👋 Getting started

1. Add Athletex to your phone's home screen

   Athletex works in your web browser, but it is much nicer as an icon on your home screen. It then opens full screen like any other app, and it always stays up to date on its own. There is nothing to download.

   On an iPhone or iPad: open projectathletex.com in Safari. Tap the Share button at the bottom of the screen (the square with an arrow pointing up). Scroll down the list and tap Add to Home Screen, then tap Add.

   On an Android phone or a computer: open the site in Chrome. A bar appears at the bottom offering to Install the app. Tap it.

2. Confirm your email address

   When you created your account, an email was sent to you with a link to confirm your address. Tap that link. Until you do, a yellow bar sits at the top of every page reminding you. If the email never arrived, tap Resend on that bar.

3. Fill in the New Client Intake Form

   The first time you open Athletex, a form appears. This is the New Client Intake Form, and you fill it in once. It asks about your goals, your training history, the equipment you have, your schedule, and anything that hurts. It takes about seven minutes. Dan builds your first program from your answers, so the sooner it is done, the sooner your program arrives. You can save part way and finish later. It is different from the short check-ins you answer later on, which are about how a particular week or month went. If your situation changes, you can update your intake answers any time from My Account under New Client Intake Form. Only here for the Workout Journal and the community, not a program? The form's first screen has a link to skip it and switch to the journal-only package. You can switch back any time under Membership in My Account.

4. Choose how you want to be told about new weeks

   Every time a new week of your program is ready, Dan sends you an email. That is already switched on. If you also want a notification to pop up on your phone, open My Account, find Notifications, and tap Notify this phone. On an iPhone, phone notifications only work when you have added Athletex to your home screen, which is one more reason to do step 1.

5. Join the members chat

   Dan runs a group chat for everyone who trains with him. While you are waiting for your program, the link to join is on your home screen in the app. After that, you can find it under Community. It is where Dan posts news for everyone, and where the other members are.

Every part of the app is behind the ☰ MENU button in the top-right corner. Tapping the Project Athletex logo at the top always takes you back to the main screen, which is called the Training Hub.

• 🏋️ Training Hub

  This is your main screen and where your program lives. Your program is the training plan Dan writes for you, one week at a time. When you open the Training Hub, your next workout is shown at the top. The two other tabs on this screen, Workout Journal and My Challenges, are explained just below.

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• 📓 Workout Journal

  This is where you record anything you did that was not part of your program: a run, a walk, a fitness class, a game of basketball, or a workout you did at another gym. Quick Log is the fastest way. Tap the picture that matches what you did and enter a couple of numbers. Build a Workout lets you write out a workout in full. Saved Workouts keeps the ones you do often so you do not have to write them again. If a gym wrote the workout on a whiteboard, or a friend sent you one, tap Scan and either take a photo of the board or upload a screenshot, and the app reads it for you.

  Used this way, Athletex becomes your exercise journal: one place that holds everything you do, not just the workouts Dan planned. That matters twice over. For you, a complete record is how you see your own progress over months and years. For Dan, the more of your training he can see, the more closely your program can be shaped to you.

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• 🎯 My Challenges

  A challenge is a small goal with a clear finish line that you work on alongside your program. For example: do push-ups every day for 30 days, cover 50 miles this month, or beat your best time on a set workout. You can set one up for yourself by tapping + New Challenge. Dan can also give you a challenge, and if you train with a group, the whole group can take on the same one together. To record your progress, open the challenge and tap Log Entry. A progress bar shows how far along you are, and when you reach the goal you mark it Complete.

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• 🏆 My Dashboard

  This is where you look back at what you have done. Workouts is the full list of every workout you have recorded. Progress shows how each exercise has changed over time, for example how your squat weight has moved from month to month. PRs lists your personal records, your best ever result for each exercise. My Stats is a place to track your own numbers, like bodyweight or hours of sleep. Check-ins holds the short questionnaires you answer about your week. Notes gathers the notes you write about your training. You can write a note in several places in the app, on a workout, on the Progress page, or on its own, and this tab collects all of them in one list, each one marked with where it came from. Notes Dan writes about your training appear here too, marked as his.

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• 👥 My Groups

  If you train as part of a group, this is where you find the group's schedule, its challenges and its leaderboard. If you train on your own, this page will be empty.

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• 🌍 Community

  Everyone who trains with Dan, in one place. The Leaderboard shows how members compare on a few set workouts. Dan's Training shows what Dan himself is doing this week. The Directory lists the groups, their chats, and the members. You appear in it unless you switch off Show me in the Community Directory under My Account.

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• ⚙️ My Account

  Your name and profile picture, your email address and password, your questionnaire answers, your notification settings, and what other members are allowed to see about you.

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• ❓ FAQ

  Answers to the questions people ask most, from "what does 3×8 mean" to "what should I do if an exercise hurts". You can search it. If your question is not there, there is a button at the bottom of that page to text Dan.

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1. A new week of your program arrives

   Dan writes your program one week at a time. When a week is ready, you get an email, and a notification on your phone if you switched that on. Open the app and your next workout is waiting at the top of the Training Hub.

2. Do the workout and enter your results as you go

   Each exercise shows what to do. As you finish each set, tap it and type in the weight you used and the number of reps you did. For a timed piece like a run or a circuit, you enter your time or your score. At the bottom of the workout there is a slider called Difficulty Rating. Slide it to say how hard the whole workout felt, from 1 for very easy to 10 for the hardest thing you have ever done. Below it is a Notes box where you can type anything worth mentioning. Then tap Save Workout. If you get interrupted part way through, the app remembers where you were.

3. Did something outside your program? Record that too

   A run, a class, a workout at another gym: put it in under Workout Journal on the Training Hub. It only takes a moment, and it helps Dan see your whole week, not just the workouts he planned.

4. Keep any challenge you are in up to date

   If you are taking part in a challenge, record your progress on the same day you do the work. Open My Challenges, tap the challenge, tap Log Entry, and enter today's number: the push-ups you did, the miles you covered, or simply a yes for the day. Challenges that are about doing something every day need an entry every day, so the easiest habit is to enter it right after the workout it came from. If it is a group challenge, your entry moves your position on the group's leaderboard straight away.

5. Answer the weekly check-in

   The check-in is a short questionnaire about your week: how the training felt, how your energy and sleep have been, and whether anything is off. It takes about two minutes. It appears on the Training Hub once you have finished the week's workouts, or at the weekend either way. Dan can also send it to you at any time. Once a month a slightly longer questionnaire takes its place, and near the end of a training block, which is usually a few weeks long, you are asked what you would like to work on next.

6. Dan reviews your week and writes the next one

   Before your next week is written, Dan looks at everything you entered: every set, your difficulty ratings, your notes and your check-in. He decides what the coming week should hold, and it arrives the same way as the last one. If something changes for you during the week, an injury, travel, a schedule that fell apart, text Dan. There is no need to wait for the check-in.

Everything you enter into the app is read before your next week is written. Dan reads it, and so does the AI assistant that prepares your workouts within the rules Dan has set. Here is what each thing you enter turns into.

• The weights and reps you enter decide next week's numbers. Your program builds on what you actually lifted, not on what a plan guessed a month ago. A set you leave blank is treated as a set you did not do, so enter the ones you did.
• Your Difficulty Rating tells Dan whether a week was too easy, about right, or too much. Several 9s and 10s in a row will change the week that follows.
• Your Notes are the most useful thing you can give him. A line like "knee felt off on lunges" or "only slept four hours" goes straight into Dan's weekly review, and he adjusts that exercise or that week instead of guessing.
• Your check-ins are the part people do not expect to matter. They are what Dan's weekly review is built from. Skip a check-in and that week has nothing to read. Skip the New Client Intake Form and there is nothing to build a first program from at all.
• The other workouts you record complete the picture. A ten-mile run on Tuesday explains a tough Wednesday, and Dan can plan around it instead of through it.
• Your challenge entries show Dan the work you are doing between workouts. Each entry appears on his side the day you enter it, so a push-up streak or the miles adding up in a challenge helps him understand how you are arriving at each workout, and he can shape the next challenge, or the next week, to fit.
• Your personal records and your Progress page are mainly for you, but Dan sees them too. They are how the two of you know it is working.

You do not need to write a lot. Enter the numbers, rate the workout, and add a line when something is off. That is the whole job, and it is what turns a written program into coaching.

More: Is my program written by AI? · Who sees my data?