The Show Up Fitness Podcast

Ep. 205 Best globally recognized Personal Training Certifications 2025 | March Madness Top 16 Fitness Certifications

• Chris Hitchko, CEO Show Up Fitness • Season 2 • Episode 205

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What are the best personal training certifications? 

How to Become A Successful Personal Trainer Vol 2. Breaks down the top globally recognized personal training certifications.

NASM, ISSA, ACE, NSCA, ACSM, NCSF, FFT LEVEL 3 (UK), Canada Fit Pro (Can Fit Pro), SUF CPT, NPTI, Fitness Mentors, Brent Brookbush Institute, NPTA, what’s the best personal training certifications for you to become a personal trainer?

Navigating the maze of personal training certifications just got easier with our comprehensive "March Madness" style breakdown of the top 16 globally recognized credentials. We pull back the curtain on what makes each certification unique, revealing critical insights that go beyond the marketing hype.

The "big four" certifications—NASM, ACE, NSCA-CPT, and ISSA—dominate the industry landscape, but does their recognition truly reflect their quality? We examine how investment firms with deep pockets have positioned certain certifications as the "gold standard" through aggressive marketing rather than superior educational content. A simple Reddit search for "NASM personal trainer hell" might tell you more than their polished website ever will.

Most aspiring trainers face a shocking reality: 90% quit within their first year. This isn't primarily due to lack of knowledge about exercise science, but rather gaps in practical skills—assessment capabilities, programming expertise, business acumen, and client management abilities. The certification you choose should prepare you for these real-world challenges, not just help you pass a multiple-choice exam.

What truly matters in selecting a certification is alignment with your career goals. Before committing to any program, research where you want to work and what certifications those establishments recognize. The most valuable approach is interviewing trainers at your target gyms rather than relying on opinions from anonymous internet users.

The fitness industry isn't sa

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Speaker 1:

and a skeleton for 20 bucks. They're not gonna come close to NASM. Nasm is the quote-unquote gold standard because they're the most recognized. Go to Reddit type in NASM personal trainer Hell. Go to Yelp and really are they the gold standard? Or they just have a lot of money to pump into the Google machine and that's how you came across them. Nasm blows them away. They're moving on to round two.

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.

Speaker 1:

What are the top 16 globally recognized certifications? It's March Madness 2025, and what better time to break down this bracket? The top 4 seeds who's playing who? What is the best certification? Ultimately, it depends. I'm a little biased. We're on the list. I've got a lot of these certifications myself, but at the end of the day, you have to ask yourself what do you want to do? Where do you want to work. You should go to that gym, interview trainers there and gather data, survey people, versus going to Reddit or a Facebook group and having a bunch of avatars telling you their opinion. And most likely they have one certification as a teacher of trainers over 15 years.

Speaker 1:

Author of the book how to become a successful personal trainer. Volume two is out. We can help anyone pass a textbook certification. It's about becoming qualified. That's what we need to focus on.

Speaker 1:

So let's break down the top four seeds with number one, national Academy of Spectacular Marketing. I mean National Academy of Sports Medicine number one on the list, owned by Blackstone Investment. A lot of money to pop into the Google machine. That's how you probably came across them. Number two on the list we have ACE, american Council on Exercise. This is like the grandfather certification been around for a long time, typically older trainers, nothing wrong with it, but that's what you're gonna come across. Number three NSCA National Strength and Conditioning Association, not confused with the CSCS, which is a strength coach certification. That is not on this list because it's a whole different ballgame. Nsca CPT is number three. Number four we have ISSA, owned by Tailwind Investment Firm. A lot of money to pump in front of you. Maybe we're going to meet in the championship. We will find out. Number five National Council of Strength and Fitness. Number six American College of Sports Medicine. Number seven Fitness Mentors. Number eight Brent Brook Bush Institute Named it after himself. Is he going to go far? Let's find out. Number nine NPTA National Personal Training Association, not confused with APTA, which is physical therapy.

Speaker 1:

Number 10, got into the rankings in 2024, the Show Up Fitness CPT Partnered with Lifetime. The show up fitness cpt partnered with lifetime. We do weekend seminars there. I'm a little biased on that one. Online in person, you can get certified and become a qualified personal trainer recognized all over the globe. The fastest growing certification on the list today.

Speaker 1:

Number 11 being nfpt national federation of professional trainers. Number 12 canada fit pro. Number 13 being NFPT National Federation of Professional Trainers. Number 12, canada Fit Pro. Number 13, fft, which is Future Fit Training. Level 3, and that's going to be in the UK. Number 14, national Exercise and Sports Trainers Association, nesta. That's associated with 24. They've been around for a while. A lot of trainers at 24.fit pro that is the environment you grew up in at 24.

Speaker 1:

Number 15 on the list npti national personal training institute. I used to teach there. Interesting things coming up we will discuss later. And last but not least, number 16 national school of fitness education in india. Now I'm being a little biased here, as we don't have east asia or south asia on here or the land down under in australia. I'm not too familiar with those places so I cannot give a true, unbiased opinion. But as a teacher of trainers, I've taught NASM textbooks fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh edition. We've helped over 5,000 trainers get certified with NASM, ace and ISSA also ISSA these are the textbook certifications that I will refer to as the fast food or the fitness industry.

Speaker 1:

Just because they're the most recognized doesn't mean they're the best. You need to look at where you want to train and will it get you into the door. But, most importantly, do you have the skills that are required to get past that dreaded 12-month marker? 90% of trainers quit within the first year. So I talk about in my book. I interviewed hundreds and hundreds of trainers and managers, gathered data. Why are we not respected?

Speaker 1:

You should be considering yourself a medical professional. You have a physical therapist, a registered dietitian, an occupational therapist, a psychologist. They're on your team and you're consulting with them regularly and your team is going to better serve your clientele, who you want to help. But unfortunately we don't have that team and we don't have the business skills. We're afraid of sales. You should be excited about pitching your product, which is you. You are the value. Get excited to negotiate with your client because you can help them.

Speaker 1:

The technical skills Do you know how to assess? Do you know how to program? I saw a post the other day on Facebook. I have my first client coming in. Should I assess them? Should I train them? What should I do? Could you imagine a heart surgeon? Yay, I just got my MD. I'm about to do my first surgery ever. Can I get some pointers? Holy moly, that person's not going to be too excited to go to the night with a doctor that's never worked on an actual client.

Speaker 1:

But in the medical industry you go through internships, you work on patients, you have an instructor giving you feedback and that's what we need more of. The hands-on learning is going to change your perspective of the fitness industry because you're going to be confident. Competence comes from the technical skills knowing your anatomy of the shoulder, lower body, the movement patterns and being able to design a program on the spot. That's exactly what we teach within our certification. So how? March Madness works in the bracket, the number one seed will play the lowest seed, and so forth. So we have it broken up into the one seed being nasm playing nsfe.

Speaker 1:

This is an indian-based certification. You can get six certifications and a skeleton for 20 bucks. They're not going to come close to nasm. Nasm is the quote, unquote gold standard because they're the most recognized. Go to Reddit, type in NASM, personal trainer, hell. Go to Yelp and really are they the gold standard? Or they just have a lot of money to pump into the Google machine. And that's how you came across them. Nasm blows them away. They're moving on to round two. Underneath them we have the eight and nine matchup Brent Brooke Bush certification and NPTA. If you go to a gym and you say I have my Brent Brooke Bush certification, they're not going to hire you. Why do we name it after ourselves Going a different accredited route? I give him a lot of credit, smart dude, but he's not going to pass the ninth seed.

Speaker 1:

That's our first upset of the tournament. Npta is going to be playing NASM in the second round. The five versus 12 seed CanFit Pro is going to upset NCSF. Ncsf has done a great job, getting more into the colleges, universities and schools. But CanFit Pro if you are up there in Canada, that is the most recognized certification. They have a giant hands-on learning seminar. It's held annually. Andrew Coates talks very highly of it. Get yourself there if you're in Canada. 20,000 to 30,000 trainers in Canada, a lot of opportunity for that market size. But it's most recognized there.

Speaker 1:

The fourth seed ISSA. They are going to beat the living hell out of FFT. If you're in the UK you got to have the level three to get hired at the most respected gyms. Issa is recognized there and we're going through that process to get our UK accreditation, level three. It's a little different than being recognized in the States, as we are in India as well as South America. You would not be able to get hired at those high-end gyms without the level three. But they can't hold the candle to ISSA. So they're moving on. So the left side of the bracket is done.

Speaker 1:

Now let's take a look at the right side of the bracket, with the third seed being NSCA, the powerhouse nonprofit. They have the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Association. This is going to be a tough one to overcome. Nesta does not stand a chance. That's a 25-point spread. They end up blowing them out Playing in the next game. We have ACSM against NFPT, merrin College of Sports Medicine, also nonprofit, one of the more respected certifications. They're going to move on and we have a battle of the non-profits with the three seed playing, the six seed number seven against the ten.

Speaker 1:

Show up fitness at ten number seven fitness mentors. Sorry, bud, you're not going to be able to hold up against show up because we have the number one trainer at Lifetime, top 10 Equinox number one at Crunch. You get your show up in the CPT. You are a qualified trainer. You are going to get hired at the best gyms, start an online business, create streams of revenue and you're going to be moving through the fitness industry incredibly fast. It's like Mario Brothers You're going from world to world, or Mario Kart whatever the hell that game was. I'm old, I'm in my 40s oh my gosh, you used to have that game. You can go to level world one, world two, world three. When you have your show up fitness CPT, you're able to skip worlds because you're that advanced.

Speaker 1:

As a personal trainer, I've been to seminars before some of the best hands-on learning and the trainers there who were the 1% were not competent when it came to movement standards as well as anatomy. It's not to say that they're bad trainers. They're out there doing what other trainers not getting that hands-on, but the anatomy, the programming, that stuff lacks. And that's exactly what you're going to learn with the CCA at Show Up Fitness. They blow through them. And our hugest upset of the tournament, the number 15 seed, npti oh my gosh, we went through a lawsuit with them. They are going to beat Ace. Ace is old school. They are gonna beat ace. Ace is old school. They're not competing anymore.

Speaker 1:

Npti six month program hands-on. It's a legit program, so they're gonna move on. It's a 15 seat, so we're gonna work backwards. Now we got npti versus show up fitness. The diploma is not going to get you into the high end gyms like equinox and lifetime, so show Up Fitness is going to be the first team moving on to the final four. Npti Show Up Fitness stay tuned for some exciting stuff that's about to happen. They are the most recognized school globally. Maybe, just maybe, we sense a partnership coming along. Got to stay tuned as we are growing significantly globally, partnering with the best gyms, best schools. We're the best certification. I'm a little biased, though. You see how I put us at number 10, and I didn't name the certification after belt buckle trainer. It is the best you will see when you go through it. That's why we have a guarantee if you go to a hands-on two-day seminar you will learn more than any of these certifications. Money back guarantee.

Speaker 1:

First team in the final four, working our way up to the battle of the nonprofits, nsca versus ACSM. You got to go with the strength side. I love the CAD risk stratifications. Check out the lawsuits via negligence. It's a scary world out there. Trainers are getting sued and they should be more. Trainers should be held accountable. I love the acsm. In a double overtime loss they could not get past nsca. Second team in the final four on the left side of the bracket we have international battle with ISSA, the four seed, versus CanFit Pro, the 12 seed. But ISSA is too strong on the boards. It was a defensive matchup and CanFit Pro goes down in one overtime with a loss to ISSA, with our third team getting to the final four.

Speaker 1:

In the upper left quadrant, the powerhouse, the duke of basketball. Everyone hates him. I'm just joking, but those blue bloods, they're scary right and nasim is gonna face npta. They breeze on through him, crushing him by 33 points. Holy, molyassim is in the final four folks. So we have NSCA against Show Up Fitness. We have Nassim versus ISSA. What is going to happen in that first game, the two investment firms with billions of dollars, tailwind versus Blackstone. What happens? Blackstone is going to win. You got Nassim crushing ISSA. They're beating them by 23, kind of like UConn, where I went to school.

Speaker 1:

I did an internship, learned from some of the best kinesiologists in the world. Recently they just won two national championships. Kind of starting to look like Nassim into the final game against who? Nsca versus Show Up Fitness? I learned a lot from Dr Kramer NSCA based in a lot of colleges. I got my CSCS and if it was the CSCS against Show Up it would lose. But it's not, it's the CPT and Show Up Fitness comes in strong, beats NSCAsca even though they have a journal. Maybe show up well in the future and they get into the final game.

Speaker 1:

Nasm versus show up fitness, cpt with a world record breaking game eight overtimes, beating syracuse, I think, against yukn about 10, 15 years ago, six overtimes. This game goes down to the wire. But show up cannot get that victory. They lost, oh my God, the McDonald's of personal training certifications. Nasm cuts down the nets and they are the champions. But just because they're the most recognized doesn't mean they're the gold standard.

Speaker 1:

I have a ton of respect for NASM. It's like sport my team's better, you're going to say your team's better. I'm going to wear my show up swag. They're going to wear their NASM stuff to each their own. But at Show Up we're not balancing on BOSU balls and doing weird things to foam rollers. We focus on movement patterns, we learn how to regress and progress and we double down on anatomy and programming and being competent so you can network with medical professionals. Just because we didn't win this year doesn't mean we can't come back next year, maybe with some funding, bigger partnerships. A lot of gyms are growing eos. They're on our radar. We partner with genesis 40 gyms in the midwest. We're really looking forward to getting over into the uk tapping into the best gyms like third space, david lloyd gyms, the equinox over.

Speaker 1:

This is what I do on a daily basis. I network with recruiters and the best of the best trainers to let them know about our certification, because ubiquity is where NASM beat us and we cannot get mad at that. You can't get bitter. It's not fair to have all this money to put these stupid exercises out there. To each their own. Nassim, get your panties and jockstrap out of a bundle. But we are becoming more ubiquitous. We see them and what the industry sees, and that's what we're trying to replicate.

Speaker 1:

So when people on YouTube and or Reddit or Facebook ask I'm thinking about becoming a personal trainer, the first thing you should do is read the book, because it's going to set clear expectations of what the industry is like. You're not going to be working eight to five. You're going to need to grind it out and understand the tenets of success, the characteristics as I talk about with help, nick. That mindset is so important Surrounding yourself with significant trainers always working towards becoming better as a trainer and as a person so you can better serve your clients and get them better results. We have strength standards that show up. Are you strong enough to be a trainer? It's not saying that you cannot be a trainer if you're a hunkette or a lady and you can't do three pull-ups. But what are we currently focusing on? Are we reading? Are we improving our brain, our intellect, or are we just scrolling through social media? We say the industry is saturated. It's saturated with textbook certifications. Influencers are not our competition when you go out there and you talk to physical therapists.

Speaker 1:

I have a client here in Santa Monica and she just connected me with her concierge doctor and I'm having a conversation about the GLP one that he has her taking. We have a dinner scheduled. I'm going to treat and we're going to have an educated conversation. I guarantee you, within that conversation, he's going to be like wow, I can't believe you're a trainer. And I'm going to laugh and say, yeah, doc, you probably thought I had some gold gym t-shirt, dental T-floss, bicep curling loud, obnoxious. I can be like that on YouTube, but it's all for show. You didn't think I knew the rotator. Cuff muscles, doc, what are they? And I'll quiz them. And you'll be like cuff muscles, doc, what are they? And I'll quiz them. And you'll be like, oh man, I actually forgot those.

Speaker 1:

It's nice having a conversation with other medical professionals. You know how many therapists I've talked to that their whole, entire clientele. Their clinic is full of clients who were hurt from trainers. That's what frustrates me Trainers that are hurting clients, annihilating them, doing stupid screens like the FM master overhead squat assessment, scaring people. You have a 13, you're going to be hurt Instead of being pro movement.

Speaker 1:

What are your goals? Let's squat, let's hinge, do some unilateral variations, let's jump transitionally, let's push and pull and press. Let's see what you're capable of doing and then make it fun within reason. With the accessory, you overload those main core movements. Tension is the number one driver for hypertrophy. Everyone wants to gain muscle, lose fat. Sarcopenia, dynopenia, sarcopenic obesity Holy moly. These are things that shouldn't be happening as we age and they're preventable within reason If we focus on moving properly, overloading the tissue, understanding the cover on my book Milo of Croton what happened? How did he get so jacked up by implementing these tenets within programming.

Speaker 1:

At Show Up, we have a board. We have professors, registered dietitians, physical therapists. We've partnered with the prehab guys, some of the best professors and therapists, like Dr Waterbury at USC. We are constantly improving via our Swift. We want to get in front of more people and that's why we go to lifetimes every month. We're going to be in Austin the beginning of April. We're going to be in San Francisco at a private gym Body Mechanics in the middle of April, as I just said, and the end of April we're going to go to Sacramento. And Sacramento, I have to tell you, is our coolest one yet and here's why the manager at that gym there's three in the greater Sacramento area can't require but he is a highly pushing all of his trainers to get one certification through show-off fitness.

Speaker 1:

If you want to get better at programming assessments, you have the CPT, the soft tissue, the show fitness STM to better understand pain management and the biopsychosocial model of pain, then get that. You get one CEU. Or become a nutrition coach. You also get a CEU for that. Where you're going to work with a dietician and build your team, we have live calls that are recorded. We're the only certification that has that.

Speaker 1:

We're also the only certification where you get to ask questions to actual people. Go online and ask how easy is it to have a conversation with one of these other 15 representatives? You're going to get an AI bot. Everyone's trying to automate, simplify things. That makes your life harder, but remember, you got in this to help people and that's exactly what we're doing. We're making the best trainers who are qualified. If you want to become a qualified trainer, read the book, listen to the podcast, hop onto our calls. You can come in for free to get an idea of what it's like I guarantee you, in one month you will learn more than any certification out there. But, most importantly, you're going to start building that confidence so you can go out there and build a book of business streams of revenue, help clients get out of pain and turn your passion for fitness into career. Be sure to comment, like, subscribe, send us an email or a message on Instagram, tiktok as well, and remember big biceps are better than small ones, and keep showing up.