The Show Up Fitness Podcast

How to Become A Successful Personal Trainer in 2025 | NASM ACE ISSA NSCA ACSM SUF-CPT

Chris Hitchko, CEO Show Up Fitness Season 2 Episode 187

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Do you want to become a SUCCESSFUL personal trainer in 2025, start by asking better questions. 

What if the key to unlocking your full potential as a personal trainer isn't found in a certification but in the questions you ask? Join us as we challenge the conventional wisdom of the fitness industry and explore how trainers can rise above the crowded marketplace of 1.1 million peers in the U.S. We promise you'll gain insights into why competence and confidence outweigh mere certification titles and discover how hands-on experience and mentorship can set the stage for a thriving career.

The journey to becoming a successful personal trainer is fraught with challenges, including high dropout rates and burnout. We'll dissect the gaps in current certification processes, drawing thought-provoking comparisons with professions like hairstylists and doctors. New trainers often find themselves overshadowed by influencers, perceived as less valuable despite their training. However, by asking the right questions and seeking quality education, you can bridge this confidence gap. Dive into the specifics of what makes a trainer competent, with insights from physical therapists and gym hiring practices like Shelf Fitness.

Success in personal training isn't just about technical knowledge; it's about cultivating the right mindset and skills to navigate the industry's hurdles. We'll discuss how to communicate effectively with clients, adapt to a rapidly changing environment, and build a sustainable career despite low pay and high turnover rates. Learn how to network, continue your education, and diversify your income streams to make a lasting impact in your clients' lives. We also invite you to share your personal training journey with us, helping to elevate the professionalism and accessibility of the fitness industry for everyone involved.

Want to ask us a question? Email email info@showupfitness.com with the subject line PODCAST QUESTION to get your question answered live on the show!

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NASM study guide: ...

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Show Up Fitness Podcast, where great personal trainers are made. We are changing the fitness industry one qualified trainer at a time, with our in-person and online personal training certification. If you want to become an elite personal trainer, head on over to showupfitnesscom. Also, make sure to check out my book how to Become a Successful Personal Trainer. Don't forget to subscribe, rate and review. Have a great day and keep showing up. Howdy everybody. Welcome back to the Show Up Fitness Podcast.

Speaker 1:

Today, we're going to help you become a successful personal trainer by asking better questions. You should not be asking what's the best certification, because that's not a great question. You should be asking what certification is going to give me the most opportunities to become successful? Where do I want to train? Who's going to be my mentor? If I'm getting mentored, who's mentoring them? What certifications do they have? What internships do they have? What is going to set me up for success as a trainer in 2025? That's the question we should be asking, not what's the best certification, because there's so many out there. It depends on what's going to open up the best, most fruitful doors for you, and that's what we're going to dissect today. My name is Chris Hitchco, also known as the Belt Buckle Trainer. I've been a trainer for 20 years, teacher of trainers for 10, author of the book how to Become a Successful Personal Trainer, with gyms in Santa Monica and La Jolla. I've networked with some of the best professionals in the industry doctors, physical therapists, rds, professors and we are changing the landscape for personal trainers by helping you become successful. It's not about the certification. It's about the opportunities that the certification will provide. If you need a specific certification because someone told you, then get it. Otherwise, you want the foundation understanding the people skills, business skills, trade skills. There's no certification out there as of 2025 that provides for that, other than Show Up Fitness, and that's why we're the only certification that can pridefully say with our certification, you are guaranteed an interview at Lifetime Fitness and Equinox. We have built up our brand, working with the best gyms, helping trainers build their online business, open up gyms internationally, develop streams of revenue, being competent but, most importantly, confident, pursuing your passion for fitness. What is the best personal training certification in 2025? If you were to ask 10 car owners, nine of which had a Tesla, what is the best car? What do you think they're going to say? There are 1.1 million trainers in the United States, of which 70,000 new trainers are going to come into the field in 2025. 89% of these trainers have a certification with ACE, issa or NASM. What do you think those car owners are going to say? Do you think they're going to tell you another car that you should purchase? It's the wrong questions that we're asking. You should be asking what personal training certification is going to make me successful. 90% of trainers quit within the first year. It's because we do not gain hands-on, supervised experience. That's the elephant in the room. I've been a trainer for 20 years. I wrote the book how to Become a Successful Personal Trainer. Sure, I'm going to tell you, our certification is the best in the world. It's because the proof is in the pudding.

Speaker 1:

You need to ask yourself what do you want to do with your career as a trainer? So I have a challenge for you. When you go to Reddit, facebook, quora whatever we are looking on today and asking advice from avatars, how do you know? It's not one of these companies that's making these responses? You need to ask better questions. I would love to get on a call with someone to talk to me more about the certification industry. Do you know the background with NSCA, acsm, issa that's just a soup colada right there the acronyms after our names.

Speaker 1:

Your clients do not give a rat's ass about your certification. They want someone who is competent and confident, someone who can listen to them but then give them results, and trainers are not taught that in textbooks. You need to find a certification for what your end goal is going to be, so the first question should be what do you want to do? Most trainers need to go to a gym, gain experience. Unfortunately, that does not necessarily set you up for success. You could have a manager who's all about numbers, so they're going to be throwing numbers and sales at you all day. Did you sign up to become a salesperson? And your mentality is so important because sales is part of our job. You should love it. You shouldn't fear sales, as a bartender is not going to be scared when someone sits down at their bar. You ask them a question what do you want? How can I help you Smile? Then you give them what they want.

Speaker 1:

Trainers today are scared of the assessment process. They're scared of prospecting. I go to Equinox in Lifetime on a regular basis. I see it firsthand. 8,000 trainers go to these gyms and these are the best of the best and they're scared, they're angry at the system. They point a finger big brother takes all my money. It's hard to become a successful personal trainer. I don't think that's the case when you go down the path that is least traveled, it's the most difficult, it's scary. And if you ask these frustrated trainers, how do I become certified, they're going to tell you just go get one of those basic ones and ask them a size and whatever it's going to be, because you're not asking the right question. You need to interview people, as I did in my book. Hundreds of trainers and not one said specifically it was this certification that got them to where they are now. It's the internships, the seminars, the hands-on learning, the mentorships, getting tutored.

Speaker 1:

There's something about being able to ask a question, get an answer and then go do it. Chinese proverb says we don't remember much that we hear. We do a little better when we see it, but we really learn when we do it. Just do it, just show up. So if you want to become a successful personal trainer, ask the first question what do you want to do? Where do you want to train If you live in BFE, out in the middle of nowhere and there's only two gyms.

Speaker 1:

You go into that gym and you say I want to work here, I'm going to become the best trainer here. What certification do you want me to get? You have to check that list off. They may want NASM, ace, isa, whatever. Do it and then become the best in that environment with your people skills. Show them that you are willing to do anything and everything within reason. Keep it PC and you will thrive. But you need to get out on a weekend, a monthly basis, learning from others outside of your community.

Speaker 1:

I've consulted with so many trainers and they ask me which certification should I get? I never respond even with ours, we have the best certification out there. But I ask them what are your goals? What are you trying to do? I live in BFE. That means butt, fuck Egypt All the way out there in the middle of nowhere. What does that gym want? They want me to get my ace. Go, get your ace. Do I have to read the whole textbook? No, get a guide. Pass it as quickly as you can Before you get that certification though $900 or you fall for some giant bundle. Let me get in contact with that manager and learn why they want that specific certification and if they say something like it's just what we want, you have to play that manager's game.

Speaker 1:

I own gyms Santa Monica, san Diego. There is not a law in the world that says you have to have a certification to be a personal trainer. You need insurance. That is it. So when a gym says we require NASM, think twice about what you're going to be doing in that gym, Because a conspiracy theory alert. I don't know. This is my opinion, but maybe they're giving that gym a kickback, or Ace is giving that gym a kickback, or ISSA is giving that gym a kickback, or ACE is giving that gym a kickback, or ISSA is giving that gym a kickback. These companies have millions of dollars. They're out there getting their name within the system. It's part of a free market. I love it.

Speaker 1:

I just did a podcast talking about one of the best ways to get clients in a gym environment is to pay membership advisors. That's not fair. Life isn't fair. I could be sitting back eating ice cream and chips, becoming a fat couch potato, like Ben Stiller did in Dodgeball Great movie. Oh, it's so. It's not fair being a victim. Well, what does that do? Is it fair that the Chiefs have Mahomes and they have this packed awesome roster. No, you get better, and that's exactly what we're doing.

Speaker 1:

Our certification prepares trainers with the three skills that they're missing. The trade skills understanding movement, the fundamentals and principles of kinesiology. Number two, the business skills how to scale your business, how to build a book of business. Three streams of revenue is what you should be striving for, I tell our trainers. Your second stream should pay for your mortgage. Your third stream should be able to pay for all the luxuries that you like in life. The first stream is what you can save, because you absolutely can turn this into a career. And then the last thing are people skills. I can't teach a rock to have a personality, but I can give you pointers on what people are looking for. Just because you're an introvert doesn't mean you're not going to make it. We've done plenty of podcasts where the most successful trainers are introverts. Just because you're outgoing and jacked and you have a personality doesn't mean you're going to be successful. It is a component, and when you have these three components, you are setting yourself up for more success than those that don't. It doesn't mean you cannot be a trainer if you don't have all three.

Speaker 1:

If you just go back and look at the question I asked earlier. When you ask a trainer what's the best certification and they were brought in via a textbook they're going to give you their anecdotes on what they've done. Well, that individual that's called anecdotal evidence. That individual, that's called anecdotal evidence. You want to ask better questions, to learn about the landscape. What are the certifications that you've noticed trainers are the most successful in? As a trainer at ABC or D? Ask deeper, better questions. How long you been a trainer for Eight years Awesome, that's so great.

Speaker 1:

If you could go back and start over as a trainer and you had the opportunity to read a textbook or get a certification that allows you to ask questions, gain hands-on experience, learn about business and assessments, pain management, and take a test that's verbal, which would you do? Management, and take a test that's verbal which would you do? That's an option. I didn't know that, because if you have a conversation with someone who has one of these soup coladas and let's say they have their ISSA and you go, I'm going to get my show up in a CPT. I learned the 17 muscles of the shoulder. I can tell you 20 of the lower body, all the core movement patterns, and design a program within two minutes. They're going to be like what? That's impossible. You shouldn't be able to do that. I didn't do that. Therefore, that is wrong and that is natural for them to experience that feeling.

Speaker 1:

You need to be empathetic on the way that people enter the industry, because 90% don't make it past a year. And then the ones that do, they struggle, they burn out. Go online and type in what is the career like as a personal trainer. Go to Reddit. That's a fun one. All these bitter Betsys, pissed off Franks so hard to become a trainer. You can't make any money. Change careers. Ask yourself, I wonder how they got certified. Ask them what was your certification? And they're going to tell you A, b, c or D. Do you feel like they set you up for success? Well, you just need a certification to start training. So tell me this success. Well, you just need a certification to start training. So tell me this you got certified and you went out there and you got unsupervised experience. Is that correct? Don't do it in a snobby way. That's why I got blocked on Reddit. I'm learning. I'm getting better. You have to ask better questions.

Speaker 1:

If you want to become a hairstylist, what do you do? You go to school and you cut hair you actually cut dummies hair and you have someone say, oh, I wouldn't do that, not going to be smart Do this technique, and sometimes they'll let you fail. Watch this, they're going to screw up. Boom, hair's on fire. You learn on a dummy. What do we do as trainers, as personal trainers? I'm not talking down to you, it just blows my mind how we settle for this. You read a textbook and then you go out there and you gain unsupervised experience. No wonder why so many trainers experience imposter syndrome, because you do not know what the fuck you're doing.

Speaker 1:

You have a human body in front of you and you have to assess them on some movement screen, whatever it is that they're going to tell you, to tell them that they're wrong and imbalanced, but got to fix you. And then you take them through a workout. It's either too hard or not hard enough. You sit down and you go. You should train with me. The back of your mind, you're thinking $4,000. That's a lot of money. Maybe sometime you'd like to train with me. I'm $75 per hour and the person's chuckling inside. They go, let me think about it, which is translated into you didn't show jack shit for value. Why should I trust you with my life? Because I see all these influencers online and they're confident. It's a fake confidence, but that's what they're comparing yourself to. So when you go into the assessment, confident, you're looking the part, you're talking the part, you're letting your personality show its true colors. They're saying you know what this person's fun. I want to work with them and they sign up with you because you're the qualified personal trainer. You're the professional. It's not the certification behind you on your wall. That doesn't mean shit.

Speaker 1:

How do you become a doctor? You have to take a really hard test. You have to take a really hard test, mcats, get into med school and then you try out different specialties. You intern over here, you intern over there and then, when you're done with thousands of hours of proper supervised experience, you go out there and you earn your stripes.

Speaker 1:

Not with trainers, though they take a textbook cert. They apply to the high-end gyms like Equinox. And trainers, though they take a textbook cert, they apply to the high-end gyms like Equinox and Lifetime. They don't get accepted, so then they go to a lower-end one just to gain experience. Poor souls over there. At LA Fitness and EOS, the members are getting trainers who have no idea what they're doing and they get hurt and that is why we have a bad rep.

Speaker 1:

Go to a physical therapist and ask them what personal training certification do you feel sets trainers up for the best success? And you're going to hear ACSM and NSCA. How was that? Well, when you go online, everyone else says these other three it's because those have backgrounds in education. So when you ask educated medical professionals what their experience is, what do you think they're going to tell you? If you ask a lay person, are ferraris the best car? They can't give you their true answer because they've never driven one. And I'm not here on my stool telling you that education needs to be a four-year degree. It just depends on who you ask. Because if you come to our gyms at Shelf Fitness, how do I work here? You got to get your Shelf Fitness CPT. That's all we accept. Well, I have my CSCS, a degree in kinesiology, a master's in kinesiology accept. Well, I have my CSCS, a degree in kinesiology, a master's in kinesiology. I also have my ART and I got I'm an athletic trainer, don't care, you have to go through the fundamentals of movement and understand anatomy.

Speaker 1:

Can you tell me the 17 muscles of shoulder right now. Uh what? The biceps are a. The biceps are a shoulder muscle. The biceps are a shoulder muscle. Coracobrachialis is a muscle. Can you tell me the names of the quad muscles? High bar, low bar, squat You're going to work more glutes, why?

Speaker 1:

I don't want you to check a box for an answer. I want you to have a conversation with me. Take me through a program for a client who's 40 years old and 30 pounds overweight right now. Can I have some time to think about it? No, because when you're here you could have someone walk by a celebrity and say, hey, can you give me a workout? Hold on, let me go right out of program. Give me 30 minutes. What? No, because we set trainers up for success and that's why at the best gyms in the world Equinox and Lifetime you're guaranteed an interview when you have your show up in a CPT. They want the best and they recognize that we are the best. We just don't have millions of dollars behind our names to market and to do that survey with 10 trainers who have those textbook certifications. So all I'm asking for you is to ask better questions.

Speaker 1:

I want you to become a successful personal trainer and that is why I wrote the book. I've interviewed thousands of trainers, hundreds of managers. I talked to a manager the other day in India that's my fascination right now the business in other countries and he said he's interviewed a hundred trainers. Two or three is what he thought were decent, and in my book I talk about 90% of trainers quitting. It's not to say these people are bad, it's the standard for entry that's bad, because we're personal trainers and I'm speaking slow, not because you're slow, it's because it frustrates me that we allow for this to happen.

Speaker 1:

You want to help people. You have an amazing story to tell. You lost a bunch of weight, you got injured, you had some crazy disease that a doctor told you you were a pile of shit and not fixable. Yes, you are, because you figured it out and now you have a message to share with the world and help them. But a lot of these certifications don't allow for that. But a lot of these certifications don't allow for that Because when you're communicating with people people, skills you need to be able to show value in your services and confidently let them know how much you cost.

Speaker 1:

That's the business side. Ankle pain or thoracic outlet syndrome. You know you can help them or refer out to your medical professional team therapists, doctors, rds and that's what we're doing at Show Up. We're setting trainers up for success by building a superior team. Whereas in the 2000s trainers were one person, now, moving forward, trainers are a team. We're at the front line of defense. We are getting more overweight, more obese, can't even say these words anymore. It's shaming. What do we call it? I don't know, but we have a lot of work to do. People need your help and you can't help them if you quit. Being a personal trainer is a career. You can make a lot of money helping people, developing streams of revenue, networking with like-minded medical professionals, certifications that require a textbook, and a textbook only, without opportunities for hands-on learning, asking questions to professionals.

Speaker 1:

Here's a perfect case example One of our trainers just got certified and she's working at one of the big gyms big six, I'll call them, over 3,000 in the world. She has a client coming in. She sent me her workout. She's going to be doing a leg press lat pull down into a plank first circuit, second circuit, goblets into pushups, into another bicycle, ab variation and by performing three rounds of each one of those circuits what we call the CCA that would take about 30 minutes. In her gym the sessions are 30 minutes. So I asked her do you think this is a great workout? She said I think so. I said I think that what we can do to make it better is to do a leg press with a pushup and then the second circuit. You do the goblet and the lat pulldown. It's going to be more economical.

Speaker 1:

I'm not looking at necessarily the exercise, I'm looking at the movement pattern Squat, hinge, push, pull, unilateral, transitional. Are we pushing up vertically or pushing out horizontally, back chest, understanding movement. She said wow, that's actually a great idea. I didn't think about that, otherwise she would have gone out there lap pull down, machines taken, what do I do? Doesn't know how to think on the fly.

Speaker 1:

So confidence starts dropping because that client can absolutely sense the uncertainty, the anxiousness. What do I do? Where do I go so that client doesn't continue to train with her? What happens inside? Man, I'm a shitty trainer. This isn't for me. I'm only making 10 bucks an hour. What the gym's taking all my money? I'm going to go become an independent contractor. How do you get clients? How do you build a book of business? How do you sell at five times that rate, because you may be getting 10, the gym's charging 65, but you don't see the value at 65. So you're going to go charge less $30 an hour it's more the minimum wage but the best trainers out there in the big markets LA, miami, new York are charging $200 plus per hour and they're training four hours a day, three to five times per week, and they're making a lot of money helping the kinds of people that they enjoy helping. On the side, they can innovate new products to generate streams of revenue. They're still going to weekend seminars and learning from professionals, because we all have that yearning to become better.

Speaker 1:

We want to continue to learn. Those are really the questions we should be asking when we interview trainers, not going to Facebook and Reddit. If you want to follow up with the question, this is the certification you should get. Great, thank you for the input. What continuing education have you done? Hands-on learning have you gone to a John Russen seminar? Ppsc, barbell rehab have you done some type of kettlebell training? Strong first, our partnership with Lifetime we're going to be going to 16 in 2025. Two days you're going to be around the best trainers and think differently. Learn how to get your clients out of pain with our soft tissue mobilization certification, but, most importantly, you get to see what quality is. So you go back home and you become better for your clients. There's a fire under your ass now.

Speaker 1:

If we're not gaining hands-on experience, learning continually, you may want to think twice about that advice you're getting from someone. Is it the best advice? Or maybe they're a little frustrated because where they're at right now they're not turning a profit. They're burning out and they just want to give back and at that point in their life they don't see value at the gym they're at. It's a rat wheel. This place sucks. I don't make any money. It's so hard to become a trainer and they go to the great gyms like Equinox and Lifetime and they don't get hired because they can't think on the fly. They weren't given the tools and challenge to level up at these lower end gyms. It's not to say that LA Fitness and 24, they suck, but that is the pecking order. Trainers want to make more at the high end gyms because you can easily clear $100,000. It may take the average trainer three or four years when trainers get their show up fitness CPT.

Speaker 1:

Listen to the podcast with Joe Roy numerous trainers number one trainer at Lifetime, number one trainer at Crunch, top trainers at Equinox. They're clearing six figures. But, more importantly, they're not burning out. Doing 200 sessions per month not realistic. That's why trainers will say things like it's a young person's game. No, in the 2000s it may have been. When you take the route that everyone else was, it's an even playing field of mediocrity.

Speaker 1:

If you don't want to be a mediocre trainer, take a step back, reflect, ask that question reading a textbook is it really going to make me a great trainer? And then make the decision on what is best for your future. The best trainers I've met in my life they travel for two, three, four month internship, learn from the best, go back home and implement those strategies. That's what success looks like Constantly learning from the best. And this is another tricky spot, because trainers will go to a gym and say I have a mentor, they're taking good care of me. You got to ask them those same questions what is the best seminar you've been to? Who is your mentor? Because trainers when you look at the statistics, 62,000 trainers come into the industry per year from one of these textbook certs. Most of them will not make it. The ones that do. They didn't have internships. They didn't have the hands-on learning. I want to make sure that your mentor has gone through the steps for success.

Speaker 1:

How do you know someone didn't give money for their gym? Maybe they met a client when they were at Equinox and they gave them a bunch of money, started their gym and the client didn't give money for their gym. Maybe they met a client when they were at Equinox and they gave them a bunch of money, started their gym and the client didn't give a shit. Ask better questions. Our industry is a joke. People look at us as we're a joke. We're not professional. I'm not saying I'm a joke. I'm not saying that I'm not professional. I see the playing field as super easy to navigate because I've been doing this for 20 years. So I go and talk to doctors, therapists, dieticians and explain to them our vision.

Speaker 1:

I'm sure you know that most trainers read a textbook and have no idea what they're doing. I know it's unfortunate, but did you know? Trainers that get a certification where they're able to ask questions get an internship under the belt, link up with therapists and dieticians? They're significantly better. Wow, I've never heard of that before. That's awesome. Just because you haven't heard of it doesn't mean it's not good. Mcdonald's is one of the most popular corporations in the world From a business perspective. They know how to scale and grow. Doesn't mean their food is good. Sorry, ray Kroc. Awesome business model, great book, but the food sucks. But just because they're everywhere doesn't mean the quality is there.

Speaker 1:

Personal trainers you throw a rock. You're going to hit 30 of them. That's not competition. If you take the route that's least traveled, learn from instructors, ask questions, be able to communicate what it's like to do our role verbally. Your test should showcase your movement competency as we have it. Show up in this. You have to submit videos showing you understand movement Because if you understand it, there's a lot better chance that you're going to be able to teach that to your clients versus not knowing at all, being able to talk through a training program and designing it on the spot. And that is why we have the most trainers getting hired at Lifetime and Equinox and I get emails all the time from recruiters Chris, we need more. Show up fitness CPTs. We are changing the industry. One qualified trainer at a time and it's frustrating for other trainers to see that because they're jealous, because they wish they had this when they went through, but they didn't. So when you surround yourself with growth mindset trainers, they will say things like it doesn't matter the certification, it's the opportunities that you're given and if you need that opportunity with a certain certification, then get that certification.

Speaker 1:

I have trainers that will reach out to me. I need to work at the YMCA Great, go get NASA. They prefer that. I need to work at F45. Great, go get your ISSA. They prefer that I'm in India. They want ACE at this gym, then go get that. There's this one random certification you've never heard of. They require me to get that. You have to get that If you want to work at a gym that charges $150 to $350 per hour and you can make significantly more than any gym in the world.

Speaker 1:

You come to Show Up Fitness in our gyms, where you get to work alongside therapists and you have a team that sets you up for success. You have to have your Show Up Fitness CPT. I don't care how many years you've been training, what certifications you have, your resume will not even get looked at. It gets thrown away. Actually, I use it a lot in our classes to show trainers that want to become successful. What a shitty resume. Looks like Two pages and a photo of you doing bicep curls. Come on, no. 2025 is your year to become a successful personal trainer. Ask better questions, get the best certifications. Ask better questions, get the best certifications. Learn with supervised experience. Get a mentor, hands-on learning, weekend seminars we got you covered. My goal is to change the fitness industry by creating the best, most qualified elite personal trainers in the world, and we're doing that one day at a time.

Speaker 1:

Thank you all for watching this. If you enjoyed it, leave a comment. Thank you all for watching this. If you enjoyed it, leave a comment, shoot us a message. Info at showoffitnesscom. If you want to hop on the podcast, I would love to hear your story so we can become more ubiquitous and make the industry more professional. Have a great day and keep showing up.