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
NASM EXAM CHEAT SHEET | TUTOR SESSION W/ SUF 5,200 SUCCESSFULLY PASSED NASM CPT
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Chapter 12 in How to Become A Successful Personal Trainer vol. 2 will help you pass. Leave a 5 star review for $200 worth of FREe nasm resources to pass in less than 30 days if you cannot get a refund.
Ready to crack the code on passing your NASM exam? This episode delivers the blueprint that's helped over 5,200 people achieve certification success with a 100% pass rate for those who receive the coveted "thumbs up" during tutoring.
Forget spending months drowning in a 700-page textbook. The secret lies in mastering core concepts that consistently appear on the exam: planes of motion, muscle functions, the OPT model, and assessment protocols. Through a real-time tutoring session, you'll witness exactly what you need to know about sagittal, frontal, and transverse planes, identifying agonist and synergist muscles, and understanding exercise programming through all five phases of the OPT model.
The episode breaks down complex concepts into digestible chunks – from recognizing overactive muscles during movement assessments to understanding basic nutrition requirements and client goal-setting. You'll learn why the upper trapezius tends to be overactive when arms elevate during pulling exercises, why the 4-2-1-1 tempo belongs in Phase 1 stabilization training, and how to identify when a client's blood pressure indicates hypertension.
Most importantly, you'll discover why racing to certification matters. With 80-97% of personal trainers quitting within their first year, passing your exam quickly allows you to gain the hands-on experience that truly builds competence and confidence. Stop letting textbook overwhelm delay your career – this episode provides the focused strategy you need to pass NASM and move forward with real-world training mastery.
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Introduction and Tutoring Guarantee
Speaker 1If you're trying to pass NASM in 2025, you're going to want to listen to this podcast. This was recorded yesterday, thursday, july 31st. Today is August 1st and he passed. As I said, if I give you the thumbs up during a tutoring session, you will pass. We have 100% success rate. Enjoy this podcast.
Speaker 1Throw in your story, get the book how to Become a Successful Personal Trainer. Volume 2, chapter 12 is dedicated to helping you pass. Leave that five-star review. We will send you $200 in resources and I guarantee you will pass this. Remember big biceps are better than small ones.
Speaker 1And keep showing up. 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 Trail Fitness Podcast.
Speaker 1Today we're going to help you pass NASM, as show up has helped more than 5,200 people pass. I'm going to take this young hunk right here through how I tutor people and if he gets a thumbs up, 100% chance he passes, because anyone that I have tutored, once they get through that tutor session, if I give them a thumbs up, we've had 100% success rate. That's a textbook. So the most important thing you got to do is get through this as quickly as you can so you can gain that hands-on experience. This young hunk is in Western New York, going to be moving to Colorado. Why don't you just give us a quick little cliff notes on yourself, how you came across NASM, how you want to take some next steps, and we'll get into this.
Speaker 2Yeah, so of course NASM is a huge marketing company, as you say, and I fully agree with that sentiment. I stumbled across NASM, I typed in I want to be a personal trainer, because that's how I felt NASM popped up very top of the list. You know, of course I click on it and I fell for it and I bought everything. I spent like $2,000 and I realized, holy crap, this is a lot of material and I'm kind of drowning. And then I looked up show fitness and of course, yeah, that beautiful book right there yeah.
Speaker 2And I'm saving myself so much more time. Now. It's been about six months of bull crap, literally past my first test deadline, cause I was still studying and still going through the material and this really helped to expedite that.
Speaker 1There you go. He left the five-star review because he found it helpful, sent him $200 in free resources, he's been taking a lot of notes and and I'm impressed with everything he's doing. So let's go and just start out by recognizing some exercises and then I'm going to get into orientation OPT model and go from there. So could you name three exercises that are in the sagittal plane of motion?
Speaker 2Yeah, sure, let's go with squats, we'll go with lunges. I mean, running is a cardio exercise, it's in the sagittal plane, but anything. Flexion and extension, so biceps.
Speaker 1There you go. So the technical definition is an imaginary line bisecting the body into right and left halves. You could see that, but all it really means is any time in the anatomical position which your hands will be supinated. Can you show me what supinated looks like? Atta boy? So when you have supination and then you flex, you extend. That's going to be sagittal. So let's then dive a little deeper into agonist and synergist. You talked about a squat. Can you tell me the agonist and synergist according to NASM?
Speaker 2I think for a squat it would be the quadricep would be the agonist, right Yep, and then the synergist would be your glutes. Am I wrong?
Speaker 1So glutes would be the agonist as well at the hip. So the technical thing would be agonist would be glutes and quads, but then the synergist would be on the posterior side. What muscle?
Speaker 2group. Is that behind the knee? Oh yeah, behind the knee, on the posterior side, we're talking the um, we're talking to hamstrings Great.
Speaker 1And so notice how, when I quiz people, I don't give multiple choice answers. I'll use the vocabulary that you need to be comfortable with, such as supinated, anterior, posterior. So we hit the quad. They're not going to ask you specifics on what those muscles are, but they're going to review, as a client is doing, the overhead squat assessment and their knees buckle in which is called knee valgus. Which of the following muscles would be overactive? Would it be the VMO or the vastus lateralis?
Speaker 2The vastus lateralis would be overactive.
Speaker 1Atta boy. And so what do we do to overactive muscles?
Speaker 2Stretch for 20 to 40 seconds. Or, yeah, stretch and then foam roll for 20 to 40 seconds.
Speaker 1Great. Now the textbook's going to tell you to foam roll first and stretch. They're not going to quiz you on something like that. The minute details you know. They're not going to say is it 10 seconds, 20 seconds, 30 or 40? It's going to be five seconds, 30 seconds, a minute or five minutes. So it's really process elimination. There GMO is always going to be underactive. So if you memorize that muscle chart, you always know what's going to be overactive. You always know what's going to be underactive when you see a question.
Speaker 1They could ask you something along those lines of you know your client has a shortened muscle or lengthened muscle. Now, as we always say, I don't work with NASM. We have no affiliation with them. We don't go out there and pay people to give us answers or anything like that. This is from me working at a school NPTI for almost 10 years and we taught this stuff and so I know it like the back of my hand and that's why we've helped 50, 200 people pass. Focus on the big blocks and so far you're crushing it. So let's get into a frontal exercise.
Speaker 1Name a couple yeah, on the frontal plane we've got uh shoulder press um lateral raises would be another one, like the uh the adduction and the abduction of the side of the arm um love it, and so the fact that he was able to go through the action and name it, that's huge, because it's an imaginary line bisecting the body into anterior and posterior halves, allowing for a, b and a deduction, as he just demonstrated. So he said a military press, which technically is in the frontal plane. We have videos breaking it down. You're not going to answer it based on the actual science. You have to answer the question based on NASM. So you got to put that NASM hat on. Technically, a military press would be more transverse because you want your elbow to be closer to your, your almost like your chest line, your mid axilla, and when you rotate into that frontal plane it's not optimal for the shoulder, but you got to know that for the exam. So when you press overhead, that is called a concentric muscle contraction. When you come down, that's called what?
Speaker 1that is the eccentric when you're coming down now what if I was training you and I got some trainer engagement and we have 10 reps that we're performing and I have you pause in the middle for five seconds? What is that called? Um, that'd be a rest pause yeah, so if you just hold here halfway, oh, that'd be.
Speaker 2Yeah, that'd be. Uh sorry, that'd be an isometric hold if you're just holding the weight not a boy.
Speaker 1So the agonist for a frontal plane military press is what?
Speaker 2the agonist would be your uh, it'd be your deltoid right nice.
Speaker 1What is the synergist? Uh, the synergist is probably your tricep nope, yeah, you're correct, you're correct, but what, uh? What are the muscles?
Speaker 2um.
OPT Model and Exercise Tempo
Speaker 1So for the military press, your synergist would um anterior delt so this is where you got to look at the biomechanics of the movement, so you got abduction correct. And then at the biomechanics of the movement, so you got abduction correct. And then at the elbow constant, you're going to extending, so that's why it would be your triceps, but then the scapula is moving upward, upward rotation oh, the scapula is the synergist so the muscles that control scapular upward rotation are. So what are those muscles?
Speaker 1um the levator scapula nope it, it's going to be the upper trap.
Speaker 2Upper trap.
Speaker 1Lower trap and the serratus anterior. So those would also be a synergistic muscle group and when they work together like that, it's called a force couple. So you could see a question maybe. Like your client is performing a military press, the scapula is upwardly rotating, the upper lower and serratus anterior are moving the scapula. What would be the technical term for this relationship? That'd?
Speaker 2be a force couple.
Speaker 1There you go, Nicely done. And if you look at those muscles that we just described, which ones would be overactive and which ones would be underactive? The upper traps, lower traps and serratus anterior.
Speaker 2Yeah, I think the upper trap is overactive, the lower trap is underactive and the serratus anterior is overactive.
Speaker 1Serratus anterior is going to be underactive because that is a protractor and typically we're going to see that muscle, according nasm, being lengthened and when it's lengthened it's underactive and or weak. And what would be the tempo that we would want to perform to strengthen the lower trap and the serratus anterior for the exercises that we choose? Yeah, four, two, one, one tempo that a boy, and can you tell me what four, two, one, one means?
Speaker 2yeah, yeah, so the four would be the eccentric, like that'd be the lowering part 2, it would just be like a hold, and then the 1 would be a concentric and then 1 to hold at the top before you go back down again.
Speaker 1Nice, and so you're doing a 4-2-1-1 tempo. In which phase of the OPT model, phase 1. And here's where you use some common sense. I'm going to test you right now, buddy. So what is four plus two?
Speaker 2it's six. There you go, plus one. I would be seven plus one. That would be eight seconds for a repetition.
Speaker 1There you go, we're doing 12 to 20 repetitions. Now that we're getting to some weird math. But if we're doing, as they say, one to three sets, you're performing almost two to three minutes of time under tension for an exercise, which is pretty crazy. I've been a trainer for 20 years and I've never done a two minute set with an individual who's deconditioned. But this is what you need to know for the exam. And if we are in that phase one of the OPT model, which you clearly stated and knew very well, we're going to foam, roll and stretch, but then we're going to have a rep range that's associated with it. And what is that rep range?
Speaker 2again, 12 to 20 reps.
Speaker 1And what is that percent of intensity?
Speaker 250 to 70%.
Speaker 1What are we resting?
Speaker 2We're resting for zero, to 90 seconds.
Speaker 1Good, and these are what are referred to as the acute variables. So they could ask you a question. Your client is performing a pushup and you notice they have scapular winging. Which of the following muscles would be underactive? That have your upper traps, your serratus anterior, your triceps, and then a random muscle, your sternocleomastoid. So what muscle would be underactive in that case?
Speaker 2um the underactive muscle, I would. I'm picking out the serratus anterior, because that, just that, is underactive boy.
Speaker 1And so then they're going to ask a question about heart anatomy next and they're going to say which chambers are the most superior of the heart, right?
Speaker 2you got the atrium.
Speaker 1The atria are the most superior there you go, and then we dump blood into the ventricles which push blood out into the body. So you choose that right answer and then the next question is going to ask you about tempo. Which phase the opt model is going to use a 2020 tempo?
Speaker 2that'd be phase three oh boy.
Speaker 1And then they're going to ask you come back to a similar, overactive, underactive question, which would be along the lines of using the same kind of situation, but they're just going to change the vocabulary. So your client is performing a pushup and you notice that they shrug with their shoulders while they're performing it concentrically. Which of the following muscles would you want to stretch? And they may even give you the same four answers. And we learned that the serratus anterior is underactive. If you're shrugging, what muscle would be overactive?
Speaker 2That'd be the upper trapezius and that's the one that we'd want to stretch.
Speaker 1Nicely done, nicely done. So let's finish off on the transverse plane of motion.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1Give me a couple exercises in that plane.
Speaker 2A couple I can think of off the top of my head would be like a like a peck deck chest fly and then like the reverse chest fly as well. Aside from that, maybe like like pronation and supination is transverse plane, but I can't think of any other exercises. Those are the only two I can come up with off the top of my head.
Speaker 1Great, you got the the, the basic ones that you need to know. So when you're doing a chest fly, that's going to be your pectoralis major. When you do an reverse fly, that's your posterior deltoid. That's a perfect example of agonist and antagonist. So agonist is going to be the prime mover. The opposite. So just think of the opposite exercise. So, as we did a military press in the frontal, what is the opposite exercise of a military press.
Speaker 2The opposite exercise of a military press would be a row of some kind, because it's a press movement.
Speaker 1So a row would be in the sagittal plane. So if I'm pressing overhead, what would be the opposite of overhead?
Speaker 2An upright row.
Speaker 1So if I'm pressing here, what exercise would I do there?
Speaker 2oh, pull up.
Speaker 1Yeah, sorry, and so that exercise, the agonist of that, would be the antagonist for the military press. So that's how I think of agonist and antagonist is. Just think of the opposite exercise in the net muscle, which would be the antagonist for the movement. So again, transverse pec, deck, pec major would be the prime mover. The antagonist would be your posterior deltoid, which would also be transverse. Karaoke is another one. We're not getting drunk in the bar singing love songs. I'm talking about switching your hips, rotating in the transverse plane while you're doing side shuffling. That would be another one that you could see. So an interior, an imaginary line bisecting the body into superior and inferior halves, allowing for rotation is the technical term. So you crush that. You're doing a really great job with the OPT model. Now I just want to throw out some exercises that they would use, and you need to be able to associate it with the phase. So if your client is performing a prone ISO ab, which phase of the OPT model would you be doing that?
Speaker 2A prone ISO ab. I'm not exactly sure, but I'm going to say that sounds phase one, that sounds like oh boy, good, I love that because by. But I'm going to say that sounds phase one. That sounds like oh boy, good, I love that because by default.
Speaker 1I always say, when in doubt, go with phase one. Anything that is proprioceptively enriched, that's going to be phase one. Anything where you're doing weird shit to a stability ball or a bosey ball, phase one. Why not just say plank, because that's what it's called, but you need to know the technical term according to that textbook. So the spine is not moving. Therefore it would be a stabilization ab exercise. Now if I'm doing a reverse crunch on a decline bench, which phase DLPT model would that go into?
Speaker 2I'd probably be phase three.
Overactive vs Underactive Muscles
Speaker 1Yep. So just the strength part, because we have stabilization strength, which has phases two, three and four, and then power is going to be phase five. The spine is moving concentrically and eccentrically. I did a post yesterday on our Facebook group we're past NASA and ACE, issa in 30 days and I'm doing a cable rotation. The ending position of my leg would be in what?
Speaker 2Oh, triple extension.
Speaker 1There you go, so your hip is extended, your knee is extended and you have plantar flexion. So that can confuse people, because you hear the word flexion but if you plant your foot down, the angle has increased and that's the technical definition of extension, where the opposite action of plantar flexion is called what?
Speaker 2Dorsiflexion.
Speaker 1Atta boy, and what muscle concentrically accelerates dorsiflexion?
Speaker 2The anterior tibialis.
Speaker 1Atta boy. Now, when we look at the posterior muscles, the gastrocnemius and the soleus, versus the anterior tibialis, which one is overactive?
Speaker 2Gastroc and soleus are overactive and the tibs are underactive.
Speaker 1Atta boy, and so then we're naming off more muscles that would fall under that category of lengthened, weak or underactive, as well as overactive, shortened or tight. Anytime you see that you need to apply the principles with the textbooks and how to do so when we move into phase five, can you give me a couple examples of what phase five would include when it comes to exercise selection?
Speaker 2Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I think what I've seen a lot in phase five is like a heavy compound, like a squat, and then that would be followed with some kind of medicine ball power exercise, superset.
Speaker 1So we have supersets that are going to be, which is called post activation potentiation, pap training, where you can either go heavy first and or do the explosive movement first, that then you're going to do a superset into the opposite. So let's pretend like we do a heavy squat. The strength phase of that would be one to five reps, 85 to a hundred percent, followed by a vertical jump for 10 reps, because that's body weight, 10 percent of body weight, or 30 to 45 percent of your one rep max. Now there's another phase of the opt model that has supersets. Which phase is that?
Speaker 1that'd be phase two and can you give me an example of that?
Speaker 2sure that would be like um, more of a like, more of a endurance exercise, so like a push-up or no. That'd be more like a bench into like a push-up, so like a pushup or no. That'd be more like a bench into like a pushup off of a BOSU ball or something like that. Yeah.
Speaker 1Beautiful. So how I look at the OPT model according to NASM, the foundation, anything that you go to a gym and you see circus shit, that's going to be phase one. So that's unstable. Standing on one leg doing a single leg scaption, which is a shoulder exercise all phase one. When you move into strength phases two, three and four think of these are the most common exercises that bros do in the gym. So that's going to be your lat pulldown, your pull-ups, your cable rows, your deadlifts, your squats that's going to be in the strength phase two, three or four. And then when you get more athletic movements, that's going to be in phase five. So you crush the OPT model. You're really good with that.
Speaker 1I'm just going to throw some random topics out there. Now. What you'll see is you go into the depths of hell and Reddit and people telling you you got to spend years studying for this stuff because the textbook's going to make you a great trainer. Ironically, we don't read a textbook to our clients. You need to actually learn how to tactilely cue and use auditory cueing, verbal cueing and so forth, but you need to be able to understand the mind. And if you take a test and you see questions that you're not confident with that's what's really going to stand out. So people will say like, oh, my God, there was so much on nutrition. You got to remember, though, they're beta testing maybe 20 to 30 questions, we don't know and so those questions you may be seeing a lot of, they could just be throwing in there for a new round. They're probably going to come out with edition eight here in the next couple of years.
Nutrition Basics and Body Assessment
Speaker 1This textbook seven is still based off of 2020. So you need to understand, be careful. When you go into groups out there and they tell you, oh, spend a ton of time on nutrition. They're going to ask you maybe a couple of questions, and the question is going to be very, very basic, such as what is the percentage of daily intake that the average person should be consuming when it comes to carbohydrates? Now, before you answer, don't think about carnivore, don't think about the shit you see on social media. You have to answer based on what the textbook provides. So what would be the recommended intake for carbohydrates?
Speaker 2Percentage-wise 45 to 65%. That a boy Fats. That would be 10 to 35%.
Speaker 1So technically we'll say 20 to 35. And then, what percent should not be more when it comes to saturating?
Speaker 2No more than 10% saturated.
Speaker 1That a boy. And then, when it comes to protein, can you tell me the basic unit of a protein molecule?
Speaker 2An amino acid.
Speaker 1That a boy. There's 20 of those. When you hear the terminology non-essential, what does that mean?
Speaker 2Non-essential. It means your body can produce it endogenously, like on its own.
Speaker 1Atta boy. So when you can make it, we do not need to get it outside. But a complete amino profile would be getting all of the amino acids and typically you're going to find that in an animal product or milk and so forth. But you can get a complete protein by having rice and beans or tofu and another amino source. They're not going to get much into nutrition for two reasons. One, because we're not nutritionists, and that's why when you get certified with Show Up, with our nutrition cert, you get to work with an RD and you level up your team. That's what we're really big in with our certification is that you need to have a great medical team. All of our CPTs are going to have a physical therapist. They're going to have a RD, which just builds your credibility, and trainers need that confidence.
Speaker 1Competence is really really important, but having a team is really far superior, and so the reason I'm talking about that is because they're not going to ask you specifics and the micronutrients, because they don't want to get into any type of legal trouble. They're going to keep it really basic. That's for one reason. The second one is they want you to leave. They're a great marketing company and you're going to be thinking, wow, I need to go get that next cert. But as we already found out, you probably already got that in your bundle so you can go take that later on. But don't really get too in depth into the nutrition stuff. What are the nutrients of the human body?
Speaker 2there's six of them, according to nasa um six new, like uh, macro or micronutrient, like there's only four macros, but what are they? Uh the alcohol, bad protein and carbs.
Speaker 1There you go, and you may be thinking alcohol. That's not a macronutrient. You have to understand the technical terminology. So it's just providing calories. So one gram of protein is how many calories?
Speaker 2Protein would be four calories per gram Fat. Fat would be nine Carbs.
Speaker 1Carbs would be four Alcohol Would be seven At a boy. So you have the macros. What are the micros?
Speaker 2Um. The fat soluble ones are a, d, e and K.
Speaker 1At a boy. So the micros are going to be vitamins and minerals.
Speaker 2Yep.
Speaker 1And then the last and arguably the most important nutrient is what?
Speaker 2Um the most important nutrient is what the most important nutrient as a trainer.
Speaker 1We are psychopaths. I'd be willing to bet my man has something in front of him which a lot of your clients don't, that you're probably going to drink. Okay, uh, alcohol you're gonna drink alcohol this early in the morning? No water, I don't know. No, I don't, I don't think I understand the question man um I like it, I like it.
Speaker 1Oh, here's the most essential nutrient and I'll say yeah, trainers typically will have like a water bottle in front of them, you know, most of the time. So water is the most essential nutrient. Those are the nutrients that the body require. Now you may hear some people saying that carbohydrates are not essential, but that argument is very poor. It's like saying you don't need two kidneys, you don't need two lungs, because you don't, you can survive without them. But carbohydrates are going to provide fiber. And how many grams of fiber should the average American male be consuming?
Speaker 228 to 35 grams a day.
Speaker 1Yep, and then so more for males, because males typically are bigger. So roughly 38 grams. And then for females it's going to be 25 grams. Again, they're not going to give you these minute differences. Is it 26, 28, 30, or 34? It's going to be five grams, 15 grams, 20 grams or 35 grams for a male. So the higher amount. In that regard, you did great with the percentages. You did good with the, the basic unit of each water. Just you know, males need to be consuming more because we're bigger. Let's get into heart stuff a little bit and the assessment process. So when we do a par q first off, can you tell me what that is?
Speaker 2yeah, par q is kind of a subjective health assessment. It's pretty much by subject subjective. You're getting the information from the subject.
Speaker 1So like prior health history and stuff like that If your client were to tell you that they have a contraindication from a medical provider, what does contraindication mean?
Speaker 2It means that there is something in a training program they wouldn't be able to do.
Speaker 1There you go. So your client has a labral tear in the shoulder and the practitioner is going to suggest no overhead movements for six to eight weeks, and you need to respect that. You can never tell your client not to do something that their doctor does or go off medication. If you were to check your client's blood pressure and it's 150 over 85, what is that technical term called?
Speaker 2That would be hypertension 150 over 85.
Speaker 1Only one needs to be above 140 and or 90, and that would be hypertension. It's called a silent killer and we're having 600 plus thousand deaths per year due to coronary artery disease, and that's why it's great to work with a professional such as yourself. And so the blood pressure is pressure against the arterial walls. We have a YouTube on that that gets more in depth, so you understand how to implement it as the trainer. Your resting average heart rate will be anywhere from 60 to 80 beats. You may be thinking Lance Armstrong has it for 39.
Speaker 1Don't think like that. You have to think of the average American and what they're going to say on the exam. So you want the average numbers. The term tachycardia is having a resting heart rate of greater than 100, and you would need medical clearance for that. You said a great term earlier subjective, which is the subject gives you that information, such as I'm a lawyer or I'm a secretary and I'm in high heels all day. I'm going to assume that your calves are overactive and then you would just go down the process for that. What is objective information?
Speaker 2That is the information that you obtain from the clients. That would be like blood pressure, heart rate and any of the other performance assessments.
Speaker 1There you go. The main thing they may ask you definitely blood pressure, knowing waist-hip-girth measurements. So having a waist greater than 40 inches would be a risk factor. Greater than 35 for females, 0.85 for that waist-to-hip ratio. Could you tell me some of the body fat testing sites that they would potentially do?
Speaker 2as a NASM trainer, yeah, there's like the Dernan Wormersley, which is the bicep tricep subscapularis and suprailiac.
Speaker 1That a boy, good on that one. And then you're going to go into the assessment process and that's everything that we did with the overhead squat. You seem to do well with that. I'm only going to ask you a couple of questions. Your client is performing the overhead squat assessment and you notice that their knees buckle in. Could you tell me a muscle that would be overactive?
Speaker 2Yeah, the gastroc and soleus would be overactive.
Speaker 1What other?
Speaker 2ones, the adductors, would be overactive.
Speaker 1If you notice that your client's arms fall down during the overhead squat assessment, what muscles would be overactive?
Speaker 2For the arms falling down. I think the would the upper trap be overactive if the arms are falling forward.
Speaker 1If that was in there, it could be, but I'm looking more for what is happening at the action of my humerus. It's coming down, which is called extension. So what is the main muscle that extends the humerus?
Speaker 2That'd be the lats.
Speaker 1So the lats would be overactive. Foam roll stretch. Get into the activation stuff. Let's talk a little bit about like a pulling assessment. Your client's doing a pulling assessment and you notice that their upper arm elevates what would be an overactive muscle there?
Speaker 2When their arm elevates. I think that would be the upper trapezius, right Yep.
Marketing and Trainer Psychology
Speaker 1They're not going to say upper trapezius levator scapula sternocleomastoid. They're not going to give you all similar overactive muscles. It's usually one or two overactive ones, with the one being a misfit. So it's going to say upper traps, your reductor muscle, your lower traps and your deep cervical flexors. So two of those are underactive, two are overactive, but one would be the correct answer.
Speaker 2Let's talk about SMART goals? Yeah, so specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely.
Speaker 1And the four P's of marketing.
Speaker 2Product, price, promotion and place.
Speaker 1I always make a joke and say it's actually five, because if you've owned a gym like we have for 10 plus years, a big one is parking. But they're not going to ask on that. They're going to say drop a little nugget into your brain. You decided to get your corrective exercise certification. Which of the following P's for marketing would you improve by getting that certification?
Speaker 2Probably the product, would it be?
Speaker 1Yes, because your product is improving with your certifications.
Speaker 2How many CEUs do we need every couple of years? Two, two CEUs every couple of years.
Speaker 1If you get to one of our seminars we were just out to where you're moving, in Parker, colorado we have two-day seminars with our partnership with Lifetime and Equinox. We're the only certification out there, the SUFCPT, that can say with our certification you're guaranteed an interview at lifetime and when we do those weekend seminars you get one CEU for NASM. So that's 10 hours, 1.0 CEUs. You need to know that for the exam. How long do you hold records? For compliance reasons?
Speaker 2For compliance reasons, I think, oh, that's a tricky one. Six months, up to six months.
Speaker 1You're going to be looking for the answer of four years on that one, oh, four years okay. Let's talk about a SWOT analysis.
Speaker 2What is that SWOT is? Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and Threats.
Speaker 2Tell me about the stages of change. Yeah, yeah. So there's a pre-contemplation, which is you're not even thinking about entering stepping foot in a gym for more than six months. There's um contemplation where you're thinking about it. Um, there's the preparation phase, which you talk about. You know going to lululemon and buying all your crap, um, you know getting ready and you know starting to purchase things for the gym. You've got maintenance, which is or no, sorry. You've got action, which is when you start um going to the gym like fairly consistently, and then maintenance is when that consistency is longer than six months.
Final Evaluation and Industry Insights
Speaker 1And in my professional opinion, I'm going to give you the thumbs up because you will absolutely pass. You crushed that. You did really, really well and I'm sure that you've supplemented your studying with other resources that are out there. But I tell people, don't get too hung up if you're taking the test on the NASM page, because if you get a 60 or 65 in a chapter that isn't that important, it's really going to screw with your mindset. Then you're going to push off studying for even longer. And, as we say, I know there's NASM pundits out there that like to give a shit.
Speaker 1The belt buckle trainer is crazy. You got to spend at least six months studying this stuff. The most important thing you can do is pass it as quickly as you can so that you can get into an internship or mentorship opportunities to gain that experience. Most trainers get certified. They go out there and learn by themselves. Could you imagine a doctor doing that? I just read a textbook. Now I want to start doing heart surgery. You would never allow for that and that's why the industry is broken NASM, issa they're backed by billion-dollar companies Blackstone, tailwind. They have the money to market and get in front of you. People think that I'm making fun of these companies. They're great marketing companies. I give them a lot of respect because they know how to get in front of the consumer.
Speaker 1Now, studies, not studies, but I've done surveys. I talk about it in my book. There's professionals on LinkedIn. I've done surveys. I talk about it in my book. There's professionals on LinkedIn, and the percent range is between 80 to 97% of trainers quit within the first year. So that's why you got to get through this as quickly as you can, because you need to build your confidence, and everything that I quizzed you on today, you know it like the back of your hand and you didn't need the options. So that's how I know that you're going to pass, and so then you can move onto the next steps, which is building that confidence. Do you have any questions for me before we call it a day?
Speaker 2No, I think that's it, man. I think we're all good.
Speaker 1Nice and, as I always say again, we're not affiliated with NASM. I got no hard feelings. They're a great marketing company. None of the stuff that I'm saying is information that you could not find within the book. These are our recommendations and, in my opinion, we don't have any insider information based on the main topics. That's what you need to own and that's exactly what we went over today, which you can find in the textbook, but we've helped numerous people pass it without the textbook. So just do exactly as this young hunk did. He got in there, studied. You're doing a couple hours a day, you're putting in the time and you're going to pass. Tomorrow's your test. So shoot me a screenshot, because I know you will. And remember, as you have right there in front of you, big biceps are better than small ones, and keep showing up. Love it. Have a good one, my man.