A personal trainer's intake form should collect contact and emergency details, goals, training history and practical limits, then send the client to the official PAR-Q+ health screen, used unaltered, plus a consent that names the health data and why you keep it. Draft the questions with AI, but keep client answers out of AI chats.
Two things catch trainers out. The PAR-Q+'s owners say the form must remain unaltered and may not be built into electronic surveys without written consent, so retyping it into your own form and letting AI reword it is not an option. And health answers are special-category data under data-protection law such as the GDPR, which can rest on explicit consent for a stated purpose and calls for more care with access and retention than an ordinary sign-up.
Section A: contact details, emergency contact and age
Start with the ordinary details. None of this is health data, which makes it the easy part to get right. For each item, the aim is to ask for what you will use and nothing else.
- Name, mobile number and email. Why: one reliable way to reach the client about changes to a session. Check: submit a test entry, confirm the confirmation email arrives, and export the responses to a spreadsheet to see that the mobile number keeps its full format.
- An age question, not necessarily a date of birth. Why: anyone under 18 needs a parent or guardian involved, and your insurer may have its own rules. Ask "Are you 18 or over?" and request a date of birth only from those who say no. Check: answer "no" in a test and confirm the parent section appears.
- Emergency contact: name, relationship and number. Why: it is used only if something happens during a session. Add a tick box, "They know I have given you their number". Check: the field is required, and the contact's details appear nowhere except the client record.
- Parent or guardian details, shown only to under-18s. Why: consent and an emergency contact for a minor must come from an adult responsible for them, and the PAR-Q+ declaration itself says a parent, guardian or care provider must also sign for anyone under the legal age required for consent. Check: the form refuses to submit without them.
- What to leave out. Home address, identity numbers and bank details are not needed for intake. Billing lives in a separate system, and every extra field is something you must protect and eventually delete.
Section B: goals, training history and practical limits
These questions make the first session a conversation rather than an interrogation. A question earns its place only if you know what you will do with the answer.
- Main goal, in the client's words, plus a pick-list. Why: free text shows motivation, and the pick-list lets you sort clients into groups. Check: you can find every client who ticked "strength" in two clicks.
- Training history. What they have done in the last 12 months, how often, and what they stopped doing. Why: it sets the starting point and stops you repeating what has already failed. Check: the box is long enough for a real answer on a phone.
- Where and when they can train. Days, times, home or gym or outdoors, and what equipment they can reach. Why: a programme has to fit a real week. Check: the options match what you actually offer.
- Current niggles, in plain words. "Is there anything you are recovering from or managing that affects how you move? Tell me only what affects training; no diagnoses needed." Why: free-text boxes invite oversharing, and the helper line keeps answers to what you need. Check: read the first five test answers, and if they contain diagnoses, tighten the helper text.
- What has got in the way before. Why: time, cost and motivation barriers are things you can design around. Check: you can name one change you would make for each common answer.
- How they like to be contacted, and how often they want check-ins. Why: it cuts awkward messages. Check: the choices match the channels you really use.
Section C: the health screen, with the PAR-Q+ used unaltered
A PAR-Q style screen is a short health questionnaire completed before exercise, and the version published now is the PAR-Q+ (the Physical Activity Readiness Questionnaire for Everyone). The official site describes the flow. The form opens with seven general health questions. If every answer is no, the person signs the participant declaration and skips the follow-up pages. A yes on any of the seven leads to follow-up questions on pages 2 and 3 about chronic conditions. A yes there means completing the ePARmed-X+, a condition-specific follow-up that returns low, intermediate or high risk, and/or seeing a qualified exercise professional.
The site is also clear about handling. It says the form must remain unaltered, that it may not be incorporated into electronic surveys, research tools or derivative materials without written consent from the PAR-Q+ Collaboration, and that you should avoid outdated or modified copies. The consequence for an AI-built form is practical. Link to the official online version, or send the official PDF, and let the client complete and sign it as published. Do not retype the seven questions into your form builder, and do not ask an AI to simplify them. The official pages list the forms as dated 2025 (the physician clearance form 2026), so check the date on the copy you hold against the page.
The declaration also sets a shelf life. It says the clearance is valid for a maximum of 12 months from the date it is completed and becomes invalid if the person's condition changes. So the screen is not a one-off at sign-up: diary a fresh one 12 months after each signature, and ask for a new one sooner when a client mentions an injury, a pregnancy or a new diagnosis.
If you want screening questions of your own, write them as your own, keep them away from PAR-Q+ wording, and show them to your insurer and data-protection adviser. They will then be your questions, with your responsibility attached.
| Screening result | What the form says | What you do | What you record |
|---|---|---|---|
| All seven general questions answered no | Sign the participant declaration; no follow-up pages | Start as planned, with your own first-session conversation | The signed form, its date and a re-screen date 12 months on |
| A yes to any general question, then no to every follow-up | Complete pages 2 and 3; the form then says the person is ready to become more physically active and signs the declaration | Keep early sessions conservative and review after the first few | The signed form and its re-screen date |
| A yes to any follow-up question | Complete the ePARmed-X+ and/or see a qualified exercise professional | Hold the start until you have the outcome; if it calls for healthcare clearance, wait for it | The outcome and any clearance letter |
AI has no job in the middle of that table. It must not read a client's answers and say they are fine to train, because the form's own pathway decides, and a trainer is not a doctor. AI can help with the admin around the screen: the message that asks the client to complete it, a reminder when it is missing, and a tick in your records showing it was received.
A cover message drafted by AI and edited by the trainer (illustrative):
Hi [first name], before our first session I need you to complete a standard health screening form called the PAR-Q+. It is not something I wrote and I cannot change it. The link is below. If any answer is "yes" you will be asked some follow-up questions, and sometimes to check with a doctor or qualified professional first. That is routine and nothing to worry about. Please sign it and upload it with your intake form. I keep it in your private file and I do not share it. [link] [your name]
One practical trap: if your form tool offers an upload field for the signed copy, test what the client sees. Google Forms, for example, needs a Google sign-in for file uploads, which stops clients who do not have an account. Offering an in-person signature at the first meeting as the fallback costs nothing.
Section D: consent that names the health data and the purpose
Under the GDPR, Article 9 prohibits processing data concerning health unless an exception applies, and one of those exceptions is explicit consent to the processing for one or more specified purposes. Whether consent is the right basis for your business, and what else applies if you train under-18s, is a question for a data-protection adviser. What the form can do is make consent specific, and it should not bury it inside the terms of service or the liability waiver.
- One purpose per tick box, none pre-ticked. Why: consent bundled with other agreements is not specific. Check: submit the form without ticking anything and see that it will not go through where a box is required.
- Say what you hold, why, who sees it and for how long. Why: "explicit" means the client can see exactly what they are agreeing to. Check: read the sentence aloud to someone outside fitness and ask them to repeat it back.
- Say how to withdraw or ask to see, correct or delete the information. Why: consent that cannot be withdrawn is hard to defend. Check: the contact route you name works and someone actually reads it.
- Keep optional uses separate. Sharing information with a doctor or physiotherapist at the client's request, marketing messages, and photos or testimonials each get their own optional box, and the client can still train if they decline.
An AI draft of the main consent paragraph, as a starting point for the adviser to rework (illustrative):
Your health information. I ask about your health so that I can train you safely. I use your answers only to plan and adjust your training and to respond if there is an emergency during a session. They are stored in [form tool name], and only I [and named staff] can open them. I delete them [period] after your last session, or sooner if you ask. You can ask to see, correct or delete your information at any time by contacting [contact route]. [ ] I agree that [business name] may store and use my health information for these purposes.
Two edits are typical. The assistant will often write "we may share your information with relevant third parties", which is vague and not what you do, so delete it. And it will leave the retention period as a friendly "as long as necessary"; replace that with the number your adviser and insurer settle on. The separate question of liability wording, such as what a client accepts about the risks of training, sits in the contract, covered in what a solicitor must check in a personal trainer contract.
Section E: where the answers live, who sees them and when they go
For a solo trainer the form itself is rarely the weak point; copies are. The answers also end up in an inbox, a phone gallery and a WhatsApp thread. Put these questions to your own set-up, and answer each in writing.
| Question | A good answer | How to check |
|---|---|---|
| Where do the answers live? | One form tool or coaching platform account, not email, a phone gallery, WhatsApp or paper copies | Search your email and phone for "intake" and "PAR-Q" and count the copies |
| Who can open them? | You and named staff, each with their own login | Open the sharing page and remove any "anyone with the link" setting |
| How is the account protected? | A long unique password in a password manager, plus two-step sign-in | Sign in from a new device and see whether a second step is demanded |
| What does the provider promise? | Clear terms on where data is stored and a data processing agreement or equivalent | Read the provider's data-protection page and ask your adviser to review it once |
| How long do you keep it? | A written retention period, set with your adviser and insurer | Diary a quarterly deletion run and log what was deleted |
| What if a client leaves or asks for their data? | A short procedure: export what they are entitled to, delete the rest on schedule | Test it on a dummy client record |
| What if your phone is lost? | Passcode, remote wipe, and no local copies of answers | Try the remote lock once |
The copy people forget is the notification email. Many form tools send you every response in full, so each client's health answers land in your inbox, where they sit beside everything else. Switch that to a plain "new response received" alert with a link, and check your sent and received folders for old copies. Then decide who you would call if answers ever reached the wrong person. Under the GDPR the default clock for telling the regulator is 72 hours after you become aware, where feasible, unless the breach is unlikely to put people at risk, and every breach has to be documented (Article 33). That is much easier to meet with a plan made in advance.
Plan limits belong on the same list. Jotform's free Starter plan, as of its pricing page on 28 October 2026, allows 5 forms, 100 submissions a month and 500 submissions stored in total, so a growing client list will outgrow it. A retention rule that deletes old records also keeps you inside the limits, and the paid tiers start at $39 a month ($34 billed annually). Whatever tool you use, put its allowance in your notes.
Building the questions with AI without feeding it client data
The working rule is simple: AI sees the design of the form and never a real client's answers. Test with invented clients. Business plans from the main vendors (ChatGPT Business and Enterprise, Claude Team and Enterprise, Microsoft 365 Copilot, Gemini in Workspace) do not train on your content by default, and consumer plans have a model-training switch in their privacy settings. Neither fact changes the rule for health information. If you later want AI to summarise answers for a programme, that is a separate decision for your adviser, and the checklist in the GDPR checklist for personal trainers using AI is the place to start.
You are helping a personal trainer design the non-medical part of a client
intake form. Write plain-English questions at a reading age of about 12,
short enough for a phone screen.
Cover only: contact details; an "18 or over?" question with a parent or
guardian section that appears only for under-18s; emergency contact; goals;
training history; availability and preferences; and one free-text field for
current niggles with helper text asking for only what affects training.
Do NOT write medical screening questions. The official PAR-Q+ is handled
separately and must not be reproduced or reworded.
For each question give: the wording; Required or Optional; the answer type
(short text, long text, single choice, multiple choice); and a one-line
"Purpose" saying what the trainer will do with the answer. Do not ask for
diagnoses, medication, weight or mental health history.Even with those limits, a first draft usually needs trimming. The test to apply to every line is the purpose test: if you cannot finish the sentence "I will use this answer to..." with an action, delete the question. Here is how that works on typical output (illustrative).
| What the AI wrote | What is wrong with it | Your edit |
|---|---|---|
| "Do you have any medical conditions? Please list them." (Required) | Duplicates the PAR-Q+ and invites diagnoses you do not need | Delete it and point to the PAR-Q+ step |
| "What is your current weight and goal weight?" (Required) | Health-related data you may not use | Make it optional, with the purpose "only if you want measurements tracked" |
| "Any history of eating disorders or mental health conditions?" | Highly sensitive, and not something a trainer can safely act on from a form | Delete it; leave room for the client to raise concerns privately in conversation |
| Purpose: "to personalise your experience" | Vague; it fails the purpose test | Rewrite: "to choose session times that fit your week" |
| "Emergency contact (optional)" | The whole point of the field is lost if it is optional | Make it required, with the "they know" tick |
In the second and third rows the assistant drifted outside its instructions, asking for weight and mental health history although the prompt ruled both out. Drift like that is why the human review is not optional, and why the list of prohibited questions belongs in the prompt and in your own checklist. Clients who move on to programmes and check-ins after intake meet a different set of limits, which AI client check-ins without medical advice sets out.
When you build the form itself, a few mechanics matter. In Google Forms, "Go to section based on answer" routes a respondent to a different section, and Google's help page says it is only available for multiple-choice and dropdown questions. So ask "Are you 18 or over?" as multiple choice and send the "no" answers to the parent or guardian section. Make each consent tick box required only where the form cannot proceed without it, keep optional uses unrequired, and put the PAR-Q+ link on its own line rather than inside a question. Then switch off any setting that emails you the full response.
One trainer's before and after: forty copies in four places
Take a solo trainer with 14 active clients, three of them under 18. These numbers are invented to show the arithmetic of tidying up, not a survey of trainers. A quick audit before the new form turned up the following copies of client health information.
| Place | Copies before | What happened | Copies after |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paper forms in a drawer | 14 | Details moved into the form tool, paper shredded once the signed PAR-Q+ was scanned into the client record | 0 |
| Photos of forms on a phone | 9 | Deleted after checking each was in the record, then the phone's recently-deleted folder emptied | 0 |
| PDFs and attachments in email | 6 | Moved to the record, then deleted from sent, received and downloads | 0 |
| WhatsApp messages with health details | 11 | Details copied into the record, messages deleted, clients pointed to the form | 0 |
| The form tool, behind two-step sign-in | 0 | 14 intake records plus 14 signed PAR-Q+ copies | 28 items in one place |
Forty copies in four places became 28 items in one place, and the trainer wrote a one-page note: where the records live, who can open them, the retention period agreed with the adviser (24 months after the last session in this illustration, which is a number to settle with your own adviser and insurer) and a quarterly reminder to run the deletion. The three under-18 clients were flagged so that the parent's consent sits in each record. The clean-up took an afternoon, mostly checking that nothing remained in an old chat.
Dry-running the form with three made-up clients
Before a real client sees the form, push three invented people through it on a phone, not a laptop. Each tests a different path.
- An adult with no health issues. Time the whole journey. If it runs long on a phone, shorten Section B before the client does it for you by abandoning the form. Confirm the PAR-Q+ link opens, the upload or signature fallback works and the confirmation email arrives.
- An adult whose PAR-Q+ comes back with a yes at the follow-up stage. Check that your records show "screen incomplete, hold the start" and that a template message goes to the client. The failure to look for is a form that cheerfully books the first session regardless.
- A 16-year-old. The parent or guardian section must appear, the consent must name the adult, and your own notes must say what your insurer requires for minors.
Then test the exit. Delete one test record and look for stray copies in notification emails, exports and backups. Ask someone unfamiliar with the form to find the consent paragraph and tell you in their own words what they would be agreeing to. If they cannot, the paragraph needs rewriting before the first client signs it. Sibling forms in other trades face the same layout questions, for example age and health fields on a tattoo consent form, and the same dry run works for those.
Intake form questions trainers ask next
How often should a client repeat the PAR-Q+?
The form's own declaration says the clearance is valid for a maximum of 12 months from the date it is completed and becomes invalid if the person's condition changes. So repeat it at least yearly, and straight away after an injury, a pregnancy, a new medication or a new diagnosis. Keep every signed copy with its date, and check whether your insurer expects more.
Can I take health details over WhatsApp or email?
Avoid it. Each message makes another copy in a place that is hard to search, secure or delete. Point clients to the form, and if someone sends health details by message anyway, move them into the client record, delete the message and remind them where the form is.
What if a client will not answer the health questions?
Explain why you ask and what the screening does with the answers, and let them take their time. If they still decline, check what your insurance policy requires before training them, because the decision to proceed without a completed screen is yours to justify, not the client's to waive.
Can I use this form for clients under 18?
Only with a parent or guardian involved and after checking your insurance. The PAR-Q+ declaration says that anyone under the legal age required for consent needs a parent, guardian or care provider to sign the form as well. Your own form should show a parent or guardian section only to under-18s, with consent for the health data given by that adult, and your adviser should confirm the wording.
Further reads
- Dog Trainer Intake Form: Behaviour History Questions With AI — Another intake form where history questions drive the first session.
- Hair Salon Consultation Form: Colour History and Consent With AI — Consent and history fields for a service with a patch-test style check.
- Personal Chef Client Intake Form: Allergies, Diets and Menus With AI — Allergy and diet fields captured safely before a first booking.
- Zero Data Retention: What It Means When You Choose an AI Tool — What retention settings mean when you pick an AI tool.
- AI Software for Personal Trainers: Scheduling, Check-Ins, Billing — Where intake answers can live once clients are booked in.
- Is Vagaro Enough for a Personal Trainer? Packs, Bookings and Vera — What Vagaro's $30 plan gives a solo trainer who sells session packs, what Vera does, and the gaps that matter before you commit.
- AI Agent for Personal Trainers: Check-Ins and Where It Must Stop — How a personal trainer can run AI check-ins between sessions: cadence, replies that escalate, the hard stops and the weekly review.
- AI Prompts for Personal Trainers: Session Recaps and Renewal Texts — Ten copy-ready prompts with sample outputs for trainer session recaps, check-in messages and renewal texts, plus rules on what AI must not say.
- Best Free AI for Personal Training: Client Programmes and When to Pay — What a personal trainer gets from four free AI plans, which client details never go in, and the time sums that show when a paid plan earns its fee.
- ChatGPT Fitness Coach Prompt: Client Programme Template for Trainers — A copy-and-paste prompt that drafts a four-week client programme, stops on red flags and leaves the final call to you.
- How Much Should a Personal Trainer Charge? Model Session Packs With AI — A cost-based rate for solo trainers: the hourly maths, what a pack discount really costs, no-show losses, and a spreadsheet built with ChatGPT.
- Personal Trainer Progress Reports: Monthly Client Summaries With AI — A worked month for one client: measurement table in, honest report out, with a three-step check so the AI never adds results you didn't record.
- Artificial Intelligence for Yoga Instructors: Class Plans and Notes — A self-employed teacher's workflow: sequence prompts with a safety check, coded student notes, health-data rules and class descriptions that promise no results.
- AI Tools and AI Development: The Complete 2026 Guide — the AI hub, including every tutorial in the AI-for-business series.
Sources: the PAR-Q+ Collaboration's official site, eparmedx.com (home page, official forms page and the 2025 PAR-Q+ form, read 28 October 2026); the text of GDPR Articles 9 and 33; Jotform's pricing page and Google Docs Editors Help on section branching (read 28 October 2026).