How to let your clients swap an exercise?
You can give your clients the option to swap an exercise on their own during the workout, but only for alternatives that you approve.
For each exercise, you define a list of valid alternatives. When that exercise appears in the client's plan, they get the Swap exercise button to choose between those options — and no others. It is a closed list: nobody improvises with something you have not chosen. Useful when the bench is taken, equipment is missing or their shoulder is bothering them that day, without them having to message you.
This guide covers both parts: how you prepare the alternatives and what your client sees.
1. Open the exercise
Alternatives are saved in the exercise, so you can set them up from two places (you'll see the same list in both):
- Library → Exercises: click the exercise to open Edit Exercise. The Alternatives section is in the left column, below Media (on a phone, right after Media).
- A client's plan: tap the exercise to open its details and go to the Alternatives tab.
Because alternatives live in the exercise in your library, whatever you configure here applies to every client who has that exercise in their plan. There is no need to repeat it client by client.
Alternatives appear once the exercise is in your library. If you're creating it, save it first and open it again. If it's from a TrainerStudio library you haven't used yet, save it or add it to a plan so your copy is created.
2. Decide whether the alternatives are reciprocal
Below the list you'll see the Make alternatives reciprocal checkbox, ticked by default. The info icon next to it sums it up.
- Ticked (recommended): if you add "Dumbbell press" as an alternative to "Bench press", "Bench press" is automatically added as an alternative to "Dumbbell press", and removing one removes both. The link goes both ways.
- Unticked: the link goes one way only. Useful when you want a hard exercise to be swappable for an easier one, but not the other way round.
3. Add the alternatives
Click Add alternative (or the + next to the title). The same search you use to add exercises to a plan opens: type the name and pick the one you want. It shows your favorites, your exercises and those in TrainerStudio's libraries.
Repeat for each alternative you want to offer. Each one appears in the list with its thumbnail; to remove one, click the bin icon on its right.
A couple of details to keep in mind:
- An exercise cannot be an alternative of itself.
- If you pick an exercise from a TrainerStudio library, a copy is saved in your library and that copy becomes the alternative. If you already have one with the same name, TrainerStudio asks whether you'd rather use yours.
4. What your client sees
In the client app, when an exercise has alternatives, the Swap exercise action appears on the exercise detail screen, at the end of its actions. If an exercise has no alternatives, the button is not shown.
Tapping it opens a window with the alternatives you approved. Before choosing, the client decides the scope of the change:
- Always (default option): swaps the exercise in this workout and in the following ones.
- Only today: swaps the exercise only in today's session; the rest of the plan stays as it was.
The client taps an alternative and the exercise is swapped instantly. They cannot go outside your list: if they tried to swap it for an exercise that is not approved, the app prevents it.
Good to know
- Closed list. The client only swaps between the alternatives you define. Your programming intent is always respected.
- It is configured once. Alternatives are saved in the exercise in your library, so they apply to every client who has it, with no extra work per client.
- The client chooses the scope. "Always" for a permanent change (a long-term injury, equipment they do not have at home), "Only today" for a one-off hiccup.
- Reciprocal by default. Unless you untick it, adding A as an alternative to B also adds B as an alternative to A. Leaving it ticked is the usual choice.
- Fewer messages for you. The client solves the day's hiccups without messaging you, and you stay in control of what they can and cannot do.
How to search exercises and use TrainerStudio's libraries?
Search your exercises and those in TrainerStudio's libraries in one list, mark favorites, filter by library, edit any exercise without touching the original and merge duplicates.
How to let your clients create their own workouts?
Turn on a permission so your clients can create and manage their own workouts with blocks, exercises, supersets, circuits, sets and variables.