top brings reach, the middle builds trust, the bottom converts, and delivery feeds referrals. Nail the first four but coach poorly and the whole thing stalls.
See in practiceHook
The first second or two of a reel: the line or visual that stops someone mid-scroll. A good hook stimulates the ears and the eyes at once, not just a talking head on a chair. In our experience, below around 5,000 followers, testing hooks at volume is most of the work.
See in practiceLead magnet / freebie
Something useful you give away in exchange for a comment or a follow: an ebook, a guide, a starter plan. Coachway coach Sandra Rosenkrantz uses a snacking-focused free ebook as her lead magnet, with a pinned comment-for-the-free-ebook post, and a single well-targeted freebie like that can pull a flood of comments in a day.
Before-and-after
A side-by-side showing a client's transformation, the single most persuasive piece of proof in fitness coaching. In our experience, coaches who are willing to share them tend to convert far more easily than those who never do.
Story selling
Selling through your Instagram stories instead of hard pitches in posts. In our experience, a meaningful share of clients come from stories. The shift that works is calm and serious: less look-at-this-amazing-client, more quietly handling the doubts people actually have.
Objection handling
Answering the reasons people hesitate, like it is June so it is a bad time to start, or my partner will not get it, before they ever say them out loud. Write down every objection from your sales calls and pre-handle them on stories. Handling objections before they are voiced tends to bring you warmer, more qualified leads.
Content pillar
One of a few core themes you post about again and again, so your feed reads as one clear message instead of random tips. A coach in the menopause niche might run three pillars: training over 40, eating without dieting, and client wins. Pillars keep you consistent and make it obvious to a new follower what you are about.
Social proof
Evidence that other people trust you and got results: client messages, before-and-afters, reviews, and screenshots of wins. It is the third layer of the content onion, the part that turns someone who likes you into someone who believes you can help them. Proof you show beats anything you claim about yourself.
Call to action (CTA)
The single, clear next step you ask a viewer to take: comment a word for the free guide, send a DM, book a call. Content without a call to action just entertains; one specific ask, repeated, is what turns reach into leads. The rule is one CTA at a time, not five things at once.
Carousel
A multi-slide Instagram post a viewer swipes through, often used to tell a small story: a before-and-after, what a client eats, progress over time, then a call to action. Carousels earn saves and shares well and give you room to build proof and handle objections across slides rather than in a single image.
Engagement rate
How much the people who see your content actually interact with it, through likes, comments, saves, shares, and replies, relative to your reach or follower count. Saves and shares tend to matter most for coaches, because they signal genuinely useful content, and a healthy engagement rate is usually a better sign of a warming audience than raw follower count.
Opt-in
The moment a follower gives you permission to contact them, usually by leaving their email or a comment in exchange for a freebie. An opt-in is the line between an anonymous follower and a lead you can actually nurture, which is why a clear opt-in offer sits at the top of most coaching funnels.
Lead nurture
The steady follow-up that keeps a lead warm between the moment they raise their hand and the moment they are ready to buy, through helpful messages, stories, and check-ins rather than a single hard pitch. Most leads are not ready on day one, so nurture is what turns a freebie download into a discovery call weeks later.
Landing page
A single, focused web page built around one action, such as joining a waitlist, downloading a guide, or booking a call, with everything else stripped away. A good landing page beats sending people to a busy profile or home page because there is only one thing to do, which lifts the share of visitors who take it.
Webinar / evergreen webinar
A live or recorded online training that teaches something useful and ends with an offer to work together. A live webinar runs at a set time; an evergreen webinar is pre-recorded and plays on demand, so it can sell in the background week after week without you presenting it again each time.
Click-through rate (CTR)
The share of people who see a link, ad, or email and actually click it, found by dividing clicks by views or sends. A low click-through rate usually means the hook or subject line is not pulling, not that the offer behind it is wrong, so it is the first thing to test when reach is fine but nobody is moving.
Open rate
The share of people who open an email out of everyone it was sent to. It is driven almost entirely by the subject line and how much the sender is trusted, so a weak open rate points at those two things before the content inside. For coaches running a nurture sequence, open rate is the first gate every message has to pass.
Sandra's whole funnel shows how these terms work together. Her bio is shaped to one promise: she helps mothers and women through menopause, she is a personal trainer, and she coaches around binge-eating and habits, with a clear call to action. Her lead-magnet carousel opens on a before-and-after, then slide two shows what she actually eats to pre-empt the she-starved-herself objection, slide three tracks progress over time, then client messages as social proof, then a CTA. You can read the full breakdown in the Sandra Rosenkrantz case study, or the deeper playbook in our guide to growing an Instagram following as an online fitness coach.
The numbers worth watching.
You do not need a dashboard with forty charts. A coaching business really only grows three ways: more clients, a higher price, or clients who stay longer, and these few numbers tell you which lever to pull.
MRR (monthly recurring revenue)
The predictable income you bring in each month from active clients. If you coach ten people at EUR 200 a month, your MRR is EUR 2,000. It is the number that tells you whether the business is actually a business or just a string of one-off sales.
Churn
The rate at which clients leave. High churn is the quiet killer of online coaching: you sign two clients a month, two leave, and the business never really grows. Lowering churn is usually cheaper than finding new clients, and it starts with onboarding.
Client retention
How long clients stay with you, the flip side of churn. Take a simplified, hypothetical example: a coach who signs about 2 clients a month whose clients stay around 5 months with no referrals tends to stall near 10 clients. A coach whose clients stay around 8 months and who earns roughly a third of new clients through referrals can grow past 24, on the same acquisition effort. It is an illustration of how retention compounds, not a guarantee or a benchmark. Retention is where the money is.
See in practiceLTV (lifetime value)
The total a client is worth to you across their whole time with you: monthly price multiplied by how many months they stay. You raise it two honest ways: be exceptional so people stay, or sell longer packages, like a 6-month plan at EUR 200 a month.
See in practiceClient capacity
The number of clients you can coach well at once before quality drops. It depends on your delivery style and your tools: a unified inbox and check-in forms push the ceiling higher. Knowing your real capacity tells you when to raise prices or hire help.
See in practiceOnboarding
Everything in a client's first days with you: the welcome, the plan, the first win. It is the single most worthwhile thing to get right, and the first week matters most. A small early win, like having them grocery shop and send a photo back, sets the whole package up to last.
See in practiceReferral rate
The share of new clients who come from existing clients recommending you. In our experience, somewhere around 20 to 30 percent is healthy; if it is consistently down in the 5 to 10 percent range, that often points to something in delivery being off. Referrals are the cheapest clients you will ever get: one turns into two, into four, into eight.
CAC (customer acquisition cost)
What it costs you, on average, to land one new client: total spend on ads, content, and tools divided by the number of clients that spend brought in. If you put EUR 300 into ads in a month and sign three clients, your CAC is EUR 100. It only makes sense next to lifetime value, because a high CAC is fine if clients stay long enough to pay it back several times over.
ARPU (average revenue per user)
Your total monthly coaching revenue divided by the number of active clients, telling you what the average client pays. If five clients bring in EUR 1,000 a month, your ARPU is EUR 200. Raising it through better packaging or higher prices grows the business without adding a single new client.
See in practiceShow-up rate
The share of booked sales or discovery calls where the person actually turns up. A low show-up rate quietly wastes your week, and it usually improves with reminders, a short pre-call message, and booking calls close to when the person reached out rather than days later.
See in practiceCheck-in completion rate
The share of clients who actually submit their check-in each cycle, usually weekly. It is an early warning signal: when someone stops checking in, they are often on their way to quitting, so a falling completion rate is worth acting on before it turns into churn.
See in practiceAdherence
How closely a client follows the plan you set, from training sessions hit to calories and protein logged. Adherence, not the cleverness of the program, is what drives results in online coaching, which is why coaches design plans a client can realistically stick to rather than the theoretically optimal one.
See in practiceRefund rate
The share of clients who ask for their money back, usually early in the relationship. A spike in refunds points to a mismatch between what was sold and what was delivered, or a weak first week, and it is best fixed by setting clear expectations on the sales call and nailing onboarding.
See in practiceAOV (average order value)
The average amount a client pays per purchase, counting upfront packages and any add-ons rather than just the monthly fee. If you sell mostly 3-month packages instead of rolling monthly, your AOV rises, which makes each new client worth more from day one. Raising AOV through better packaging is one of the quiet levers on revenue.
CPL (cost per lead)
What you pay, on average, for one lead: total ad or content spend divided by the number of leads it brought in. It sits one step before customer acquisition cost, and watching it tells you whether your hook and lead magnet are pulling cheaply enough before you ever count sales.
Conversion rate
The share of people who take the next step you wanted, such as leads who book a call, or calls that turn into clients. Tracking it stage by stage shows you where the funnel leaks: plenty of leads but few calls points at your booking flow; plenty of calls but few clients points at the offer or the call itself.
See in practiceClose rate (win rate)
The share of sales or discovery calls that turn into paying clients. If you take ten calls and sign three, your close rate is 30 percent. It tells you whether the problem is getting calls booked or what happens on the call itself, and it usually improves more from better-qualified leads and honest conversations than from harder selling.
See in practiceTrial-to-paid conversion
The share of people who start a free trial or low-cost intro and then become a paying client. It tells you whether your trial actually shows people the value, and a weak trial-to-paid rate usually means the first experience does not land, not that the price is wrong.
LTV-to-CAC ratio
Lifetime value divided by customer acquisition cost, telling you how many euros a client returns for every euro spent to win them. A ratio around 3 to 1 or higher is usually healthy; close to 1 to 1 means you are paying almost as much to get a client as they are worth. It is the single clearest check on whether your marketing maths works.
Net margin
What you actually keep after every cost is paid: revenue minus software, ads, payment fees, any help you hire, and tax set-aside, shown as a percentage of revenue. A coach billing a lot but keeping little has a margin problem, which is why net margin, not revenue alone, is the number that tells you whether the business is really paying you.
NPS (net promoter score)
A simple loyalty measure from asking clients how likely they are to recommend you on a 0 to 10 scale, then subtracting the share of detractors (0 to 6) from the share of promoters (9 to 10). A high NPS tends to show up as referrals and low churn, so coaches use it as an early read on whether delivery is good enough to grow on word of mouth.
Reactivation rate (win-back rate)
The share of past clients you bring back, by reaching out to people who finished or paused and inviting them to start again. Former clients already know and trust you, so a win-back message often converts far better than a cold lead, which makes reactivation one of the cheapest ways to add clients that coaches routinely overlook.
The shape of the business.
These are the words for the offer you sell and how you run the relationship: how clients find you, how you bring them on board, what keeps them accountable, and where your responsibility as a coach ends.
Weekly check-in
The set rhythm, usually once a week, where a client reports weight, photos, training, and how the week went, and you review it and adjust the plan. It is the heartbeat of online coaching: the regular touchpoint that keeps people accountable and on track between sessions.
See in practiceClient onboarding
The structured first few days of a new client's journey: the welcome, gathering their details, setting up their plan, and delivering an early win. Strong onboarding is the highest-leverage thing a coach can fix, because the first week shapes whether the client stays for months or quits early.
See in practiceLead magnet
Something genuinely useful you give away free, such as an ebook, recipe pack, or starter program, in exchange for a comment, follow, or email. It turns passive followers into identifiable leads you can actually talk to, and a single well-targeted freebie can pull a flood of responses in a day.
See in practiceDrip campaign
A pre-set sequence of messages, videos, or resources released to a client on a schedule rather than all at once. Coaches use drips to onboard new clients and deliver content over time without sending everything by hand; well-built drips skip a message if it would clash with a live conversation.
See in practiceDiscovery call
A short, no-pressure conversation with a potential client to understand their situation and decide together whether coaching is the right fit. It works best as a genuine consultation, not a hard pitch: you ask more than you tell, and you are willing to say it is not a fit.
See in practiceCoaching niche
The specific group of people and problem you choose to focus on, such as busy parents losing fat or runners building strength. A clear niche makes your content sharper, your marketing easier, and referrals more likely, because people know exactly who to send your way.
See in practiceCoaching offer
The packaged promise you sell: who it is for, what outcome it delivers, what is included, how long it runs, and the price. A strong, specific offer, a clear result for a clear person in a clear timeframe, converts far better than a vague promise to help anyone get fitter.
See in practiceGroup coaching
Coaching several clients together in a shared program or community rather than purely one to one. It lets you serve more people at a lower price per client and adds peer accountability, while the individual attention per client is naturally lighter than in private coaching.
See in practiceHybrid coaching
A model that blends personalised one-to-one coaching with group or self-guided elements, such as a custom plan plus a shared community and live calls. It aims to keep much of the personal touch while raising the number of clients a single coach can support.
See in practiceOne-to-one coaching
The most personal coaching model, where you work directly with a single client on a plan built for them, with individual check-ins and adjustments. It commands the highest price per client and delivers the closest support, but it is also the most time-intensive, which is why coaches cap how many one-to-one clients they take and use group or hybrid models to serve more people.
See in practiceBehavior change
The real job of coaching: helping a client build new habits and drop old ones so the results last, rather than just handing over a plan. Most clients already know roughly what to do, so your edge is in making the change feel doable and keeping it going through small steps, accountability, and adjusting when life gets in the way.
Accountability
The structure that keeps a client doing the work between sessions: regular check-ins, clear targets, and a coach who notices and follows up when they slip. For most clients accountability, not information, is what they are really paying for, because they already know roughly what to do.
Scope of practice
The boundary of what a coach is qualified and allowed to advise on. A fitness coach can guide training, general nutrition, and habits, but clinical issues such as diagnosing conditions, prescribing for medical diets, or treating eating disorders belong with a doctor or registered dietitian. Staying in scope protects both the client and the coach.
Contraindication
A reason a particular exercise or approach is not safe for a specific client, such as heavy overhead pressing for someone with a shoulder injury, or an aggressive deficit for someone with a history of disordered eating. Spotting contraindications, often through a readiness questionnaire, is part of coaching responsibly and knowing when to refer on.
Informed consent
Making sure a client understands what coaching involves, including the risks of exercise and dieting, before they agree to take part, usually in writing. It is a basic duty-of-care step that protects both sides; for real legal cover the wording should be checked by a professional, and it is not a substitute for proper insurance.
Value ladder
The set of offers you sell at rising prices and depth, from a low-cost or free entry point up to your most personal, highest-priced coaching. A follower might start with a free guide, move to a group program, then into one-to-one. A clear value ladder gives people a natural next step instead of one all-or-nothing choice.
See in practiceHigh-ticket offer
Your premium, higher-priced coaching package, usually the most personal and hands-on thing you sell. It works when the promise is specific and the result is worth far more to the client than the price. Selling a few high-ticket clients can earn more, with less admin, than chasing a crowd of cheap ones.
See in practiceUpsell
Offering an existing client a deeper or longer package than the one they are on, such as moving from monthly into a 6-month plan or adding nutrition to a training-only client. A good upsell is a genuine fit for where the client is going next, not a tactic, and it raises lifetime value without finding a single new lead.
See in practiceDownsell
Offering a smaller, lower-priced option to someone who said no to your main coaching, such as a self-guided plan or a short challenge instead of full one-to-one. A downsell keeps a warm lead in your world rather than losing them at the first no, and gives them a lower-risk way to start that can lead to full coaching later.
Cross-sell
Offering an existing client something that sits alongside what they already buy, rather than an upgrade of it, such as adding a nutrition plan to a training client or a recipe pack to a coaching package. A good cross-sell solves a real next problem for the client, which is why it raises revenue without feeling like a push.
Evergreen funnel
A sales path that runs continuously rather than only during a launch: a lead magnet, a follow-up sequence, and a standing way to book a call, all working in the background. An evergreen funnel keeps leads coming in week to week without you having to manually relaunch an offer each time.
See in practicePAR-Q
A short physical activity readiness questionnaire a coach has a new client fill in before training, screening for heart issues, dizziness, joint problems, and other red flags. It is a basic duty-of-care step that flags when someone should clear exercise with a doctor first, and it pairs with knowing your scope of practice.
Tripwire offer
A low-priced, easy-to-say-yes-to first offer, such as a small paid plan or short challenge, designed to turn a follower into a paying customer. The point is not the revenue but the relationship: once someone has bought once and seen real value, the step up to full coaching is far smaller.
Order bump
A small, relevant add-on offered at the moment of checkout, such as a recipe pack added to a coaching purchase for a few euros. Because the person is already buying, a well-matched order bump lifts average order value with almost no extra selling effort.
Anchor pricing
Showing a higher-priced option first so the option you actually want to sell looks reasonable by comparison. Presenting a premium 6-month package next to a monthly one makes the monthly feel like the easy choice. Used honestly, anchoring frames real value; used to manipulate, it erodes the trust coaching depends on.
SMART goals
Goals written to be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound, such as walk 8,000 steps a day for the next four weeks rather than get fitter. Turning a vague wish into a concrete, trackable target gives a client something to act on and a coach something to check at each check-in.
Habit stacking
Attaching a new habit to one a client already does, such as doing ten squats right after the morning coffee. Anchoring the new behaviour to an existing routine makes it far easier to remember and stick to, which is why coaches use it to build the small daily habits that drive long-term results.
Motivational interviewing
A conversation style that draws a client's own reasons for change out of them with open questions and reflective listening, rather than lecturing or pushing. It tends to build lasting motivation because the client talks themselves into the change, which is why coaches lean on it for habit work and clients who feel stuck or resistant.
Liability waiver
A signed agreement a client completes before training in which they acknowledge the risks of exercise and accept responsibility for taking part. Alongside a readiness questionnaire, a waiver is a basic protection step for online coaches; for real legal cover the wording should be checked by a professional, since it is not a substitute for proper insurance.
The language of the workouts you write.
When you build a program you are speaking a specific language. Coachway's workout builder gives you many of these as direct controls (supersets, dropsets, AMRAP, warm-up sets, progressive overload, per-set logging), and you write effort cues like RPE or tempo into each exercise's notes.
Progressive overload
Gradually increasing the demand on the body over time, by adding weight, reps, sets, or improving technique, so the muscles keep being challenged enough to adapt. It is the single most important principle in strength and muscle training; without it, progress stalls.
See in practiceRPE (rate of perceived exertion)
A 1 to 10 scale for how hard a set felt, where 10 means no reps left in the tank and 8 means you could have done about two more. It lets you prescribe effort rather than a fixed weight, so training auto-adjusts to how strong the client feels that day.
See in practiceRIR (reps in reserve)
The number of reps you could still have done at the end of a set before failing. RIR 2 means you stopped two reps short of failure. It is the flip side of RPE, RPE 8 is about 2 reps in reserve, and a precise, practical way to control training intensity.
AMRAP
Short for as many reps (or rounds) as possible. As a set, it means doing as many quality reps as you can with a given weight; as a workout format, it means as many rounds as possible of a circuit within a set time. It is used to push effort, measure progress, and add conditioning.
See in practiceEMOM
Every minute on the minute: you start a set number of reps at the top of each minute, then rest for whatever time is left until the next minute begins. It is a simple way to build work capacity and keep training density high without watching a stopwatch between every set.
Superset
Two exercises performed back to back with little or no rest in between. Pairing opposing muscle groups, like a push and a pull, saves time and adds volume; pairing the same muscle increases intensity. It is a common tool for getting more work done in a shorter session.
See in practiceTempo
The speed of each phase of a rep, usually written as four numbers for the lowering, bottom pause, lifting, and top pause, for example 3-1-1-0. Controlling tempo increases time under tension and technique quality, and is a way to make a lift harder without adding weight.
See in practiceDeload
A planned lighter week where you reduce weight, volume, or both to let the body recover and adapt before pushing hard again. Deloads prevent the accumulated fatigue and nagging aches that otherwise stall progress, and are usually programmed every few weeks of hard training.
1RM (one-rep max)
The most weight you can lift for a single rep of an exercise with good form. It is a benchmark of maximal strength, and many programs prescribe working weights as a percentage of 1RM, such as sets at 75 percent, to dial in the right intensity.
Hypertrophy
The growth of muscle size, the goal of most physique and body-composition training. It is driven mainly by training a muscle through a full range of motion with enough volume and effort, close to failure, plus enough protein and recovery to rebuild.
Periodization
Organising training into phases over weeks and months, each with a focus such as building muscle, gaining strength, or peaking, rather than doing the same thing year-round. Structuring training this way manages fatigue and keeps progress coming when a single approach would plateau.
Working set vs warm-up set
A warm-up set is a lighter set that prepares the muscles and joints and grooves technique; a working set is the hard, near-maximal set that actually drives adaptation. Only working sets count toward training volume, so coaches track the two separately.
See in practiceDropset
Taking a set to or near failure, then immediately dropping the weight and pushing out more reps with no real rest. It is a way to add intensity and squeeze extra muscle-building volume into a short time. Used sparingly, usually on a final set, it can drive growth without lengthening the session.
See in practiceRange of motion (ROM)
How far a joint and muscle move through an exercise, from a full stretch at the bottom to full contraction at the top. Training through a full range of motion generally builds more muscle and mobility than cutting reps short, which is why coaches cue depth and control rather than just weight on the bar.
Eccentric and concentric
The two halves of a rep: the concentric is the lifting phase where the muscle shortens, and the eccentric is the lowering phase where it lengthens under load. Controlling the eccentric, rather than dropping the weight, adds tension and is one of the simplest ways to make an exercise harder and safer at the same time.
Isometric
A contraction where the muscle works hard but the joint angle does not change, like holding a plank or pausing at the bottom of a squat. Isometric holds build control and tendon strength at a specific position, and coaches often add them to break through a sticking point or to train around an injury.
Compound and isolation
A compound exercise moves several joints and trains many muscles at once, like a squat or a row; an isolation exercise works one muscle through one joint, like a biceps curl. Most programs are built on compounds for the bulk of the results, with isolation work added to bring up specific muscles.
Mind-muscle connection
Deliberately focusing on feeling the target muscle do the work through a rep, rather than just moving the weight from A to B. Cueing the mind-muscle connection can improve how well a muscle is trained, especially on isolation exercises, and it is a useful coaching cue for clients who rush their reps.
Time under tension
The total time a muscle is actively working during a set, controlled by how many reps you do and how fast each one moves. Slowing the tempo raises time under tension and can add a training stimulus without piling on more weight, which is handy for clients training at home with limited equipment.
Rest-pause set
A way to extend a single set: take it close to failure, rest 10 to 20 seconds, then squeeze out a few more reps with the same weight, repeating once or twice. It packs extra near-failure reps into less time and is a handy intensity tool when a client is short on minutes but wants more stimulus.
Cluster set
A set broken into small clusters of reps with short, planned rests inside it, such as 3 reps, 15 seconds rest, repeated to hit a higher total at a heavier weight than a straight set would allow. It lets a client accumulate quality reps with less fatigue per rep, which suits strength and power work.
Training to failure
Taking a set until you genuinely cannot complete another rep with good form. The occasional set to failure can add stimulus, but doing it on every set piles on fatigue and slows recovery, so most coaches keep a rep or two in reserve on most sets and save true failure for isolation or final sets.
Unilateral training
Training one limb at a time, such as single-leg squats, lunges, or one-arm rows, rather than both sides together. It exposes and evens out left-right strength differences, builds balance and core control, and lets a client keep training hard around a one-sided niggle.
Volume landmarks (MEV / MAV / MRV)
A way to think about weekly training volume for a muscle in working sets: MEV is the minimum that drives growth, MAV is the range where most progress happens, and MRV is the most a person can recover from. Coaches use these landmarks to add sets gradually and back off before volume outruns recovery.
Warm-up
The few minutes of easy movement, light sets, and mobility at the start of a session that raise the heart rate, loosen the joints, and prepare the body to train hard safely. A good warm-up improves how the first working sets feel and lowers injury risk, which is why coaches build a short, specific one into each program rather than leaving it to the client.
Cooldown
A short stretch of easy movement and light stretching at the end of a session to bring the heart rate down and help the body settle after training. Its biggest benefit is often simply marking a calm end to the workout; it is a small, optional part of a program rather than something that makes or breaks results.
Foam rolling
Using a foam roller to apply pressure to muscles, a form of self-massage clients often do before or after training. It can briefly improve how a muscle feels and moves and ease the sensation of tightness, which makes it a useful warm-up or recovery add-on, though it is a comfort and mobility tool rather than a driver of results on its own.
DOMS (delayed-onset muscle soreness)
The muscle soreness that shows up a day or two after a hard or unfamiliar session, peaking around 24 to 48 hours later. It is a normal response to new or harder training, not a measure of how good the workout was, so coaches reassure clients that less soreness over time means the body is adapting, not that the plan stopped working.
Zone 2 cardio
Steady, low-intensity cardio done at an easy pace where you can still hold a conversation, such as a brisk walk or easy bike. It builds aerobic fitness and burns calories without adding much fatigue to recovery, which makes it a popular way for coaches to add conditioning alongside lifting and to lift a client's daily activity.
Active recovery
Light, easy movement on a rest day, such as a walk, an easy bike, or gentle mobility work, instead of doing nothing at all. Active recovery keeps blood flowing and can ease soreness without adding meaningful fatigue, so coaches often program it between hard sessions to help a client show up fresher for the next one.
Mobility
How well a joint moves through its full range with control, which is the difference between being able to reach a position and being able to own it under load. Targeted mobility work helps a client hit positions like a deep squat or an overhead press safely, so coaches add a few drills to a warm-up or a rest day rather than leaving it to chance.
The words behind every meal plan.
Nutrition coaching runs on a handful of numbers and ideas. Get these right and the meal plan almost writes itself; the Coachway meal planner does the macro and micronutrient maths so you can focus on whether the client will actually eat it.
Macros (macronutrients)
The three nutrients that supply calories: protein, carbohydrates, and fat. Tracking macros, rather than only total calories, lets you make sure a client eats enough protein to hold onto muscle while still hitting their calorie target for fat loss or gain.
See in practiceMicronutrients
The vitamins and minerals the body needs in small amounts, such as iron, vitamin D, and magnesium. They do not provide calories, but a diet low in micronutrients can hurt energy, recovery, and health even when calories and macros are on point.
See in practiceTDEE (total daily energy expenditure)
The total calories a person burns in a day, combining their resting metabolism, daily movement, exercise, and the energy used digesting food. It is the anchor number for nutrition coaching: eat below TDEE to lose fat, above it to gain.
BMR (basal metabolic rate)
The calories the body burns at complete rest just to keep you alive, breathing, circulating blood, and maintaining temperature. BMR is the largest part of total daily energy expenditure and the baseline from which a client's full calorie needs are estimated.
Calorie deficit
Eating fewer calories than you burn in a day, which is the fundamental requirement for fat loss. A moderate deficit paired with enough protein and resistance training lets a client lose fat while holding on to muscle, rather than crashing and rebounding.
Calorie surplus
Eating more calories than you burn, the requirement for gaining weight. A controlled surplus alongside progressive resistance training is how clients build muscle; too large a surplus just adds unnecessary fat alongside it.
Maintenance calories
The number of calories that keeps a person's weight stable, equal to their total daily energy expenditure. Knowing maintenance is the starting point for any plan: subtract from it to lose fat, add to it to gain, and return to it to hold a result.
Protein target
The daily amount of protein a client aims for, often set around 1.6 to 2.2 grams per kilogram of bodyweight for someone training. Hitting the protein target is what preserves muscle in a deficit and builds it in a surplus, which is why coaches treat it as the priority macro.
See in practiceReverse diet
Slowly increasing calories after a fat-loss phase, in small steps, to bring a client back up toward maintenance while limiting fat regain and recovering an under-fed metabolism. It is the bridge that keeps a hard-won result from snapping back the moment the diet ends.
Refeed
A planned day or two of eating at or near maintenance, usually by raising carbohydrates, in the middle of a fat-loss phase. A refeed can ease the physical and mental strain of dieting and support training, without undoing the overall weekly deficit.
NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis)
The calories you burn through everyday movement that is not formal exercise: walking, fidgeting, standing, doing chores. NEAT often swings a person's daily burn more than their workouts do, and it quietly drops during a diet, which is why a daily step target is one of the most useful fat-loss tools a coach has.
Flexible dieting (IIFYM)
An approach where a client hits their daily protein, carbohydrate, and fat targets from foods they choose, rather than following a rigid meal list. If it fits your macros, it can fit your plan. Done with mostly whole foods, it tends to improve adherence because nothing is fully off-limits.
See in practiceMuscle protein synthesis
The process by which the body builds new muscle protein, which is what turns training and protein intake into actual muscle. It is the reason coaches push enough total protein across the day rather than just at one meal, because keeping muscle protein synthesis topped up is what supports growth and recovery.
Thermic effect of food (TEF)
The calories the body burns simply digesting and processing what you eat, which is part of total daily energy expenditure. Protein has the highest thermic effect of the three macros, so a higher-protein diet quietly raises daily burn a little, on top of its bigger benefits for muscle and fullness.
Satiety
How full and satisfied a meal leaves a client, which has a huge effect on whether they can stick to a calorie target. Protein, fibre, and whole foods tend to be more filling per calorie, so building meals around them is one of the main ways a coach makes a deficit liveable rather than miserable.
Diet break
A planned stretch, usually one to two weeks, of eating back at maintenance calories in the middle of a longer fat-loss phase. Unlike a single refeed day, a diet break gives a longer mental and hormonal reset, which can help a client recover their hunger and energy before returning to the deficit.
Body recomposition
Losing fat and building muscle at the same time, so the scale barely moves while the body visibly changes. It happens most readily in beginners, people returning to training, or those carrying more fat, and it is why a coach tracks photos and measurements, not just bodyweight.
Glycemic index
A scale of how quickly a carbohydrate food raises blood sugar, from high (white bread, sugary drinks) to low (oats, beans, most vegetables). For general coaching it matters less than total calories and protein, but lower-GI, higher-fibre carbs tend to keep energy steadier and hunger lower, which can help adherence.
Dietary fiber
The part of plant foods the body cannot fully digest, found in vegetables, fruit, beans, oats, and whole grains. Fibre slows digestion, feeds gut bacteria, and adds bulk that keeps a client full, so a daily fibre target is one of the simplest tools for making a calorie deficit feel liveable.
See in practiceHydration
Keeping fluid intake high enough for performance, recovery, and appetite control. Even mild dehydration can hurt training and energy, and thirst is easy to mistake for hunger, so a clear daily water habit is a small thing coaches build in early that quietly supports the whole plan.
Carb cycling
Varying carbohydrate intake across the week, with more carbs on hard training days and fewer on rest days, while keeping protein steady. It is one optional way to structure a plan around a client's schedule; it is not magic, since total weekly calories still decide fat loss or gain.
Intuitive eating
An approach built on responding to real hunger and fullness cues and on a healthy relationship with food, rather than tracking every calorie. Coaches often use it as a longer-term destination after a tracking phase, or for clients for whom counting would do more harm than good.
Most of these words touch the same panel.
Definitions are tidy on paper. In real life, check-ins, retention, onboarding, and capacity all happen in the same place every day, which is exactly what a coaching platform is for.
Check-ins and the inbox
Check-in forms land in the Power Panel next to every client's history, so you read, reply, and adjust the plan in one pass instead of hunting through chat threads.
Onboarding and retention
Automations protect the first week: the welcome message, the check-in reminders, the early-win nudge, so the part that drives retention does not slip when you are busy signing the next client.
Capacity and cost
A branded app, meal planner, and workout builder let you coach more people without working more hours, and per-client pricing means the cost grows in step with your client list, not ahead of it.
"One turns into two, into four, into eight."
- from the Coachway coaching masterclass, on referrals and retention
Frequently asked questions.
Which metric should I watch first as a new coach?
In our experience, below about 5,000 followers the metrics matter less than the content itself: what counts most at that stage is how consistently you post and how comfortable you get on camera. Metrics like MRR, churn, and LTV matter once you have clients to retain. Watch retention and referral rate first; those two tell you whether your delivery is good enough to compound.
What is the difference between churn and retention?
They are two sides of the same coin. Retention is how long clients stay with you; churn is the rate at which they leave. If clients stick around eight months on average, your retention is good and your churn is low. Take a simplified example: a coach who signs about 2 clients a month whose clients stay around 5 months with no referrals tends to stall near 10 clients, while the same coach whose clients stay around 8 months and who earns roughly a third of new clients through referrals can grow past 24. It is an illustration of how retention compounds, not a guarantee or a benchmark.
What does "white-label" actually mean for my app?
It means the app your clients use carries your brand, not the software company's. The platform runs underneath, but your logo, your colours, and your name are what the client sees and feels. For a one-person coaching business that is a big deal: it makes you look like a finished, professional product rather than someone running clients through generic software.
How is per-client pricing different from a revenue cut?
Per-client pricing charges you a flat amount for the software based on how many active clients you coach. With Coachway, that is EUR 69 a month up to 5 clients, then EUR 9 per additional active client. It is predictable per-client pricing that scales with your client count. You keep your own Stripe. The full breakdown lives in our guide to what online coaching software costs.
Why does the content funnel include delivery?
Because the funnel does not end at the sale. The fifth layer of the content onion is delivery, the actual coaching, and it feeds the top of the funnel again through referrals and the transformations you get to show off. You can be brilliant at reach, proof, and sales, but if delivery is weak, clients leave, referrals dry up, and growth stalls. Good delivery closes the gap.
keep reading
guide
What an online coaching platform is.
The full walk-through of what the software does and how to pick one that fits how you coach.
guide
How to grow an online coaching business.
The content onion, the funnel, and the three ways a coaching business actually grows.
guide
How to retain online coaching clients.
Why the first week decides everything, and how onboarding turns into referrals.
guide
What online coaching software costs.
A plain breakdown of pricing models, including predictable per-client pricing.
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