The Show Up Fitness Podcast

NASM vs ACE vs ISSA: What’s The EASIEST Personal Training Certifications

• Chris Hitchko, CEO Show Up Fitness • Season 2 • Episode 214

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The easy way, textbook certs: NASM/ACE/ISSA.

The QUALIFIED WAY: NSCA, ACSM, SUF-CPT.

Hands-on learning > specializations.

Get a DPT & RD on your team.

Master the fundamentals of movement, anatomy, sales, and assessments.

Ever wonder why so many certified personal trainers struggle or quit within their first year? The answer lies in a startling disconnect between certification marketing and real-world preparation.

Across the fitness landscape, aspiring trainers face a critical choice – pursue the "easiest" certification or invest in truly learning the craft. This episode exposes the uncomfortable truth that the most marketed certifications (NASM, ACE, ISSA) fail to prepare trainers for actual client work, while the certifications respected by physical therapists and movement experts (NSCA, ACSM) remain less popular despite better preparing professionals for success.

Drawing from over 20 years of experience and thousands of trainer interactions, I unpack why memorizing textbooks and multiple-choice answers isn't the path to becoming a respected fitness professional. You'll discover why no client will ever ask you to identify an "agonist muscle" or follow NASM's formulaic approach, yet these are what commercial certifications test extensively. Instead, real success comes from mastering movement assessment, developing hands-on skills, and building relationships with other health professionals.

For those serious about turning their passion into a sustainable career, this episode offers a reality check and a clear alternative path. The fitness industry doesn't need more certificate holders – it needs qualified, competent trainers who can deliver results and earn their place alongside other health professionals. Whether you're just starting out or feeling frustrated after certification, this frank discussion will help you understand what it really takes to thrive as a personal trainer.

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:

lateral gastrocnemius. The adductors those are always overactive. You're going to foam, roll and stretch for 20 to 40 seconds. You got to master stabilization 12 to 20 reps, which you're going to be doing a 4-2-1-1 tempo, and always choose a stability ball squat, curl press, which is the dumbest fucking exercise in the world. But that's what you need to know to pass that exam. But then you go out there and you're like, wow, I am not ready.

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 y'all. Welcome back to the Show and Fitness Podcast.

Speaker 1:

Today we're going to talk about what is the easiest personal training certification to get. The irony behind that question is online. We ask what is the best certification, but people are not getting the best certification. If you were to ask Frank 13, janet 12 on a Facebook group or Reddit form what's the best certification, they're going to tell you what certification they got and then their history for their career. I got certification X, I got a job at gym Y I've now been a trainer for 23 years and I'm awesome and then we take that as gold. So whatever certification we hear the most of, we then associate it with being the best. So riddle me this. Why is it, if you ask a physical therapist, someone who has a degree in kinesiology, a professor in movement, what is the best certification? They will tell you NSCA, acsm, sufcpt. But you go online and you ask what's the best and everyone says NASM, ace, issa. How is that possible that you have people who've dedicated their entire life to academics say one thing but then, in an industry where 90% of trainers quit within the first year, everyone says NASM, ace, issa. Do a quick search, do it yourself. How to become a personal trainer. What is the first thing that's going to pop up An ad from one of these certifications NASM, ace, issa. You click on it and it says I'm the gold standard.

Speaker 1:

If you really do your research, you would interview a lot of people and you would ask better questions such as why is it the best? And the funny thing is that we don't put much thought behind is when someone says, oh, just get your NASM, it's going to help you get a job here. A better question would be how did that certification prepare you for a career in this industry? And the funny thing is what they always say next is you need to go gain experience. Take a step back for a second. We work with our hands. We are personal trainers. We have fear today that AI is going to take over. Not from the qualified trainer realm. Where you talk to therapists, they're not afraid of AI taking over. So how is it that therapists and movement experts aren't afraid, but yet textbook trainers are? So if you want to get the easiest certification, it's between NASA, mace and ISSA. I've helped literally thousands of trainers pass these textbooks and not a single one has said wow, I am now ready to be a trainer. They have the same angst, imposter syndrome, which I don't see a lot of from those that go through qualified certifications.

Speaker 1:

If you were to do a quick search in Santa Monica what's the best food? You would have a Google return and they're going to say four stars over here, 4.7. You're going to try to find the restaurant with the highest stars. You would then go read the reviews. You would then probably look at the competition in the area. You would then go and find some people have eaten there. You would then maybe even go to a bar and say, hey, have you heard of this spot, a local in the area, and then you would go try it and then you have your two cents. But for personal trainers, we just follow blindly. How is it and this is the funniest thing to me as a trainer of 20 years, teacher of trainers for over 15, if you were to go to a Yelp or Google review, we typically go to the negative reviews first and those have more merit than the positive ones. Interesting. But when it comes to our profession, we take the first thing that people say, and or the repetition as gold. Yet we don't really do our research by asking those that have that certification if they've had other ones.

Speaker 1:

I've sat and tested for the NASM, nsca, cscs, acsm. I've read the entire textbook from the ISSA. I've gone through Chad Waterbury's corrective exercise with the ISSA. I've gone through the entire textbook with ACE and, in my professional opinion, when you look at the divide, you have fast food certifications NASM, ace, issa. Those are the easiest ones to get. And then you have the side where the nonprofits NSCA, acsm. They're backed by education. They're taught in school to become a kinesiologist. You get your degree in kinesiology.

Speaker 1:

Show Up, fitness CPT is based off of that curriculum, with professors and dietitians and physical therapists, but yet our industry still sides with the fast food companies. The irony behind this you're going to get a bunch of butthurt trainers. You're going to say that certification was hard. No shit. You try to read an 800 page textbook without any knowledge of what movement is, and all that stuff is esoteric, it's confusing, and you have a splinter in the back of your head because you're thinking as you're sitting down reading a book. Huh, I'm supposed to be training people in a gym, but yet I'm reading a book.

Speaker 1:

We don't look at it as would a hairstylist be reading a book on how to cut hair? No, would a doctor be learning about surgery without observing a doctor doing it? No, you can learn about the techniques, sure, but when it comes to our field, you need to be able to cue, respond on the fly, understand the movement pattern and the exercise that's appropriate for the client, how to assess them, how to determine if we are capable of treating the pain that they have. Is there numbness, is there tingliness? And then you present a plan for them and their goals and then you ask for money. Those are the technical skills, the people skills within the assessment and networking, and then the business skills. So when you look at this fast food certification, they don't teach you any of those, barely the technical. Pending on which one ACE, issa, nasm they're going to be more fear-based. You have upper cross syndrome and you need to foam roll and stretch and then do a stability ball, squat, curl press. That's just hilarious to me, whereas the pro movement side NSCA, acsm, trail, fitness, cpt you look at the individual, you assess them based on their goals and you deliver a competent workout in the moment for that individual.

Speaker 1:

I was talking with a physical therapist yesterday. We had a great conversation and I'm interviewing him to bring on the team at Show of Fitness. I've interviewed hundreds of therapists and a question I'll always ask them what is the best? Personal training, certification, and every single one who is a competent movement expert, which I would consider doctors of physical therapy with a background in strength and conditioning. That's important too, because there's a lot of therapists out there who don't practice what they preach. They're doing modality-based therapy. Here's some ultrasound and some band stretches and hold the static stretch and you're going to do the sweetest little thing over here traction and blah, blah, blah.

Speaker 1:

The efficacy behind that stuff is extremely outdated. A pro movement expert is going to say NSCA, acsm, they're not familiar with show fitness. So I educate them. And a question I always ask and which I asked this therapist yesterday what are your thoughts on NASM, ace, issa? And their eyes kind of get big. And I love these movement experts because they're totally PC. Oh, you know it's okay. And you know what are our thoughts on? Upper cross and lower cross and they, you know it's okay, but it's, you know, outdated. It's okay, doc, you can tell me it fucking sucks. And they kind of chuckle and go okay, yeah, that's extremely outdated. That methodology isn't what we practice today, but yet the fitness industry, for some freaking reason, puts these on a pedestal.

Speaker 1:

Now maybe that's why so many trainers have a difficult time turning this into a career. Difficult time turning this into a career. And the beauty of the marketing machine is they're so damn smart and they realize that you aren't doing your research, so they make it easier and easier and easier. Now NASM has an open book test. Issa has recently had a proctored exam, so these three certifications are absolutely the easiest. Now someone may say that they're hard for me, but just because it was hard for you doesn't mean that it's a hard test. Standardized testing is difficult. Sure, a lot of people may have a difficult time with standardized testing when they ask an ambiguous question with four answers of which will never, ever let me say that again ever happen in your career.

Speaker 1:

I just trained a client this morning. She pays a lot per hour to work with me and guess what she didn't say. Chris, are we going to do a hinge first, a squat, a unilateral or a transition? And can you tell me the agonist behind that? Is it the erector spinae? Is it the latissimus dorsi? No, but that's the process that we take into this field.

Speaker 1:

So the frustration that you must be experiencing is beyond my imagination, because you want to turn your passion for fitness into career and you've been led astray on the path and you ask the wrong questions and then you go down that route and you waste thousands of dollars thinking that you're now going to be ready to actually pursue what your passion is. But the man, the girl behind the machine lied to you. So you feel frustrated. And then you go out there and you listen to what other people say. You got to go gain experience and guess what, getting experience off of your anecdotes isn't the scientific process. So it must be really frustrating and you hear some belt buckle asshole telling you that, oh, this way is actually the wrong way. You hear some belt buckle asshole telling you that, oh, this way is actually the wrong way. You see that as a personal attack. You feel victimized, like, oh man, this prick over here saying I'm wrong, I'm an idiot. No, I'm challenging the process and people today have a hard time with critical thought.

Speaker 1:

We're in our phone 24 seven. We want an immediate response. We want and so if you're looking for the quickest way to become a quote unquote certified personal trainer, nasm is the easiest. It is super easy to get a guide, to listen to a couple of podcasts and to learn what the main topics on the test are to memorize overactive muscles the latissimus dorsi, the upper traps, the lateral vastus muscle, the lateral gastrocnemius, the adductors those are always overactive. You're going to foam, roll and stretch for 20 to 40 seconds. You got to master stabilization 12 to 20 reps, which you're going to be doing a 4-2-1-1 tempo, and always choose a stability ball, squat, curl press, which is the dumbest fucking exercise in the world. But that's what you need to know to pass that exam. But then you go out there and you're like, wow, I am not ready.

Speaker 1:

If you want to turn your passion for fitness into an actual career, you need to do what the field requires. You need to gain hands-on learning. You need to learn from pro movement companies NSCA, the needs analysis, acsm, how to assess the other risk stratifications, when to refer out to a medical professional, have a physical therapist on your team, have a registered dietitian on your team. So then when someone comes in and you don't know the answer, you say you know, I can get that answer for you immediately because I work with these medical professionals. So when people say it's a saturated training market, there are so many trainers, yeah, there's so many trainers that took the easy route and the ones that actually put the time and invest into learning anatomy, invest into owning the assessment process, not gimmicks with the FMS or overhead squat assessment. They master movement and they continue their education by gaining more hands-on learning. You are, in fact, in a blue ocean. There's no competition. You're going to have highs and lows.

Speaker 1:

Getting clients isn't easy, but guess what? It's not easy for therapists either. If you want to be successful, if you want to pursue this career, you have to do what others are not willing to do Master the fundamentals. Ask a trainer next time you ask that question what's the best certification? If they tell you one of those three McDonald's, taco Bell, wendy's the textbook certification. Ask them could you tell me the 17 muscles of the shoulder? How many clients do you currently have? And would you contribute your clients to that textbook certification? Who is on your team? And what you're going to get is oh, anatomy is not important, your clients don't care about that. Oh, I got my clients from referrals from friends and family from the gym I work at. And the last one is I don't have a therapist or a dietician. I have my corrective exercise cert and I got my PN1.

Speaker 1:

So when you hear this for the first time, you're going to be frustrated because it's challenging the doctorate. I guess you would say that you've gotten in the past which you thought was research, which it wasn't, because you didn't actually interview movement experts and medical professionals. And so then you feel lied to. You want to point a finger at someone, so I'm the person you point a finger at and I'll take that responsibility because I have a big vision to gain respect as medical professionals because personal trainers are. So if you want to level up and become a qualified trainer, you need to invest in mastering movement, mastering the assessment process, getting professionals on your team surrounding yourself with the best, because textbook certifications do not set you up for that path. They set you up for the next specialization, of which you're going to waste another $500, $600, and then you feel even more frustrated. So then what you do is you put it on the back burner and you either don't continue with this or you do it as a side job because you weren't given the tools for success.

Speaker 1:

Here's a very simple, cheap method to see if you are in line with your success for personal training Get my book how to Become a Successful Personal Trainer, volume 2. I can't believe he's pitching this book. Find someone in the industry who's been doing this for 20 years, whose own gyms, who has their own certification, that has that experience with thousands of case examples from medical professionals such as physical therapists, registered dietitians who's been interviewed and tried to digest what is in the book of what the industry is like and use your common sense to see how you can turn your passion for fitness into a career. Easy way textbook certifications the more difficult way hands-on learning, getting a qualified certification NSCA, acsm, suscpt the cheapest out of those three Shale Fitness.

Speaker 1:

We have hands-on learning opportunities with seminars. We're gonna be in Sacramento, we're gonna be in Colorado in June, we're gonna be in Miami in June. Get to a hands-on learning workshop and if you feel that your textbook certification prepares you more than our certification and hands-on learning seminars, I'll refund you and also give you a thousand bucks. That's how confident I am with doing it the hard way. Throw this into your story. Make sure to leave a five-star review for the podcast and the book and remember big biceps are better than small ones. And keep showing up.