The Show Up Fitness Podcast

Death of Personal Training Certifications - The UAE Ban: Why Personal Training Certifications Need Hands-On Learning

• Chris Hitchko, CEO Show Up Fitness • Season 2 • Episode 208

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The personal training industry just received a massive wake-up call. The United Arab Emirates has banned several major fitness certifications—including ACE, NASM, and ISSA—for lacking hands-on, practical learning components. This groundbreaking decision highlights what many industry veterans have known for years: there's a vast difference between being certified and being qualified.

What would you think of a surgeon who planned to "fake it till they make it" with your body? Yet this is precisely the mindset many newly certified trainers adopt after completing textbook-only certifications. The statistics tell a troubling story—70,000 new trainers enter the industry annually, with nearly 90% obtaining their credentials through text-based, multiple-choice exams. Perhaps this explains why 90% quit within their first year.

The certification crisis creates a predictable pattern: trainers study theoretical concepts, pass an exam, proudly display their credentials, then face crippling impostor syndrome when dealing with actual clients. Many respond by accumulating more certifications rather than seeking the supervised, practical experience they desperately need. This cycle of theoretical knowledge without application leaves trainers unprepared for real-world challenges like conducting proper assessments, designing effective programs, and communicating value to potential clients.

Quality training education should mirror other professional fields like medicine and law—combining theoretical knowledge with rigorous practical application under expert supervision. When trainers receive critical feedback on their programming, communication style, and client management skills through hands-

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Speaker 1:

I was talking to a trainer who just signed up for a Santa Monica in person, which is on April 7th, and he said that he got a ride over to the gym in an Uber. The Uber driver had their ISSA and he was telling him how he doesn't think he's ever gonna be able to train because he's not confident in training. I guess I just have to fake it until I make it. Can you imagine that mentality with someone else's body? I'm just going to do surgeries until I figure it out. Yeah, that's going to work. Your clients can sniff out the bullshit. 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 break down a very important ban that has taken place in the UAE. They're banning personal training certifications that don't require hands-on learning. Holy moly reps UAE. Think of that as the big brother who oversees the personal training certifications. They just announced that they're not going to be accepting ACE, issa, nasm. You need to have hands-on learning, the quote. Why the change? We believe it's crucial for fitness professionals to have obtained their qualifications through rigorous face-to-face practical learning, practical exams and theory exams. Holy shit, you would think that taking a textbook certification multiple choice test isn't going to set you up for success. I wonder why 90% of trainers quit within the first year.

Speaker 1:

Let's look at the landscape within the United States. 70,000 new trainers come into the industry. 89%, which is 62,000, are going to get NASA, ace, issa. The majority of trainers read a textbook. They get confused. They go online how to pass this textbook? They go to TikTok, they go to Twitter, they go to Reddit all these forms. How did you pass it? You got Robert, 13, 12 inch biceps, telling you that, oh, this is what I did. Oh, you got to go buy this study guide. Yeah, we have study guides because we can help you pass it, because you came across. It's too late. Look what these big corporations are doing. They're even changing their refund policy. I wonder why. Maybe our voice is getting louder. I don't know if that's good or bad. Hmm, always reviewing my Swift thinking about that. That's one of the threats and the fears. They have a return policy now of seven days because they realize the masses are not succeeding.

Speaker 1:

Getting your ACE certification, putting it into your bio, taking a photo yeah, you're going to get a lot of props from your followers, because what are they supposed to say? You're going to fail, dipshit. No. Good job, teddy. Yeah, you're going to get to help people. Well, teddy's thinking yeah, I get to help people. Okay Now, how do I get clients?

Speaker 1:

Hmm, oh gosh, someone just reached out and they want me to train them. What do I do? How do I assess them? I'm going to go back to Facebook and the personal trainers community and ask them hey, how do I assess someone for the first time? You got Melissa and Frank over here saying you shouldn't be a trainer, so it drops your confidence. And you're thinking, wow, I have no idea what the hell to do. I'm going to go get another certification so you get your corrective exercise certification.

Speaker 1:

You waste the next six months studying overactive, underactive stretching techniques and you go through these ebbs and these flows and now you're getting more confident, but you still haven't trained anyone. So what happens next? Someone reaches out and says I thought you were a trainer, could you help me? I have shoulder pain, holy shit. No idea what to do. I've never even actually trained someone, never assessed anyone. Better go get another certification. I want to learn more about nutrition. So you spend the next six months reading a textbook esoteric vocabulary you cannot ask questions to. And what happens? A year later you've done nothing, and I cannot stress this enough. I'm not picking on you. I'm not calling you a loser or a dipshutter or a fat fuck. That's what people do on social media, not me. I'm here to help you. I want you to be successful.

Speaker 1:

You were led astray from the marketing machine. You got into Google. You typed in how to become a trainer. You probably clicked on one of those first ads. You did your quote, unquote research. You asked some other people what's the best certification on a form Ace, isa, nasm, start there and you did what they said.

Speaker 1:

So you feel betrayed. You have this anger in you right now, like, oh my God, this guy's a dick. He's calling me out. I'm not calling you out, I'm calling the industry out. People need our help. People need qualified personal trainers. So I respect the hell out of the United Arab Emirates, dubai, one of the largest cities in the world, over three and a half million people. They're setting the stage worldwide.

Speaker 1:

Now do you think there's going to be some reform in the States? Absolutely not, because how are these corporations going to pivot, open up a bunch of gyms and have hands-on learning? That's going to cost millions. That's not going to help their bottom line by helping trainers become qualified. So what do you do? You get on a board and you start getting board seats. So you vote and, at the end of the day, these certifications are not going to vote for reform because it's going to affect their bottom line. It's politics, it's the beauty of it, it's a free market.

Speaker 1:

I love this. It's like we're playing Monopoly and they got a couple hotels and you're like shit, those are really good pieces of property. I could flip the board over and say fuck everyone. This isn't fair. Poor me, I'm better than you. Or you become strategic and you go huh, all right, well, what can I do? Who can I partner with? How can I make our certification the best there is?

Speaker 1:

The industry needs more hands-on learning. That's what we provide. We have weekend seminars. Every month you have an opportunity to be around the 1% of trainers, to network, to fine-tune your skills when it comes to tactical, auditor, visual cueing, training, other trainers learning soft tissue techniques. That's what the industry needs more of. You need to get to a weekend seminar. Better yet, you get to the in-person, which is two months, and you get all of our certifications. So if you rewind back to what that trainer was doing which is the typical route and it's not default them, that's just what we do Impostor syndrome pops up.

Speaker 1:

I'm not good enough, so you'll get another certification, one. Two years later you finally buckle down and you get a job. La Fitness, whatever it is making nine bucks an hour, nothing wrong with it. But you start gaining experience and then you have this aha moment. Now I'm ready to go to a better gym like Equinox or Lifetime, but it's been three years. So fast forward. Today you go through a two-month internship. You get all of those certifications. When you're done two months, you are at the equivalent of someone who's been in the industry for five years. So that's why I say we produce the best trainers in the world, because we do Most trainers who consider themselves elite or on this pedestal, they get a degree in kinesiology, they get their CSCS, but they don't have supervised experience. That's what we're providing.

Speaker 1:

I just had one of the trainers at our gym in Santa Monica train my client, who I charged $200 to, and then she gave feedback on how that session was. How many trainers gain that type of supervision and experience? That critical feedback that she got from a client is seen nowhere else in the world and that's why our trainers are becoming the best, charging the most, having streams of revenue because they understand like, wow, this is really beneficial. I came in too hot, I was too chatty. The client told me that it was a great session but she really didn't read me. At six o'clock in the morning she came in fired up, talking about all this stuff, which I appreciate. The personality was amazing, but understanding what people want, having those people skills you can't get that in a textbook. That feedback that she got is priceless.

Speaker 1:

Now what about the feedback with the programming? Are you going to get that with a textbook certification? We have a guy who's going through our certification. He's going to get hired at Lifetime up in Sacramento Really cool story. He sent me his program and it was the CCA breakdown as we require for our certification. He's testing for it soon and he asked what are your thoughts on this? I said can you better explain to me why you did a lap pull down into a push up, into a farmer's carry? Because what do you think is going to happen to that lap pull down when you come back to it for the first CCA? After you just exhausted the hands with the farmer's carry, he's like that's a really good point. Let me think on this and provide a better answer.

Speaker 1:

And that's exactly what the learning process should look like. As it says right here. We need more rigorous, face-to-face practical learning, practical exams and theory. That means you have critical conversations, even if it's via text or email. That's superior than watching someone on a video taking a quiz and you don't even practice it. At least with our platform we have the videos on demand, which is on par with everyone else.

Speaker 1:

But then you get into classes and you think critically. It is scary to put yourself out there. It makes you vulnerable. I get it no-transcript. Look at what lawyers do. Look at what doctors do. They go through hands-on learning. They have instructors giving them challenges. They have to produce on the fly. So when push comes to shove in the courtroom. That is exactly what they were prepared for. How are you going to respond to a client that says that stability ball, squat, curl press is stupid. Why am I doing that? Or you sit them down and you go. My sessions are $75 an hour and they go. That's way too expensive. I'm just going to go to F45 for 200 bucks a month. What they just said right there is they didn't see the value in working with you because you didn't listen to what their goals are. So learning the objections and how to overcome those and this is a really interesting conversation to have.

Speaker 1:

And over two years ago I did a podcast with the Dynamic Lifestyle guys twins, eric and Chris. It's called the Death of Personal Training and Certifications, and I'm talking about that. Nick Tumaleno, who I interviewed. In my book. He talks about the death of certifications. It is known amongst fitness professionals who've been in the industry for a long time that the current process is broken, but what we don't have are voices and people challenging the status quo. You still have, in 2025, april, people in Facebook groups and Reddit saying go get your NASM, ace, issa. How ironic is that that a whole entire country says we are not going to accept those certifications because the trainers who get those certs are not qualified. But yet we continue to push people down that route. When you take a step back, you have to see why are so many trainers failing? They don't have the confidence, they don't have the competence. And that's just a few of the tenets In my book. I talk about help, nick, which looks are a part of it. That's the L, but it's not the only part of it.

Speaker 1:

I did a tweet the other day If you're not in great shape, you can still become a trainer. But if you are in great shape and you are a trainer, you're going to get more opportunities than the trainer who's not in great shape. And you are a trainer, you're going to get more opportunities than the trainer who's not in great shape. And I really like that because it's putting out there what our society today doesn't discuss. It's like oh, I can't believe you're calling people fat. Never said that. Just imagine going to a dentist. Would you get mad at a dentist if they did a tweet saying don't go to a dentist who has fucked up teeth, you're not going to go there. Hey, doc, I have a motor. Oh, my good God, what the hell's up with your teeth. You're missing nine of them. Bad breath, gingivitis you wouldn't let them work on you. But when it comes to training, there's no standard. Anyone and everyone can get that piece of paper, post it in their story. And again, let me stress, I'm not saying you cannot become a trainer if you're not in phenomenal shape. Never said that.

Speaker 1:

I'm asking you, I'm challenging you. What are you currently working on when it comes to your pull-ups, your push-ups, your bench press, your squat, your mile time, your grip strength, your blood pressure, your lipid profile? Are you tracking things, just like you do for your clients as their coach? If you're not, you're a hypocrite. What are you currently chasing? You could have lost 200 pounds and be 200 pounds, or your quote unquote BMI says you should be at 140,. You're still obese, but you have a great story to tell people.

Speaker 1:

So there's always a case by case situation. Maybe you're battling a nasty disease, maybe you got cancer, I get it. There are circumstances where you may not look the part. You may have a kid and you're now prioritizing time with that little guy or girl versus going to the gym. But your discipline also starts to slide away. I see it all the time you get these trainers that have been in the industry for a long time, they start packing on the pounds and they just use it as an excuse. I'm going to accept my dad, bob.

Speaker 1:

Why are we going to settle for mediocrity? Socrates has one of the best quotes. Settle for mediocrity. Socrates has one of the best quotes, socrates. I know that's from Bill and Ted's. He says no man has the right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training. It is a shame for a man to grow old without seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable.

Speaker 1:

Now, today, of course, back then they use all those stereotypes man or woman. Today, why not? Why not get into the best shape of your life? Why not be that person who's getting shit from other people? The noise is coming, the noise is beginning. The noise is getting so much louder because you're disciplined, you're showing up regularly, you're making the choices that are difficult, that others are not doing, and that irony, right there, is the same with personal training. So you want to turn your past for fitness into a career and you're following everyone else, but then when you look at what everyone else is doing, they're bitter, they're butthurt. It's so hard to make money. The gyms take all this money from you. Be different, be significant. Become the top trainer. Show your value, become irreplaceable.

Speaker 1:

So when you've been at the gym for a couple of years like Joe in Sacramento who now is a manager at a lot, he has his whole entire training department to himself. He's hiring a team of 25 trainers. And guess what he said? We're going through show up and we're getting more trainers to go through our program that. See, holy moly, there are a lot of trainers out there that are fucking clueless. I've interviewed hundreds of trainers at big box gyms. How many trainers at your gym would you let train your mom or dad? The statistics are alarming. Less than 5%. 30, 40 trainers on the team, maybe one or two, maybe that's nuts. We're not prideful in our coworkers so we have to level everyone up.

Speaker 1:

So that means digging even deeper into anatomy and being confident in saying things like yeah, I know what the rotator cuff muscles do. Subscapularis internally rotates, also slightly adducts the humerus. I know there's 206 bones in the body. My clients will give a rat's ass if there's 54 in the hand and 52 in the feet, but I know that and that gives me the confidence to know I can go out and reach out to a doctor and I can talk to him or her confidently, or a therapist, or a chiropractor, or a psychologist, registered dietitian, massage therapist, whoever it is in the medical field. Because I'm a medical professional. And if you look in the mirror, can you honestly say, with your five textbook certifications behind you, that you're a medical professional. Do you feel comfortable having a conversation with the doctor? And if they call you out on some of your bullshit because trainers hurt people all the time can you say you know what? Doc? I completely understand.

Speaker 1:

There's a lot of trainers out there that are absolutely clueless. Here's what I want to do. I want to offer you a month free of personal training with me, and that's normally going to be $3,000. And if you don't see the value in working with me, doc, I'm going to give you $3,000. Find me a trainer with the balls who has the confidence to go say that to a doctor. They don't because they're afraid. No, you don't have the confidence and competence knowing that you will absolutely wow that individual. You are a qualified personal trainer. You're not going to have them bouncing around on a BOSU ball doing battle ropes for an hour. You're not going to foam roll for 30 minutes and stretch. You're going to find out their goals. You're going to be professional.

Speaker 1:

And the feedback that our client gave to that trainer, as I discussed earlier, was I love how all of these trainers at your gyms that show up are so into the biomechanics. I always feel confident, knowing that I'm safe with you. You have the program set up. You're always challenging me in ways that I wouldn't do it myself and in her words, my client, who's a very high up lawyer, said I would never work with a trainer at some of these quote unquote high gyms because they don't go through the rigorous programming and education like your trainers do. So we're starting to get noticed and that's great, but we need more. We need more stuff like this in the UAE. We need more countries saying you know what? We're tired of this bullshit. So this is a call out to the industry. Certifications will always be around.

Speaker 1:

It's just a fancy little tagline, but if you want to be around, you have to ask yourself are you investing into hands-on learning? And if you're not, I guarantee you you're not where you want to be. If you take two trainers and they've been training for the same period of time. One does weekend workshops, has had hands-on learning, has a mentor, has a coach, is asking questions on how they can better themselves. And I'm not talking about a mentor for business, I'm talking about a mentor for their own programming. Don't go hire some $7,000 business coach. That's bullshit. I'm talking about pushing yourself like you push your clients. And then you take the one who self-taught 15 textbook certifications and specializations and ask them how confident they are with their current book of business. Do they have streams of revenue? Do they have a physical therapist on their team? Do they have a registered dietitian? So when you divide that line, there's a big difference between a certified personal trainer and a qualified personal trainer.

Speaker 1:

Which one do you want to be? We're going to be in Austin tomorrow, saturday 12 to five. We're going to be in San Francisco the following weekend, end of the month. We're going to be in Sacramento at Lifetime. We are going every month to Lifetime. We're working on that with Equinox the best gyms out there when it comes to the amenities and everything within. We are the best training company. I'm confident that I see it daily Trainers helping their clients get the best results in a timely manner.

Speaker 1:

How can you help show up fitness. That's what people ask. It's simple have conversations with trainers that get them to think you don't get into a Facebook group and say, show fitness is the best Fuck you. I did that for a long time. I got banned from most of them. As I age, as I do more swift analysis as I improve on my EQ emotional intelligence that doesn't do anything.

Speaker 1:

Ask yourself how did that certification prepare you for success? What are your goals? Where do you want to train? There's a great program that you can sit on for a week for free. It's online, but there's also in-person opportunities. Try it out. See what you think.

Speaker 1:

Go listen to this podcast. Check out the book how to Become a Successful Person. It's 39 bucks. That is really the entry into the standards, because you're going to have a really good idea with no bullshit. I'm straight to the point. This is what the industry is like. Statistically speaking, you're going to fail as a trainer. That's just what the stats say. Just like, statistically speaking, you go into a casino house, you're not going to win. There are trainers that have textbook certifications that do really well, but so many quit.

Speaker 1:

I was talking to a trainer who just signed up for Santa Monica in person, which is on April 7th, and he said that he got a ride over to the gym in an Uber. The Uber driver had their ISSA and he was telling him how he doesn't think he's ever gonna be able to train because he's not confident in training. I guess I just have to fake it until I make it. Can you imagine that mentality with someone else's body? I'm just going to do surgeries until I figure it out. Yeah, that's going to work. Your clients can sniff out the bullshit. And when you're competent and you're confident, I say those words over and over and over again because trainers lack that.

Speaker 1:

The two biggest elephants in the room that are not addressed assessments, programming there's so much under those which encompass sales, building, streams of revenue, business networking, how to do proper screens for pain, when to refer out people, skills, not having bad breath these are things you're not taught and what we're trying to improve on. If you like today's podcast, throw it into your story. I'm not calling trainers out, saying they're idiots. I'm saying the industry is filled of incompetence because the standards are so low and we need to level up, and that means you taking the initiative to educate others, your clients, let them know what the average trainer does and we don't want to be left behind where you have. England is very known for having higher standards.

Speaker 1:

Level three when it comes to certifications Australia, usa. The most common question I get what's the cheapest certification? So right now we are one of the cheapest certifications For now. That allows for us to get more eyes on us. We don't have the billions of dollars to pump into marketing. We want that. We're looking for investors. If you have any clients that got a lot of money and they want to invest and show up, send them over to us.

Speaker 1:

I got a whole pitch deck, business plan and all. We'll get them on board. So when we do have that marketing, we'll get them on board. So when we do have that marketing, we'll be able to fly by these companies because we're quality. It's not about quantity, it's both, and that's how you become ubiquitous, which those three certs are. So I gotta give a huge shout out to the uae for putting their foot down, saying you know what. We're tired of this bullshit. We want this profession to actually be a respected trade, not a bunch of malarkey with influences doing dumb ass shit on social media. If you want to become a qualified personal trainer, level up your career. We have soft tissue mobilizations you can get certified for life. And we have nutrition certification where you actually work with dietitians, therapists, to level up your career, develop streams of revenue and become successful. Remember, big biceps are better than small ones, and keep showing up.