The Show Up Fitness Podcast

Pass Your CPT 2025/26 | NASM ACE ISSA NSCA ACSM

• Chris Hitchko, CEO Show Up Fitness • Season 3 • Episode 260

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Pass any Textbook personal training certification with the SUF study guide.

SUF has helped over 5,300 personal trainers get certified 

Most trainers are told to read more and “trust the process,” then left to sink in a sea of acronyms and 800-page manuals. We take a sharper route: pass your NASM, ACE, ISSA, NSCA, or ACSM quickly, then turn that momentum into hands‑on skill, confident coaching, and a book of business that lasts. Our goal is simple—make the exam make sense, and make your training career real.

We walk through the essentials you’re most likely to see on the test—clinical red flags like hypertension and tachycardia, ACSM risk stratification, and the behavior change stages—then connect those terms to real assessments and training decisions. You’ll decode planes of motion, open vs closed chain, and the roles of agonists, synergists, and stabilizers on big lifts like squats, pull-ups, presses, and rows. We map NASM’s OPT phases and ACE’s IFT model to actual programming: stabilization setups, strength endurance supersets, hypertrophy ranges, maximal strength rest periods, and power pairings that develop force and speed without guesswork.

We also dive into performance testing and bioenergetics so your intervals match the sport—ATP‑PC efforts with long recovery, glycolytic repeats with targeted rest, and steady oxidative work when it counts. On the nutrition side, we keep you in scope and exam‑ready: macros, calories per gram, fiber targets, and practical protein ranges from sedentary to strength and mass phases. Most importantly, we show how to move from textbook answers to client outcomes: clean assessments, simple cues that fix valgus without fear, workouts that hit stated goals on day one, and a clear, confident close that turns great coaching into paid sessions.

If you’re done cramming and ready to perform, grab the study guide, pass in 30 days, and join us for hands‑on learning that builds real-world confidence. Subscribe, share this with a trainer who needs a win, and leave a review to help more coaches show up strong.

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
NASM / ACE / ISSA study guide: https://www.showupfitness.com/collections/nasm

SPEAKER_00:

That's these marketing companies because I know you've done your research. You know that NASA's owned by Ascend Learning, who's owned by Blackstone, right? You know that Tailwind Investment Firm, which is over a$5 billion company, owns ISSA. Or did you just click on the first link? I'm not calling you an idiot. I know it's frustrating. You have some dipshit with a belt buckle telling you that you did it the wrong way. That's why we're doing this. 90% of trainers quit within the first year because they're not set up for success. 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 showupfitness.com. 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 Up Fitness Podcast. Today we're going to test you to see if you're ready to pass your textbook certification, which includes NASA, ACE, ISSA, NSCA, and ACSM. There isn't a single person on YouTube or out on the net that has helped more people pass these textbooks than myself. Give myself a pat on the back, but I taught this stuff at NPTI. It was a six-month school. And I know this more than anyone. My background's in kinesiology. So we created one of the best guides to help any person pass this. But as you know, 90% of trainers quit within the first year. I did one of the largest surveys, interviewing managers and personal trainers at the big gyms, Equinox, Lifetime, LA Fitness, Overseas, David Lloyd, Virgin Active. I've interviewed more managers than anyone on the planet. And the consensus, over 10,000 people, 90% quit within the first year. They lack the business skills they can't sell. They don't know how to build a book of business. We're not able to assess clients in pain to get them the results they need. We lack the people skills and then the technical skills. You're not going to get that in the textbook, but you need to pass this as quickly as you can because you came across the SUF CPT too late. You had that sunk cost fallacy. You just need to pass it, but most importantly, you need to get into hands-on learning. We have a certification for life. We have soft tissue mobilization techniques. We also have nutrition, but you're not listening to today's podcast for me to pitch you all of our products. I'm here to help you pass this as quickly as you can, confidently. Over 5,300 people have passed their exam thanks to Show Up Fitness and our study guide. The new one is out, 2025, 2026. It's the best guide out there. It's going to eliminate any stress. You can focus on these 50 pages within the guide, and you will pass within 30 days. We have a guaranteed option as well, which you can get certified for life with the Show Up Fitness CPT. And that's my last pitch on our products. So let's see if you're ready to pass your exam. This quiz is geared towards all of the certifications with a couple of them more emphasized towards NASAM, ACE, ISSA, NSCA and ACSN. You'll see with the questions that I ask. The first one: your client has hypertension. Which of the following blood pressure readings would you report? 125 over 85, 135 over 45, 145 over 65, 138 over 89. The correct answer would be C. That's hypertension. Systolic is the top number, and if it's greater than 140, or the bottom number, diastolic being greater than 90. And for this one, 145 would be above 140. So that is hypertension. The silent killer. Both of the readings do not need to be above 140 and 90. It's just, or one number needs to be into that red zone hypertension. Number two, what are the three stages of general adaptation syndrome? Increased endurance, increased strength, increased power, alarm, resistant development, exhaustion, delayed onset muscle soreness, increased motor unit recruitment, joint pain and muscle strains. And then we have D, mechanical specificity, neuromuscular specificity, metabolic specificity. These are all terms that you should be familiar with, but the correct answer for general adaptation syndrome will be B. That's the alarm phase, resistance, and then exhaustion. You also have supercompensation, but you're not going to be tested on that. Number three, people in this stage of the stage of change model do not exercise, but are thinking about becoming more active in the next six months. Pre-contemplation, contemplation, preparation, or action. Correct answer for this one would be contemplation. You need to know and master the theoretical model of change. Number four, the cable row is a great exercise for the lactissimus dorsi. During the concentric phase of the row movement with a neutral grip, which action is the humerus performing? Isometric, concentric, eccentric, amortization. These are all vocabulary that you need to know. You need to understand the biomechanics. What are the lats doing when you pull behind the body? Concentrically, it's going to be extension. The right answer would be B, concentric. Isometric, there's no change in length. Eccentric, the muscle is lengthening, as you can see when you're coming down from a pull-up. It's the easier portion of a lift. Right now I'm on my track for 315 in 2025. I've been doing a lot of heavy eccentric. So I'll put 335 on the bar and control it down as slow as I can. And then I'll have someone lift it up concentrically for me. Amortization is that middle phase part of the stretch shortening cycle. So when you load up a jump coming down, your arms come behind the body. That's the eccentric portion. Rapidly firing up concentrically. The transition between eccentric and concentric is the amortization phase within the stress shortening cycle. Number five, what mechanal receptor helps regulate the contraction of muscles through the stretch reflex mechanism? Joint receptors, Golgi tendons, nociepters, muscle spindles. Correct answer here is the muscle spindle. Think of spindle and stretch. Think of a golgi tendon is tension and holding, like foam rolling. Number six, your client is performing the overhead squat assessment. You notice their knees move into the frontal plane via knee adduction. Which of the following exercises would be best to strengthen the weak muscles? Back squats, front squats, overhead squats, side bandwalks. The vocabulary is part of the orientation that you need to master. Trainers suck at programming because they don't master the basics, and that's orientation. Where are we in space in the anatomical position? A, B, and C are all the same actions. D side bandwalks are going to be the frontal plane. And this is the vocabulary you're going to see with the overactive and underactive stuff. You need to recognize the right answer. In my professional opinion, the best exercises to do would be A and B, but you have to answer according to what your textbook wants. So if you have knee adduction, which is knee valgus, you need to do the opposite. You need to strengthen the weak muscles, which would be the glutes. As we know, because we're smart trainers, back squats and front squats with the proper neuromuscular control and movement competency will be far superior than the underloaded side bandwalks, but that's what you need to know for your exam. Which of the following examples would be considered championship type of support? Encouraging your friend to exercise, dropping your friend off at the gym, listening to your friend bent when they're frustrated with their progress, finding physically active options for your friends in social gatherings. Correct answer would be D. There's a lot of these questions that you're never going to see in real life, but you have to answer it and put on your textbook hat and answer it the way they want to. I charge a lot of money here in Santa Monica and I've never had a client ask about championship style of support, but that's what you need to know for your exam. During the objective portion of the assessment, you obtain a resting heart rate of 105, which is the contraindication for working out. What is this diagnosis called? You need to know the terminology, like contraindication. That means you cannot do it. If a client just blew out their ACL, there's going to be contraindications for movement, working with a trainer, working with a therapist, et cetera. The answers for this question are going to be bradycardia, tachycardia, hypertension, hyponeutremia. All vocabularies you should be familiar with as a personal trainer. Bradycardia, think of like Tom Brady, he's slower. That's a resting heart rate of less than 60. Tachycardia, my brain thinks of a tarantula. It has a bunch of legs greater than 100 resting heart rate. Hypertension, as we mentioned earlier, greater than 140 systolic, greater than 90 systolic. Just one of those numbers needs to be there. Hyponotremia is death by water. You consume too much water, pushes all the sodium out of your cell, and you die. Not a great thing. So make sure you're drinking water. And if it's hot outside and you're sweating a lot, get some sodium or some type of electrolyte replacement. The correct answer here would be tachycardia. During the movement portion of the assessment, you notice your client's shoulders elevate during a push-up. Which muscle groups would be overactive? So if you're coming down eccentrically and your shoulders drive up, your scapula is elevating. That's going to be due to the upper traps. The correct answers here would be upper traps, middle traps, lower traps, scalenes. Understanding that the middle and lower traps are typically underactive. We don't engage those nearly as much as the upper traps. Upper traps is the correct answer. Scalines are a deep neck muscle. Which of the following core exercises would be appropriate to give an individual in the muscular development phase of the OPT model. This is geared specific for NASA and those that can't get a refund for that. Cable rotation, ball cobra, farmers carry, medicine ball, wood chop throw. This is all their vocabulary minus the farmers carries. You don't see that much in their textbook. The correct answer here would be cable rotation. That would be used in phase three. For phase one, stabilization, the spine is stable. So that would be like a plank or prone isoab. That's a great name for an exercise. Ball cobra would also be stabilization. A wood chop throw. So you are moving your basis support. You're throwing something, that's going to be this the power phase. When the spine moves, it's going to be the strength phase, which would be phase two, three, or four. And in this case, phase three, the correct answer would be a cable rotation. Which of the following tests is considered a performance test? Left, YMCA, rock port, 1.5 mile run. The left test is the correct answer. That's a performance test. YMCA, rock port, and 1.5 mile run are endurance tests, cardiovascular testing there. Which of the following exercises is considered an open chain movement? Pull-up, bench press, squat, handstand push-up. An open chain kinetic movement is the most distal region moving through space. A closed kinetic chain movement would be like a pull-up, where the most distal being your hands are not moving. A pull-up would be closed, bench press, your hands are on the bar with a pronated grip. You are moving through space. That's going to be an open chain movement. That would be the correct answer. A squat, your most distal region will be your feet. They're on the ground, they're not moving. A handstand push-up, your hands are on the ground at all the time while you're pushing away from the ground. Now, the biggest determinant if you're ready to take your test is if you can answer the following questions because they're open-ended. Most people struggle with their textbook certification because it's all multiple choice and you get caught up in your head. So in life, you're not going to have a client ask you if it's an open or closed chain kinetic exercise. You need to know it. Just like you need to know what is the agonist, synergist, stabilizer, and antagonist during movements. So when we look at the answers prior, let's see how you do with recognizing the agonist, synergist, stabilizer, and antagonist. For the pull-up, what is the agonist? It's a frontal plane exercise. The lats are the main mover. That's the agonist. I like to think of the agonist and synergist, which one is bigger? When you're doing a pull-up, the lats are bigger than the biceps. The elbow action concentrically is flexion. You've decreased the angle at the joint. So the synergist would be your biceps. For the stabilizer, it's always going to be upper body rotator cuff. The main role of those rotator cuff muscles is to stabilize the glenohumeral joint. For lower body movements, it's always going to be the core or transverse abdominis. The antagonist is the opposite. So if I'm doing a pull-up in the frontal plane, what is the opposite exercise that I would be doing? A military press. That's going to be your deltoids. For the bench press exercise, the agonist would be your pectrus major, because that's larger. The humerus is horizontally adducting. At the elbow, you're going to have extension concentrically, which therefore the triceps will be working as the synergist. Stabilizer would be rotator cuff. Antagonist would be the opposite movement. So with a pronated row, it's going to be the transverse plane. That's horizontal adduction. That's going to be your posterior deltoid. That will be the antagonist for a bench press. Now for the squat, you have to know for the textbook application in real life is different. So what I mean by that is the agonist at the knee for a squat is the quads. The synergist is going to be the hamstrings according to these textbooks. The stabilizer will be your core because you're stabilizing via intra-abdominal pressure. The antagonist is the opposite of what's happening at the hip. So concentrically, when you come up, the hip is extending, which will be your glutes, which will also be an agonist. But then you have the opposite being your hip flexors. So the antagonist for a squat will be your hip flexors. The reason I say you need to know this for the exam is because the synergist in real life, your ductors are going to be extending, working at the hip along with the glutes. But for your textbook cert, you need to know it's the hamstrings. The hamstrings actually don't change much length due to knee extension. So the opposite of extension would be flexion, which would be your hamstrings. So they're not working a lot at the knee, but they are working at the hip. So when you do a hinge, yes, they're more engaged. But during a squat, they're not nearly as engaged as much as the adductor group. And then the last exercise, a handstand push-up, which is just think of that as a military press, even though it's completely different, but just for the test-taking purposes, being able to recognize that handstand or military press, the agonist will be your anterior and medial deltoid, concentric acceleration, which will be extension for the triceps. Stabilizer will be the rotator cuff. Antagonist is the opposite. So that'll be your pull-up, which would be your lats. All of these tests focus a lot on orientation. They're going to say anterior, posterior, contralateral, contraindication. You need to know that anatomy and vocabulary because if you don't, it's just going to confuse you. You're going to lose your shit. Your heart rate's going to go through the roof. You're going to produce all these catecholamines, cortisol is going to block memory, and you're going to forget and you're going to fail. Remember, you're not a failure if you fail one of these exams. They're not setting you up for success. You're reading a freaking book. You're a kinesthetic learner like me, like everyone else. It's the number one thing I hear. I don't read a book very well. No shit, Sherlock. Our whole entire career, our profession is working with our hands, relating to people. The people skills are huge. Reading a book doesn't teach you those people skills. And if you're just a textbook junkie and you're talking about the agonist and the synergist and neuromuscular control and reciprocal inhibition, your clients are like, what the fuck, dude? I don't want to work with you. You just told me my lats are overactive, my shoulders fine. Why are you scaring me? Don't scare your clients. We are pro movement. Moving on to the next one. There's my rant. I'm sorry. This is geared strictly for NASA. You need to know all of the acute variables within the OPT model. Optimal performance training. Muscular development is going to be phase three. Maximal strength, phase four. Power, phase five. Stabilization endurance, phase one, strength endurance, phase two. I didn't set them up one, two, three, four, five because I want you to think through it because the exam's not going to ask you one, two, three, four, five. You're going to have a question about the agonist on a bench press, which you need to know is the pec major. They're going to ask you about resting heart rate. They're going to ask you about the SA node, which is the pacemaker of the heart. And then they're going to throw in a power question. So you need to be able to bounce around. And that's exactly what I set you up for success within our guide. To help you understand, because I know it's a podcast or you're listening to it. Let's just begin with phase one, stabilization endurance. The reps are 12 to 20. Intensity is 50 to 70%. Rest is zero to 90 seconds, with the tempo being a four, two, one, one. Four eccentric, pause for two isometrically, one concentric, one isometric. You stay there for a month, strengthen ligaments and tendons, and then you'd move into the strength phase, which could be either two, three, or four. Phase two is called strength endurance. All you need to know for this part of the OPT model is the type of superset that you're going to be performing. A bench press into a bowsuit ball push-up, a squat into a TRX squat, a pull-up into a TRX row, a military press into a single leg scaption. You need to know the exercises that are associated with your textbook. Single leg scaption, NASAM loves that. Stability bowl, squat, curl press, NASA loves that. That's all gonna be phase one. Phase three is called muscular development. What the fuck does that mean? I don't know. It's just hypertrophy, but that's a fancy term that they throw at you. Six to 12 reps, 75 to 85% intensity, zero to 60 seconds rest, tempo two, zero, two, zero. I laugh because as we know as smart trainers, the mechanisms of hypertrophy, number one, is tension on the muscle. And you cannot optimize tension on the muscle if you're resting 60 seconds. That's stupid. You can do that for some metabolic stress at the end of a workout just to get a pump, and your client's gonna feel it. They're like, oh my God, that's awesome. I'm gonna get jacked working with you. Here's my credit card. I want to pay you 200 bucks an hour. That's playing the game as a trainer. But for muscular development phase of the OPT model, you have to remember zero to 60 seconds rest. Phase four is called maximal strength. That's gonna be your bench press, your squats, your deadlifts, hip thrust. That's gonna be one to five reps, 85 to 100% intensity, three to five minutes rest with a tempo of XXX. I had a student one time said he got in trouble because he went home and typed in XXX tempo and he got some weird shit popping up. Don't do that. You're gonna get in trouble. It just means you're gonna control it down eccentrically and press as fast as you can concentrically, because the weight is very heavy. And then when you move into phase five, you have power, which is gonna be one to five reps for strength, but one to ten reps for maximal power output, 30 to 45% of your one rep max. Your rest will be three to five minutes, tempo also being XXX. Now, with that superset, you need to understand you do a strength exercise first, bench press into a med ball pass. You're gonna do a jump into a squat. You could do a squat into a jump, it's referred to as post-activation potentiation. That's the power and the excitement of the nervous system that's happening. You need to know the exercises that are associated with phase five versus phase two. So a pull up into a ball slam, phase five, a bench press into a push-up, phase two, a back squat into a jump, phase five, a back squat into a TRX squat would be phase two. So master those acute variables and the exercises that are associated. Again, you don't need the textbook to know that stuff. These are just vocabulary words that you're gonna see. And where a lot of people screw up is you go and you watch a video over here on Sort of Healthy or Axiom or whoever it is, they're trying to teach you this stuff. I don't work for NASA, I don't get any kickback. I did work for a school that taught NASA and it was Malarkey. That's why I left because with a degree in kinesiology and our team of doctors and physical therapists and RDs within our certification. You look at this stuff like, holy crap, people actually think this is right? Wow. So they're trying to memorize it. If you're trying to memorize an 800-page book, that's gonna be very confusing. So the guide is just 50 pages, straight to the point. It doesn't matter which certification, the foundation of the certifications are pretty much the same. It's knowing the agonist synergies, that orientation vocabulary, anterior, posterior, what's happening within the rep ranges, 12 to 20, local muscular endurance is what they're gonna call an NSCA stabilization in NASA, the IFT model for ACE, they're gonna call it something else. You just have to recognize the acute variables and the rest and the intensity and the tempo. Question 14 write out the definition of the planes of motions with three examples of each. You will see a lot about this stuff. So the imaginary line bisecting the body into right and left halves, that is something you just need to memorize. That's the sagittal plane of motion. It allows for flexion and extension. So imagine yourself in a hallway, and on one side, your right shoulders up against the wall, on the left side, your shoulders up against that wall. Any movement that you can do in that space is going to be sagittal. We are sagittal creatures. So it's gonna be chin-ups, it's gonna be walking, running, jumping, lunging, squatting. All of those are gonna be in the sagittal plane of motion, bicep curls because you're flexing and extending the elbow. Close grip push-up would technically be in the sagittal plane. Frontal plane of motion is going to be an imaginary line bisecting the body into anterior and posterior halves, allowing for AB and AD duction. Abduction, adduction, if you say I'm fast, it's confusing. So we'll say AB, which is going away, like a lateral raise or military press. A D is a pull-up or lap pull down, jumping jacks. In that scenario I said earlier with the wall crushing your shoulders. Now imagine it crushing your face and the back. It's on your derriere, it's on your dump truck. So actions and movement that's allowed in that plane of motion is in the frontal. Bandwalks, jumping jacks, lateral raises, and so forth. Those are all frontal plane exercises. The last one is transverse, which allows for any type of rotation, whether it's external or internal, horizontal adduction, horizontal abduction, and/or scaption. That's going to be the transverse plane of motion. An imaginary line bisecting the body into superior and inferior halves. All great vocabulary and orientation to know. They could ask you an anatomy question which of the following muscles is most superior. You could have your vastus medialis, your gastrocnemius, your rectus abdominis, and your upper trapezius. So you need to know where those muscles are and which one's the most superior, which would be your upper traps in that case. Transverse is going to be chest flies, reverse flies, an arnold press. When there's rotation, it's going to be transverse. So technically, a push-up would be transverse because of horizontal abduction. Your humerus is going through the transverse plane of motion. It would be multiplanar, though, because the elbow is extending, therefore, be also sagittal. They're not going to get that tricky. Which of the following planes of motion is a bench press, they're going to give you simple ones. Chest flies in what plane of motion? That's going to be transverse. Your client's performing a lateral raise. What plane of motion is this in? It's going to be frontal. Your client is swimming. What plane of motion is this in? It's going to be transverse because of the rotation that's happening of the body. Planes of motion are huge. You need to master that for your test. If that was confusing for you, you definitely need to get the guide to be tested on exactly what you're going to need to know for your exam. Number 15, this is a nutrition-based question. What are the six nutrients? What is the basic unit of each? How many calories per gram? What is the dietary recommendation percent range for each? So the macronutrients technically are carbs, fats, protein, and alcohol. The reason alcohol is a macronutrient is because there are calories that are being provided. A calorie is just a unit of measurement. I'm not going to get into a podcast breaking down calories in and calories out, even though that's the way it is. Yes, we got to look at other things such as hormones, genetics, environmental factors. Those are all things that we cover in our nutrition certification with an RD. You actually get to speak to an RD, which levels you up so then you can drive those streams of revenue, which trainers should be doing. You should be charging for your nutrition services. Do not give it away for free. So those macros, you need to know that a gram of carbohydrates is four calories. A gram of protein is four calories. A gram of fat is nine calories. They provide calories. The micronutrients are vitamins and minerals, which we'll never talk about. And the only thing on the exam you would see will be something about A, D, E, and K being the fat-soluble ones, because that's getting into the realm of a dietitian. And then the last one will be water. For women, we should be getting nine glasses a day, men roughly 13. Water is the most important nutrient. Knowing the fundamental unit or the basic unit for carbs will be monosaccharides. They're not going to ask you which one, if it's a glucose molecule, fructose molecule, or galactose, which would be milk. You just need to know monosaccharide is the basic unit. For protein, it's amino acids. There are 20. We have essential, which the body needs. Non-essential, the body does not need because it makes it by itself. And then for fat, the basic unit would be fatty acids. The percent range for each macro group. For carbs, it's 45 to 65%. For fat, it's 20 to 35%, no more than 10 being saturated. And then for protein, 10 to 35. What can be confusing is when you implement nutrition strategies from other people or what you've done to yourself. You may be keto or carnivore and you don't eat any carbs. So then you may be looking for carb recommendations should be less than 5%. But that's not what the test is asking you. You need to know the range is 45 to 65, which under the carb umbrella, we have sugar and then we have fiber. You should know that we should roughly be getting 38 grams for males, 25 grams for females. And then the last thing you need to know for protein is that per kilogram of body weight, how much would you recommend? So the protein recommendations according to these texts, sedentary is 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight. Strength and resistance athletes are 1.6 to 1.7 gram per kilogram. Endurance athletes are 1.2 to 1.4 gram per kilogram. And then for bodybuilding or mass, we're looking at 1.4 to as high as 2.2 grams per kilogram. That's what you need to know to pass the nutrition side. You're not going to see a lot on performance. You're not going to see a lot on nutrition. That's these marketing companies, because I know you've done your research. You know that NASA's owned by Ascend Learning, who's owned by Blackstone, right? You know that Tailwind Investment Firm, which is over a$5 billion company, owns ISSA. Or did you just click on the first link? I'm not calling you an idiot. I know it's frustrating. You have some dipshit with a belt buckle telling you that you did it the wrong way. That's why we're doing this. 90% of trainers quit within the first year because they're not set up for success. These marketing companies want you to get the performance enhancement specialist. They want you to get the precision nutrition or whatever nutrition cert it is. And it's another textbook. You go through the same motion that everyone else is doing. And then when you go on Reddit or when you go to a Facebook group, you see the same stuff. How do you program for someone in pain? How do you get clients? I don't know how to sell. The gym takes all my money. It's all this victimhood because you're not set up for success. So you have to do things differently. And when you master the basics, anatomy, and you know the 17 muscles around the shoulder, 20 of the lower body, 14 around the knee. You know the main movement patterns and how to progress and regress. Implement programming strategies that make your life easier. Your business grows. Your clients get results, not from doing a fucking bosu ball, squat, curl, press. They do it from moving weight appropriately based on their condition. If they're a beginner, they need to lift lighter loads, 10 plus reps, to strengthen their connective tissue. Ligaments and tendons take longer to strengthen versus muscles. Every client can do a one rep max, but it's not going to be safe. That's how you get hurt. There's no inherent bad exercises, just poor choices. Like if you're doing a fucking stability ball squat curl press, that is a stupid ass exercise. I'm gonna have my client do a goblet squat. And if they have knee valgus, holy shit, I don't lose my shit. I just put my hand on the outside of their knee and say, drive through your heel, big toe and little toe on the ground at all times, and press against my hand. And guess what? I just fixed the knotty knee valgus. Oh my God, I'm a great trainer. I know that. Confidence is huge. I talk about that in my book. Help Nick. That's the acronym for success for trainers. Volume two has an entire chapter, chapter 12, to help you pass this. The guide is your best solution. If you want supplementary stuff, get the book. Volume two. If you can get a refund, that's your best bet because then you invest in going and getting hands-on learning. We have numerous podcasts with very successful trainers and coaches and therapists and RDs. Hands-on learning is what's going to set you up for success. The last couple of ones are going to be specific to ACSM. So you need to know everything about the risk stratifications. So age, it's going to be a risk if you're a man greater than 45, woman greater than 55. Family history, if you've had a heart attack, bypass surgery, or sudden death before the age of 55 for a brother or father, that's a risk. Before the age of 65 for a mother or sister, that's a risk. I just take the age, add 10, and that's going to be the answer for family history. Cigarette smoking. Do you currently smoke or have you quit within the last six months? If you're exposed to environmental smokes, if they'd ask you a question, your client to bartender and people smoke in there all the time, would that be considered a risk? Yes, it would. Sedentary lifestyle, not participating in moderate activity three days a week for at least three months, 30 minutes. So if your client comes in and there's no exercise, that's gonna be a risk. Obesity, having a BMI greater than 30 or a waist girth greater than 40 inches for males, 35 inches for females. Everyone needs to know BMI. 18.5 to 24.9 is normal, 25 to 29.9 is gonna be overweight, greater than 30 is obese. It's a calculation of your mass over your height in meters squared. You will definitely see a question on that. Hypertension, systolic blood pressure greater than 40, or diastolic greater than 90, or taking medication. Dyslipidemia, also referred to as hyperlipidemia, your LDLs, which are the lousy ones, greater than 130 milligrams per deciliter, or having your HDLs, which are the healthy ones, less than 40 milligrams per deciliter. Or if you're taking any type of medication, or if your total cholesterol is greater than 200, you need to memorize these numbers and these readings because you're going to see a lot of that on the ACSM. Prediabetes. So if you have fasting glucose greater than 100, that's going to be a risk factor. It needs to be taken two different times. They ask you a ton of questions on the risk stratifications. Your client comes in, they're this old, they smoke, their BMI is this. How many risks do they have? The risk is going to be what you calculate from the criterion. The stratification, if it's less than zero, that's low. If it's one or more, it's going to be moderate. A high risk stratification is if you have a sign or symptom, which I'll read in here in a second. There are negative risk factors, which are your HDLs being greater than 60. Negative is a good thing. Part of our nutrition certification, we encourage you to go through and get a blood chemistry profile. Look at your testosterone, look at your inflammatory markers. When people say, Oh, I'm inflamed, it's my gut health. Okay, what is your C reactive protein levels at? What are they at? Uh what? Oh, I just uh saw it online. Someone's fucking orange glasses told me that I'm inflamed. No, if you're inflamed, you have to get measured via a blood chemistry panel. You look at those things and then you educate your client. This stuff is very powerful to understand. And if you're not taking the ACSM, I would highly suggest understanding these stratifications. And the signs or symptoms are really important for the assessment process. If a client were to come in with chest discomfort, that's referred to as angina, are they dizzy or they have synacope? That's going to be a high risk stratification you need to refer out. Shortness of breath with exertion, ankylademia, tachycardia. Do they have claudication, which is pain because their heart isn't strong enough to circulate the blood and it accumulates, which is ankyleemia, but there's pain from it, which is the clocation, a known heart murmur, any type of nocturnal dispina. It's not something that you're going to observe, it's something they're going to tell you. Unusual fatigue or shortness of breath with usual activities. If your client has any of these, it's a high risk stratification. You need to refer out. The assessment process is where trainers succeed. That's when you showcase your value. Your people skills present themselves. You don't smell like shit. You don't look like crap. You smile, you smell good, you shake their hand, you set clear expectations, and then you give them a workout based on their goals. You're not doing an overhead squat assessment. Why the hell would you do that? Your client didn't come in and say, Hey, Chris, will you take me through something I've never done before? And then tell me I have some syndrome like upper cross syndrome because it's going to make me feel really good. No. If they want a big ass, you screen their family history, make sure they're healthy, you take their blood pressure, do a grip strength, and you take them through a workout that's specific to their goals. You show them new exercises, part of the accessory where we program at Show Fitness within the CCA. And at the end, you smoke them a little bit. You don't smoke them the entire 60 minutes. You don't foam roll and stress for 50% of the workout. You give them value on what their goals are. And then you sit them down and you smile and say, How'd you like that? And they go, Holy shit, that was the best thing I've ever experienced. That's exactly why I need a trainer. How many times do you like to train? What do you suggest, Chris? I'm going to suggest six times because I work out six times. What would you like? That's a little too much for me right now. I'm going to think three is the best answer. Awesome. 12 sessions cost this, 36 cost that. Which one would you prefer? I think 36 would be great. Here's my black amex, Chris. That's how you do it. Great trainers don't experience the objections that you see all over the place online because those trainers, I'm sorry, but they're not competent. They're not confident in their trade. You get that from feedback from professionals, being at a seminar, learning from other trainers, understanding why your client's in pain or they're not signing up with you. Why do you think Lifetime and Equinox and the best gyms in the world have partnered with Show Up Fitness? Our certification is the only one in the world that laugh because you probably haven't heard this, but we don't market millions of dollars like these other companies. It's only certification in the world that guarantees you an interview because they want qualified trainers. If you try to go to an Equinox for Lifetime with a NASA MACE or ISSA, they're not going to call you back, probably. If they do, they're going to ask about experience. You don't have any. So you're going to have to go to an LA Fitness or a YMCA. Nothing wrong with those, but you're going to have to battle it out in the trenches 60, 70 hours a week, getting nine bucks an hour. The likelihood for success is very low, burnouts high. And then you change careers. Is that what you want? Do you want to change careers as you're getting into this? No, you need to dive into gaining hands-on experience and asking questions to professionals. That's when we created our certification. It sets trainers up for success. They're making$15,000,$20,000 a month. They're doing what they love. I'm not posting in front of a Ferrari or a mansion because that business bullshit is fake. This is real. You get results for your clients, you're able to turn your passion for fitness into career. Two more quick ones. We have the NSCA. You need to know everything about bioenergetics. So you're going to have your ATP, also your PCR system. So the first about eight to 10 seconds is readily available ATP, which is the Denison triphosphate, also referred to as cellular currency. And then the next 10 to 20 seconds is going to be phosphocreatin, where you take that byproduct of ATP breakdown, which is ADP, adenosin diphosphate, you combine that with creatin phosphate, and you create more ATP for work. It's anaerobic, it's very intense, but the capacity is very low. So it's high intense, low duration, less than 30 seconds. We have glycolysis, slow glycolysis and fast glycolysis. So roughly 30 seconds to two minutes is fast glycolysis, two minutes to three minutes is slow glycolysis. And then we have oxidation, which is going to be using fat as your fuel source. Whereas for anaerobic metabolism, we're going to be using more carbohydrates and your substrate being lactate. I did a great podcast with Dr. Gallopin and also another professor who really breaks down bioenergetics. You just need to know that at all times your energy systems are being utilized, but it's different percentages. So for example, basketball, 60% would be ATP PCR, 20% glycolysis, 20% oxidative. Soccer is roughly 50% PCR, 20% glycolysis, 30% oxidation. Tennis is about 70% PCR, 20% glycolysis, 10% oxidative. So if you have a client who comes in and they're a marathon runner, which energy system are they primarily in? It's gonna be more oxidative. You need to know the work to rest ratios. So when you're in phosphogen and you're doing stuff really, really high intense, five to 10 seconds, you're gonna be resting 12 to 20 times that. They're gonna test you a lot within the NSCA on the needs analysis as well as the bioenergetics and work to rest ratios. For fast glycolysis, anything from 15 to 30 seconds, you'll be resting three to five times for the work to rest ratio. For slow glycolysis, one to three minutes, you'll be resting three to four. And then for oxidation, beta oxidation, when you're using fat, it's gonna be three minutes plus, which will be one to one or one to three to work to rest ratios. Master that stuff. The percent of intensity for phosphogen is gonna be 90 to 100%. For oxidative, it'll be 20 to 30 percent. The two most important things you need to look at when it comes to bioenergetics, duration and intensity. And the last thing for ACE, you need to know everything. Just replace the OPT model for NASA with the IFT model. So on the cardiorespiratory side, you have performance, fitness, and the base. On the muscular side, you have load speed, which will be the top of the pyramid. And you have movement and functional. Which exercises are gonna be going where? So the movement patterns will be in movement, maximal exertion, power, force times velocity is the definition of power. That's gonna be load and speed, functional as you're doing bird dogs and all this other shit. You just need to know what they're gonna test you on. Hopefully, you found this helpful. If you are overwhelmed with my annoying voice throwing all this shit at you, imagine how it's gonna be when you're taking the test. You want to go into that test center with confidence. That's exactly what we'll prepare you with with our study guide. Get the guide. I guarantee you it's gonna take so much stress off your plate. So then you can pass it and then get into a hands-on learning seminar. We have a certification for life. Don't just get all these specializations, even though you probably got screwed and got a bundle. Those specializations are not giving you the confidence that you need. That's why we have our certification online. You get to ask questions. We have daily calls, but then we have weekend seminars. I guarantee you you'll learn more in one weekend seminar than any textbook certification. And if you really want to be elite, you got to come to our two-month internship. You get all three of our certifications in Atlanta, outside of there at Noonan, at our instructor Josh's gym, Stable Life Fit. And then here in Santa Monica. Two months, it's taught by professionals, people have been number one trainers at Equinox, number one trainers at Lifetime. We've had the top trainer at Equinox Lifetime and Crunch. They went through and got their SUF CPT. And the number one thing that they say, you prepared me for success. When everyone else comes in, they're scared shitless. I was ready to get to work. You don't want to be that trainer who's scared shitless. You want to have confidence. And that's what we're going to give you. If you like this, throw it into your story. If you need the study guide, email info at showupfitness.com. It's 99 bucks. It will save you so much time and energy, and you will pass. I guarantee it. Remember, big biceps are better than small ones, and keep showing up.