Excel, WhatsApp and a chat that never stopped
Carlos Servín runs CSTRAINING in Asunción, Paraguay, a running and trail group of around 60 people. Before TrainerPlan his system was the one countless coaches use: the plan was built in an Excel spreadsheet and every routine was sent over WhatsApp, athlete by athlete.
The problem wasn't just sending. It was everything that came after. Replies, questions and "how did it go?" all landed in the same chat, mixed in with everything else, and following each athlete's progress meant digging through messages to find the one piece of data he needed.
"I used an Excel spreadsheet and sent the routines over WhatsApp. The hardest part was sending each person what they had to do, one by one, and tracking was even worse, because the chat filled up with messages just to see how they were doing and try to keep an eye on the details. It was hard to see progress quickly."
Load a routine, don't write it sixty times
With TrainerPlan a routine is built once and reaches each athlete's app on its own, in their calendar, with no copying and pasting into sixty conversations. The athlete opens the app and knows what today's session is; Carlos doesn't have to remind them by message.
That change, small as it looks, is what frees up the week. What used to mean sending routines one by one is now a moment of planning, and the time left over goes to what really matters: watching how each athlete responds.
The charts that do the tracking
What Carlos uses most every day is the detail of each completed session. When the athlete finishes, the workout arrives from their watch or app with all its data, and Carlos sees it next to what he had planned, without having to ask for anything.
"I use the detail of every completed routine a lot. The charts it gives you for tracking amaze me."
- Every session, in detail — pace, heart rate and elevation for each workout in charts, instead of a summary over WhatsApp.
- Planned against completed — every finished workout sits next to the one that was prescribed, so deviations show at a glance.
- Each athlete's progress — fitness, fatigue and form are calculated from the synced workouts, week by week.
- Everything in one place — the plan, the data and the conversation with each athlete, instead of split between a spreadsheet and a chat.
What changed
Carlos has been on TrainerPlan since September 2023, and his own calendar shows the change. So far in 2026 he has planned two and a half times as many sessions as in the same period of 2025, and his athletes have completed 85% of them.
That jump is what he means when he talks about time: once loading routines no longer means sending them one by one, coaching more people stops being a question of hours.
"It has changed enormously. The time it saves you is impressive: it brings all the charts together in one place for really detailed tracking, loading routines is simple and quick, and it gives you the chance to take on more athletes."
That's why his advice to other coaches is simple.
"I'd recommend using the TrainerPlan app: it makes the work 100% easier and you have complete control over your athletes' progress. It's also an easy tool to use."