PT Manager's Programme Builder Puts The Preparation First And The Cool Down Last, So The Session Reads In The Order It Runs

A session written in one order and drawn in another

A trainer writes a programme with a warm-up, three groups of exercises and a cool down. The client opens it and finds the cool down in the middle, or the warm-up after the first circuit. Nothing in the plan was wrong. The screen drew things in a different order from the one the trainer meant.

PT Manager's programme builder has one rule for this, and every screen that draws a session reads it.

The four timings

Each stretch or mobility activity is given a timing when it is added:

• Preparation, before the main work.
• Between exercises, after the first group.
• Cool down, after the last group.
• Separate recovery, its own session, read last.

The order that follows is the same every time. A cardio group at the start stays first. Preparation follows it, or opens the session when there is no cardio. The remaining groups run in the order the trainer set, with any between-exercises activity after the first of them. The cool down comes after the last group, and a separate recovery comes after that.

The editor's preview and the client's player both walk that order. The player steps from one group to the next with the stretch screen where the trainer put it, so what the trainer previews is what the client does.

How it connects to the two posts earlier today

The first post today covers the Level 3 worksheet, criterion 5.3, which asks a learner to plan a warm-up, a cool down and an alternative for every exercise. PT Manager is where that worksheet becomes a screen: the preparation list and the cool down list sit in the builder, in the order the course taught them.

The second post covers the directions the spine moves and the eight combinations the Core & Pelvic Floor course names. A trainer who has those words can write a preparation in them, a lateral flexion, then a rotation, and put it first in the session. Today's Level 3 worksheet post and the spine post sit alongside this one.

What this saves a trainer

Reordering a client's programme by hand each time it looks wrong is time nobody bills for. With one rule, a trainer writes the session once, previews it as the client will see it, and sends it. The same rule runs for every client.

Two ways in

PT Manager opens the moment you sign up with FASTER, so you can build in your own name straight away. Adding real clients unlocks when you pass a course. Someone new to the industry gets it from the start of a career through the Certified Personal Trainer route. A trainer who is already qualified comes in through Movement Trainer or any course above it, with no need to repeat Level 2 and 3. It is free, and nobody takes a cut of your sessions.

See it at PT Manager, and read the course behind today's second post at Core & Pelvic Floor.

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