The Show Up Fitness Podcast

NASM CPT Made Easy: Pass in 30-days w/ SUF NASM GUIDE

• Chris Hitchko, CEO Show Up Fitness • Season 3 • Episode 369

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Struggling to turn dense textbook prep into real coaching skill? We open the door to a smarter path—one that helps you pass your CPT and step onto the floor with confidence. Ashley leads a clear, practical tour through the Overhead Squat Assessment, the must‑know overactive and underactive muscle pairs, and the exact high‑yield topics NASM loves to test. You’ll hear how to replace fear‑based posture rules with strong, simple cues that make clients feel capable and safe, and how the OPT model fits into real training without turning every session into rehab.

We share the muscle map you need at test time and in the gym: mid to lower traps, glutes, VMO, TVA, and deep cervical flexors on the underactive side; lats, adductors, hip flexors, upper traps, and the gastroc‑soleus complex on the overactive side. Then we apply it to common compensations like knee valgus and arms falling forward so you can instantly connect what you see to what you program. You’ll get the exact OHS setup, the five checkpoints, and why shoes‑off, multiple views, and consistent reps matter for clean reads.

Ashley also lays out a streamlined study system: flashcards that pair each muscle with its tendency, process‑of‑elimination test tactics, and acronym mastery like LPHC to dodge trick questions. We talk realistic use of SMR and the 4‑2‑1 tempo, when stabilization is useful, and where progressive overload leads the way. Beyond the exam, we cover building a referral team with a registered dietitian and physical therapist so you can stay within scope, deliver faster results, and create new income streams while serving clients better.

Ready to pass with less stress and coach with more clarity? Grab the Show Up Fitness study guide, join the live calls or tutoring, and start stacking real reps. If this conversation helped, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a quick review—then tell us the next topic you want us to break down.

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:

Howdy, y'all, and welcome back to the Show Up Fitness podcast. Today we're giving you a sneak peek into our live calls to help you pass any textbook certification. I know I'm annoying. I'm the belt buckle trainer. I've been doing this for numerous years, have helped over 5,000 people pass their textbook certs, and you don't want me yelling at you. That's why we bring on angels like Ashley. She's more empathetic and she has gone through what you're struggling with. So this is a live call. We have semi-private tutoring sessions. Our study guide will save you so much time and stress because you will pass it, I guarantee. But more importantly, you're going to have direction on what to do next. You're going to have that angst. What do I do? That's why you go in to show up because you came across this too late. You can't get a refund for your textbook. So our study guide, which is brand new, we've revised it 2025, 2026. It's more in-depth and detailed. So all you need is the study guide. You don't need any quizzes on MASM. You don't need the textbook, nothing else. You just need to go through the study guide, get into the live calls. If you want to pass 100% guaranteed, that's why you get certified for life with the fastest growing certification in the world. And that's SUF CPT with elite partnerships with Lifetime and Equinox because we're the best, and that's what you want. If you enjoyed today's podcast, throw it into your story, leave a five-star review. We will give you the NASAM cheat sheet, but the study guide is really where it's at. Remember, big biceps are better than small ones and 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 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.

SPEAKER_02:

Yay, Lorena, good to see you. Hi, Brie. Hi, Jessica. Well, it is so nice to see you guys. Um, like I said, my name is Ashley. I run this call every Thursday with our NASM tutoring team. And we don't work with NASM. We're not affiliated with NASM. We are affiliated with Show Up Fitness out of California. We have helped over 5,000 people pass this thing. And so we're here to make it more palatable and easier, more effective so that you guys can learn what you need to learn and then take your tests and actually get to training or whatever it is that you want to do with your certification in the fitness industry. One of the biggest things that is a problem is a lot of trainers who take these textbook certifications, they come out of these exams after they pass. Maybe if they don't pass too, they don't know anatomy like they should. They don't know how to program. They don't know how to build a book of business. And that's not our fault. It's not the trainer's fault. Um, you spend a lot of money on NASM. And unfortunately, there are gaps in what you need to know and what you learn through that curriculum. And so uh I am in your shoes. I have all of my NASM certifications. I got the elite bundle, and I couldn't get past chapter five. It was, I studied for six months, and I was like, I I'm putting everything into this, and I I can't something, there's a disconnect somewhere. And so I needed help. And I started looking on YouTube, on TikToks, anywhere that I could find information on how to pass this exam and what I actually needed to know in order to become a gold standard trainer because I wanted to find a way. I am a Navy wife, I am a stay-at-home mom, and joining a big box gym wasn't necessarily gonna be my story, but I knew I wanted to do this. I knew I wanted to help people, especially driven women who have maybe lost themselves and just want to get stronger. And I was pretty clear on that. And so I started searching for the best certification that I could find that would allow me to take my career with me wherever I go. And I've I've had a lot of success doing things a little bit differently than the average bear. And so, whether you want to use your certification to work in a gym to supplement a career, maybe you already have, or if you want to build your own gym, a garage gym, if you want to train online, whatever that looks like for you, you're gonna be able to do this. I promise you. Your score on the NASM CPT exam does not indicate whether or not you are a good trainer. Okay, so we talk a lot about what comes after NASM and what to do next. If you are looking for more information about that, please reach out. We are here to help, not only for you to pass your CPT, but to actually give you the tools and resources and the networking uh that you need to know in order to do what you want to do. So because you are on this call, you were very brave. It means that you are willing to do what you need to do in order to pass. So I welcome you here. Um, I am excited to see some new faces. This is a great turnout. And if you have any questions along the way, feel free to unmute. Um, feel free to put it in the chat, whatever it is that makes you more comfortable. One of the first things that I always tell people, and I always drop this in the chat, is the main topics that you need to know in order to pass. And then we can kind of go over them. Today's Zoom is gonna be on overactive, underactive muscles, how to identify them in the overhead squat assessment. I know last week we went over assessments. And so if that if you're brand new, don't worry. I'm gonna kind of explain the context of why this information matters. Um, but in the meantime, bottom line, focus on the main topics that you need to know in order to pass. And that is the OPT model, overactive, underactive muscles, um, the assessment in the par queue, your planes of motion, exercise cueing, uh, progressions and regressions around exercises within the OPT model, the agonist and synergist, stages of change, which is the trans theoretical model. It's behavior, fear modification. And then we always say, don't read the textbook. And it's like, what? The textbook is 800 plus pages. It has a physical therapy approach to posture stabilization. And unfortunately, that doesn't necessarily help people get strong. It's more of a fear-based approach of make sure you have good posture so you don't get hurt. That's not the way I prefer to train. I prefer to train, get stronger, cue the client, and make them feel really good about themselves instead of telling them that they have some sort of distortion syndrome and that they have too much weakness or that they're going to get hurt. Um, this isn't to dog NASM. There is some good stuff in there, but on the CPT exam, you're not necessarily going to see a lot of nutrition questions because they want you to get their nutrition certification. Uh, what I have learned through the course of my career is I would rather refer outside of my scope of practice to a registered dietitian that I can work with to create an additional stream of income and help my clients see the absolute best results they can get the fastest. And that is a really good way to be able to make yourself stand out as a trainer, to have either a physical therapist, a registered dietitian, or a physician on your team so that you, as like the frontline defense to being a medical professional, which you should be as a trainer, you should know anatomy, to be able to say, listen, I have somebody on my team that can help you get right so that we can focus on strength. Um, we're gonna help you pass this thing, know these main topics, and we're gonna help you with the nuances of that. Another thing that we offer the the little team that I've put together is tutoring. I um I have tutored with so many people that have been able to pass in four to six weeks, they're able to see success through that. And sometimes you just need that one-on-one help to be able to cut through the stuff that is overwhelming with this curriculum.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, I had a question. I noticed, and I'm sorry, it's kind of off topic, but I noticed that this um these lives are like the setup sessions are recorded. Is there a way that we can like watch a playback? Like, is a playback posted somewhere?

SPEAKER_02:

Yes. So um I work with Chris Hitchcoe in Show Up Fitness and we have an online platform. And so there is a program that you can look at the recorded sessions of these. What I can do is I can ask him like what the link to that is. Um, but those are that is a paid program. We usually do$100 a month for the online platform, whether you are trying to pass NASM or if you are looking to get your level one certification through Show Up Fitness. Um, and so sometimes people are doing both at the same time and they end up getting into the online um app, and that's where the recordings live. So we have this call every single week. And so you can always like hop on through the Facebook group or however you found this and and watch it live for free. But I think if you want to watch the recording, you need to get into the app. So we are gonna get into overactive and underactive today. One of the best things that you can do when you're learning overactive and underactive muscles is to basically memorize the top ones. And NASAM likes to use uh some jargon and language that might not uh be laid out very clearly in the curriculum. And so basically, underactive muscles mean lengthened and weakened muscles, right? And so when you're in the overhead squat assessment, who can tell me what the overhead squat assessment is?

SPEAKER_01:

It's pretty much just when you um you watch them squat, you look for certain cues, like maybe if they're imbalanced, uh you it's like if they're overcompensating.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, exactly. So a client walks in and they are looking to train with you. And most um gyms are gonna require them to fill out a par queue form and you're looking at like their health history, right? They they fill out this stuff, you're asking them, hey, are you cleared from your physician to work out? And they're like, yes. And then you give them some sort of assessment. And NASM has a list of assessments they want you to do, particularly the overhead squat assessment, which is a movement assessment designed to assess dynamic posture. So, Amira, great. It's a postural assessment, core stability, and neuromuscular control of the whole body during a squatting motion. NASM cares a lot about posture. They're going to identify certain weaknesses, muscle weaknesses that uh translate as distortion syndromes for particular cues that you see while they are conducting this overhead squat assessment with their arms up. Um, so there are five checkpoints with NASM that you're looking at.

SPEAKER_03:

I think it's the uh feet, the knees, the hips, the shoulders, and the neck.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay.

SPEAKER_03:

And so I think I got that partly right. I don't think I got it 100% right.

SPEAKER_02:

No, you did. No, that was the gist of it. Um, so who can tell me what NASM calls like the hips? The lumbar pelvic hip complex? Yes.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, that's it.

SPEAKER_02:

The reason that I'm like doing an audible here is because on this multiple choice test where they give you A, B, C, or D, they might try to trip you up by mixing up that acronym in some way. And so if you are able to say it by memory, when you see it on the test, you're gonna be able to choose that. And I always tell my uh tutoring clients this use the process of elimination so that you can eliminate the answers that make absolutely no sense before you even try to identify the right one.

SPEAKER_03:

This is we better get it right. I only got a couple of weeks and I'm taking that exam. So I better get it together here.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, you got this. You got this. A couple actually, a couple of weeks is plenty of time to get ready. So if you have our show up fitness study guide, you're gonna be able to get ready. I uh when I got my hands on the study guide, I read through it, I started um, you know, defining the the key main terms, and I started quizzing myself with all of the information that was in that study guide, and I was ready in two weeks. Just skimming it over isn't enough time. Like you do have to put time into this um and commit to that, but don't be scared to schedule your test if you're a couple of weeks out. You just have to like buckle down and absorb the information in every way that you can. Hearing it, seeing it, speaking it, writing it, bathing in it.

SPEAKER_03:

That's what we're doing. That's what we're doing. Yeah, that's what we're doing.

SPEAKER_02:

And it's helpful to be able like if I ask you a question and you can say it right, or or if like you're on this call and somebody else is saying it, but in your mind, you're automatically thinking of the answer. That's a good indication that you're ready for your test. It's gonna make the test a lot easier if you're able to like see it on a screen, multiple choice, and you're like, oh, I've I've heard this, written this, seen this, said this. It's like exposing your senses to all of the different ways that you can immersion.

SPEAKER_03:

Yes, fitness immersion. That's what I'm doing.

SPEAKER_02:

It's like getting reps in the gym, right? The five checkpoints feet, ankle, knees, LPHC, which is a lumbo pelvic hip complex, shoulders and head. There's actually 10 checkpoints that you want to look for. Um, we learned those in the show up fitness uh CPT, and that's really good for knowing anatomy, but we're gonna keep it to the five for NASM just so that you don't get confused. Uh the arms are gonna be up for five reps, you're gonna be in the upright position and you're checking for those compensations. So I brought up underactive, being weakened and lengthened, right? And so, what does NASM want you to do in order to fix the weakened and lengthened muscles? The four two one. Yes, that's absolutely right. And so uh NASM might even want you to know what the 4211 stands for. The main underactive weak muscles that you're gonna want to know are the mid to lower traps, the VMO, Vasus medialis oblique. So it's not your abs, it's not the obliques of your abs, it's the inner quadriceps, right? Um, then your gluteus max and mead, the TVA, which are the core muscles underneath your rectus abdominis, and then your deep cervical flexors. Where are your deep cervical flexors? Your neck. Yep, your neck muscles. And so those are the underactive NASA might describe those as a weak or lengthened muscle. And automatically that should trigger you to know that they're talking about underactive muscles that you see either in the overhead squat assessment or while you're training. Syndromes and like the cues and the viewing of like the overhead squat assessment. I know that um we went over that last week as well, but the context, overactive and underactive muscles are, is helpful when you're talking about it because connecting those two together is really important. The best way to memorize these is on one side of a flashcard, put underactive and the other side put one of the muscles. And it's helpful to know where the muscles are because they're gonna give you scenarios where they describe a client going through emotion and an exercise, and they might describe a part of their body that's weak, and they're either gonna ask for, I don't know, the agonist or synergist. They might ask for, you know, what muscle is causing the um decreased neural drive, and you're gonna need to know where on the body they're talking about. So it's very important that you not only memorize if the muscle itself is underactive or overactive, but it's important that you know where they are on the body. It also makes you a really good trainer. You need to know your anatomy. And even though anatomy can be like a foreign language, it's kind of like a roadmap, the Latin is. And so I I love studying the muscle names because they give you an under an indication with the root word where it is on the body. Overactive muscles are when the neural drive causes a muscle to be held in a chronic state of contraction. That's a fancy way of saying that they are short and tight. Shortened, strong, tight muscles are overactive. And the top five muscles are the lateral, gastrocnemius, and soleus. Where is that? Which one is more uh more superficial? Gastrochnemius is the most superficial. That's the one that you see the most when you look at somebody when they're contracting their calf muscles and it kind of looks like a little hoof. That's the gastrocnemius. The flat pancake muscle underneath that, closest to the bones, is the soleus. Okay, so those two are, according to NASM, they're always going to be overactive, short and tight. Then you have your adductors. Where are your adductors?

SPEAKER_03:

Groin area, inner thigh.

SPEAKER_02:

Inner thigh. What about the psoas major, your hip flexors? So NASM likes to oversimplify some of these. There's more than hip flexor, right? You have quite a few of them. And so um, like when they talk about the psoas, it's always going to be the hip flexors. And then the latissimus dorsi and your upper traps. So the trapezius is actually three muscles, the upper, middle, and lower. The upper traps are always overactive, the middle and lower are always underactive. All right. And so what do you do to fix an overactive muscle, according to NASM?

SPEAKER_03:

Stretch it and roll it out. Roll it out for more or how long? 30 seconds.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, it's 20 to 40 seconds. Just because you're memorizing this stuff doesn't necessarily mean that this is the way that you're gonna want to train people. I had an ACL tear, I've broken my ankle, I've sprained my other one, I've had a shoulder surgery. Like I did a lot of PT where we did a lot of the stabilization single leg stuff in phase one of the OPT model because it helps you recover from injury. And that's the physical therapy approach that you're gonna be seeing this stuff in. So there is a purpose to it, okay? Um, but in regards to strength training, helping people get stronger, you're gonna just want to cue them through it. If somebody has knee valgus and their knees turn in, you know, you're not gonna tell them that they have a syndrome. You're going to say, okay, drive your knees out a little bit as you push through and breathe through this, you know, push through the heel, right? You're gonna cue them through it.

SPEAKER_03:

This helps.

SPEAKER_02:

Good. No, I'm glad. I'm glad. Because then when you go and you look at the OPT model, specifically the phase one, which is stabilization endurance, and you're trying to help people strengthen. Um, according to NASM, using the 4211 tempo, zero to 90 seconds rest, 12 to 20 reps with that mid-level intensity, 50 to 70 percent intensity. Like if they do have an injury or if they do have some pain somewhere, um, having them slow it down a bit is great. They're the science of the of the 4211 tempo has kind of been debunked. And there's really good people that you can follow on Instagram that breaks this down. Um, I follow a lot of the Brett Contreras stuff because he talks about the science of it all and the new studies that are coming out, and I like that. It's good to continue your education around it. All right, so when it comes to overactive and underactive, then you're just gonna want to memorize those. Like I said with the flashcards, having the term, the muscle on one side and whether or not it's overactive and underactive on the other side is really good. Um, we have a table in the uh study guide, and that's just something that you can memorize and that will help you on the test. Because if you know where the muscles are and you know if it's underactive and overactive, and you know that if it's a weak muscle and you're strengthening um, or I'm sorry, if yeah, if it's a weak muscle and you're strengthening with the four, two, one, one tempo, and if it's a tight and short muscle and you're foam rolling and doing SMR for 20 to 40 seconds of foam rolling, then that's going to help you navigate these multiple choice questions. All right, so in the overhead squat assessment, again, this is that movement assessment that's designed to look at dynamic posture, the coarse stability, the neuromuscular control. They're gonna have uh you're gonna have the clients perform 20 reps with their shoes off. Okay, five anterior, five posterior, five from each lateral view. And then while the arms are bisecting the ears and the shoes are off, from the anterior view, you're gonna analyze the ankle and the knees. Okay. So laterally analyzing the torso, posteriorly analyzing the ankles. So what does posterior mean?

SPEAKER_03:

The back from the wrist.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes. So if you're analyzing the ankles posteriorly, you're looking at their ankles from behind, right? And so the common areas of compensation are the knees moving inward, the arms falling forward. And in that scenario, you're gonna start to see these weakened muscles and these tight muscles. So the adductors and TFL are overactive, um, while the glutes and the anterior and posterior tibialis are underactive during knee valgus, where the knees are moving inward, right? Uh, who can tell me where the anterior tibialis is?

SPEAKER_03:

That's the front of your shimp or your uh front of your calf.

SPEAKER_02:

Did you see the do you hear the root word tibia? Tibialis? Yeah, that's what I'm talking about with the Latin. It kind of gives you a hint, and I love that. Okay, so when the arms are falling forward, then you have the latissimus dorsi, your teres major, your pec major and minor, all of those are overactive, while the mid to lower traps, the rhomboids, the rotator cuff are underactive. Who can tell me where the rhomboids are?

SPEAKER_03:

Middle of your back.

SPEAKER_02:

So, do you see how the way I'm talking about this uses those anatomical terms to describe the location of these underactive and overactive muscles? That's the context in which you will be quizzed on this. I mean, truthfully, it's good to know these muscles just as a trainer. Like what the show up fitness certification gives you is you learn the 20 muscles around the hip, the 17 muscles around the shoulder, their actions, um, how they move the spine, so that you know progressions and regressions that help them really strengthen all of the core muscle patterns in a very significant and efficient way. And again, if if like the tutoring thing is something that you're like, oh, okay, if you feel like while we're talking that you don't know enough yet about this, that's okay. That just means you need more reps. But I'm telling you exactly what to memorize so that you know. So again, underactive muscles, muscles that you're gonna want to know the the anterior tibialis, the vasus medialis oblique, the VMO, the gluteus maximus, the middle traps, the deep cervical flexors. Okay, those are the underactive. The overactive are the latissimus dorsi, the adductors, the upper traps, gastrocnemia soleus, and the pectoralis major.