Personal Training Intake Form Free

A free personal training intake is the document a trainer uses to design a 1-on-1 program before the first session, and it has to capture more than what a gym intake captures. Beyond identity and emergency contact, the trainer needs goal hierarchy (primary outcome, secondary outcome, vanity goal — distinct fields), training history (years lifting, years running, sport background), current weekly volume, sleep average, daily protein intake, and meaningful injury history with surgical-procedure detail (ACL year, RTC repair year, lumbar fusion level if applicable).

For 1-on-1 programming specifically, the intake should capture exercise tolerance for max-effort lifts (1RM testing comfort), readiness for body-comp assessment (DEXA, InBody, BodPod, calipers), familiarity with the RPE scale (rate of perceived exertion), willingness to follow tempo prescriptions (3-1-X-1 etc.), and preferences for deload-week frequency. Aerobic-threshold testing readiness matters for endurance clients. If the trainer works off-site (client home, park, beach), the intake needs an off-site session waiver and address capture. The free version of a PT intake should be every bit as deep as a paid one — what differs is white-labeling.

Free PT intakes commonly conflate goals — asking "what's your goal?" as a single field when the trainer needs primary, secondary, and vanity outcomes separately. Other recurring mistakes: no 1RM-testing-comfort capture, no RPE-scale familiarity question (client says "8/10" meaning something different than the trainer), missing off-site-session waiver for trainers who work in client homes, and treating injury history as a single textbox instead of a structured surgical-procedure dropdown with year fields.

NSCA scope of practice limits personal trainers from interpreting medical history, prescribing exercise for diagnosed conditions without physician clearance, or providing nutrition counseling that crosses into RD territory. Off-site sessions in client homes or parks require additional liability language and homeowner-insurance verification. Pre-injury liability waivers face state-specific enforceability: Virginia and Louisiana don't enforce them; Massachusetts requires absence of gross negligence. Trainers operating as LLCs need the LLC name on the intake's release paragraph, not just the trainer's personal name. ACSM pre-participation screening should drive the question set.

An independent PT working 25-35 client hours per week typically onboards 2-4 new clients per month. A multi-trainer studio with 6 trainers onboards 8-15 monthly across the team. Free trial sessions convert to paid PT engagements at 50-70% in well-run studios and 30-45% for independents without an organized intake process. PT clients average 3-5 sessions per week initially, dropping to 2-3 once habit forms. Free intake forms vs. paid PT-management software: similar clinical depth, fewer integrations with scheduling and billing.

You'll receive a PT intake with identity, goal hierarchy (primary/secondary/vanity), training history block, 1RM-comfort and RPE-familiarity attestations, body-comp readiness, injury-history dropdown with surgical-procedure detail, off-site-session stub, and a final signature with timestamp.

A PT-specific free intake beats generic fitness intake forms because the goal hierarchy, 1RM-comfort capture, RPE familiarity question, and injury-surgical-procedure dropdown ship pre-built — a generic gym intake doesn't ask any of those. Compared to paid PT-management platforms (Trainerize, TrueCoach, PT Distinction), the free version lacks scheduling integration, in-app messaging, and program delivery — those happen outside the intake. Compared to paper, the digital free intake retrieves quickly, reduces transcription errors, and captures audit-trail metadata.