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
Pass NASM in 1-2 weeks w/ Vol. 2 How to Become A Successful Personal Trainer ch. 12
Send us a text if you want to be on the Podcast & explain why!
"Who am I to teach somebody else?" These words from our guest Sylvina perfectly capture the paralyzing self-doubt that keeps countless passionate fitness enthusiasts from pursuing their personal training certifications. Her story is both relatable and inspiring - after experiencing a personal transformation with her own trainer, she felt called to help other women discover the life-changing benefits of strength training. But there was a problem: the intimidating NASM textbook sat on her shelf for nearly three years while imposter syndrome kept her certification dreams on hold.
What finally broke the cycle? Discovering a focused, practical approach that distilled the overwhelming content into manageable chunks. Sylvina shares the exact study method that helped her pass her exam - from reading strategies to flashcard systems to the power of repetition. Her two-week intensive approach proves that certification doesn't require months of agonizing study, just strategic focus and the courage to schedule the exam.
The conversation explores the psychological barriers that block aspiring trainers and provides actionable advice for pushing through. For women especially, Sylvina’s journey highlights the unique value female trainers bring to the industry, connecting with clients who seek trainers who understand their specific challenges. Now teaching community fitness classes and developing plans for one-on-one training, she's turning her certification into a meaningful career helping others transform their lives.
Whether you're currently highlighting every word in your certification textbook or you've been putting off the exam for months (or years), this episode delivers the motivation and practical strategy you need to finally take action. Because as Sylvina discovered, your future clients are waiting for exactly what you have to offer. Don't make them wait three years to meet you.
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: ...
If you're trying to pass NASM, ACE or ISSA, you're going to want to listen to today's podcast. We have an awesome guest. She passed just with volume two of how to become a successful personal trainer. There's an entire chapter in there. When you review that, if you find it helpful, go on to Amazon. You leave a five-star review. We will send you $200 worth of NASM, ACE, ISSA resources. You will pass, guarantee it. Then it's time for you to level up, optimize those technical skills, programming assessments, the business skills, the sales skills those are all things that we teach you at Show Up Fitness with our certification for life, our soft tissue as well as our nutrition cert. Enjoy, throw it into your story and keep showing up.
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. Hi everybody, Welcome back to the show fitness podcast. Today we have Ms Silvina and we are excited to hear about your story passing the NASM CPT. She used volume two of the big book and it helped her quite a lot, and she has a really neat story hiring a trainer and going through the process and posture syndrome. So let's welcome you to the show, Thank you. Thank you, Glad to be here. So let's start off. What made you jump into personal training? How'd you come across the beautiful marketing company NASM?
Speaker 2:Well, after I hired for the first time my own personal trainer, and going through that whole process, I realized so many women need to do more lifting weights. Basically, I was doing group fitness for a long time and I loved it, but I got to a point where I needed more and when I finally had the courage and wanted to spend some money because that was part of it is I didn't want to spend the money, but I decided you know what, I'm worth it, I'm going to do it. So I got a trainer, I transformed my body and I realized, wow, more women need to do this. And so I wanted to help and and maybe be that person to inspire somebody else to do the same. And so, cause, I learned a lot more than just getting stronger and changing my body. I learned so much more about myself.
Speaker 2:Resilience, perseverance, um, all all of that stuff. Confidence grew and it and it spilled into other areas of life. So I thought, wow, more women, especially because we always put ourselves last. Sometimes, you know, especially as we get older family, whatever work, our health tends to go on the back burner. So, anyway, I decided to look and see where I can become a trainer, and I found NASM, and so that's where it started years ago.
Speaker 1:It's a really neat story because it's very common for our listeners to probably relate with you how you got it in 2021, but then there's this period of three, four years where we didn't pull the trigger, and so I'm sure you have what we talk about A lot of those automatic negative thoughts, imposter syndrome. Let's talk a little bit about what was going on during those three years where you didn't get certified but you had the book.
Speaker 2:So I started to read and I actually I had the book and I had the online program, so I was doing it, online reading, and I was just like man. I feel like I'm going to be a doctor after this. But it was way over my head because I don't have a science background. I don't. My bachelor's degree is in something completely different. It's not in, you know, kinesiology or anything science. So I just got really overwhelmed and I thought who am I? I, you know, who am I to teach somebody else?
Speaker 2:Even if I studied and everything, I just felt like I didn't that whole imposter syndrome that we talk about. And so I kind of took a pause and, um, that pause was several years until somehow I came across your program and I looked into that more and I'm like, okay, this sounds like I can really use your program to just hone in on what do I really need to study to get this thing passed, to pass this test? And so that's where I ended up finding you and using your book and your study guide and pretty much everything that you had on on passing the NASM, youtube videos, podcasts, the study guide, the chapter in the book, chapter 12, just reading that more than once.
Speaker 1:So I totally feel for the aspiring trainer, because we're super passionate, we want to turn our passion for fitness into career, like you said, empower other people. And you probably have your highlighter out and you're going through every single line. You look through a few pages and chapters You're like holy crap, the whole entire thing's highlighted. What do I study? Do I do this vocab word? Or I'm going to go back and do it again. And then it kind of just probably hits you where you're like you know what? I don't think I'm ready for this.
Speaker 1:And so then we just kind of put it aside and you're still getting trained and you love doing it. But then that more like inferiority complex where it's like I don't think I'm worth it. And then the nice thing about the book that I have and I wrote and helped thousands of people pass this is it just gives you that shortcut to get through this. Because there comes a point when you just kind of realize like wait, I'm with a trainer right now and they're working with me hands-on and he's queuing and stuff. But I'm not really learning that in this book. It's just a bunch of esoteric terms and so they really don't go hand in hand. But then you're able to get through it. And so now the doors open up and you can start implementing the programming and assessments and gain that confidence, because there's thousands, millions of women that are very similar to you that need that motivator, that they need you to help them get into the best shape of their life.
Speaker 2:Yeah, get into the best shape of their life. Yeah, I just think that after, after, when you have a roadmap that's very specific and, plus, having people surrounding you with more confidence than you had in yourself, really helps too, like for one when we first connected and I was asking you a question, you're like, oh, you'll pass. And I'm like, okay, he thinks I'll pass. Then I had my girlfriend saying, oh, yeah, you're going to pass, you're going to pass. And I had another friend say that too and I'm like, okay, everybody is very confident that I'm going to pass. What am I doing to pass?
Speaker 2:So I I decided, and you even said, um, and pass it by the end of June and I think this was the beginning of June or something. So I'm like, okay, I'm just going to pull the trigger. Finally, and I'm going to trust the process, which we tell people all the time to trust the process when we're getting fit or healthier. I got to do the same no-transcript and just the writing, even if you weren't able to go through the flashcards a second or third time, writing out that information is still studying. So it really did help. And I also wrote flashcards on your sample questions as well, not just on the words and the vocabulary.
Speaker 1:So smart, smart lady, and I totally get the side from the other people that are going through it. They're thinking I got to memorize this whole textbook, this this charlatan over here is yelling at me with his belt buckle Tell me to do it as quickly as you can. But I know what is going through that trainer's mind and if you don't schedule it ASAP, I have so many case examples similar to yours where they push it off three months and then it's six months and then it's a year, it's two years and then it's like you had an opportunity to be training and helping people in those three years, but it's just natural to have that. So, worst case scenario, you do fail, it doesn't matter, it doesn't mean you're a failure. But now it's like you got up, you swung, you struck out Okay, it wasn't that bad. And you're going through it.
Speaker 1:You're probably recognizing oh, I do know this, I do know that. Oh, you know what? I'm not too sure on this one, the wording's kind of weird. But at the end of it, when you get that passion, great, I passed it. But now everyone gets that same thing it's like, okay, now what? Because it's like I was so hung up on the fear of what if I didn't. But now I did and now it's like, okay, now I need to really start getting that experience and that supervised experience. Talking to fitness professionals, working with the people in front of you, getting your clients out of pain, optimizing the results that's where the next steps come in. So that's why I always said pass it as quickly as you can. We've had people do it in one or two weeks. If you just focus, focus, focus, you'll get through it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I agree, and I remember in one of your podcasts or videos you did say like don't wait, get this done, get it over with and move on. And if you failed, you fail, but at least you went through the process and now you know what to expect. So you have that on top of. You know everything else you're going to study for again to get it, to get it done.
Speaker 1:What would be some of the best pointers that you have for those that are maybe they are going through the book and the seventh edition and they get hung up. What would be those pointers to give motivation to those that are maybe struggling a little bit or kind of similar to you, that they're thinking about putting on the back burner. And you know it's summer. I'm just going to enjoy myself. I'm going to start up in October. The next thing, you know, it's January 1st, so that time is very, very important.
Speaker 2:I would say, first, just decide you're going to take the test on this date like the two weeks and then just trust the process, Like don't overthink anything, Just read the information, absorb it and that's it. I mean, that's really all you can do is just read, do your flashcards, read the study guide and trust that by the end of that two weeks and it's time for your test you're going to pass it. Just have that mindset to start with. And then I would set aside time that you dedicate when you need to read because I liked reading the physical book in general, when you need to read, because I liked reading the physical book in general. So I like, and it's a big book. So I made sure I had a space and a time that I dedicated. And it doesn't have to be a long time because you're reading one chapter in that book, but I read it more than once.
Speaker 2:I read it two or three times. The first time I just read it through, I didn't write anything down. I may have highlighted and underlined some things. And the second time, that's when just read it through, I didn't write anything down. I may have highlighted and underlined some things. And the second time, that's when I read it again and I wrote out flashcards. And so just having that decision and know that you're not going to be studying for six months on end because that's who wants to do that? I don't, I got other stuff to do. So two weeks, that's it. Two weeks and you'll be done.
Speaker 1:That's a good methodology right there. Now, the nice thing about having volume two is when you're done with it. Now you can get into the other chapters and get the practical aspects. Have you had a chance to get through the rest of it?
Speaker 2:No, but I'm excited to. I do want to get into that. I had to like take a break for a minute, but yeah, now I have the rest of the book to dive into and so I am really looking forward to doing that. But also the your YouTube videos, everything on passing the NASM. I would just play those on repeat over and over again in the car on my walks, just listening to your podcast on passing it, as I just even if I've listened to them more than you know, three times, four times, whatever. I just kept repeating, because that's what it is when you memorize stuff it's repetition, it's just doing it over and over again, listening to it over and over again because you might miss something the first time and then you listen to something again, you hear something that you missed, missed, and so it's always valuable to just over and over again. I can't stress that enough it's like shooting free throws.
Speaker 1:You want to get better. You got to keep on doing it, practice, practice. So what's next for you? What are you gonna start getting into? I know that you're training a little bit right now with the classes that you have, but what's next next? What's your big vision?
Speaker 2:So well, I would like to. So I had connected with a local cafe in San Francisco to do this free community group class. So now and she's got she's like 25, she's got real big vision, and so she's like maybe we can do like a fit and sip where I do a fitness class and then she offers the like the latte afterwards or something like that. And then she, and then she thought about doing like a corporate package for me to do this corporate package where I go to corporations and offer a package deal where they pay, the company pays me monthly. This is just something literally just thinking about it right now, but I do want to do one on one training because I really feel like the one on one training is really effective for your own personal goals.
Speaker 2:I think group fitness is fantastic for fun, motivation if you're just getting started Because that's how I got started, that's how I got consistent you have accountability with either friends or new people you meet. You have the instructor there guiding you, you can ask them questions, so there's a place for each and I'm just fortunate that and happy to be able to start in group. And now I want to spread out into personal one-on-one training because what I found in my gym that I work at there's a lot of women, so the majority of the trainers there are male. There's, like, one other, female and I see the women and I talk to them and I feel like they would rather be with a woman. I mean, I just feel like they're just more comfortable and I can relate to them. I'm more their age. Yeah, I just feel like there's that connection that I can bring with them.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, absolutely. So I got some homework for you. I'm not sure if you're part of the Facebook group qualified personal trainers community, but if you get in there and you just introduce yourself, there's Colin. He's a trainer at Club Sport in Walnut Creek and there's a trainer there when I first started this was 20 plus years ago. She's a rock star and she's still there and so he can connect with her and she's an amazing trainer and that used to be Renaissance Club Sport. That's the first job I ever had.
Speaker 1:And then we have Tracy. She's in the Bay Area. And then there's also Majoya. She just got hired at Equinox and she's at the Equinox in Berkeley and so she went through the program and she's training there. There's also Body Mechanics where we did our seminar. So if you just kind of introduce yourself into the Facebook group, there's people in the Bay Area that will say hi and you should definitely connect with them, have coffee, talk about their experiences, and you can kind of just like you did right now, brainstorming on some of those ideas, start throwing those ideas around to other trainers and they can give you some really good guidance.
Speaker 2:That would be great. Yeah, I'm excited. I think I am in the group and I'm like I'm not really certified, but now I am. But I do want to do. I actually want your certification next because I think it'll be more valuable.
Speaker 1:That's right, it's called qualified. But you have that first piece of paper. Now it's time to start putting it into play. You have the confidence because you can look back and reflect and say, okay, it's behind me, now I got to start helping people because that's why I got into this.
Speaker 2:Yes, exactly, all right.
Speaker 1:Well, do you have any questions for me before we call it a day?
Speaker 2:No, I think if I do, I know where to go.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you for your time. Way to go, way to pass it, and you're going to be an awesome trainer, proud of you, thank you.