Client intake form template

The template

What each section is for

1. The basics

Contact details and how they prefer to be reached. Dull, but it's what stops a check-in reminder going to an address they never open.

2. Goals

Ask what they want and what success would look like in plain language, because those are often different answers. "Lose two stone" and "feel comfortable at my sister's wedding in June" lead to very different coaching. The deadline question matters most: an unrealistic timeline discovered at intake is a conversation, whereas the same timeline discovered at week ten is a cancellation.

3. Training history

What they've done before, what they enjoyed, and what went wrong last time. The last one is the most useful question on the whole form, because whatever ended their previous attempt is the thing most likely to end this one.

4. Health screening

The section you don't trim. You're looking for anything that changes what's safe to program, and anything that needs clearance before you start. If an answer here gives you pause, get clearance rather than working around it.

5. Lifestyle

Sleep, work pattern, stress and current activity. This is what makes a plan survive contact with reality: someone doing shift work with two young children needs a genuinely different programme from someone with an office job and free evenings, regardless of identical goals.

6. Logistics and consent

Availability, equipment access, budget expectations, and your consent and cancellation terms. Getting the boring parts agreed in writing at the start prevents most of the awkward conversations later.

Common questions

What should a personal training intake form include?

Six sections cover almost everything: contact and basic details, goals and what success looks like to the client, training and injury history, health screening, lifestyle factors such as sleep, work and stress, and finally the admin, meaning availability, logistics and consent. The aim is to learn enough to program safely and to set expectations, without making the form so long that people abandon it.

Is this a PAR-Q form?

No. The health screening section here is a general set of questions written for this template, not the PAR-Q or PAR-Q+, which are separately published and maintained screening instruments with their own terms of use. If you want to use the PAR-Q+ specifically, get the current official version from its publisher rather than copying a version from a website, as the wording is periodically revised.

Do personal trainers need a health questionnaire before training a client?

Screening before the first session is standard practice, and insurers and certifying bodies commonly expect it. What exactly you must collect, how long you keep it, and when you need medical clearance depends on your country, your certification and your insurance policy, so check those requirements rather than relying on a template. Treat any template as a starting point to adapt, not a compliance document.

How long should a client intake form be?

Long enough to program safely, short enough to finish in one sitting, which usually means five to ten minutes. Health screening is the one section not to trim. If the form is getting long, move the non-urgent questions, detailed food preferences or long-term goals for example, into the first session instead, where a conversation gets better answers anyway.

How do I onboard a new personal training client?

A workable client onboarding sequence is four steps. Send the intake form the moment they sign up, while motivation is highest. Read the answers before you meet, so the first session is coaching rather than admin. Use that session to agree goals, timelines and what the next few weeks look like, which is where most retention problems are prevented. Then start the weekly check-in straight away, so accountability begins in week one rather than whenever it occurs to you. The onboarding itself is not the point: it exists to make the first month feel organised, because clients decide early whether this feels like a professional service.

When should a client fill in the intake form?

Before the first session, not during it. Reading the answers in advance means you arrive already knowing the injury history and the schedule constraints, so the first session is coaching rather than admin. Sending the form immediately after someone signs up also works in your favour, because that is the point at which their motivation is highest.