Weekly check-in form template.
Build the check-in you actually want back. Tick the sections that matter for your clients, add your business name, then print it or save a PDF to send. Free, no sign-up, and short enough that clients fill it in on a bad week as well as a good one.
build your check-in
sections to include
Every question you add lowers the chance the form comes back. Start with the four that are on, and only add more when you know you will act on the answer.
Training
Sessions completed this week (of those planned) · Which sessions felt strongest, and why · Anything you had to change, skip or cut short · Pain, niggles or anything that did not feel right
Nutrition
How closely did you follow the plan, roughly, out of 10 · Meals or days that were hardest · Hunger through the week (low, normal, high) · Alcohol, meals out or anything off-plan worth noting
Sleep, stress and energy
Average hours of sleep, and how it felt · Stress this week, out of 10 · Energy in training, out of 10 · Anything going on outside training that affects the plan
The numbers
Bodyweight (average of the week, not one morning) · Waist · Other measurements you track · Steps or daily activity
Wins and obstacles
One thing that went well this week · The single biggest obstacle · What would make next week easier
Progress photos
Photos taken this week (yes / no) · Same lighting, same time of day, same poses
Questions for your coach
Anything you want covered before next week · Anything you want changed in the plan
your check-in
after the print
If a document like this goes out to every client, the rebuilding is the part worth retiring: in Coachway, forms, programs and meal plans live in the client app - sent, filled in and stored per client, no printer involved.
see inside Coachwaythe short answer
A weekly check-in form is a short structured update a coaching client sends once a week. A good one covers training adherence, nutrition adherence, sleep, stress and energy, and the numbers you track, and takes under five minutes to complete. Its job is to tell you whether the plan was followed, whether the client could follow it, and what it did - which is what you need before changing anything. Build one above and print it, or send it as a PDF.
Adherence first, then the numbers.
The most common check-in mistake is reading the weight first and changing the plan because of it. Read in this order and most weeks answer themselves.
first: was it followed
If adherence was low, the plan was not tested, so the numbers tell you nothing about whether it works. The question that week is what got in the way, not what to change in the programming.
second: could it be followed
High stress, bad sleep and constant hunger are not excuses, they are design feedback. A plan a client cannot hold on a normal week is the wrong plan, however good it looks written down.
third: what it did
Only now look at weight, measurements and performance, and look at the trend across several weeks rather than the change since last Monday. One week is noise.
Use the weekly average rather than a single morning reading. If you want the arithmetic done for you, the goal weight date calculator turns a trend into a realistic date, and the weight loss percentage calculator puts a week in context against where the client started.
Draft the reply to this week's check-in with ChatGPT
Paste the form answers with a client ID and one of your own replies and the model drafts the reply in your voice with the four-part structure; it is told to stop if the client mentions pain, illness or medication. The full prompt set for the weeks that actually happen is in ChatGPT prompts for client check-in replies; the reply goes back into the same thread the client answered in.
Draft the reply to this week's check-in with ChatGPT
When to use it: Each week, after the form comes in and before you reply.
What to paste in: The form answers with a client ID and one of your own replies.
Here is one client's weekly check-in (client ID [ID], no name): the ratings, the numbers (weight, sessions done of planned, steps, sleep) and their written answers, copied from the form. Draft my reply in my voice ([PASTE ONE OF YOUR OWN REPLIES]) using this structure: one specific win with its number, what the numbers show in one or two sentences, one adjustment for next week with the reason, one question they can answer with a yes or a number. 60 to 140 words, plain text. Do not add numbers I did not give you, do not comment on their body, and if they mention pain, illness or medication, stop and tell me to handle it myself. CHECK-IN: [PASTE THE FORM ANSWERS]
Where the weekly check-in sits.
A client signs, gets screened, gets onboarded, and then checks in every week for as long as they stay. The check-in is the only one of those that repeats, which is why it is worth getting short and worth answering well. Before it comes the intake form, the readiness screen, a signed coaching agreement and the onboarding checklist. After it comes the part clients actually judge you on: how fast and how specifically you reply.
Frequently asked questions.
What should a weekly check-in form actually ask?
Enough to coach from, and no more. In practice that means training adherence, nutrition adherence, sleep, stress and energy, and whatever numbers you have agreed to track. Those five tell you whether the plan was followed, whether the client could follow it, and what the plan did. Everything else is optional and should earn its place, because every extra question lowers the chance the form comes back at all.
How long should a check-in take a client to fill in?
Aim for under five minutes. A check-in is a weekly habit, not an essay, and the failure mode is not a shallow answer but an unanswered form. If yours regularly takes longer, cut questions rather than chasing clients: keep the ones that change what you would do next week, and drop the ones you read but never act on.
Should clients weigh themselves daily or weekly for a check-in?
Take the weekly average from daily weigh-ins where the client is comfortable with it. A single morning reading swings with food, salt, hydration and the menstrual cycle, so a week-to-week comparison of two single readings tells you very little. An average smooths that out and makes a real trend visible sooner. If daily weighing is unhelpful for a particular client, and for some it clearly is, take one consistent reading a week or lean on measurements, photos and performance instead.
What do I do when a client keeps skipping check-ins?
Treat it as information, not defiance. A missed check-in usually means the form is too long, the week went badly and the client feels caught out, or the reply they get does not feel worth the effort. Shorten the form, say plainly that a bad week is exactly when you most want to hear from them, and make sure every submitted check-in gets a specific, human response quickly. If it keeps happening, ask directly what is getting in the way.
Is a printed form better than doing check-ins in an app?
A printed or emailed form is a perfectly good place to start, and it is free. What it does not do is keep a history you can look back through, chart the numbers over time or remind the client on its own, so most coaches move check-ins into their coaching platform once they have more than a handful of clients and the admin starts to bite. Use this template to settle what you want to ask first; the questions matter more than where they live.
Can ChatGPT draft my reply to a client check-in?
It can, in your voice, from the form answers you paste with a client ID and one of your own replies: one win with its number, what the numbers show, one adjustment with the reason, one question. It must not add numbers you did not give it, comment on the client's body, or handle anything medical, and the prompt on this page says so. Read it, edit it, send it from the thread the client answered in.
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