Get started with your coach
Your coach uses FitnessSyncer to follow the health and fitness data you choose to share, between your sessions. This guide walks you through it in the order you are likely to need it. You decide what is shared, and you can change your mind at any time.
- Accept the invitation and choose what to share
- Your coach on the Sharing tab and in the app
- Messages, check-ins, forms and habits
- Notes on your charts
- Planned workouts on your calendar
- Pause or stop sharing
- Questions
Accept the invitation and choose what to share
Your coach either sends you an invitation by e-mail or gives you a join link. Either way:
- Open the invitation and choose Accept the invitation, or open the link your coach gave you.
- Sign in to FitnessSyncer, or create a free account. It works on a phone and takes a few minutes.
- Connect the devices and apps you already use. Your coach may suggest some; each is a single step, and you can skip any of them and add others later.
- Choose which kinds of data your coach can see. You are offered the kinds your coach asks for, ticked to begin with, and you can untick any of them. Sensitive data such as cycle tracking, medications, conditions, allergies and blood panels is only offered when your coach asks for it. You can share more later on the Sharing tab.
- Read how far back your coach can see: the 30 days before today, the 12 months before, or everything you have recorded.
- If your coach asks for permissions, such as Planning workouts on my calendar, each one is listed with what it lets them do. Each is your choice.
- Choose Share my data.
The data comes from the watches, scales and apps you already use, so there is nothing new to wear or log. FitnessSyncer charges you nothing for sharing with your coach; any fee for the coaching itself is between you and them. When you are done, the last step offers to connect your apps and devices if you have not yet, and shows where your coach’s messages and the workouts they plan for you will be.
Your coach can view your data. Nobody but you can change or delete it. If you joined from a link, your coach may need to approve your request first, and nothing is shared until they do.
You can change all of this later. Open the Sharing tab of your account: under your coach, change the kinds of data you share, or the permissions under what your coach may do, and choose Save changes.
Your coach on the Sharing tab and in the app
On the website, the Sharing tab of your account is the home of everything about your coach. Under their name you find:
- whether you are sharing, and from which date your data is visible;
- links to send them a message, send your progress check-in, fill in a form they sent, and see your habits;
- their recent comments, and a box to choose whether you also receive them by e-mail;
- anything your coach proposed, such as heart rate zones or starting goals, which only take effect if you accept them with Use these zones or Add these goals;
- Restore the dashboards my coach shared with me, if your coach shares dashboards with you and you want their latest version back;
- the buttons to pause or stop sharing.
While you have a coach, your Dashboard, Stream and Calendar on the website say who is coaching you, with a link to your messages; when your coach has written to you, it says so there first. The whistle at the top of each page opens your conversation with them, and the Calendar says that the workouts your coach plans for you appear on it.
In the FitnessSyncer app, the Sync tab opens with a Your coach card while you have a coach. It shows your unread messages from your coach, the forms waiting for you, the habits still open today and the workout your coach planned for today. Tap any of them to open it. Your coaching messages, check-ins, forms and habits are also under Your coach in your account, on Android and on iPhone and iPad. To change what your coach sees, choose “Change what your coach sees” on the Your coach card or above your Dashboard, Stream and Calendar, and the Sharing tab of your account opens on FitnessSyncer.com, already signed in.
Messages, check-ins, forms and habits
Messages. You and your coach have one conversation of your own for anything that is not about a single workout. Open it from the Sharing tab, or from Coaching messages in the app. Only the two of you see it. Comments about one workout are on that activity, under Coaching comments, where you can reply. When a message from your coach reaches you by e-mail, you can answer by replying to that e-mail from the address of your FitnessSyncer account, and your reply is added to the conversation. You can delete a message you wrote with Delete message; it is removed for both of you, but a copy already sent by e-mail cannot be recalled.
Each message and comment shows the name and profile picture of the person who wrote it, or their initials when they have no picture. Your coach sees your picture in the same way.
Progress check-ins. If your coach asks for a regular check-in, you are reminded in the app and by e-mail on the day it is due. Your data for the period is already filled in from what you share, so you only answer your coach’s questions, then choose Send progress check-in. You can change your answers and send it again until the next one is due.
Forms. Your coach may send you a form, such as an intake questionnaire when you join. It is listed under Forms to fill in on the website and in the app until you answer it with Send answers. Your answers go only to your coach.
Habits. If your coach set habits, many are checked off by the data you share, such as steps or sleep, so you do nothing. Others you check off yourself with Mark as done today: on the website for today, and in the app for today or any of the six days before. If you do not share the data a habit needs, it shows as not shared rather than as missed.
You can turn coaching e-mails off on the Sharing tab. Notifications in the app follow your phone’s settings for FitnessSyncer.
Notes on your charts
Two permissions decide whether your charts become a conversation with your coach:
- Adding notes to my charts and discussing them with me lets your coach leave a note on a point of any of your charts. You see it on that chart, marked as from your coach, and you can both reply.
- Seeing the notes I write on my charts and replying to them lets your coach see the notes you write on your own charts and answer them. Without it, your notes stay private.
You can change either one at any time on the Sharing tab. If your coach asks for a permission later, the request waits there for you to choose Allow these permissions or decline it. Annotations explains chart notes in more detail.
Planned workouts on your calendar
If you allow Planning workouts on my calendar, your coach can add, move and remove planned workouts on your calendar, and add races and training phases to your season plan. A workout your coach planned says so. While they coach you, you can skip it but not change or delete it; once coaching ends, it is yours to change. FitnessSyncer sends it on to the services you train with, following your own Planning settings, and once you have done it, shows how it went against the plan.
Each planned workout has its own conversation, so you and your coach can talk about it before or after you do it. Workouts you plan yourself stay yours. The training calendar page explains planning in detail.
Pause or stop sharing
Open the Sharing tab of your account. Under your coach:
- Pause sharing hides your data from your coach until you choose Resume sharing. Only you can resume sharing you paused. If your coach paused it, choose Ask your coach to resume sharing and your coach is asked to approve it. The Sharing tab says it is waiting, and we let you know when they approve. While it is paused, any FitnessSyncer Pro your coach’s subscription gave you stops, and returns when you resume.
- Stop sharing ends the relationship, and any FitnessSyncer Pro your coach’s subscription gave you ends with it. Your coach may also remove you, and you are told by e-mail if they do.
Nothing is deleted. You keep your account and all of your data, and your own chart notes stay yours. Workouts your coach planned stay on your calendar and in any service they were sent to, and you can change or delete them. Your messages with your coach are kept as a past conversation you can both still read on the website. Your coach can no longer see your data, your check-ins or your form answers. What happens when coaching ends? has the full answer, including what comes back if you work with the same coach again.
Questions
What does my coach see?
Only the kinds of data you ticked when you joined, from the starting date you were shown at that moment. Sensitive data such as cycle tracking, medications, conditions and allergies is never shared unless your coach’s program asks for it and you agree.
You can review and change your choices at any time from the Sharing tab of your account.
Where do I see my coach’s comments?
On the activity itself, or on a planned workout on your calendar, under Coaching comments, where you can also reply. A note your coach writes on one of your charts appears on that chart. This works on the website and in the iOS and Android apps. Your most recent comments are listed on the Sharing tab of your account, which is also where you choose whether to receive them by e-mail.
How do I message my coach or send a check-in?
Open the Sharing tab of your account and choose Send a message under your coach, or open Coaching messages in the FitnessSyncer app. If your coach asks for a regular check-in, Send your progress check-in is there too. Your data is filled in from what you share, so you only answer your coach’s questions, and you can change your answers and send it again until the next one is due. A form your coach sent you, such as an intake questionnaire, is listed there and in the FitnessSyncer app until you answer it.
What is the Your coach card in the app?
In the FitnessSyncer app, the Sync tab opens with a Your coach card while you have a coach. It shows your unread messages from your coach, the forms waiting for you, the habits still open today and the workout your coach planned for today. Tap any of them to open it.
How do I pause or stop sharing with my coach?
Open the Sharing tab of your account. Next to your coach you can pause sharing, which you can undo whenever you like (if your coach paused it, you ask them to resume it and we let you know when they approve), or stop sharing, which ends the relationship. In the FitnessSyncer app, “Change what your coach sees” opens that tab for you. Either way your account and your data stay yours. If your coach’s coaching subscription included FitnessSyncer Pro for you, it stops while sharing is paused and returns when you resume.
What happens when coaching ends?
Coaching ends when you stop sharing or when your coach removes you. Nothing is deleted. You keep your FitnessSyncer account and all of your data. What changes:
- Your coach can no longer see your data. Their private notes about you, and your progress check-ins and form answers, are no longer visible to them.
- Your coach’s notes on your charts and the replies to them are hidden from both of you, and so are the comments on your workouts and planned workouts. The notes you write on your own charts stay yours, and you still see them.
- Your messages with your coach are kept as a past conversation that you can both still read on the website. Nothing new can be sent in it.
- Workouts your coach planned stay on your calendar and in any service they were sent to, and you can change or delete them.
- Season plan entries your coach locked become yours to change or delete.
- You can still read the progress check-ins and forms you sent, on your progress check-ins page.
- Any FitnessSyncer Pro your coach’s subscription covered for you ends. To keep FitnessSyncer Pro’s features, you can subscribe to it yourself at any time from the Go Pro page.
Your coach is told when you stop sharing, and you are told by e-mail when your coach removes you.
If you work with the same coach again, your earlier messages, notes and chart notes are there again. Deleting your FitnessSyncer account removes this coaching history for good, and your coach is told by e-mail that you deleted it.
I already pay for FitnessSyncer Pro. Do I need to keep paying?
If your coach’s coaching subscription includes FitnessSyncer Pro for clients, you do not need your own subscription while you are on it. If your coach’s coaching subscription ends, so does the FitnessSyncer Pro it covered. We let you know, and you can upgrade to FitnessSyncer Pro yourself to keep its features. You can cancel yours wherever you bought it, on FitnessSyncer.com, in the Apple App Store or in Google Play. We cannot cancel a subscription bought through Apple or Google for you.
