Coaching, your way

The coach hub is your home base. From here you reach every trainee you work with, the blocks you have built, and the analytics that show how training is going across your roster. It is the one screen you start your coaching day from.

A quick word on what Ironstead is and is not. Ironstead is the tool you coach with. It does not coach anyone for you and it never prescribes exercises. Every plan, every number and every choice is yours. The app just makes the work faster and clearer.

Your roster is the list of trainees you coach. You add a trainee by sharing your personal invite code: they enter it in their account, a request appears for you, and once you accept it you are connected. Pending requests wait in one place so nobody slips through.

From the roster you open any trainee to see their plan, their history and their progress. Connecting or disconnecting is always mutual and visible to both sides.

Every block lives in your "Block library", split into Active, Drafts and Templates. You create one with the New-block wizard, which is two steps. Step 1 is Basics: you name the block, and a trainee is optional. Without a trainee the block is saved as a reusable template you can assign later. You start empty or from a source block, and Goal chips and Shape presets scaffold the day roles for you. The presets never pick exercises; that stays your call. You then set the duration in weeks and the sessions per week.

Step 2 is Days: rename each day after its movement pattern, toggle a rest day, and add exercise rows with a role, the exercise, sets, reps, weight, rest and RPE, plus a coach comment. Once the block exists, the editor opens: the Matrix on desktop, where you build, and Day Flow on the phone, the on-the-go companion for quick edits like swapping an exercise or tweaking a weight. From there, progression rules and the deload sheet do the week-to-week work. The training blocks guide covers the Matrix, progression rules and deloads in depth.

The best way to feel how a block comes together is to build one yourself. The Blockbuilder Academy is a free, interactive walkthrough of the same ideas, right in your browser.

A finished template does not reach a trainee until you send it. "Send to trainee" opens a trainee picker and, for a template, clones it into a per-trainee draft that you own for each trainee you picked. The template itself stays reusable, so one template can seed many drafts.

The draft is then activated, and that is the moment the trainee sees the block under their Training Blocks. If any loads use a percent of a max but that trainee has no recorded max, a review step lists those loads first. You can acknowledge and assign, or go back and set the numbers.

For each trainee you get a clear read on how training is going. Analytics summarize volume and consistency over time. A PR list surfaces the lifts where they set a new best. A muscle overview shows where the work is landing across the body, so you can spot a lagging area or an overloaded one.

This is where coaching decisions get made. The numbers give you the picture; you bring the judgment about what to change next. A few reads tend to matter most when you open a trainee.

• Consistency: are the planned sessions actually getting done.
• Records: which lifts are moving, and which have stalled.
• Balance: where weekly volume is landing across muscle groups.

The AI review reads a block you built and checks it against the coaching rules you have set. If a rule says a heavy day should not sit right before a leg day, or that a lighter week belongs every fourth week, the review flags where the block disagrees with your own standards.

It is a second pair of eyes on your intent, not a source of training advice. It never invents rules and never tells you what good coaching is. It only measures your block against the rules you wrote. AI review is an experimental assistant and does not replace expert judgement.

Coaching often reaches past the barbell. You can set daily nutrition targets for a trainee or assign them a full meal plan, and their food log then tracks against your numbers. You see how the week is going and adjust as their goal moves.

As with everything else, this is optional and it is your call. A trainee who wants to manage their own nutrition simply keeps their own targets.

When you do assign targets, the trainee still logs their real intake, so you always see the gap between the plan and the week that actually happened. That gap is the useful part: it tells you whether to hold the numbers, adjust them, or have a conversation.

Questions about coaching

Does Ironstead coach my trainees or pick exercises?

No. Ironstead is the tool you coach with. It never coaches anyone and never prescribes exercises. Every plan, exercise and number is yours to choose.

What does Send to trainee do?

For a template, it clones the block into a per-trainee draft you own, leaving the template reusable, then activates that draft so the trainee sees it. If any percent loads have no recorded max, a review lists them before you assign.

What does the AI review actually check?

It checks a block you built against the coaching rules you set, and flags where the block disagrees with them. It does not give training advice or replace your judgment; it only applies your own rules.

What does coaching cost?

Coach accounts are paid per athlete and trainees never pay. The current per-athlete rate is shown on the coach sign-up page.