Hear From Coaches Using PT With Their Clients Right Now
We caught up with three coaches who have been using the new PLUS BoxMate PT features to train their clients. Hear what they have to say about the system and how it is working for them.
Niall Ovenden – Head Coach at Central Staffs CrossFit
Before trialling BoxMate PT, Niall used google sheets or excel to keep track of his clients programming and to monitor their progress. Niall also uses BoxMate for his regular programming at CSC and he’s been using the BoxMate PT system for 3 of his PT clients. We caught up with him to ask him some questions about using the new PT add-on.
How have you been finding using BoxMate so far?
“The first pro of BoxMate is that it’s all online. If you’re like me and used to use google sheets/ excel this means you have to search through files and files to find what you’re looking for. Things can be easily lost or corrupted so having the security of BoxMate PT is amazing.
BoxMate is super easy to use and fool-proof. Along with its slick design it’s just more engaging than handing a client an excel file with their session details. In addition to this, providing programming through BoxMate to my clients is much more secure in terms of you feel safer that your programming won’t be shared all over the place.
What is your favourite feature?
Probably the calendar view allowing me to see all my PT clients. This allows me to review my workload and keep track of how up to date with programming I am with all my clients in once glance.
It’s a smooth experience too. I enjoy the fact I get notified directly when a client completes a session as it means I can keep track of their training more easily.
Does it help having all normal class programming and PT clients in one app?
It makes my job extremely seamless. Having everything in one places makes my work more efficient and the more efficient I am the more workload I can take on 🤟🏼 I am already pretty quick at using BoxMate, and keeping everything on the same system allows me to maintain good efficiency with my programming. I imagine having your box programming and your PT programming on separate platforms takes time to get accustomed to the new platform and is much less efficient.
People that use BoxMate for the gym and also their PT sessions love the ease of use having it all in one place. Not only that, but the customer service at BoxMate is amazing, any problems or possible progressions to the platform always get checked. “
See our full tutorial of how the PT Dashboard works here.
Angus Doig – The Functional Fitness Coach
Like Niall, before moving to BoxMate PT Angus used google docs to program for and track his clients’ progression. We asked Angus some questions about his experience of using the app so far for training his individual PT clients.
How many PT clients do you currently train?
“At the moment I train between 15-20 clients that I have on an on-and-off basis. I work with 10 weekly regulars face-to-face and also train 3 online clients.
Why BoxMate PT?
I looked into using both TrueCoach and Fitr Training for logging clients training and scores but they did not offer what I was looking for from my programming.I wanted the freedom to add a variety of movements that maybe are not as common. And, I wanted to be able to track weightlifting, gymnastics and cardio all in one platform.
Also, because I was already familiar with BoxMate as a member at my own CrossFit gym that transition into being a coach was a breeze and it was very reassuring to know what the format of each session would look like for my clients.
What has your experience been so far?
For me, having everything available to me in one place is amazing. The fact that I can program accurate and effective programming for all my clients, track their progress and review their comments and feedback all in one spot is amazing. It has increased the speed and effectiveness of my clients’ sessions.
This is a newer feature so while I’ve been trialling BoxMate PT I have come across a few little issues – but any issues that do arise get resolved straight away after contacting the BoxMate team.
PTing with BoxMate has meant that my clients can see the sessions that they have coming up. This means they get to ask any questions they have before the session with the PT Chat function to prepare and then log everything that has happened in the session. This has been great for saving time with writing workouts out before the session and helping clients understand the progression of their training.
What would you say is the best feature of BoxMate PT?
I think the best feature for my clients would have to be how accessible the app is. I can easily show clients the app without without actually having to take them through how to use it. If anyone is having any trouble at the start I can direct them to the BoxMate Instagram, website or Member Handbook to view the useful tutorials there.
My clients have had very positive views on BoxMate and the app. So far they have all found it a great benefit to their training. I feel it helps to keep my clients and their programs organised and easily accessible too.”
See what PT looks like for your clients in our 50 second tutorial here!
Meet Stewart Bothamley – Head Coach at Fit Missions
Stew is the Head Coach at Fit Missions/ CrossFit Bakewell. Alongside his daily coaching he also PTs 10 individual clients. Prior to using BoxMate PT Stew used a mixture of notepad and pen and word documents to write up and organise his programming for his clients.
What made you decide to trial the BoxMate PT feature?
“I’d been thinking of using Fitr for a while but as I already programme through BoxMate I was reluctant to have too many different applications going on and having to manage different clients in different places. So, when the BoxMate PT came along it just made sense because I already know how the programming works and it keeps everything neatly together for me.
What has your favourite feature been to use so far?
I’d probably say the Session Blocks feature. This means I can build repeat cycles – for example an Olympic lifting cycle and save this as a block. Then I can programme this in for multiple clients with 1 click before going in and tweaking anything that I need to for the individual.
Having access to the Session Blocks feature as part of the PLUS package has also been really useful in normal programming at the box too. Again, you can build a block – say a 6 week pull up cycle, save it. Then with one click reuse it again later on in the year.
See our tutorial of how Session Blocks works here.
What is your experience so far of using BoxMate for PT?
It’s been really useful to have somewhere to put all my programming for individual clients. It helps to have the option for people to see the workout in advance to help them prepare/ ask any questions before they get to the session. I’ve had good feedback from a number of clients now and they are loving logging their scores on there!
Especially for my clients who are already used to using BoxMate as a member at the gym – it’s just really easy for them to navigate and it also means all of their workout data is in one place. For example, if I’m programming front squats during a PT session the percentages we are working at can go off all the data they have in BoxMate – so it helps.
The chat function is also great for communication and checking in with clients in-between sessions.”
Why not see for yourself?
Do you PT individual clients alongside your programming? Then try out our PT PLUS feature.
PLUS is available as a free trial for the first month so that you can make sure it works for you and your clients. Not only will you have access to all of the above, but you’ll also have access to competitions, custom branding, automations and scheduling posts and more. To see how to subscribe to PLUS check out our short tutorial here.
