Substitute coach
[Coach] is out [day], so [substitute] is covering [class] at [time]. Same session, same room. Nothing to do at your end.
Rollout guide
The FitnessBlasts Member Communication Guide
One month of member communication on the Hub, in order: getting members on the list, the audiences, who sends what, and the moments that repeat every week. It is written for the person who will actually build the audiences, brief the coaches and send the 4:52 a.m. cancellation.
For the owner, general manager, program lead or front desk lead who runs member communication at a gym, a boutique studio, a box, a martial-arts school or a training business.
Moments first, then the setup
A gym's communication is a short list of moments that repeat: the coach who is out, the class that moved, the extra class added because the first one filled, the spot that frees up, the Saturday session that goes indoors, the challenge that starts Monday, and the member who has not been in for a month. Each has an audience, a message, a person who sends it, and something that happens next in your booking system. Build the Hub around those moments and the setup takes an afternoon.
Getting members on the list
Nobody re-collects anything. A member on your list receives every update by email until they connect the Blasts app; when they do, their messages move to the app on their own.
Bring the list you already keep
Export the opted-in members from whatever you run memberships in and upload the CSV (up to 5,000 rows, previewed first). Tick the opt-in box for people who already agreed to hear from you: they join as email subscribers right away. Point your sign-up form at the inbound webhook, or use the Zapier app, so later members are added the day they join.
Put the code where members already are
Your Hub prints an enrollment kit with a short code and a QR code. Put it on a card at the front desk, on the locker-room board and in the welcome email, and give the front desk one sentence to say at check-in for the first month. Coaches can share the same code with their own classes, usually the fastest route to a full class audience.
Let it move on its own
A member who installs the free Blasts app and enters the code is connected, and from then on their updates arrive on their phone instead of by email. There is no connector to any membership or booking platform, so this lives in the templates and places you already control.
Consent-first throughout: a member who has not opted in is not on the list, a member who has not connected the app cannot be reached on it, and anyone can mute the gym, set quiet hours or disconnect at any time without telling you.
Audiences: class, program and coach
Onboarding seeds a starter pack: All Members, Schedule Changes, Open Spots, Challenges & Programs, Member Events, Personal Training and Coaches & Staff. All Members reaches everyone on the list and asks for a step-up confirmation. Your class formats, time slots, youth programs and sites are your own data: create them as audiences by name, the way members say them.
- One audience per class format, and per time slot where the time is what people identify with: Vinyasa, Spin, 6 AM Strength, Kids Karate. Names members recognize beat names from your booking system.
- Nest a time slot inside its format with Inside audience, so a send to Strength covers 6 AM Strength. Add one per location if you run more than one site.
- Set class and program audiences to members choose, so people pick them on the preferences page. Set Coaches & Staff to the gym assigns and fill it with Bulk assign. There are no rule-based audiences: import, then assign.
- An audience is not a booking list. Your booking system knows who is booked into Tuesday at six; the audience is who agreed to hear about it.
- Leave replies on for cancellations and openings. When a program block ends, archive what you no longer need; the connections stay.
Who sends what
Each person signs in as themselves, so every send is attributed. The decision that matters is which audiences each coach may send to and whose replies they may read.
Owner and admins: the owner, the general manager, the front desk lead
One Owner holds billing and the gym's Blasts account, which lives on a mailbox on the gym's own domain so it survives a manager moving on. Admins reach every audience, manage the team and approve access requests. A bookkeeper who only reads along is a Viewer.
Coaches: instructors, trainers and program leads
Invite each coach as a Leader (the Hub calls the role Coach in a gym) and, under Edit grants, tick Send and Read replies on only their own class audiences. A personal trainer gets Personal Training; a program lead gets the challenge audience. Everything unticked is listed as what they cannot reach.
Two settings to know on day one
A new gym starts with coach approval off, so a coach's 4:52 a.m. cancellation goes out the moment they send it. If you would rather a manager review coaches' Blasts first, switch approval on in Settings. On Home, add a passkey for the All Members step-up.
A coach who connected as a member and asked for Hub access appears under Access requests; nobody gets in until an admin approves and picks the role.
When a spot opens up in a full class
This is where it is easiest to promise something the Hub cannot do. Your booking system holds the bookings and the standby list your front desk already keeps. The Hub holds an audience: the members who said they want to hear when something frees up.
Release the space in the booking system first, then send a short message to Open Spots asking for a YES or NO reply. The Hub counts the replies and someone at the desk makes the booking. Nothing in the message should imply a member has a place until a person has given them one.
The Hub never books, holds, releases or charges for anything. It is a channel next to your booking system, not a replacement for it.
Replies, and the email leg
Replies land in Conversations, one inbox the Hub team shares. A coach sees only replies from the audiences they are granted. Assign each thread to whoever should answer it: the booking question to the front desk, the injury question to the trainer. Receiving is free for members; a reply they send uses their own credits, never the gym's.
Every member on the list who has not connected the app gets the same message by email through the Hub. Email is metered in email credits: every new Hub includes 50, and packs are bought from the Hub. Members still on email can choose a weekly digest instead of every message; for a new gym it goes out on Sunday at 5 p.m.
Credits: what a month costs
One typed Blast to one member is one Blasts credit; one email is one email credit. Credits are prepaid on BlastCredits at standard pricing, never expire and carry no subscription, so nothing bills in a quiet month. A substitute note to a class of 25 costs 25 credits; a week-ahead note to all 400 members on the list costs 400. That difference is the argument for building the audiences properly on day one.
Sending, audiences, roles, conversations, Content Series and the email leg are included from the start. Hub Pro, which adds Journeys and Event Campaigns, unlocks at $500 in cumulative credit purchases tied to your gym. There is no verification program for gyms and no tier to qualify for.
What the Hub does not replace
Keep running memberships, bookings, the standby list, check-in, attendance, programming and payments where you run them now. The Hub holds none of it and has no connector to any membership-management or class-booking platform: your member list reaches it as a CSV export, through the inbound webhook or through Zapier, and a public class calendar link in Settings puts upcoming sessions on Home with an Announce button.
There is no check-in, attendance or wearable integration either. To reach members who have not been in for a while, pull that list where it lives, import or assign it, and write to them as a person would.
The first month
The first two weeks are setup. After that it is a rhythm you keep.
Week 1 Set up and publish the code
Sign in, finish onboarding and click Sync connections. Create the class, program and location audiences before you invite anyone. Import the opted-in export with the opt-in box ticked, print the kit for the desk and the locker room, paste the code into the welcome email, and turn on auto-accept.
Week 2 Coaches and the first sends
Invite the general manager as an Admin, each coach as a Leader granted their own class audiences, the head trainer for Personal Training. Save the cancellation, coach change, added class, closure and open-spot messages as Templates.
Week 3 The week ahead, every Sunday
Send a welcome to All Members (it asks for your passkey): what comes through this channel, how to choose which classes they hear about, and that the newsletter stays in email. Then start the Sunday evening week-ahead note as a Content Series or a weekly repeat.
Week 4 Run the moments
Coaches handle their own substitutions and cancellations. The manager sends closures, hours changes and equipment notices to the location affected, and to All Members only when everyone is. Openings go to Open Spots with a YES or NO reply, booked at the desk.
Month two and after Programs, events and the quiet members
Announce the next challenge or program block to Challenges & Programs with a YES or NO reply so you know the numbers. With Hub Pro, run the arc around the start date as an Event Campaign and welcome each new member with a Journey. Once a month, write to the members you have not seen, as a person would.
What the Hub does, and does not do
- Sends a typed message with formatting, links, images and up to three attachments to the audience you pick.
- Sends the same message by email, through the Hub, to every member on the list who has not connected the app.
- Counts the YES or NO replies that members send themselves.
- Schedules a send, repeats it weekly, runs a Content Series, and limits a mailing to one per household.
- Lets a coach reach only the audiences granted, and lets owners and admins export the member list as a CSV.
- Run memberships, bookings, the standby list, check-in, attendance or payments. There is no connector to membership-management or class-booking software, and no wearable or member-app integration.
- Book, hold, release, refund or charge for a place in a class. Your booking system releases the space; a person at the desk gives it to whoever replies.
- Send SMS. This is Blasts plus email; there are no mobile numbers to collect.
- Reach anyone who has not opted in or connected, or record an answer on anyone's behalf. Ask for a YES or NO reply when you need one.
- Send campaign badges, voice Blasts, polls or countdowns. Those are Blasts-app sender features, not things the Hub composer sends.
- Gate access on this guide or on a purchase. Any gym can sign in and set up a Hub today.
Hub Pro unlocks at $500 in cumulative credit purchases tied to your gym. There is no verification program for gyms: pricing is standard, and nonprofit verification only adds bonus credits for organizations that are registered nonprofits.
Ready when you are
FitnessBlasts is open today. Sign in to your Hub, or set one up through onboarding after signing in. The Hub documentation covers everything in this guide in more detail, in gym and studio terms.
See it in action at Summit Lane Fitness (a fictional example organization created to show the product, not a customer)
Product facts on this page reflect published Blasts.app information as of 2026-08-17.