Health declaration
What is a health declaration?
A health declaration is a statement a member makes about their own health before they start training — existing conditions, injuries, medications, pregnancy, anything a coach would want to know before programming for them. It’s usually collected at sign-up and, in a well-run gym, updated periodically after that.
It isn’t a medical assessment. It’s the member telling you what they know.
What gyms typically ask
Practice varies, but most declarations cover:
- Existing conditions — cardiac, respiratory, diabetes, blood pressure
- Injuries, current and significant past ones
- Medications that affect exercise capacity
- Pregnancy or post-natal status
- Anything a doctor has told them about exercise
- An emergency contact
Many gyms also ask whether the member has been advised by a medical professional to avoid particular activity — which is the question that most often changes what a coach programmes.
Declaration vs waiver
Related documents doing genuinely different jobs, and worth keeping separate.
| Health declaration | Waiver | |
|---|---|---|
| What it does | Member tells you about their health | Member acknowledges risk |
| Who it protects | The member — coaches program around it | Primarily the gym |
| Changes over time | Yes — should be re-asked | Usually signed once per version |
| Used by | Your coaches, day to day | Rarely, and only when something’s gone wrong |
The declaration is the one with operational value. A waiver sits in a drawer. A declaration tells the coach standing in front of someone that they’ve had a shoulder reconstruction.
Why versioning matters
If you update your declaration — adding a question about a condition you hadn’t asked about — you now have members who answered the old version and members who answered the new one.
Without version tracking you can’t tell which is which, and “when did we start asking that?” becomes unanswerable at exactly the moment it matters.
The same applies to when someone declared. A declaration signed three years ago describes a person who may no longer exist. Re-asking annually is common practice.
Why it matters for your gym
Two reasons, and the second is the one most gyms underrate.
It protects the member. A coach who knows about the shoulder programmes around it. A coach who doesn’t, doesn’t.
It protects your coaches. They’re making judgement calls about other people’s bodies. A current declaration is the difference between an informed decision and a guess — and the gap between those is where someone gets hurt.
How PATO handles it
Write your own health declaration in the dashboard, send it to members, and they complete it in the app. You see per-member status in one table, so “who hasn’t done this?” has an answer.
Declarations sit with the member’s record, so a coach opening someone’s profile sees what they declared — rather than it living in a filing cabinet nobody opens.
And PATO itself won’t touch it. Injury, pain and medical questions from a member route to your coaches. The AI doesn’t offer opinions on whether someone should train on a sore shoulder, by design.
Common questions
- How often should members update it?
- Annually is common, plus whenever something changes. Some gyms prompt on renewal.
- What if a member declares something serious?
- That’s a conversation between them, your coaches and — where appropriate — their doctor. Some gyms require medical clearance for particular declarations.
- Is it the same as a PAR-Q?
- A PAR-Q is one widely used screening questionnaire. A health declaration is the broader category; plenty of gyms use a PAR-Q as the basis and add their own questions.
Please note: This is a general description, not legal or medical advice. Whether your gym is required to collect a health declaration, and what it should contain, depends on your circumstances, your insurer and any industry standards you operate under. Get advice on your specific documents.
Related terms
PATO