Shadow coaching is when a virtual assistant (VA) or another coach manages your clients on your behalf — without the clients knowing it's a different person. Here's how we recommend setting it up properly in FitMetrics.
Why You Should NOT Share Your Login
We strongly recommend never sharing your FitMetrics username and password with a VA or shadow coach. Here's why:
No accountability — you can't track what the VA did vs what you did
Security risk — shared passwords can be leaked or misused
No separate access control — you can't limit what they see or do
Breaks Team Performance tracking — all activity shows under one account
Instead, give your VA their own accounts in both Trainerize and FitMetrics.
The Recommended Setup
Step 1: Create a Trainer in Trainerize for the VA
Open Trainerize
Go to Settings → Team Members
Add a new trainer with:
Name: Use a name very similar to yours (e.g., if you're "John Smith", name them "John S." or "Coach John")
Profile picture: Use the same profile picture as you
Email: The VA's own email address
This way, when the VA sends messages to clients, the messages appear to come from "you" — same name, same photo. The client won't know the difference.
Step 2: Sync the New Trainer to FitMetrics
Click Sync to pull in the new trainer
Refresh the page — the new trainer should now appear
Step 3: Add the VA as a Team Member in FitMetrics
Click Add Team Member
Enter the VA's email, name, and set their role to Coach
Link their Trainerize trainer — select the trainer account you just created in Step 1
Send the invitation
The VA will receive an email invitation to create their own FitMetrics account.
Step 4: Assign Clients to the VA's Trainer Account
For any clients the VA will manage:
Go to Trainerize Clients
Click the Trainer column for each client
Select the VA's trainer from the dropdown
Now when the VA logs into FitMetrics, they'll only see the clients assigned to them.
What the Client Sees
From the client's perspective:
Messages come from a trainer with your name and photo
They have no idea someone else is managing their account
The coaching experience feels exactly the same
What You Get as the Owner
Full visibility — see everything the VA does via Team Performance
Message tracking — response times, client coverage, messaging consistency
Activity log — see exactly when and what the VA did
Separate access — the VA can only see their assigned clients (Coach role)
Revoke access anytime — remove the team member without affecting your account
Pro Tips
Train the VA on your coaching style — make sure the AI Assistant's training content, tone, and guidance reflect how you communicate so the VA (and AI) stay consistent
Use AI Draft — the VA can use AI Draft in the message composer to generate replies in your coaching tone, then review and send
Set up AI Check-Ins — automate the weekly feedback so the VA only needs to handle direct client questions
Review weekly — use Team Performance to review the VA's messaging stats and coach scores every week
Start small — assign a few clients first, monitor quality, then scale up
Summary
Step | Where |
Create trainer for VA | Trainerize → Settings → Team Members |
Sync trainer to FitMetrics | FitMetrics → Settings → Trainerize Integration → Sync |
Add VA as team member | FitMetrics → Settings → Team Management |
Link their Trainerize trainer | Team Management → Linked Trainer dropdown |
Assign clients | Trainerize Clients → Trainer column |
Monitor performance | Team Performance |