The words you will meet when you build a member platform.
Plain definitions of the vocabulary gym chains and coaching brands run into when they build or buy. Written for operators rather than developers, and reviewed as the market moves.
What members touch
The parts of a platform a member actually sees and uses.
Member App
A member app is the phone app a gym chain or coaching brand puts in its members' hands: today's session, this week's plan, bookings, progress and the coach...
Member Experience Layer
The member experience layer is the software a member actually touches, sitting on top of the club management system rather than replacing it: the app, onboarding...
Check-In
A check-in is a scheduled moment where a member reports back to their coach, usually weight, measurements, photos and a few questions, and a human reads the answer...
Member Onboarding
Member onboarding is the first session a member has with your app: the questions you ask, the plan they receive, and whether they reach a first useful moment before...
Workout Tracking
Workout tracking is how a member records what they actually did in a session: sets, reps, loads, times and distances, logged against the plan they were given so...
Progress Tracking
Progress tracking is how a member sees change over time: body measurements, weight, photos, strength numbers and attendance, presented over months rather than days...
Habit Tracking
Habit tracking is the daily layer of a member app, covering the behaviours that happen outside the gym such as steps, sleep, water, protein and mobility, usually as...
Coach Messaging
Coach messaging is the direct line between a member and the person coaching them, inside the app rather than in a personal inbox, so that the conversation sits next...
Programming and nutrition
What the coaching team builds, and the tools they build it in.
Training Program
A training program is a structured sequence of sessions a member follows over weeks or months toward a stated goal, with a deliberate order, a progression built...
Workout Builder
A workout builder is the coach-facing tool for assembling sessions and programs: choosing exercises, setting sets, reps, loads and rest, arranging them into weeks...
Exercise Library
An exercise library is the catalogue of movements a platform can prescribe, each with a name, a demonstration video or images, the muscles and equipment involved...
Periodisation
Periodisation is the practice of organising training into phases that each carry a different emphasis, such as building volume, then intensity, then a lighter week...
Meal Plan
A meal plan is a prescribed set of meals a member follows, usually built to a calorie and macronutrient target, delivered with recipes, portions and a shopping list...
Macro Tracking
Macro tracking is the practice of logging food against daily targets for protein, carbohydrate and fat, rather than calories alone, so that a member can see not...
Recipe Database
A recipe database is the structured collection of recipes behind a nutrition product, each with ingredients, quantities, method, photography and calculated...
Nutrition Coaching
Nutrition coaching is the human layer over a nutrition product: somebody reviewing what a member reported, adjusting targets, answering questions and holding the...
Running clubs
The operational side, and the numbers that decide whether a club keeps its members.
Gym Management System
A gym management system is the back-office platform that runs the business of membership: contracts, direct debits and dunning, access control, class schedules...
Class Booking
Class booking is how a member reserves a place in a scheduled session, covering the timetable they browse, the reservation itself, the waitlist when a class is...
Member Access Control
Member access control is how a member physically enters a club: a fob, a card, a QR code or a phone, checked against whether their membership is current and whether...
Multi-Club Governance
Multi-club governance is the set of rules deciding what head office controls centrally and what each club, region or franchisee may change for itself, covering...
Franchise Technology
Franchise technology is software that has to serve head office and independent franchisees at the same time, where the two parties share a brand but not an owner...
Member Retention
Member retention is the share of members who remain with a business over a given period, usually measured monthly or annually, and in fitness it is the number that...
Member Churn
Member churn is the rate at which members leave over a period, the inverse of retention, and the number that quietly sets the ceiling on how large a fitness...
Member Lifetime Value
Member lifetime value is the total revenue a member generates over the whole relationship, from joining to leaving, including membership fees and anything else they...
Build or buy
The decision itself, and everything that follows from it.
White-Label Fitness App
A white-label fitness app is an existing platform published under your own name, with your branding, your content and your coaches, where the underlying product is...
Custom Fitness App Development
Custom fitness app development is building a member platform specifically for one operator's model, where the data structures, workflows and member journey are...
Build vs Buy
Build versus buy is the decision between commissioning a member platform designed around your business and adopting one that already exists, whether off the shelf...
Gym System Integration
Gym system integration is the work of connecting a member app to the systems an operator already runs, typically the gym management system, the payment provider...
Member Data Migration
Member data migration is the work of moving existing members, their plans, their training and nutrition history, their progress photos and their billing...
App Store Publishing
App store publishing is the process of getting a fitness app listed on the Apple App Store and Google Play and keeping it compliant, covering developer accounts...
Push Notifications
Push notifications are messages a fitness app can send to a member's phone without them opening it, and they are the only channel an operator has that reaches a...
Total Cost of Ownership
Total cost of ownership is what a member platform costs across its whole life rather than at launch: the build or the subscription, plus hosting, maintenance, store...
Knowing if it works
The measures worth watching once a platform is live.
Activation Rate
Activation rate is the share of new members who reach a defined first useful moment in the app, such as completing a first logged session or submitting a first...
Member Engagement
Member engagement is the degree to which members actually use a platform rather than merely having it installed, usually measured through sessions logged, check-ins...
Daily Active Members
Daily active members is the count of distinct members who use the app on a given day, often reported against the monthly figure as a ratio to show how much of the...
Attendance Rate
Attendance rate is how often members actually visit, usually expressed as average visits per member per week or month, measured from access and booking records...
App Store Rating
An app store rating is the average score members have given an app on the App Store or Google Play, shown publicly beside the listing, and it is the only quality...
Cohort Analysis
Cohort analysis is the practice of grouping members by when they joined and following each group separately over time, rather than reporting one blended average...
Net Promoter Score
Net promoter score is a single survey question asking members how likely they are to recommend the business on a scale of nought to ten, with the score calculated...
Release Cadence
Release cadence is how often an app ships an update to the stores, and it is the clearest external signal of whether a fitness platform is being actively developed...
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