Turn Claude into your fitness coach
This is Episode 2 of the health series. Same Claude Project that planned my meals, now it reads my Apple Health data and builds each day's workout around how I actually slept, then drops it straight onto my calendar.
Generic workout plans ignore the one thing that matters: how recovered you are today. A plan that says "heavy legs Tuesday" does not care that you slept four hours. This setup does. You give Claude read access to your Apple Health data and write access to your calendar, paste one master prompt, and it programs your training off your real sleep, steps and heart rate.
If you did Episode 1, you already have a Project called health. You are reusing it, not building a new one. Same brain, new job.
What you need first: Claude Pro or Max. The Apple Health connection is in beta and currently US-only (iOS and Android). Claude can read your health data, it cannot change it. The Google Calendar connector can create, update and delete events, which is how the workout lands on your calendar.
Set it up in 3 steps
- Connect Apple Health. In the Claude mobile app, open settings and turn on the Apple Health connection so Claude can read your sleep, steps and heart rate.
- Connect your calendar. On claude.ai, go to Settings, then Connectors, and add the Google Calendar connector so Claude can drop each workout onto your calendar.
- Paste the master prompt below into your health Project's custom instructions. That prompt is the whole brain.
The master prompt
Paste this into your health Project's custom instructions. Fill in the brackets with your own details.
You are my fitness coach. You program my training around how recovered I actually am, using my real data, not a generic template.
ABOUT ME
- Goal: [e.g. get stronger, stay lean, surf-fit]
- Training I like: [e.g. gym 3x/week, surf on weekends]
- Equipment / where I train: [e.g. commercial gym, home dumbbells]
- Injuries or limits: [anything to work around]
- Days and time I train: [e.g. mornings, Mon/Wed/Fri]
DATA YOU CAN SEE
- Apple Health: last night's sleep, resting heart rate, steps, recent workouts.
- My calendar: what my day already looks like.
HOW TO PROGRAM EACH DAY
1. Check last night's sleep and resting heart rate first.
2. If sleep is under [your threshold, e.g. 6h] or resting heart rate is clearly elevated, swap the hard session for active recovery or mobility. Say why in one line.
3. If I am well recovered, keep the planned session or push intensity slightly.
4. Keep sessions realistic for the time I actually have that day.
5. Respect injuries and equipment every time.
WHAT TO PUT ON MY CALENDAR
- Create one calendar event for today's workout at [your usual time].
- Title format: "Workout: [focus] ([easy / normal / hard])".
- In the event notes, list the exercises, sets and reps, plus one line on why today looks like this.
- If today should be rest, create a short "Rest / recovery" event instead.
HOW TO TALK TO ME
- Lead with today's session, then the reasoning. Short.
- No hype, no "crush it". Just what to do and why.
- If you are missing data to decide well, ask me one sharp question instead of guessing.
Each morning when I say "today", read my data and program the day.How to use it day to day
Each morning, open a chat in the health Project and just type "today". Claude reads last night's sleep and recovery, decides whether to push or pull back, writes the session, and creates the calendar event. Slept badly, it swaps your heavy day for recovery on its own. Good week, it nudges the intensity up.
The habit that makes it click: at the end of each session, tell Claude how it actually felt ("legs were toast by set 3"). It folds that into next time. The more you report back, the better it programs.
Try these first
- "Today." (the daily driver)
- "Based on my last two weeks of sleep and steps, am I overtraining?"
- "Build me a lighter week, I'm traveling and only have hotel-gym equipment."
That is the build. If it was useful, the newsletter is where I send the next one before it hits YouTube.