Build a client plan from an intake questionnaire with AI

How do you build a client's plan from their intake questionnaire with AI?

In Trainera, you ask TRAI, the AI assistant built into the app, to build the plan for a named client. It reads that client's intake questionnaire answers and their profile (experience level, goal, medical conditions, allergies, dietary preferences and body stats), then builds the plan with the same engine as the app's Generate buttons. The finished plan is saved to your library and goes to the client only when you ask TRAI to assign it. TRAI is on every paid trainer plan, with 20 to 200 requests a month.

This post walks through one onboarding workflow from start to finish: what to ask in the questionnaire, what TRAI does with the answers, how to phrase the request and what to check before the client sees anything.

What does TRAI read before it builds a client plan?

It combines four sources, and every limitation from the profile and the intake answers is carried into the build.

Two rules in TRAI's instructions matter here. First, profile allergies and medical conditions are always added to a client's plan build and never dropped. Second, TRAI is told to copy every limitation it finds in the profile and the intake answers into the injuries field (training) or the allergies and dietary restrictions fields (nutrition). A knee problem the client mentioned only in the questionnaire still reaches the engine.

How should you set up the intake questionnaire?

Ask the questions the plan engine actually uses, in formats that leave little room for guessing.

Some background on how questionnaires work in Trainera: questionnaires (intake forms) are included on every trainer plan, including Free. A questionnaire is answered once, when a new client joins, and only one can be active at a time; activating one switches the others off. Recurring weekly or monthly progress forms are a different feature, called check-ins. If you have not built an intake form yet, TRAI can draft one with you; read the draft and adjust the questions before you send it to clients.

Each question has a type: short text, long text, number, scale, single choice (radio), multiple choice (checkbox), dropdown, yes/no or date. The table below maps useful intake questions to those types and to the plan input they feed.

For health screening, many trainers add the questions of a recognized pre-exercise screening tool such as the PAR-Q+ and refer the client to a doctor when an answer calls for it. TRAI does not replace that step. It adapts the plan to what the client reports; it does not clear anyone to exercise.

Step by step: from questionnaire answers to a saved plan

The whole workflow is one chat message from you plus one click on a confirm card.

1. The client answers the active questionnaire when they join you in the app.
2. You open TRAI (web or the iOS and Android app) and ask for the plan by client name.
3. TRAI finds the client, reads their profile and, when you use an intake questionnaire, their responses.
4. It shows a confirm card that says what will be created: the title (or that the engine names it), how many days and which client it is for. The first time in a chat, it also says that exercises and meals missing from your library come from Trainera's reference library and will be added to your library. Nothing is saved before you click "Yes, do it".
5. The engine builds and saves the plan, which takes up to half a minute.
6. You review the plan in your library and make changes.
7. You ask TRAI to assign it (or assign it yourself). Assigning replaces the client's current active plan of that type, and TRAI confirms before it does so.

Example prompts you could send at step 2 (these are examples, adjust them to your client):

• Example: "Build a training plan for Client A from her intake answers. 3 days a week, full body, 45 minutes, start each session with 5 minutes on the bike."
• Example: "Read Client B's questionnaire and make a 7-day nutrition plan from it. He wrote that he hates fish, so keep it out completely."
• Example: "Make a 4-day upper/lower plan for Client C from her answers and her profile. Use my own exercises where you can. Assign it to her when it is done."

The third example asks for assignment in the same request. In that case TRAI puts creation and assignment on one confirm card, and the plan is created and assigned in one step.

Which plan inputs does the engine accept?

The engine takes a fixed set of fields, so the closer your questionnaire answers map to them, the less TRAI has to infer.

Every session in a training plan is ordered: warm-up, main work, cardio and stretching, with optional cardio at the start. More on phrasing those in day kinds and session order, and on food rules in getting a meal plan that respects dietary rules.

Why does the plan stay in your library until you assign it?

Because you are the coach: TRAI builds a draft for a specific client, and you decide when it goes out.

A plan built for a client is tied to that client's data, but it is saved to your library first. This gives you a window to check what the engine chose. In practice, the things worth checking are the same ones you would check in a plan you wrote yourself: does the volume suit someone who wrote "I have not trained in two years", did the knee note turn into knee-friendly choices, and does the session fit the minutes the client actually has.

The exercises and meals in a saved plan are added to your own library automatically, with images and without duplicates, so the next plan you build can reuse them.

What does this cost in TRAI requests?

One request per message you send; the confirm click is free and a failed run is refunded.

Prices are the US list prices and differ by country; check trainera.fit/pricing for yours. A plan built inside TRAI does not use the separate AI-plan quota of the Generate buttons. The allowance resets each calendar month, and the chat header shows how many requests you have used. A full breakdown is in TRAI request limits explained.

With 20 requests a month on Starter, onboarding is a realistic use: one message per new client's plan, plus a few follow-ups. Note that admins can set features per account, so an individual account can differ from this table.

Common mistakes when building plans from intake forms

Most problems come from vague answers or from asking for things in the wrong place.

• Open questions where a choice would do. "Tell me about your training" produces a paragraph; "How many days a week can you train?" with a dropdown produces a number the engine can use.
• Allergies only mentioned in chat. Put them in the questionnaire or the profile. Profile allergies are always added to a client's nutrition build.
• Using the intake form for weekly progress. The intake questionnaire is answered once. Use check-ins for recurring forms; see automated client check-in messages.
• Attaching an old PDF plan. TRAI does not read PDFs. Save the file as .docx or .txt first; the import is covered in importing a Word plan.
• Assigning without reading. The chat footer says it plainly: "AI can make mistakes. Double-check important results."

What TRAI does not do in this workflow

It drafts and saves; it does not diagnose, delete or send anything on its own.

• It does not act without your confirmation. Every data-changing step goes through a confirm card, and replacing a client's active plan is confirmed first.
• It never deletes anything in the app. If an old plan should go, you remove it yourself.
• It adapts plans to injuries, pregnancy and doctor's limits by choosing lower-impact work, but it is not a substitute for a doctor or physiotherapist. A screening answer that worries you is a referral, not a prompt.
• It works only on your own account and your own clients.

For how the engine picks exercises, see how AI builds your workout and diet plan, and for the wider trainer use of an assistant, how an AI assistant builds client plans faster.

Your intake-to-plan checklist for the next new client

Use this as the order of work each time someone joins.

1. One active intake questionnaire with choice questions for days, equipment, meals and cooking time, and open questions for goals, injuries and food rules.
2. Allergies and conditions also recorded in the client profile.
3. One TRAI message per plan, naming the client, the split or day count, the session length and anything you want or do not want.
4. Read the confirm card: right client, right number of days.
5. Review the saved plan in your library, then assign it.

Activity guidelines are a useful sanity check for the weekly total; the WHO physical activity recommendations call for muscle-strengthening work on 2 or more days a week for adults, alongside aerobic activity.

See how plans, questionnaires and TRAI fit together in the Trainera trainer platform, or create a trainer account.