Writing a Good Prompt for AI Plan Generation
The shape of the brief drives the shape of the plan.
Repley reads what you write and turns it into structured constraints behind the scenes. A vague brief produces a generic plan. A specific brief produces a plan that respects your constraints. Here's how to write briefs that get the right plan first try.
The four things to include:
1. Who the plan is for. Either a specific client name (Repley resolves them via picker), or "generic template" if it's for your library. 2. Goal or training emphasis. What's the plan FOR? Hypertrophy, fat loss, 1RM strength, race prep, rehab, movement control, longevity. 3. Days per week and session length. "4 days, 60 min each" or "3 days, 30 min each". 4. Equipment and exclusions. "Full gym, no jumps" or "Home: bands, bodyweight, step block, no barbell".
If the brief contains injuries or limitations, mention them by name. Repley translates them into safe constraints automatically (e.g. "single-leg instability" suppresses heavy bilateral compounds).
Good prompt: race prep
Build a 4-week HYROX block for Sarah. She's competing in the singles division in 8 weeks. Equipment: full gym, sled, sandbag, wall ball. Weak stations: wall balls and burpee broad jumps. 5 days/week, 75 minutes per session.
Good prompt: hypertrophy
4-day push/pull for an intermediate male client. Full gym. 60 min sessions. Goal: chest and back hypertrophy. Wants to keep deadlifting heavy on pull days.
Good prompt: rehab and movement control
This shape goes wrong most often when the brief is loose. The model needs to know it's NOT a strength block.
Build a 3-day program for a young female athlete returning from a movement assessment. Findings: - Single-leg instability (left side worse than right) - Posterior chain under-recruitment, avoids loading hip extension - Lumbar compensations under fatigue - Limited thoracic mobility
I want movement-control work, NOT strength. 30 minutes per session max. Home setup only: bodyweight, resistance bands, and a step block. No barbell, no dumbbells, no jumps, no sprints. Focus is rebuilding movement patterns, not loading.
What works in this brief:
• Explicit framing. "Movement-control, NOT strength" prevents Repley defaulting to a strength block. • Constraints stated upfront, not buried in the middle. 30 min max, home setup, equipment list. • Exclusions named explicitly. No barbell, no dumbbells, no jumps, no sprints. You can list ANY exercise pattern you want excluded ("no kettlebell swings", "no box jumps", "no overhead pressing"). • Injuries listed by name. Repley maps each one to safe constraints.
Why being specific matters:
Without explicit framing, "build a plan for a young athlete with a movement assessment" defaults to a strength and conditioning block. That's the right answer for most athletes, just not for someone rebuilding movement patterns first. The single word *"not strength"* in the brief flips the model into movement-control mode.
Common mistakes to avoid:
✗ Burying constraints in the middle of a long brief. Put limits like "30 min max" or "bodyweight only" at the START of the message, not on line 14. ✗ Vague equipment. "Limited equipment" forces Repley to guess. Say "bodyweight, bands, and a step" or "dumbbells up to 20kg plus a bench". ✗ Conflicting signals. "She's a powerlifter but I want light rehab work." Split into two separate plans instead. ✗ Asking for too many weeks at once. First generation defaults to 1 week. After you've reviewed it, click "Expand to 4 weeks". Quality is better than asking for 4 weeks upfront, because the model uses your edits as context for weeks 2 to 4.
Want to lock in a preference permanently?
If you find yourself repeating the same instruction every plan ("no kettlebell swings for any of my clients", "always include single-leg work", "default to RPE 7 progression"), tell Repley once with the word "remember". For example: *"Repley, remember that I never want box jumps in my running plans"*. It saves the rule and applies it to every future generation in that scope.
Iterating on a result:
If the first generation isn't quite right, just correct it in the next chat message:
• *"Make it home-based, 30 min, no barbell."* • *"Swap day 3 for a longer aerobic session."* • *"More rehab-leaning, less strength."*
Repley regenerates the SAME template in place (no duplicates) when you correct a plan it just generated. Multiple corrections in a row are fine.