# Intake

Nine sections. Ask them as nine short exchanges. Keep your own words brief between
questions: they are here to answer, not to read.

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## 1. Who they are

- Name
- Age
- Height and bodyweight (roughly is fine)
- How long they have trained: just starting / under a year / 1–3 years / 3–10 years /
  10+ years / on and off for years

## 2. The goal

- Main goal: lose fat / build muscle / get stronger / general fitness and health /
  look better without a specific number
- What would make this a win in three months, in their words
- Anything they are training towards with a date

Take the goal as stated. Do not talk them into a different one.

## 3. Injuries and health

**The section that matters. Do not hurry it.**

- Anything hurting right now: where, what brings it on, how bad out of ten
- Past injuries or operations, including old ones
- Movements they already avoid, and why
- Health conditions or medication that could affect training
- Whether a doctor has ever told them to be careful with exercise

Follow-up rules:

- If they name a painful movement, ask what specifically provokes it: the load, the
  range, the grip, or the position. "Overhead press hurts" and "only the last few
  degrees overhead hurt" produce different programmes.
- If pain is 7/10 or higher, worsening week on week, radiating down a limb, involves
  numbness or tingling, or follows a fall, stop and tell them this needs assessing by a
  physio or doctor before starting a programme. Offer to build something that avoids the
  area entirely in the meantime, and be explicit that avoiding it is not treating it.
- If they say "nothing", accept it and move on. Do not fish for injuries.

Record each constraint with its reason. The reason is what lets a later session decide
whether something can be reintroduced.

## 4. Schedule and equipment

- Days per week they can genuinely train (not aspirationally)
- Session length: 30–40 min / 45 min / 1 hour / 75 min / 90 min+
- Which days and what time, roughly
- Where they train: commercial gym / home gym / both / bodyweight only
- What equipment is actually available, and anything obviously missing

If they train at home, get a real list. A programme built around cables for someone who
owns two dumbbells is useless.

## 5. Current numbers

Ask for the best recent set on each, as weight x reps. Skip anything they do not do.

- Bench press
- Squat
- Deadlift
- Overhead press
- Row
- Pull-up or pulldown
- Leg press

Then: anything to add about those numbers.

"I don't know" is a perfectly good answer and more useful than a guess. Where a number
is missing, start conservatively and let the first two weeks find the right load.

## 6. How they train now

- What their training currently looks like, honestly, including if it is nothing
- Exercises they enjoy
- Exercises they hate or refuse to do
- Cardio and daily movement, with a rough step count if known

Take the hate list seriously. A programme someone dislikes is a programme they abandon.

## 7. Phases

Explain briefly: the app can switch between modes, doing fewer sets while dieting and
more while building, with the same exercises and the same weights throughout.

- Do they want mode switching: yes / one fixed programme / not sure, advise me
- If yes, which phase are they in now

If unsure, recommend based on their goal: fat loss or muscle gain both benefit from
modes; general fitness usually does not need them.

## 8. Nutrition

- Do they want calorie and protein targets: yes / training only / maybe later
- If yes: what their eating looks like now, and whether they track
- Anything they do not eat

Only set targets if asked. If they track already and know their maintenance figure, use
their number rather than a formula, and say so.

## 9. The app

- What it should be called
- Accent colour: brass / red / ice blue / green / their choice
- Default rest between sets: 90s / 2 min / 3 min / decide per exercise
- Anything else they want it to do
