Build Your First Online Training Program in Under an Hour

You know you need to move beyond spreadsheets and PDF workout plans. Your clients deserve better, and frankly, so do you. But every time you sit down to build a proper training program inside a coaching platform, it feels like it’s going to take forever.

It doesn’t have to. Once you understand the structure, you can build a complete, professional training program in under an hour. This post walks you through it step by step.

If you want the full picture on training program delivery, check out our Ultimate Guide to Online Coaching Training Programs (2026 Edition). This post is the quick-start version.

Before You Start: Pick Your Training Mode

Before you touch the program builder, decide how your client will receive the program. There are three training modes, and the one you pick shapes everything that follows.

Calendar mode schedules workouts on specific dates. Monday is Push, Wednesday is Pull, Friday is Legs. The client opens their app, sees today’s workout, and gets to work. This is the best default for most clients because it removes all guesswork about what to do and when.

Fixed mode assigns workouts in a set order without tying them to dates. The client works through Workout A, B, C at their own pace. This works well for clients with unpredictable schedules who can’t commit to specific training days.

Flexible mode gives clients a library of workouts to choose from. Best for experienced clients who want autonomy.

For your first program, go with calendar mode. It’s the most common, it’s what clients expect, and it gives you the most control over their training week.

Step 1: Create the Program Shell (2 Minutes)

Open your program builder and create a new program. Give it a clear name that you and the client will both understand. “Sarah - Phase 1 Hypertrophy” is better than “Program 3” or “New Program (2).”

Add a short description if you want. Something like “4-week introductory hypertrophy block, 4 days per week, upper/lower split” is enough. This is mostly for your own reference when you’re managing dozens of programs later.

If you’re building this as a reusable template (and you should be), name it generically instead: “Beginner Hypertrophy - 4 Day Upper/Lower.” You can always rename it when you assign it to a specific client.

That’s it. You have a program. Now fill it.

Step 2: Map Out Your Workouts (5 Minutes)

Before you start adding exercises, sketch out the training week. For a 4-day upper/lower split, you might go with:

• Day 1: Upper Body Strength
• Day 2: Lower Body Strength
• Day 3: Rest
• Day 4: Upper Body Volume
• Day 5: Lower Body Volume
• Day 6-7: Rest

Create each workout inside your program. Name them clearly. “Upper Strength” and “Lower Volume” tell the client exactly what they’re walking into. Avoid cute names like “Chest Destroyer” unless that’s genuinely your brand.

You can add thumbnail images to each workout if you want the program to look polished in the client’s app. It’s a small touch that makes the whole experience feel more professional, but don’t let it slow you down on your first build. You can always add these later.

Step 3: Build Your First Workout With Sections (15 Minutes)

This is where most coaches either overcomplicate things or undersell themselves. The secret is sections.

A workout isn’t a flat list of exercises. It’s structured into sections, and each section can have its own format. For a typical strength day, you might use:

Section 1: Warm-Up (Regular section)

A regular section with 2-3 mobility or activation exercises. Low intensity, getting the body ready.

Section 2: Main Lifts (Regular section)

Your primary compound movements for the day. Bench press, overhead press, rows. Straight sets, heavier loads, longer rest.

Section 3: Accessory Circuit (Circuit section)

3-4 accessory exercises done back to back for 3 rounds. This is where circuit sections shine. You set the exercises, the number of rounds, and the rest between rounds. The client gets a clear structure without you needing to write out “repeat x3” in the notes.

Section 4: Finisher (Interval or AMRAP section)

If you want to add conditioning at the end, use an interval section for timed work/rest periods or an AMRAP section for a time-capped challenge.

Not every workout needs all four sections. A simple strength day might just be a warm-up section and a main lifts section. The point is that you’re using the structure to communicate how the workout flows, not just listing exercises and hoping the client figures out the pacing.

Open your first workout, add your sections, and pick the section type for each one.

Step 4: Add Exercises and Configure Fields (20 Minutes)

Now the actual programming. This is the part you already know how to do. The difference is that instead of typing exercise names into a spreadsheet, you’re pulling them from your exercise library.

For each exercise, select it from the library. If it’s not there yet, you can add it on the fly with a name, equipment type, and muscle group. Don’t worry about building a perfect library right now. It grows naturally as you program.

Once the exercise is added, configure the trackable fields. This is where you decide what data the client records for each set. For a barbell bench press, you probably want weight and reps. For a plank, you want time. For a tempo squat, you want weight, reps, and tempo.

HubFit gives you 15+ field options including reps, weight, rest, tempo, RPE, RIR, time, distance, speed, cadence, and more. For your first program, keep it simple. Most exercises only need 2-3 fields. You can always add RPE or tempo tracking later as the client progresses.

Set your target values for each set. If you want the client to do 4 sets of 8 reps at a moderate weight, fill in the targets. The client will see these as guidelines and record what they actually did.

Two things to add before you move on:

First, add alternative exercises where it makes sense. If you’ve programmed barbell bench press, add dumbbell bench press as an alternative. If the barbell station is taken, the client taps the swap button and keeps training instead of standing around or messaging you asking what to do. This takes about 10 seconds per exercise and saves you dozens of mid-session client messages over the life of the program.

Second, add supersets where appropriate. If you want the client to pair lateral raises with face pulls in their accessory work, group them as a superset. The client sees them linked together and knows to alternate between them without needing it spelled out in a text note.

Repeat this process for each workout in your program. The second, third, and fourth workouts go faster because you’ve already added most of the exercises to your library during the first one.

Step 5: Review and Assign (5 Minutes)

You’ve got a program with 4 workouts, each structured with sections, exercises, trackable fields, alternatives, and supersets. That’s a professional training program.

Before you assign it, do a quick review:

• Does each workout flow logically from warm-up to main work to accessories?
• Are the trackable fields correct for each exercise (you don’t want “distance” on a bench press)?
• Did you add alternatives for at least the main compound lifts?
• Are the set and rep targets filled in?

If you’re using calendar mode, pick the start date when you assign the program to the client. The workouts will populate across their calendar automatically. The client gets a notification, opens their app, and sees their full training week laid out.

That’s it. You’ve built and assigned a real training program.

Save It as a Template

Before you move on to your next client, save this program to your template library. Create a folder called something like “Hypertrophy Templates” and drop it in.

Next time a new client with similar goals comes along, you don’t start from scratch. You duplicate the template, swap in a few exercises based on the client’s equipment or preferences, adjust the rep ranges, and assign. What took you an hour the first time takes 15 minutes the second time and 10 minutes the third.

This is how experienced coaches manage 30, 40, 50+ clients without burning out. They’re not building every program from zero. They have a library of battle-tested templates they customize per client. The programming expertise is baked into the templates. The personalization happens in the details.

What Happens After You Assign

The program is live. Now what?

Your client trains from their phone. They open each workout, see the exercises with video demonstrations (if you’ve added them to your library), and log their actual performance set by set. They rate the difficulty when they finish and can add notes about how the session felt.

On your end, you see the completed workout data in real time. Total volume, total reps, total sets, exercise-by-exercise results. If they hit a new personal record, the system flags it automatically. You didn’t need to calculate anything.

Over the next few weeks, exercise history builds up. You can open any exercise and see a progression chart showing whether the client is getting stronger, maintaining, or stalling. That data informs your next program.

This feedback loop is the entire reason to move beyond PDFs. You’re not just giving clients workouts. You’re building a system where every session generates data that makes the next program better.

The One-Hour Timeline

Here’s the breakdown again:

• Picking training mode and creating the program shell: 2 minutes
• Mapping out the training week and creating workouts: 5 minutes
• Building workout sections and adding exercises: 35 minutes (this is the bulk of the work, and it gets faster with practice)
• Reviewing, assigning, and saving as template: 5 minutes
• Buffer for decisions and adjustments: 13 minutes

Under an hour. And every program after this one takes less time because your exercise library grows, your template folder fills up, and your decision-making gets faster.

What Comes Next

This post covered building your first program. There’s a lot more to training delivery once you get past the basics: periodisation planning across multiple training blocks, using workout difficulty ratings to adjust programming, leveraging PR tracking as a retention tool, and building Workout Studios for on-demand content.

For the full picture, read our Ultimate Guide to Online Coaching Training Programs (2026 Edition).