Switching From Another Coaching Platform
Moving a roster from TrueCoach, Trainerize, Everfit or a spreadsheet: what to export, inviting clients, rebuilding templates and importing client history.
Most coaches who move to MuscleBuddy already run a roster somewhere else: TrueCoach, Trainerize, Everfit, My PT Hub, or a spreadsheet and a group chat. This guide is the order of operations for moving that roster without losing a week of training.
Before you start: export what you can
MuscleBuddy cannot read another coaching platform's data, so take what you need out of the old one first, while you still have access to it:
- Your client list, with the email address each client signs in with. Your invite has to go to the address they will use for MuscleBuddy.
- Your programs, in whatever form the platform gives you: a PDF, a spreadsheet, or screenshots of the workout builder.
- Each client's current numbers: working weights on the main lifts, current calorie and macro targets, and any injuries or restrictions you work around.
- Your billing records, so you know who pays what and when each client's current billing period ends.
Check what your current platform lets you export before you cancel it. What you can take differs from platform to platform and plan to plan.
Step 1: set up your account
Work through Getting started as a coach first: payouts, your rate and your intake questions. Write intake questions for what your old platform knew and MuscleBuddy does not yet: injury history, the days they train, what they are working toward this year.
Step 2: rebuild your programs as templates
Open Build block from the Program templates card and enter each program you run. A spreadsheet maps onto the block builder directly: one block per program, one workout per training day, and each exercise with its sets and rep range. Programming clients walks the builder step by step.
On the Client settings step of the program most clients start on, tick Use these settings for every new client. Each client you bring over then starts on your usual deload cadence, check-in window and review settings.
Start with the two or three programs most of your roster runs. Rebuild the one-offs as you reach those clients.
Step 3: invite your roster
Send invites from Invite a client on your dashboard, one email at a time. Batches of five or so are easier to follow up than twenty at once. Each invite asks for training, nutrition and daily check-ins access unless you change it, and each link works for seven days. Resend gives a fresh link to anyone who missed it. Coach covers 20 active clients; a client past that cannot accept.
Tell clients the invite is coming, by your usual channel, before it lands in their inbox. A client without a MuscleBuddy account signs up from the link using the invited address and lands back on the invite.
Step 4: clients bring their own history
A client's history moves with the client, not through you. From Settings, under Import your history, each client can upload an export from:
| App | What comes across |
|---|---|
| Hevy | Workouts, with every set's weight, reps and RPE |
| Strong | Workouts, sets, cardio entries and notes |
| FitNotes | Every set with its weight, reps and comment |
| MyFitnessPal | Daily calories and macros, weigh-ins and body measurements |
| Cronometer | Every logged food, with calories, macros and micronutrients |
| Apple Health | Bodyweight, heart rate variability, resting heart rate, sleep and workouts |
| Lab results | Lab panels with each marker's value and reference flag |
Each source has a public page at /import with the export steps, so you can
send a client the link for the app they use. Imported history feeds their
charts, personal records and analytics. It does not count toward ranks, XP
or achievements, which are earned in MuscleBuddy.
None of these is a coaching platform. History that lives only inside your old coaching platform, such as sessions logged in its own workout tracker, does not come across. For a client whose old platform exports a spreadsheet of their sessions, keep it as your reference and set their starting weights in the program you deploy.
Step 5: first programs and billing
When a client finishes onboarding, MuscleBuddy generates a program and it waits under Programs awaiting review. You can approve it, or discard it and deploy your rebuilt template instead. The client sees nothing until you approve.
If the client paid you on the old platform, they can switch to paying you through MuscleBuddy from My coaches with Subscribe through this coach, once your Stripe account is active and your rate is saved. Cancel their billing on the old platform yourself, timed to the end of the period they already paid for there, so the client does not pay twice.
Need a hand?
If you have an export and want help working out how it maps onto MuscleBuddy, email garrett@garrettmakesit.com.
Where to go next
More guides
MuscleBuddy 101: What's Where and Why
A quick orientation to the app: what Plan, Train, Nutrition, Health and Community do, and how they connect.
Logging Your First Workout
The logging flow: starting a session, recording sets, RPE/RIR, and how offline mode keeps you covered.
Understanding Your Program & Progression
How double progression, linear, RPE and the other progression methods set your training loads from what you log.
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