Personal training paperwork
Paperwork exists in personal training to establish client readiness, protect both parties, and meet professional insurance expectations.
It's often messy, duplicated across multiple tools, or ignored until the moment a client arrives. When it's not sorted properly, you're left chasing incomplete forms, guessing what's been completed, and taking on unnecessary risk.
Putting paperwork off until later creates admin pain and uncertainty about whether a client is actually ready to train.
What paperwork do personal trainers need?
The core documents that most personal trainers need before training a new client are:
PAR-Q / health screening
A Physical Activity Readiness Questionnaire identifies whether a client can begin exercise safely or should speak to their GP first. This is the single most important piece of paperwork for client readiness.
Informed consent
A consent form confirms that the client understands the nature of the training, the risks involved, and agrees to participate. This is typically required by professional indemnity insurance.
Client intake / background information
An intake form captures goals, training history, lifestyle factors, and any relevant background that helps you design an appropriate programme. This is where you learn about the client beyond their medical history.
Emergency contact details
Emergency contact information should be collected and kept accessible. This is often included within the intake form rather than as a separate document.
Contracts, payment terms, and cancellation policies are separate business admin. The paperwork above focuses specifically on client readiness and onboarding.
When should paperwork be completed?
Paperwork should be completed before the first training session. Ideally, this happens as soon as a client commits to working with you, giving you time to review responses and make informed decisions about their readiness.
Completing paperwork in person creates practical problems. Forms get rushed, clients forget pens, and you end up starting the session late or skipping important details. It also means you can't review answers beforehand.
Paper forms add friction and delay. Once completed, they need to be stored, often filed manually, and they're harder to access when you need them. If a client needs to update their information, you're starting from scratch with a new printed form.
Delays create uncertainty around readiness. If you don't know a client's health status before they arrive, you're guessing whether it's safe to train them. That's not a professional way to start a relationship.
Common problems with personal training paperwork
Most personal trainers recognise these issues:
- •Chasing forms. Clients forget, delay, or don't complete forms before the first session. You end up sending reminders and following up repeatedly.
- •Incomplete answers. Forms come back with missing fields or vague responses that don't give you the information you need.
- •PDFs that can't be reused. Static PDFs need to be sent, downloaded, filled out, and returned. If anything changes, you're starting again with a new file.
- •No visibility of who's completed what. You don't know which clients have finished their paperwork and which still need to be chased.
- •Storing paperwork across multiple tools. PAR-Qs in Google Forms, consent forms in email, intake notes in a spreadsheet. Nothing is in one place.
This should feel uncomfortably familiar. It's not a failure of organisation — it's what happens when you're using tools that weren't built for client onboarding.
How Simple PAR-Q handles personal training paperwork
Simple PAR-Q gives you one secure link per client that includes PAR-Q, consent, and intake forms together. Clients complete everything online before the first session, and you can see completion status before training.
One secure link per client. Send a single link via email or text. Clients complete all required paperwork in one place without needing to log in or create an account.
PAR-Q, consent, and intake together. Instead of managing separate forms across different tools, everything's included in one workflow.
Clients complete forms online. No PDFs, no printing, no chasing physical paperwork. Forms are accessible on any device and responses are saved automatically.
See completion status before training. You know exactly which clients have completed their paperwork and which haven't, without needing to check multiple places.
Personal training paperwork for new clients
The onboarding moment is when paperwork matters most. A new client has just committed to working with you. They're motivated, responsive, and expecting next steps.
First-session readiness depends on having complete information beforehand. If you don't know a client's health status, goals, and background before they arrive, you're starting from a position of uncertainty.
A clear client intake process gives you confidence that the client is ready to train and you've captured everything you need to design an appropriate programme.
PAR-Q forms and health screening
A PAR-Q is a Physical Activity Readiness Questionnaire — a short pre-exercise screening form that identifies whether a client can begin training safely or should speak to their GP first.
It's central to client readiness because it's the first line of defence against training someone who may be at risk. Professional indemnity insurance providers expect it, and CIMSPA-aligned trainers are required to conduct pre-exercise screening.
A PAR-Q shouldn't be treated as just another form to tick off. It's the document that tells you whether it's safe to proceed. If you want to understand how PAR-Q forms work in practice, read our guide on PAR-Q forms for personal trainers.
Paperwork doesn't need to be complicated
You don't need a full CRM system to manage client paperwork. Most personal trainers don't need contact management, scheduling, or payment processing built into the same tool that handles readiness forms.
You don't need to build everything yourself. Cobbling together Google Forms, Docs, and spreadsheets works for a while, but it creates the problems described earlier — scattered records, incomplete visibility, and admin friction.
You just need clarity and consistency. A clear system for collecting PAR-Q, consent, and intake information before the first session, with visibility of who's completed what. That's it.
Frequently asked questions about personal training paperwork
What paperwork do personal trainers need?
Most personal trainers use a combination of health screening (such as a PAR-Q), informed consent, client intake information, and emergency contact details to understand client readiness before training begins.
When should clients complete personal training paperwork?
Paperwork should be completed before the first training session so the trainer can review health information and identify any potential concerns in advance.
Can personal training paperwork be completed online?
Yes. Many personal trainers now use online forms to collect paperwork securely and reduce the need for printed documents or PDFs.
Do online personal trainers need different paperwork?
The core paperwork is usually the same for online and in-person clients, but it's especially important that forms are completed and reviewed before any remote training begins.
Get your personal training paperwork under control
Simple PAR-Q helps personal trainers manage client readiness — without spreadsheets, PDFs, or admin chaos.
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