The Show Up Fitness Podcast
Join Chris Hitchko, author of 'How to Become A Successful Personal Trainer' VOL 2 and CEO of Show Up Fitness as he guides personal trainers towards success.
90% of personal trainers quit within 12-months in the USA, 18-months in the UK, Show Up Fitness is helping change those statistics. The Show Up Fitness CPT is one of the fastest growing PT certifications in the world with partnerships with over 500-gyms including Life Time Fitness, Equinox, Genesis, EoS, and numerous other elite partnerships.
This podcast focuses on refining trade, business, and people skills to help trainers excel in the fitness industry. Discover effective client programming, revenue generation, medical professional networking, and elite assessment strategies.
Learn how to become a successful Show Up Fitness CPT at www.showupfitness.com. Send your questions to Chris on Instagram @showupfitness or via email at info@showupfitness.com."
The Show Up Fitness Podcast
Lower Crossed Syndrome / Knee Valgus Pass NASM / ACE in 30-Days
Send us a text if you want to be on the Podcast & explain why!
Pass nasm / ace in 30-days. Get our CHEAT SHEET for free if you send us your five star review. Get our study guide and quizzes ($200 value) for a 5-star review of how to become a successful personal trainer vol 2
The fitness industry harbors a dirty secret that's costing aspiring trainers their careers: certification doesn't equal qualification. This revealing episode cuts through the smoke and mirrors of personal training certifications to expose why 90% of trainers quit within their first year.
If you're struggling with NASM concepts like knee valgus and pes planus, you'll appreciate our no-nonsense breakdown that will help you pass your exam in under 30 days. Why memorize an 800-page textbook when you only need to understand a handful of concepts? We reveal exactly what to focus on to pass quickly, including the overactive muscles (gastrocnemius, soleus, adductors, and hip flexors), underactive muscles, and the simplest way to understand the OPT model.
Beyond exam tips, we tackle the uncomfortable truth about the industry's lack of respect and how to overcome it. The difference between being a mere "rep counter" and a qualified trainer who commands premium rates comes down to supervised experience and hands-on learning—something textbooks can't provide. This explains why top fitness clubs like Lifetime and Equinox specifically seek trainers with Show Up Fitness certification, often preferring them over candidates with years of unguided experience.
Ready to transform your passion for fitness into a successful career? Discover how our two-month internships and weekend seminars deliver more practical knowledge than any textbook certification. Leave a five-star review for a free NASM study guide and quiz package ($300 value) that guarantees you'll pass. Your journey to becoming a respected, successful trainer starts here.
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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Website: https://www.showupfitness.com/
Become a Personal Trainer Book (Amazon): https://www.amazon.com/How-Become-Personal-Trainer-Successful/dp/B08WS992F8
Show Up Fitness Internship & CPT: https://online.showupfitness.com/pages/online-show-up?utm_term=show%20up%20fitness
NASM study guide: ...
No, you're going to fail and you're sure as hell not going to go ask your friend Barbara to cut her hair. She's going to be like screw you, chris. These suckers are beautiful. I'm going to a professional, but yet that's how the average trainer does it and that's why we're not respected unless you have a qualified certification, like Show Up Fitness, and that's why we've partnered with Lifetime Equinox. The best gyms out there want our certification. That's why we partnered with them. Howdy everybody, welcome back to the Show Fitness Podcast.
Speaker 1:If you are struggling with NASM, today's podcast is for you. We're going to review everything knee valgus and pes planus to help you pass this in less than 30 days. In my book, Volume 2, how to Become a Successful Personal Trainer, chapter 12 is dedicated entirely to pass NASM, ace, issa in less than 30 days. If you leave a five-star review, we will send you our study guide and our quizzes a $300 value and you will pass it guaranteed Nive August. You have to know this to pass NASM. It's not a big deal. I've never told my clients they have knee valgus. We have a physical therapist on our team at Santa Monica Show Up Fitness and he's never told his patients they have knee valgus. But you need to know this to pass the outdated 7th edition textbook. Remember being certified doesn't mean you're qualified. You need hands-on learning. That's where we come in with the best certification in the world. But you came across this too late. You can't get a refund, so you're banging your head on the textbook, trying to pass this as quickly as you can. The most important thing you can do is pass this as quickly as you can, because time is money and if you keep setting this aside three months, six months, a year later, you missed out on an opportunity to gain experience with proper supervision. That's why you need to get to a weekend seminar. That's why you need to get to one of our locations in Santa Monica, atlanta. Two months hands-on learning that's how you level yourself up, to become confident and help your clients move better, help them with programming how to design a program on the spot and to be confident to build a book of business so you can turn your passion for fitness into a career. That's where we come in. But you got to get through this. So this is everything you need to know for pes planus, knee valgus. Just memorize it.
Speaker 1:Knee valgus starts at the hip. Now pes planus is technically the whole lower half where your hip is internally rotating. You have adduction at the knees. You have eversion at the ankle. Now knee valgus is just referencing the knee, but on the exam it's going to be the same.
Speaker 1:You just need to know the overactive muscles, the underactive muscles. What are you going to do and how are you going to fix it? Because if you don't, the client's going to die. So start with the overactive muscles gastrocnemius and the soleus On the posterior shank of the calf. That's going to be these suckers right here. Look how beautiful those are. The calf is overactive. And then we have the adductors at the hip. They're going to pull you internally as well as adduction. So in the frontal plane we can AD duct and AB duct. In the transverse plane we can internally rotate and externally rotate. In the sagittal plane we flex and extend.
Speaker 1:Knowing the mechanism and then doing the opposite to fix it is essentially what we're doing here. So the other muscles that will be overactive will be your psoas major and your hip flexors. They will use those interchangeably. So if they say hip flexors, that means it's the psoas major. If it's the psoas major, it means it's the hip flexors You're never going to see. Your client has pes planus or knee valgus.
Speaker 1:Which of the following muscles is overactive? Soleus, gastroc adductors or your hip flexors? It's going to be three underactive muscles, one overactive muscle, or it's going to be two overactive muscles, with one being upper body and the other being lower body. It's super easy to take this exam, but where you get caught up and why 35% of people fail is because you try to memorize the entire textbook and you get lost in the weeds. Just focus on overactive and what you're going to do to them.
Speaker 1:The underactive muscles. On the front side, anterior and posterior tibialis, we have the glutes at the hip, the maximus and the medius and the minimus, as well as the VMO, vastus, medialis, oblique muscle. That's just one of the four quad muscles on the medial side that's going to be underactive. So what do we do to underactive muscles? You have to do a 4-2-1-1 tempo. What that means is you're going to strengthen it concentrically and eccentrically, but more on the ladder we want to control the eccentric. So if I'm coming down super, super slow for four seconds that's the eccentric phase You're going to pause for two isometrically, come up controlled for one concentrically and then hold for another one. Yes, if we do our math I know we suck at math today, but that's eight seconds, four, two, one, one.
Speaker 1:And if you're doing 12 to 20 repetitions it's going to be taking two to three minutes. That is redonkulous. You would never do that. I've been a trainer for 20 years. I've never done a four, two,1-1 tempo. Sure, I'll do 12 to 20 reps to strengthen connective tissue. I'm going to control it down.
Speaker 1:Do not I repeat, do not count those reps out 1, 2, 3, 4, pause for 2, two, up for one. How annoying is that? Are you a rep counter or are you a qualified trainer? Getting engaged with your client, showing the value, making sure they're doing proper form, having the right tactile cueing? Trainers don't do that today. They're on their phone counting out a 30 second plank. Why? No wonder why the client's not going to be paying you the big bucks because they don't see you as a qualified trainer. They see you as a rep counter. Don't be a rep counter.
Speaker 1:So what do we do? 4-2-1-1 for strengthening every single underactive muscle. For the overactive muscles, we have to foam, roll and stretch and, oh my God, if you don't, you're going to die. Make sure you foam, roll and stretch every ounce of the body because it's so important to do for those nasty, overactive muscles. I'm just giving you shit.
Speaker 1:I'm a personality. I try to have fun with this stuff. I taught it for over 10 years and, holy moly, people actually believe it. So that's why I have to be an annoying personality on here, the belt buckle and myself. Completely different in person. I want to help you become successful. Hell, that's where I wrote the book Bestseller Buckle in myself. Completely different in person. I want to help you become successful. Hell, that's where I wrote the book bestseller on Amazon, volume two.
Speaker 1:We'll get you through this super, super easy because you focus on what's going to be on the exam. Do not read all 800 pages and in fact, if someone tells you to read all 800 pages, I guarantee you they don't know what the hell they're doing, because you're never going to be tested on that in real life. You need the people skills, you need the business skills and you also need the technical skills not found in this textbook or ACE or ISSA, and that's why 90% of trainers quit within the first year. But that's not you, because you're smart and you understand that our field doesn't require a textbook. It requires the fundamentals of movement, what the muscles are actually doing and then helping them move in a pain-free range of motion. That's what we teach you.
Speaker 1:So, when it comes to the exercises that you need to know, stability ball, squat, curl, press cures cancer. You got to do it. So anytime you see that associated with phase one, as well as anything with a BOSU ball, single leg squat, single leg RDL, single leg calf those are going to be the exercises that you're going to do in phase one. You have to master the overactive and underactive first and then master the OPT model and those acute variables. So, when it comes to anything that is underactive or overactive, you have to make sure to do the right exercise in the right phase, depending on where you are in the OPT model.
Speaker 1:Optimal performance training designed by a physical therapist doesn't know what the hell they're doing because most suck at programming. That's why you work with strength coaches and people who have a background in this stuff Movement competency that's from kinesiologists and professors like the ones we have on our team. But you got to understand what the textbook certification wants you to pass. So you have to put in the little dots and make sure to put your NASA hat on and you will fly through this. We've helped people pass this in less than two days. That's how easy it is. When you get caught up with all the smoke and mirrors out there and you try to memorize every single freaking term, you're not going to pass it because it's overwhelming. Is it going to be easier to memorize 10 Spanish words or 2,800? 10. So when you focus on that and then when you see the exam, you go oh, they're just looking for an overactive muscle. Let me find which one it is. Boom On to the next.
Speaker 1:Your client's performing an overhead squat assessment. They have knee valgus. Oh my God, they're going to put a bunch of shit in there. It's going to be confusing, but just take away the main points. Client has knee valgus. Which muscle are you going to want to strengthen? So if you're going to strengthen, you're going to find the weak one. Another question could ask you your client has knee valgus. They're doing overhead squat assessment. Which of the following muscles would you want to foam, roll or static stretch? And then another question is going to say your client has the dreaded knee valgus. Which of the following would be the best exercise to help them? So you'd be looking for a side band walk something to strengthen the glutes with a 4-2-1-1 tempo. We always static stretch, we always foam roll those overactive muscles 20 to 40 seconds. Then you're going to move into the strengthening with a 4-2-1-1 tempo.
Speaker 1:The intensity for phase one 50 to 70%. The rep range 12 to 20, again 4, 2, 1, 1. Just stamp that into your mind. No 4, 2, 1, 1 for phase 1. 2, 0, 2, 0 for phase 3. And then X, x, x, let's get all weird for phase 5 and 4. Phase 1, stabilization, 2, 3, and 4, strength. Phase 5, power.
Speaker 1:So just think of it when are you going to train grandma? Phase 1. So just think of it when are you going to train grandma? Phase one when are you going to train a bro? Phase two, three and four when are you going to train an athlete? Phase five Beginner, intermediate, advanced.
Speaker 1:So when you look at the OPT model like that and you understand the overactive, underactive terminology this exam is so freaking easy and then you're going to be like what do I do now? Because it doesn't teach you how to train. That's where you have to level up to become a qualified trainer, which requires supervised experience the worst thing that I see online. I'm going to go gain experience. Yeah, that's going to work. Do you think you can read a book and then go out there successfully and cut hair without having someone give you pointers? No, you're going to fail and you're sure as hell not going to go ask your friend Barbara to cut her hair. She's going to be like screw you, chris. These suckers are beautiful.
Speaker 1:I'm going to a professional, but yet that's how the average trainer does it and that's why we're not respected unless you have a qualified certification, like Show Up Fitness, and that's why we've partnered with Lifetime, equinox. The best gyms out there want our certification. That's why we partnered with them. You could have three years of experience and go to a Lifetime and they probably won't even hire you. Yet you have your Show Up Fitness CPT less than a year of experience. You're going to get hired because they want the best and that's what we produce. That's why we have the top trainer at Equinox and Lifetime and Crunch. They go through our program, they have confidence, they understand movement programming, assessing, getting clients out of pain, and that's exactly what you need.
Speaker 1:So don't fret for this exam, it's super easy. Yeah, if you go on to Reddit, facebook, they're going to say, oh my God, it's such a hard exam. I failed twice. I'm not calling you an idiot. It is hard to pass something if you try to read 800 pages and the vocabulary is completely new to you. So I'm here for you. I want you to pass NASM, ace, issa as quickly as you can. In my book, volume two, there's an entire chapter to help you better understand this vocabulary. So when you do take the test, you finish it in 30 minutes, whereas before you hear all these horror stories, people talking.
Speaker 1:It's such a hard exam. It's hard if you're trying to study the entire textbook, which doesn't have hands-on learning. It doesn't have what you need, which is to level up to become a qualified trainer. I'm sorry for being annoying, but this industry is not respected and it will be respected when you level yourself up mastering anatomy, mastering programming and becoming a qualified personal trainer. If you're looking for hands-on learning, we have a two-month internship to get your certification through Show Up Fitness in Santa Monica and also now Atlanta. So we're on the West Coast and the East Coast, and then you can participate in our two-day seminars every month. We go to Lifetime with our partnership. We're going to be in Miami at the end of June. We're going to be in Denver Parker Lifetime in the middle of June. Check out our website. I guarantee you, in two days you'll learn more than any textbook certification. But, more importantly, your confidence is going to grow. It's finally going to make sense and you absolutely can turn your passion for fitness.