Exercise Physiology Treatment Plans: What Changes When the Client Tracks Between Sessions
By The Kitt Team
The initial consult wraps. You have written a four-week program, talked the client through the exercises, and watched them leave. The next appointment is a fortnight away.
The plan was good. The problem is that it has no way to tell you how it is going.
What an exercise physiology treatment plan includes
An exercise physiology treatment plan is the documented program an accredited exercise physiologist prescribes for a client. It sets out the client’s goals, the measures used to track progress, the exercises with their sets, reps or duration and weekly frequency, and the instructions the client follows at home, connecting your assessment findings to what happens between sessions. A consistent structure matters, and a well-written treatment plan template for allied health keeps all four parts in order.
The four parts are: goals, progress measures, the weekly program, and take-home instructions.
Why the plan goes quiet between sessions
For an exercise physiologist, the exercise is the treatment, so a plan the client does not follow is not a minor gap, it is most of the intervention going unobserved. For most of any block, you are not in the room to know whether it is happening.
The client leaves with the program. What they retain of it and what they actually complete are two different things.
Research shows 40 to 80 per cent of medical information is forgotten immediately, and almost half of what is remembered is remembered incorrectly (Kessels, Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 2003). It studied general medical consultations, not allied health.
A systematic review of 30 studies notes that non-adherence to home-based physical therapy can reach 70 per cent (Essery et al, Disability and Rehabilitation, 2017).
By the time you learn the client dropped a session a week, a good part of the block you planned to progress has already gone.
What changes when the client tracks against the plan
When the client logs their program in the companion app, the four parts of the plan stop sitting still.
Goals
The goals you set travel with the plan. The client works to the same goals you wrote, not a paraphrase from memory.
Progress measures
In kitt you record a measure with a baseline, a target and the values you record over time. Logged work and pain scores sit alongside it, giving context when you next record them.
The weekly program
The program is laid out day by day across up to four weeks. The client sees each day marked done, part-done or still to do, and logs per set: reps or duration, a pain score on a 0 to 10 slider, any additional weight, and notes. Completions land on your side in real time.
Take-home instructions
They go out with the plan. When you edit a published plan the change pushes to the client’s copy automatically, so a mid-block progression reaches them without a new handout.
What it changes about the next session
You walk in already knowing which sessions were done, which were skipped, how sets and reps landed against what you prescribed, and where pain scores sat rather than recalled a fortnight later. You can see exercise compliance against the plan, a Companion view on the client’s record showing consistency and weekly pattern, and an adherence dashboard that flags clients who look at risk. Companion sends automated check-ins on pain, exercise completion and how the client is feeling, and flags raised go back to you. The session starts on the conversation that matters, not on reconstructing the last two weeks.
A 2025 analysis of 46 randomised trials in chronic low back pain found high exercise adherence, 80 to 100 per cent, was associated with lower pain and fewer functional limitations, while moderate adherence showed no significant association (Jones, Hansford et al, Journal of Physiotherapy, 2025); the extra benefit over low adherence was mostly small. It is an association, not proof of cause, and the certainty of the evidence was low.
The plan, handed over versus tracked
| Part of the plan | Handed over | Tracked between sessions |
|---|---|---|
| Goals | Client takes them away; you find out at the next visit whether they remembered them | Goals travel with the plan; the client works to the same goals you wrote |
| Progress measures | You record at each visit from what the client reports | Logged work and pain scores sit alongside your recorded measures, adding context |
| Weekly program | You learn what was completed at the next consult, from recall | Completions land on your side in real time; you see done, part-done and skipped before the session |
| Take-home instructions | Fixed at handover; changes require a new document | Edits to a published plan push to the client’s copy automatically |
Where kitt fits
The plan is built and published in kitt, and publishing shares it to kitt Companion. A client already connected gets it straight away; a new client gets a secure link that expires after seven days and sees a consent screen before anything is shared. kitt Companion is included with every kitt subscription, not a paid add-on. kitt drafts and you decide: every note, letter and plan comes back drafted for you to check and approve. kitt is not a practice management system and does not touch billing; it connects with Cliniko and Nookal, and the connection is optional.
An Australian randomised trial of 182 adults with knee osteoarthritis found an exercise app more than doubled complete adherence at 26 weeks, 36 per cent against 16 per cent, while function measured on the WOMAC did not differ between groups (Hinman, Nelligan et al, Osteoarthritis and Cartilage, 2026). If you want to see how the documentation side of an EP’s workflow fits together, SOAP notes for exercise physiology covers what that looks like in practice.
FAQ
What should an exercise physiology treatment plan include?
Goals, progress measures with baselines and targets, the prescribed exercise program with sets, reps or duration and weekly frequency, and the take-home instructions the client follows between visits.
How does client tracking change an exercise physiology treatment plan?
When a client logs their program between sessions, the plan becomes a record that reports back while the block is still running: which sessions were completed, how sets and reps compared to what you prescribed, and where pain scores sat, before the next consult.
Does my client pay extra for kitt Companion?
No. kitt Companion is included with every kitt subscription. There is no separate charge for clients to access their program, log sessions or receive automated check-ins.
Can I change a plan after my client has it?
Yes. Edits to a published plan push to the client’s copy in kitt Companion automatically, so a mid-block change reaches them without a new handout or message from you.
The short version
- The plan is only as useful as the information that comes back from it.
- When the client logs between sessions, you see the block as it actually ran, not as recalled.
- Compliance data, check-in flags and an adherence dashboard mean the next session starts with the right conversation.
- Mid-block changes to a published plan reach the client automatically.
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