Weekly check-in questions for online coaching clients.

The ten questions, ready to copy

Copy them as they are, or change the words so they sound like you. The order matters more than the wording: it starts with last week, moves to how the week felt, and ends with the week ahead.

1. Did you complete successfully that challenge you set yourself last week? Yes, No or Partially.
2. What are your biggest wins from last week? In their own words.
3. What were your biggest challenges last week? In their own words.
4. Rate your motivation to workout consistently. 1 to 10, from Low to Maxed.
5. How satisfied are you with your own progress last week? 1 to 10, from Not at all to Thrilled.
6. Rate your overall discipline. 1 to 10, from Slipped to Locked in.
7. Rate your sleep hygiene. 1 to 10, from Poor to Great.
8. Share one challenge for this coming week that you will complete successfully. In their own words.
9. What reward are you going to give yourself if you complete your challenge successfully? In their own words.
10. Please share anything else that I should know when reviewing your progress: In their own words.

Add the client's weight if their goal needs it, and front, side and back photos. Both are covered further down.

How the ten fit together

The ten are one loop, not a list. Each week the client sets one challenge for the week ahead (question 8) and a reward for completing it (question 9). The next check-in opens by asking whether they did it (question 1). In between, two questions collect the week in the client's own words, four sliders put a number on how it felt, and the last question leaves room for anything the form did not ask.

The loop follows a rule from Petar's own coaching: change one habit at a time, and fix the thing causing the most trouble first. He calls it the lowest hanging fruit. Find the issue, fix it, move on, and never try to fix everything at once. One challenge a week is small enough to finish, and a finished challenge is an early win the client can build on.

What each answer tells you

1. Did they complete last week's challenge?

A Yes is a win, so name it in your reply, specifically. A No or a Partially is information, not a failure to point at. It usually means the challenge was too big, or the week was harder than planned, and the client's answer about their challenges often says which. Ask what got in the way before changing anything, then agree a smaller step for the week ahead.

2. Their biggest wins

Wins show you what the client counts as progress, and it is often not the scale: a heavier lift, five days at their step target, a meal out that stayed on plan. Use one of them in your reply, in their own words. If the box stays empty week after week, help them look. Lifts going up, more steps, better sleep and photos compared month to month are all progress, and lifts going up mean the training and the diet are working. A client who watches only the scale misses most of it.

3. Their biggest challenges

This is where you find the one thing to fix next. It might be late nights, snacking more than once a day, coffee after 4pm, a busy week at work or a gym that is hard to get to. Pick the one causing the most trouble right now, and let next week's challenge be about that. A challenge that comes back week after week is usually the right one to work on.

4. Motivation, from Low to Maxed

Motivation goes up and down for everyone, so one low week says very little. Watch the line over several weeks. A slide that lasts, together with low energy, a bad mood and lifts going backwards, is one of the signs in Petar's method that a diet has run too long. Then the answer is a planned step back up in food before the next push, not a harder push.

5. Satisfaction with their own progress, from Not at all to Thrilled

This one is about how the client feels about the numbers, not the numbers themselves. Read it next to the trend. A client who scores low while their weekly average, their lifts and their photos are all moving needs to see the evidence, so show them the line. A high score while nothing moves is worth a question about what they are pleased with, because it may be something the scale cannot show, like feeling stronger. The journey is long and full of ups and downs, and tracking is what keeps a client objective over months.

6. Discipline, from Slipped to Locked in

This is the client's own view of how well they stuck to the plan. Their logs are the record: sessions done against sessions planned, days of food logged, habits kept. When the two agree, you can trust the week. When they do not, ask rather than accuse. A client who scores themselves low after a solid week needs to hear that it was solid, and a high score over thin logs is worth a gentle question. Consistency across food, training, sleep and tracking is what the whole plan rests on.

7. Sleep hygiene, from Poor to Great

Petar treats sleep as a pillar, not an extra: seven to eight hours in bed every night, before anything else about the diet is fine tuned. Short sleep raises hunger, leaves less energy for training and makes every food choice harder, so a poor sleep week often explains the rest of the check-in: a jump on the scale from water, missed sessions, more snacking. When sleep is the problem, it is usually the lowest hanging fruit, and next week's challenge can be about it.

8. One challenge for the week ahead

The client sets it, in their own words, and that is the point: it is their challenge, not an order from you. Your job is to check that it is one thing, that it is specific, and that it is small enough to finish. "Eat better" is not a challenge. "No coffee after 4pm on weekdays" is, and so is "10,000 steps on five days". If it is too big, help them make it smaller. A small challenge done builds more than a big one missed.

9. The reward

Habits run on triggers and rewards, so the client names their own reward before the week starts, and the new habit has something in it for them. A reward works best when it does not undo the challenge: new training shoes, a massage or an evening off, rather than a treat that works against the goal. Next week, ask whether they gave it to themselves.

10. Anything else you should know

The open question catches what the form did not ask: travel, a hard week at home, a niggle that is about to become an injury, a question they have been holding. Read it properly, even when the rest of the check-in looks routine. Anything about pain, an injury or health beyond coaching, or a client who sounds like they are struggling with more than the plan, gets a reply the same day, and where it is beyond your scope, a clear suggestion to see the right professional.

Weight and photos

Two things a check-in collects that are not questions. Weight matters when the goal is to lose a lot of it. Weigh at the same time of day on the same scale, and read the week's average, never one morning: one day's number swings with water, salt and sleep. Weighing every day only helps while it stays calm, and Petar's method warns that obsessive daily weighing can feed anxiety, so for a client who finds it hard, fewer weigh-ins are fine.

Progress photos are the easiest and most accurate way to see the body change. Front, side and back, at the same time of day, in the same light and from the same distance. Taking them weekly is fine; comparing them a month apart is what shows the change.

Read the sliders as lines, not scores

One week's slider is a mood. Four weeks of the same slider is a trend. Never change a plan because of one week's number: wait for weeks of data, and let the trend make the decision. When two sliders fall together, sleep and motivation for example, start with the one that is easiest to fix.

The order to read a whole check-in in, the trend first, then adherence, then the client's own words, is in reading a check-in in under two minutes.

Using these questions on Evobody

Every Evobody coach starts with these ten. The client answers them in the app one question at a time, then adds their weight, and front, side and back photos if they want to. A client who runs out of time can pause and finish later that week, on the same phone.

For any one client the coach can switch questions off and add their own: a long or short answer, a 1 to 10 scale, a choice, or a measurement such as the waist, which is saved with the client's measurements. The coach can also give a client a form of their own in place of the ten, and pick the day it opens.

The check-in opens on that day with a reminder, and reminds once more three days later if it is still empty. Four days after it opens, the app asks for it before anything else, until the client sends it or skips the week and says why. You are told when a check-in comes in or is skipped, with the client's reason, and you reply in writing, or from a computer with a video recorded over the client's own dashboard, your camera in the corner. More on all of it: check-ins on Evobody.

Questions about weekly check-in questions

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