ProgramRX: How I Built the Next Generation of Sports Coaching Software in Days, Not Years

I've just launched ProgramRX, and I'm genuinely excited about what this means for specialized sports coaches and their athletes. This isn't just another fitness app—it's a complete reimagining of what sports training software can be when built with modern AI tools and a deep understanding of what coaches and athletes actually need.

Born from Necessity: The ProgramRX Origin Story

The genesis of ProgramRX came after I caught COVID and wanted to help my daughter Addy, a competitive CrossFit athlete who finished 4th worldwide in the CrossFit Games. Her training was managed through scattered notes and spreadsheets—a common but inefficient approach I've seen across various specialized sports.

As I explain on the about page, when working with competitive athletes like Addy, regular fitness apps simply don't offer the detailed performance tracking and periodization features needed. The existing solutions—TrueCoach, SugarWOD, and others—hadn't been meaningfully updated in years and were missing critical features for serious sports-specific training.

Breaking the Status Quo: What Makes ProgramRX Different

After extensive research and firsthand experience with competing platforms, I designed ProgramRX to address the major pain points that have plagued coaches and athletes:

For Coaches: Intelligent Planning That Saves Hours

ProgramRX transforms how coaches create and manage training programs:

• Structured Workout Libraries: Create, organize, and reuse workout components without starting from scratch every time.
• Seamless Programming: Drag-and-drop workout blocks into athlete calendars with intuitive periodization tools.
• Historical Data Analysis: Track athlete development over time with comprehensive performance metrics and visual progress reports.
• Multi-Athlete Management: Oversee multiple athletes' programs from a single, unified dashboard.

Unlike legacy platforms where programming is often cumbersome and requires constant switching between views, ProgramRX streamlines the entire process. Coaches report saving 3-5 hours weekly on program design alone.

For Athletes: Engaging, Clear, and Motivating

The athlete experience in ProgramRX is designed for clarity and motivation:

• Mobile-First Design: Access workouts anywhere with a clean, distraction-free interface.
• Performance Tracking: Log results with minimal friction and see progress visualized automatically.
• Custom Charts: Track personal records and performance trends across specific movements and workouts.
• Intuitive Feedback System: Provide workout feedback directly to coaches to facilitate program refinement.

The athlete experience avoids the confusing interfaces that plague older platforms, focusing instead on what athletes care about most: clear instructions and visible progress.

The AI Advantage: Asking Questions About Performance Data

The most revolutionary feature—and what truly sets ProgramRX apart—is its AI insights engine. Coaches can literally ask questions about their athletes' performance data and receive thoughtful, data-backed responses:

• "How has Sarah's squat strength progressed relative to her bodyweight over the last six months?"
• "What movement patterns show the strongest correlation with Thomas's competition results?"
• "Which energy systems need the most development for Emma based on recent benchmark tests?"

These AI-generated insights are then publishable directly to athletes, creating a new dimension of coach-athlete communication that simply doesn't exist in other platforms.

This feature alone transforms how coaches analyze performance and communicate with athletes. Instead of spending hours manually comparing spreadsheets or guessing at correlations, coaches can have meaningful conversations with an AI that understands their athletes' complete workout history.

Built in Days, Not Years: The Claude Code Advantage

Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of ProgramRX isn't just what it does, but how quickly it came to life. I built the entire platform in approximately 2.5 days using Claude Code, Anthropic's AI coding assistant.

As I've written previously about Claude Code's game-changing context management and compared it with other AI coding tools, having Claude as a development partner transformed what would typically be a year-long development cycle into a matter of days.

Using my personal Claude Code Max subscription (and never hitting a limit), I was able to:

1. Design and implement a complete database schema optimized for sports performance data
2. Build responsive UI components that work seamlessly across devices
3. Engineer the complex AI insights engine that powers the analytical features
4. Create comprehensive testing suites to ensure reliability

The speed was extraordinary, but more importantly, it allowed me to rapidly iterate based on real feedback from Addy and other athletes. Each feature could be refined almost immediately after testing, creating a tight feedback loop impossible with traditional development timelines.

This represents a new paradigm in software development that I've been advocating for. AI coding tools are democratizing software development in remarkable ways, making it possible to build sophisticated custom applications in days rather than months or years.

The Future of Sports Coaching Software

ProgramRX is currently free while I gather feedback and validate its value—which, based on early responses, appears substantial. The platform is designed specifically for:

• CrossFit coaches
• Strength & conditioning coaches
• Performance sport coaches
• Olympic weightlifting coaches
• Endurance sport coaches
• Youth sports coaches
• Rehab specialists

What these coaches share is a need for detailed, sport-specific programming tools that general fitness apps simply don't provide. ProgramRX fills this gap with a platform built from the ground up for serious athletic development.

A Personal Connection

Working on ProgramRX with my daughter has been particularly rewarding. As I've written before about Addy's journey to the CrossFit Games, seeing her use and benefit from the platform adds another dimension to our shared experience in the sport.

This personal connection—understanding the real needs of a competitive athlete—has informed every aspect of ProgramRX's design. It's the difference between building software based on market research versus building it based on lived experience.

The principles I applied when helping Addy with her training programs are now embedded in ProgramRX, making powerful training methodologies accessible to coaches and athletes everywhere.

Try It Today

If you're a coach who develops specialized training programs focused on athletic performance, or an athlete serious about structured progress, I invite you to try ProgramRX. It's currently free, and I'm actively incorporating user feedback to make it even better.

This is the future of sports coaching software—intelligent, responsive, and built to serve the specific needs of performance-focused athletes and their coaches. The days of spreadsheets, disconnected systems, and outdated interfaces are over. Welcome to a new era of sports performance technology.