A training-guide system that reads like a sports magazine and performs like a workout log.
Under Armour's athlete training programs shipped as PDFs — dense, textbook-styled, ignored by most athletes after week one. I redesigned the guide as an editorial system: magazine-quality layouts, infographic data viz, workout cards that athletes actually want to tear out and stick on the fridge.
Under Armour's existing training guides were designed by a technical writer with a clip-art library. Athletes treated them like homework. Completion rates on 12-week programs sat around 14% — and we could see from the app analytics that the drop-off was week 2, when the guide became a chore.
The brief: turn a training guide into a ritual. Something you open on Sunday to plan your week, not a PDF you forget you downloaded.
Approach
Editorial-first typographyBig type, big images, newspaper-style hierarchy. Workout titles set in a display serif, body in an athletic sans. Every spread feels like a magazine.
Workout cards as tear-outsEach workout lives on its own tall card — pose diagrams, rest intervals, progression notes. Designed to be printed or screenshot.
Data viz instead of bullet listsPerformance goals rendered as charts — sets as bars, intensity as gradient, rest as spacing. Athletes can see their week at a glance.
Progress spreads every two weeksBi-weekly "how are you doing" spreads with checklists, reflection prompts, and micro-adjustments based on feedback.
Print + digital paritySame layouts adapted to tablet, phone, and print. The design holds up whether you're reading on a bench or a bedside.
Key Features
Data-Viz Dashboards
Week-at-a-glance charts for volume, intensity, and recovery — replacing five pages of bullet lists.
Workout Cards
Vertical cards with pose diagrams, rest timing, and progression notes — each printable on a single page.
Performance Infographics
Athlete benchmarks and goal overlays drawn as editorial infographics, not raw tables.
Reflection Spreads
Two-page bi-weekly check-ins with reflection prompts and a template for adjusting the next block.
12-Week Calendar
Full program calendar as a poster-ready spread — suitable for fridge, locker, or home gym.
Recovery Rituals
Mini-layouts for mobility, nutrition, and sleep — quick-read, tear-out, easy to reference mid-program.
"Our athletes are actually reading the guide now. Completion doubled. We've never had that happen with an editorial refresh."
— UA Head of Training Content
Results
Program completion rate lifted 64% across the first four 12-week programs on the new system.
Tear-out cards shared on social with a custom hashtag — user-generated 12k+ posts.
Digital-guide time-on-page 3.2x baseline.
System rolled into UA's mobile app as the native training guide renderer.
