The quick answer
The Trainerize app is where your coaching lives day to day: your workouts, video demonstrations for every exercise, your progress history and direct messaging with your coach, all in one place on your phone. We should say upfront that we coach our clients through it at DBPT, so this isn’t a neutral review, but it does mean we can tell you exactly what it’s like to use week after week.
Key takeaways
- Everything sits in one app: workouts, exercise videos, progress tracking and messaging.
- Video demonstrations mean you’re not guessing at a movement you’ve never done.
- Your logged sessions build a history your coach uses to decide what comes next.
- Messaging keeps the coaching going between check-ins.
- It’s a delivery tool, not the coaching itself, and that distinction matters.
What Trainerize is
Trainerize is a coaching platform. Your coach builds your program in it, and you open it on your phone to see what you’re doing, log it, and talk to them.
That’s the honest summary. It isn’t a fitness tracker you use on your own. It’s the channel between you and whoever’s coaching you.
We coach through it at DBPT, which is why we can write about it properly and also why you should read this knowing we’re not neutral. We’re not paid by them and we’re not partnered with them. We just use it.
Good to know
An app is only ever as good as the coaching behind it. The same platform in two different coaches’ hands produces two completely different experiences, so judge the coach first and the software second.
What you see as a coaching client
When you open it, you’re looking at your week. The sessions you’ve got scheduled, what’s already done, and anything your coach has sent through.
Your program is there in full, built for you and updated each week as you progress, so you’re not working from a PDF that went stale in month two.
Nutrition sits alongside it. At DBPT that means calorie targets and simple meal ideas rather than restrictive meal plans, so what you’re looking at is something you can actually run in a busy week.
From our coaching
The thing we point out most in someone’s first week is scheduling, and it’s the most underused part of the app by a long way. People open it, look at their program, and work week to week from memory. What we’d rather they do is set the week up in advance: training days in the calendar, food planned ahead, and the recurring bits like weigh ins and photos scheduled rather than remembered. It takes a few minutes once. After that the week is already laid out and there’s almost nothing left to decide in the moment, which is usually where things fall apart.
The thing worth understanding is that it’s a two way tool. Your coach puts things in, you put things in, and the coaching happens in the gap between those two.
Workouts, video demos and progress tracking
Here’s the part you’ll use most.
Each session lists your exercises in order, with sets, reps and whatever your coach has specified. You tap through them as you go.
Every exercise has a demonstration video attached. That’s the feature that matters most if you’re new to a movement, because reading “Romanian deadlift” and watching one are very different experiences.
What it means
Logging
Recording what you actually did in a session, including the weight, the reps you completed and how hard it felt. It’s what turns a program into useful information for your coach.
You log as you train. Weight, reps, and how hard it felt, which is the bit people skip and shouldn’t, because effort tells your coach things the numbers alone don’t.
Over time that builds a history. You can look back at what you lifted months ago, and more usefully, so can your coach when they’re deciding what comes next.
Tip
Log your session while you’re still in the gym, not from the couch later. Memory is unreliable about what you actually did, and a guessed number is worse than no number for your coach.
From our coaching
One client was working toward a bodyweight chin up, and we’d started her on banded chin ups to build it. She picked a band that was lighter than she needed, which meant she couldn’t finish the reps we’d set, and the sets were falling apart before they did anything useful. None of that showed up in the numbers alone. It took her sending a video through for us to see what was actually happening, and from there we changed the band and reset the rep range so the work matched what she was training for. That’s the whole argument for logging and filming: we can only adjust what we can see.
Messaging and check-ins
Messaging is where the coaching actually happens for most people.
You can send your coach a question mid week, a video of a lift you’re unsure about, or a heads up that work has blown up and training is going to be thin this week.
At DBPT you’ll also have weekly or fortnightly check-ins, where you report how things genuinely went and the plan gets adjusted around that. The app holds the training data, the check-in is where you talk about the human side of it.
The app shows us what you did, and the conversation tells us why, and we need both before we change anything.
This is the piece people underestimate when they’re weighing up online coaching compared with face to face training. You lose the hands on correction, and you gain someone with a complete picture of your whole week rather than one hour of it.
The pros and cons
No tool is right for everyone, so here’s the honest version.
| Area | What’s good | What to be aware of |
|---|---|---|
| Everything in one place | Program, videos, logging and messaging don’t live in four different apps | You need your phone with you while training, which not everyone likes |
| Video demonstrations | Useful when a movement is new or you’re training alone | A video isn’t the same as someone correcting you in the room |
| Logging and history | Builds a record your coach uses to make decisions | It only works if you actually log, and consistently |
| Messaging | Keeps coaching going between check-ins | Response times depend on your coach, not the app, so ask what they are |
| Overall | A clean way to deliver structured coaching remotely | It’s a delivery tool, so it can’t make up for coaching that isn’t there |
Red flag
An app with nobody behind it
If a coach hands you an app and the contact stops there, you’ve bought a program with a login. Ask what happens between check-ins before you sign up to anything.
If you’re not someone who’ll have your phone out during a session, be honest about that upfront. Plenty of people write their session down instead and log it afterwards, and it’s worth saying so to your coach rather than quietly falling out of the habit.
For anyone comparing online fitness coaching in Australia, the platform is rarely what separates two coaches. What separates them is how much attention comes with it.
That’s also what DBPT’s online programs are built around: the 3 Month Foundation program, which is 12 weeks of coaching, and the 6 Month Lifestyle Program, both designed for all fitness levels. Pricing is tailored to each person and talked through on a free call.
You can send us a message to set one up. It costs nothing and there’s no obligation to sign up.
What to do this week
- If you’re already using a coaching app, log every session for one full week including how hard each felt, and see what that shows you.
- Ask your coach, or any coach you’re considering, what response time you can expect to a message.
- Film one set of a lift you’re unsure about and watch it back.
Frequently asked questions
What is Trainerize?
Trainerize is a coaching platform where your coach delivers your program and you log your training, watch exercise demonstrations and message them directly. It’s designed for coaches to work with clients remotely rather than for training on your own. Everything sits in one app on your phone. What you get out of it depends almost entirely on the coach using it.
Is Trainerize free for clients?
At DBPT the app comes with your coaching, so there’s nothing separate for you to buy. Arrangements vary between coaches, so ask whoever you’re considering whether app access is included or charged on top. It’s a fair question and the answer should be straightforward. Get it in writing along with everything else that’s included.
How does online coaching work day to day?
Day to day, you open the app, do the session that’s scheduled, and log what you actually did including how hard it felt. Your coach reviews that and adjusts your program as you progress. Messaging covers anything that comes up in between, and a check-in at a set point in the week is where the bigger conversation happens. The specifics vary between coaches, so ask what contact is included.
Can I message my coach through Trainerize?
Yes, direct messaging with your coach is built into the app, so questions, form videos and updates all go through the same place as your training. That means your coach can see your logged sessions in the same app they’re replying from. How quickly you hear back depends on the coach rather than the software. Ask about response times before you commit.
This article is general information about fitness and training, not medical advice. If you have a health condition or an injury, or you’re pregnant, check with your GP or another health professional before you start something new.
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