Tools for coaches who make the calls
By default, each automated change waits in your approval queue before it reaches a client. You set the rules per client, bring your own roster, and run it from one dashboard.
Example roster, Monday morning
Engine proposal
Deload chest next week
Bench and incline press have both stalled at the same weight for three sessions. The proposal cuts chest sets by 40% for a week and leaves the rest of the program alone.
Your methodology, saved once per client
MuscleBuddy saves your methodology as settings on each client, and reads those settings before its own defaults.
Put one client on double progression and another on RPE, and override the method lift by lift. Set how often a client deloads (every two to twelve hard weeks) and how the deload eases off. For the weigh-in adjuster, set the trigger band, the step size and how often it may move a client's macros, anywhere from weekly to every four weeks, or switch it off for a client you program by hand. Turn carb cycling on for clients in a cut and off for those at maintenance.
The same settings and the same logged data give the same prescription, so a client's plan changes only when their data or your settings do.
Check-ins and the approval queue
The Coach Dashboard opens on an Alerts widget: who missed a check-in, who hasn't trained in a week, whose lifts have stalled and on which lift, whose latest bloodwork came back out of range, and whose program holds a movement their restrictions rule out. The alerts come from fixed rules over data you already have, with no AI involved.
From there, open any client's check-in history (daily scores for sleep, energy, mood and stress, plus notes and synced vitals) and comment on a specific day's entry. The client sees the comment and gets a push notification, and you can edit it later.
With review on, which is the default, each change MuscleBuddy wants to make (a calorie adjustment, a deload, a refeed or diet break schedule, a peak week protocol) waits in your approval queue with its reason, and the client's plan stays as it is until you act. You approve or reject it. If you want a different number, set it in the client's settings. You can switch review off for a client whose changes you are happy to let apply on their own.
Reusable program templates that carry your settings
Save a program template once instead of rebuilding the same upper/lower split for a fifth client. A template is a full training block: the split, exercise selection, sets, rep ranges and progression method per lift.
A template also carries the client settings you run that block with: deload cadence, refeeds, carb cycling, whether auto-adjustments wait for your review, and when a missed check-in gets flagged. Deploy it and those settings apply to the client wherever you haven't already tuned that client by hand. Mark one template as your default and new clients start on its settings.
A deployed program is the client's own copy, so editing the template later changes what you deploy next, not what a client is running. Templates are private to your account, and if you coach inside a gym on MuscleBuddy you can share one with the other coaches there. There is no public template marketplace.
Messages, broadcasts and automated messages
Each client has one message thread with you, kept apart from your comments on their check-ins. A new message reaches them by push or email, whichever they chose, and your inbox shows the unread count for each thread.
Either of you can attach photos and short videos to a message: a progress photo from the client, a demonstration from you. Save your exercise demo clips to a library once and send one into any client's thread in one tap. Photos and videos stay in the thread for a year from sending, and a client keeps them, read-only, if the relationship ends.
Send a broadcast to your whole active roster, or pick the clients it goes to. Each copy arrives in that client's own thread, and the recipient list stays private. You can send up to 10 broadcasts in any 24 hours.
Automated messages fire on three alerts: a missed check-in, a lift that stopped progressing, and a week without training. You write the words for each, and MuscleBuddy sends nothing under your name that you did not write. One alert messages a client at most once a week, a client gets at most one automated message a day, and you can switch them off for any client.
Your intake questionnaire holds up to 25 questions, as scales, numbers, free text or a list to pick from. A new client answers it once, when they accept your invite, and you read the answers on their page.
Example messages, Dana R.
Shoulder felt fine on the incline today. Should I add weight?
Yes. Take the next jump on Thursday if it stays pain-free.
Automated message: missed check-in
No check-in from you since Thursday. Everything OK? Reply here when you can.
Your words, sent only if Dana goes quiet.
Form-check video review
A client films a set and attaches the video to that day's check-in. You watch it and reply in a thread under the video, and that reply is the review.
MuscleBuddy does not analyse the footage: no pose tracking, no form score, no verdict. The video is the client's own data. You can watch it while you coach their training, playback stops when the relationship ends, and only the client can delete it.
Example form check, Marcus T.
Your reply
Depth is good. Your knees drift in on rep four, so push them out over your toes on the way up.
No automated form score. The review is your reply.
Bring your own clients, get found, and get paid
Invite a client by email. They create an account and link to you, and their training, nutrition and check-ins appear on your dashboard. You can have MuscleBuddy draft a weekly check-in summary for a client, which waits for your review before it goes anywhere.
New clients can also find you. Connect your Stripe account, set your monthly price, and list yourself in the public coach directory with your specialties; a member who finds you there can sign up with you from the directory. Every account has a referral link, and your Coach Billing page lists the members who signed up through yours.
MuscleBuddy can handle the billing. Clients subscribe through a checkout MuscleBuddy hosts, so you are not invoicing or chasing payments, and Coach Billing shows your active paying clients, what you bill per month and what reaches you after the platform fee. We take a 20% share of each client's subscription (20-30% where we agree an individual rate with you) for running that billing, on top of your $29.99/mo Coach plan. A client paying you $100 a month sends $80 to your Stripe account and $20 to us.
The Coach tier supports up to 20 active clients.
Example Coach Billing page
8Active paying clients
$800Billed per month
$640After platform fee
Frequently asked
- Do I have to accept the automatic suggestions?
No. With review on, the default, each suggestion waits in your approval queue until you approve or reject it. You can also turn the weigh-in adjuster off for a client. The suggestions come from fixed rules, not an AI model.
- How do I bill my clients?
Your choice. MuscleBuddy can bill them for you: connect your Stripe account, and clients subscribe through a checkout we host. We take a 20% share of each client's subscription (20-30% where we agree an individual rate with you) for running that billing, on top of your $29.99/mo Coach plan. A client paying you $100 a month sends $80 to your Stripe account and $20 to us. Bill them your own way and there is no share.
- Can I import an existing client roster?
Invite clients by email; they create an account and link to you. A client can import their training and bodyweight history from another app, so progression and adjustments have data to work from sooner.
- What if a client and I part ways?
Clients own their data. When the relationship ends, the coach loses access and the client keeps their full history, programs and nutrition logs. They can continue on their own or link to a new coach.
- How many clients can I coach?
The Coach tier ($29.99/mo, plus the billing share above) supports up to 20 active clients at a time. Clients you mark inactive stop counting against that, and their history stays with them.
Manage up to 20 clients without a spreadsheet.
The Coach tier ($29.99/mo plus a share of client billing) gives you everything above to manage up to 20 clients in one place. On a client's own account, AI coaching chat is Pro, while asking your coach for a paid package, sending a form-check video for review and sending your coach a photo or video stays free.