Nova for trainers — complete user guide (Android)

This guide walks you through everything you can do as a trainer in Nova on an Android phone: from creating an account, to following up with clients, building and assigning workouts, running group sessions with QR check-in, chatting, and setting up payments with Stripe. No prior knowledge needed. Follow the sections in order the first time, or jump straight to what you're wondering about using the table of contents.

Platform: Android (phone). On an iPhone? See Nova for trainers (iOS). A few things (Sign in with Apple, Apple Health) are iPhone-only and aren't covered here.

Mobile vs. web: Nova works on both phone and web (novafitness.no). Most things you can do from your phone, but the heavy building — building large programs with drag-and-drop, periodization across multiple weeks, and designing your storefront with live preview — is best done on web, on a PC with a big screen. This guide shows what you do on Android, and flags when something is easier on web.

Getting started
Creating a trainer account
Trainer onboarding (setup wizard)
The dashboard — your overview
Clients and requests
Client CRM — notes, tags, and activity
Workout builder and assigning a workout
Periodization and supersets
Storefront — your own public page
Group sessions and QR check-in
Chatting with your clients
Nutrition and follow-up
Stripe Connect — get paid (0% commission)
Subscriptions and tiers (Free / Basic / Pro / Elite)
Settings and your profile
Notifications
Privacy and your data (GDPR)
Troubleshooting — common questions

1. Getting started

What you need

An Android phone (Android 8 or newer recommended).
An email address you have access to.
An internet connection (Wi-Fi or mobile data) for first sign-in.

Installing the app

Open the Google Play store.
Search for Nova Fitness.
Tap Install and wait for the download to finish.
Tap Open to launch Nova.

Tip: If you're planning to build a lot of content right away, it's worth doing the first setup round on web (novafitness.no) on a PC, and using your phone for day-to-day follow-up. You sign in with the same account on both.

2. Creating a trainer account

Open Nova and tap Create account.
Choose the Trainer role.
Fill in:
- Name — what your clients will see.
- Email — one you have access to.
- Password — at least 12 characters, with upper- and lowercase letters, at least one number and one special character (for example, StrongTrainer!2026).
Type the password again in Confirm password.
Tap Register.

You're then taken straight to trainer onboarding (see the next section).

Common messages

"Password is too weak" — add more characters, a number, or a special character.
"Email is already in use" — you probably already have an account. Go back and tap Log in instead.
"Passwords don't match" — make sure both fields are exactly the same.

Picking the right role matters. Choose Trainer and you'll land on the trainer dashboard after signing in. Choose Client and you'll get the client experience. Not sure what you picked? Check which start screen you land on when you log in.

3. Trainer onboarding (setup wizard)

Right after registration, Nova walks you through a short multi-step wizard that sets up your trainer profile. Take your time and feel free to go back if you want to change something — what you fill in along the way is saved.

You'll typically be asked to:

Get a warm welcome and a quick intro to what Nova gives you as a trainer.
Fill in your profile — name, title, short bio, location/municipality, and specialties.
Add a profile photo.
Get a hint about your next steps — for example, building your first workout and inviting a client.

Tap Next to continue, or the back arrow to change an earlier answer. At the end, you finish, and you land on the trainer dashboard.

Tip: You can change all of this later under Settings. Nothing is locked in — your profile can be updated any time.

4. The dashboard — your overview

The dashboard is the first thing you see when you log in as a trainer. It's your "cockpit". At the bottom of the screen you have four tabs: Overview, Athletes (clients), Messages (chat), and Profile (settings).

On Overview you'll typically find:

A greeting with your name at the top.
Key numbers, including how many active clients you have.
Requests / leads waiting for a response — clients who've reached out and need a follow-up.
Nova Picks — potential clients near you.

Pull down on the overview to refresh the content.

Tip: If you get a request that's not a fit, you can usually swipe the card away to decline it. Try to respond quickly to incoming requests — a fast reply tends to mean more clients.

5. Clients and requests

Under the Athletes tab you'll find all your clients.

The client list

Each client shows up as a card with a name, photo, and a little status.
Nova shows an activity indicator per client — for example, when they last trained — so you can spot who needs a check-in.
Tap a client to open their client card (client detail view).

Inviting a new client

You can invite a client directly. Nova creates a QR/invitation flow you can share, so the client is linked to you when they create an account or scan the code.

Accepting requests

When a client sends you a request, it shows up on Overview (and/or in the client list). Accept it, and they become an active client and appear in your list.

Tip: How many active clients you can have depends on your subscription tier — see Subscriptions and tiers.

6. Client CRM — notes, tags, and activity

Tap a client in Athletes to open their client card. This is where Nova gathers everything you need to follow up with that specific person:

Profile header with photo, goals, location, and contact info.
Gamification status — the client's level, XP, and streak, so you can see their engagement.
Progress — an overview of the training they've logged.
Assigned workouts — the program and individual sessions you've given them.
Completed workouts — what they've actually done, so you can follow up.

Notes and tags

For each client you can keep notes (for example, injuries, goals, what you discussed last time) and assign tags (for example, "beginner", "rehab", "competition") to organize your client base. Notes and tags are saved to the client and stay there.

Tip: The full CRM — with richer note and tag handling and activity history side by side — is especially clear on web (novafitness.no → Dashboard → Clients). On mobile you have what matters most for daily follow-up right in your pocket.

Tip: After writing a note, leave and re-open the client card to confirm it saved. If a note disappears, check that you had a connection when you saved it.

7. Workout builder and assigning a workout

Assigning a workout from your phone

The quickest route on your phone goes through the client card:

Open a client under Athletes.
Tap the + button (assign workout) at the bottom of the client card.
Pick a workout from your library (or a template you've made before).
Confirm — the workout now shows up for the client, both in their app and in Assigned workouts on the client card.

The client sees the assigned workout immediately and can start it in their workout player. When they finish, you see the results under Completed workouts.

Building the workouts themselves

The workout builder lets you assemble exercises with sets, reps, kg, rest, RIR/RPE, tempo, and more — and save them as templates you reuse. You can also create your own exercises and build on top of Nova's huge exercise library.

Build big programs on web. The actual building — drag-and-drop of exercises, reordering, and putting together multi-week programs — is designed for a big screen and is best done on web (novafitness.no → Dashboard → Library/Workout builder). On mobile, you assign and follow up; the heavy building is much easier with a mouse and keyboard.

8. Periodization and supersets

Nova supports the structure professional trainers need:

Periodization — build programs across multiple weeks where load and volume change week by week. You can copy a week to another week to save time.
Supersets — group two (or more) exercises to be done back-to-back. In the workout player, the client sees the superset clearly marked, with a round counter, and the rest timer only starts after the last exercise in the round.

Tip: Periodization and superset grouping are easiest to build on web where you see the whole week at once. Once the program is built and assigned, following progress works great from your phone.

9. Storefront — your own public page

Your storefront is your public page on Nova — where new clients see who you are, what you offer, and how to reach you. You can choose between 5 different layouts (structures) and 5 themes (color schemes), fill in your text and services, and publish the page. It gets its own link (novafitness.no/<your-slug>) you can share.

The storefront editor belongs on web. Choosing layout and theme, filling in content, and seeing a live preview that updates instantly is done on web (novafitness.no → Dashboard → Storefront). There you also see the finished page exactly as your clients do. On mobile, you can share the link and point clients to your storefront.

Tip: Custom domains (your own web address in front of your storefront) are an advanced feature for the Elite tier and are set up on web.

10. Group sessions and QR check-in

If you run group sessions, you can sell them and register attendance in Nova. You can offer three types of products:

Drop-in — pay per session.
Clip card — a number of sessions purchased up front.
Subscription — ongoing access.

Showing a QR code for check-in (from your phone)

On the group/QR screen you'll see your locations:

Pick a location and tap Show QR (or Generate QR the first time).
The QR code appears full-screen on a white background.
Clients scan the code from your screen to check in — you don't have to put up paper.

You can also create a new location right from this screen.

Tip: Each client only counts once per session, even if the code is scanned twice. If scanning doesn't work in poor light, turn up your screen brightness.

11. Chatting with your clients

Under the Messages tab you talk directly with your clients.

Open Messages and pick a conversation (the inbox shows all your clients).
Send a text message by typing and tapping send.
Send an image with the attachment button.
Send a voice message by holding the microphone button while you speak.

Messages reach your client in real time. Images can be opened full size, and voice messages can be played back.

The first time, Nova asks for microphone and camera access for voice and image messages. You'll need to allow them to use those features.

12. Nutrition and follow-up

Nova has nutrition built in: your clients can log food (scan barcodes, search a food database, and create their own meals) and track calories and macros. As a trainer, you see their progress and can bring nutrition into the chat as part of your follow-up.

Tip: The actual food logging is done by the client in their own app. Use the chat and the client card to give advice and make adjustments along the way.

13. Stripe Connect — get paid (0% commission)

Nova takes 0% commission — you keep 100% of what your clients pay. Payments go through Stripe Connect, a trusted, well-known payment provider.

Connecting Stripe

Go to Profile (settings) → payment/payout settings.
Tap Connect Stripe (Stripe Connect).
You're sent to Stripe's own page to create/link your account (Stripe asks for the information they need to pay out money to you).
When you're done, you're sent back to Nova and the status shows you're connected.

Tip: If you're testing the setup before you're ready for real payments, use Stripe's test mode — never use real cards. If you don't come back to Nova automatically after Stripe's page, reopen the app and check the status.

14. Subscriptions and tiers (Free / Basic / Pro / Elite)

Nova has four subscription tiers for trainers. The main differences are how many active clients you can have and which features you get access to:

Tier	Active clients (approx.)
Free	3
Basic	10
Pro	25
Elite	Unlimited

You manage your subscription under Profile (settings), in the certifications/pricing/subscription section.

If a payment fails

If your subscription payment fails, you get a grace period where you keep full access and see a warning banner. Sort the payment out during this period and nothing else happens. If the grace period runs out without it being resolved, a lockout screen appears with two options: update payment or downgrade to Free. If you downgrade to Free, you keep your 3 oldest clients and the rest are disconnected (you can reconnect them when you upgrade).

Tip: Changing tier and payment method is also done on web, where the whole subscription flow and receipts are easy to access.

15. Settings and your profile

Open the Profile tab to manage your account, profile, and experience. It has four parts:

My profile — photo, name, title, location, bio, and specialties. This is what your clients see.
Certifications and pricing — upload certificates, set pricing, and manage your subscription/tier (see Subscriptions). Payment / Stripe setup also lives here.
Notifications — turn reminders and notifications on/off (see the next section).
About — switch theme (dark/light), switch language, find legal info, and log out.

Tip: In the profile section you can tap Use my location to set your municipality automatically via GPS. Your municipality matters: customers search for trainers in their municipality, and your profile also appears in the public trainer directory at novafitness.no/trenere, with its own public profile page (novafitness.no/t/…) you can share.

Language

Under About you switch between Norwegian, English, German, French, and Spanish. The whole app changes immediately.

16. Notifications

Nova can notify you about things that need attention:

New requests / leads — when a potential client reaches out.
New messages — when a client writes to you in chat.
Reminders you turn on yourself under Notifications in settings.

Not getting notifications? Check that Nova has notification permission in Android's settings (Settings → Apps → Nova → Notifications). Keep the app in the background (don't fully close it) to receive notifications. Tapping a notification opens the right screen in the app.

Nova is built with privacy in mind, and the data is encrypted.

Download your data: Email support@novafitness.no from the address your trainer account is registered with, and we'll send you a copy of the information Nova has about you.
Delete your account: Request deletion by contacting support@novafitness.no (see also novafitness.no/support/account-deletion). We remove your data in line with GDPR. Note that deletion can't be undone.

Tip: As a trainer, you also have responsibility for the client data you keep (notes, tags). Treat it as confidential, and delete what you no longer need.

18. Troubleshooting — common questions

I logged in but ended up on the client screen instead of the trainer dashboard. Your account is probably registered as a client. Log out and log back in with your trainer account. If you picked the wrong role at registration, contact support and we'll help you.

I see a completely black screen. Close the app fully and reopen it. If that doesn't help, check that you have the latest version in Google Play. If it keeps happening, let support know along with your phone model and Android version.

I can't log in. Double-check your email and password. Use Forgot password if you're not sure. Check that you have an internet connection.

A note or tag I added is gone. Check that you had a connection when you saved. Pull down to refresh the client card. If it persists, note which client and what you entered, and let support know.

A workout I assigned doesn't show up for the client. Check that you had a connection when you assigned it, and that you picked the right client. Ask the client to pull down to refresh. If it persists, contact support.

I didn't get back to the app after Stripe. Close and reopen Nova, and check the payment status under Profile. If it's not showing as connected, try "Connect Stripe" again. You can also finish Stripe setup on web.

The storefront / builder tools feel cramped on my phone. That's normal — the heavy building (programs, periodization) and the storefront editor are made for web on a big screen. Log in at novafitness.no on a PC for that, and use your phone for daily follow-up.

The QR code for group check-in won't scan. Turn up your screen brightness and hold the phone steady. Remember that each client only counts once per session, even if the code is scanned multiple times.

The text is in the wrong language or I see strange code-like words. Switch language under Profile → About → Language. If something still looks off, note exactly which text and which screen, and let support know.

I'm not getting any push notifications. Check notification permission in Android's settings (see Notifications). Keep the app in the background (don't fully close it) to receive notifications.

Need more help?

Contact Nova support via the support page. It helps to have ready: what you did, what happened, your phone model, and your Android version — that helps us help you faster.

Last updated: 2026-08-20.