What to track for your clients between sessions

By the Laroa team, checked against Laroa’s evidence base. Updated 16 October 2026. 2 minute read.

For hybrid personal trainers: the few signals worth tracking between in-person sessions, how to keep clients logging, and where to spend your review time.

The days you don’t see them

If a client trains with you twice a week, most of their training, all their eating and all their sleep happen without you.

Between sessions you need just enough to make the next session better and catch problems early. And no more than the client will keep logging.

What to track between sessions

A short list covers most clients:

Completed sessions against planned ones. Attendance comes first.
Load and reps on the main lifts, with effort as reps in reserve.
Pain, with the exercise and set it happened on.
Weekly sleep, soreness and energy ratings.
A body-weight trend over two weeks or more, if body composition is a goal.
Food at whatever level of detail the client can keep up: protein and calories for some, a photo of each meal for others.

Tom, sessions per weekLast 6 weeks

Missed 2 planned sessionsThis weekReview

Rated Tuesday too hardReps below plan on 2 liftsReview

Use reps in reserve to steer progression

Reps in reserve (RIR) is a practical, validated way to rate effort. Most working sets should land about 0–3 reps from failure. When a client’s sets keep ending at failure at the same loads, fatigue may be building.

For progression, the ACSM recommends adding about 2–10% to the load once a client can do one or two reps beyond the target on consecutive sessions.

A 2–10% load stepkg

Current load	Add	Next load
20 kg	0.4–2 kg	20.4–22 kg
40 kg	0.8–4 kg	40.8–44 kg
60 kg	1.2–6 kg	61.2–66 kg
100 kg	2–10 kg	102–110 kg
140 kg	2.8–14 kg	142.8–154 kg

Add load in a step of about 2–10% once you can do one or two reps beyond the target on consecutive sessions. From the evidence entries cited below.

Cut what won’t change anything

Every extra number you ask a client to log costs a bit of adherence. If a field won’t change what you do next, drop it. A short log that’s complete beats a long one full of gaps.

Spend your review time on exceptions

Reading every log from every client stops working past a handful of clients. A short list of who needs you this week, with the reason each one is on it, keeps working.

Needs you, Monday4 of 18 clients

MajaPain 5/10 on Romanian deadlift, set 3Urgent

TomRated Tuesday too hard, reps below plan on 2 liftsReview

AnaCheck-in: sleep 2 out of 5 for the second weekReview

LukaNew best: squat 100 kg × 5FYI

Why Maja is firstPain flags come before everything else.Done or Snooze clears an item until something new happens.

Where Laroa fits in

Clients follow your program in Laroa and log sets, food and weight. Strava, Oura, Whoop, Withings, Apple Health and Health Connect fill in what their devices record, if the client shares it.

Your Needs you list surfaces pain flags, sessions rated too hard or with reps below plan, and new bests, using fixed rules you can read. At in-person sessions, you log sets straight into the client’s history, with their consent.

Ana, in the gymLogged with her consent

Back squat, set 3100 kg × 5, 2 in reserveLogged

Romanian deadlift, set 270 kg × 8, flagged PainFlagged

Bench press, set 460 kg × 6, flagged SpottedLogged

FlagsPain, Form broke down, Spotted.Every set lands in Ana’s own history, next to what she logs between sessions.

Common questions

How do I get clients to log consistently?

Ask for less. Keep logging to what changes your decisions, reply when they do log, and put your program in the same place they log.

The evidence behind this guide

Each claim above traces to an entry in Laroa’s evidence base (version 2026-10-17.1), which summarises position stands, guidelines and meta-analyses and grades how strong each one is.

Effort and proximity to failureModerate evidence
ProgressionStrong evidence
How you feel before trainingModerate evidence
Daily weight noiseModerate evidence
Training with painModerate evidence

Sources

Refalo MC, Helms ER, Trexler ET, Hamilton DL, Fyfe JJ. Influence of resistance training proximity-to-failure on skeletal muscle hypertrophy: a systematic review with meta-analysis. Sports Med. 2023;53(3):649-665. doi:10.1007/s40279-022-01784-y
Helms ER, Cronin J, Storey A, Zourdos MC. Application of the repetitions in reserve-based rating of perceived exertion scale for resistance training. Strength Cond J. 2016;38(4):42-49. doi:10.1519/SSC.0000000000000218
American College of Sports Medicine. Position stand: progression models in resistance training for healthy adults. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2009;41(3):687-708. doi:10.1249/MSS.0b013e3181915670
Saw AE, Main LC, Gastin PB. Monitoring the athlete training response: subjective self-reported measures trump commonly used objective measures: a systematic review. Br J Sports Med. 2016;50(5):281-291. doi:10.1136/bjsports-2015-094758
Kreitzman SN, Coxon AY, Szaz KF. Glycogen storage: illusions of easy weight loss, excessive weight regain, and distortions in estimates of body composition. Am J Clin Nutr. 1992;56(1 Suppl):292S-293S. doi:10.1093/ajcn/56.1.292S
Hall KD, Sacks G, Chandramohan D, et al. Quantification of the effect of energy imbalance on bodyweight. Lancet. 2011;378(9793):826-837. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(11)60812-X
Smith BE, Hendrick P, Smith TO, et al. Should exercises be painful in the management of chronic musculoskeletal pain? A systematic review and meta-analysis. Br J Sports Med. 2017;51(23):1679-1687. doi:10.1136/bjsports-2016-097383

General information for healthy adults, not medical advice. If you have a medical condition, are pregnant, or have pain or warning symptoms, ask a clinician.