Pass NASM in 2026 7th Edition 6,000 have passed NASM CPT w/ SUF

SUF-CPT guarantees trainers to pass within 30-days and become a qualified CPT w/ SUF

Stop drowning in 800 pages and start studying what gyms and the NASM exam actually test. We map the shortest path to a pass—then show how to turn that pass into a paying career with confident programming, clear communication, and real-world coaching skills.

We start with the keystones: the OPT model’s five phases, the acute variables you must know cold, and how to spot supersets, tempos, and intensities at a glance. Then we make it practical. You’ll hear how to connect planes of motion to real exercises, identify agonists and stabilizers on the fly, and use a simple corrective flow for common patterns like knee valgus or heels lifting. We also clarify assessments and tests—from the overhead squat to Rockport, VT1/VT2, push-up endurance, and the LEFT—plus the must-know vital sign basics and what counts as subjective vs objective data.

Nutrition stays simple and test-relevant: calories per gram, AMDR ranges, and hydration targets. More importantly, we critique fluffy warm-ups and long cooldowns and replace them with a plug-and-play full-body structure that sells: push, pull, accessory; repeat with intent; finish strong. If the bench is taken at 5 pm, you’ll know exactly how to pivot without losing flow or confidence. That’s what hiring managers want to see on a crowded floor.

Along the way, we share a success story that moves from passing to getting hired, explain why textbook-only learning stalls new trainers, and outline a smarter route: study guides, live coaching, and hands-on practice with oversight. We also talk about building a professional team with a physical therapist and a registered dietitian so you can stay in scope, refer out wisely, and charge like a pro.

Ready to pass NASM fast and coach with confidence? Follow the show, share this with a trainer friend who needs a win, and leave a review telling us the topic you want next. Your career can start in 30 days—let’s get you there.

Want to become a SUCCESSFUL personal trainer? SUF-CPT is the FASTEST growing personal training certification in the world!

Want to ask us a question?  Email info@showupfitness.com with the subject line PODCAST QUESTION to get your question answered live on the show!

Website: https://www.showupfitness.com/
Become a Successful Personal Trainer Book Vol. 2 (Amazon): https://a.co/d/1aoRnqA
NASM / ACE / ISSA study guide: https://www.showupfitness.com

Transcript

Why Most Textbook Trainers Quit

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Howdy all welcome back to the Show Up Fitness podcast. Today we're helping you pass NASAM 2026. My name is Chris Hitschko, teacher of trainers for 15 years, owner of Show Up Fitness, trainer for 20. Together, Miss Megan and I. It's your girl Megan. We've helped more than 6,000 people pass this sucker. And that's a significant number because recently, probably one of our coolest stories. And today we're gonna help you pass it. We're gonna go over some quiz questions, some programming, set you up for success. But before we do that, I want to talk about Mr. Andre because he got his NASAM CPT, used our study guide, passed with flying colors, did not have the stress, applied to Lifetime, didn't get hired. Luckily for him and our partnership with Lifetime, the manager said, I take trainers with three to five years of experience or an SUF CPT, linked up with us, went through our program. Last Friday you passed him. Yeah. He went to a weekend seminar, gained that confidence, went back in and got hired. And that's really important to understand because 90% of textbook trainers quit within the first year. I did one of the largest surveys in my book, How to Become a Successful Personal Trainer, Volume 2, which has an entire chapter dedicated to NASAM ACE and ISSA. And I interviewed trainers at Lifetime, Equinox 24, Crunch, LA Fitness, you name it internationally as well. 90% are quitting. Because these textbooks aren't setting you up for success because you need that confidence to train actual people. So I don't want to go off on tangents. I'm the crazy guy online with my belt buckle and I know I'm annoying. That's why we have the angel over here, Miss Megan. How about you tell us your story, how you came across Show Up and how you've helped so many people pass this?

SPEAKER_01 1:56

Yeah, it was, I think, 2019, right when COVID was like just in the early parts of it. So I had stopped playing soccer for like a little break. A lot of people have told me, hey, you should become a trainer. And I got gifted, you know, the NASM cert. But for me, being an athlete with everything, I was like, I really want hands-on experience. I was very fortunate that you know how going on your phone is like show up fitness just had popped up on my screen. I live in San Diego. So I went through the program uh in person and I actually passed the NASM study guide first before that with or sorry, the NASM test just with the study guide. So then I could focus on the real uh training aspect with Show Up Fitness. So I passed in less than a week, I think it was like four or five days, uh, and then had four months really of hands-on experience with that.

Skip The Textbook: Study Guide Strategy

SPEAKER_03 2:42

The first trainer that I've met to charge$500 for a training session. And that confidence comes from learning with proper supervision, which is really important because when you go to the depths of hell, Reddit and Facebook groups, they say just get certified and go gain experience. And that is not the optimal approach. Here's why. We got a quote from Reddit. First, in-person client. I recently started working out as a personal trainer at a commercial gym, and I have my NASA certification. I have my first client this week, and I feel a bit nervous. Experienced trainers, could you please share some advice or tips for this initial meeting? Could you imagine a doctor? I just got my doctorate. I'm gonna do my first open heart surgery, love some pointers on how not to kill someone. No, and that's why trainers aren't respected because we go out there and we try to gain experience and we don't know what we're doing. That trainer, Andre, went to Lifetime and the manager's like, You're too green. You're not gonna make it here because you have to sell. You don't learn how to sell in these textbooks, you don't learn the technical skills with programming in these textbooks. The personality, the people skills, maybe even more important than 800 pages. So let's talk about some tips that will set you up for success on passing this in 2026. We did a video, by the way, 2020, 21. I drank a bunch of whiskey. This one's a lot cleaner. So we're gonna go through and we're gonna help set you up for success because we want you to pass. Megan?

SPEAKER_01 4:18

One, of course, like we said, do not read the textbook. It's just gonna make you overwhelmed. It's a lot of information. Get the study guide, not just because it's our study guide, but because we've helped so many people pass this thing. Listen to the YouTube. Just had a comment the other day that uh someone had just watched my NASM playlist specifically three hours before the test, that's all they did, and they passed the test. So listen to the resources that we have, use the notes to pass this thing as fast as possible.

SPEAKER_03 4:43

Let's talk a little bit about that because I'm sure your panties and jockstraps are in a bundle. I gotta read the whole book. It's a book. The number one thing that people reach out to me about. I'm not a very good learner through a book. I'm more kinesthetic. I don't know what it is about bodybuilders and people that have worked out, athletes and moms who get it. They reach out. There's a girl the other day who reached out. My son wants to get certified. He's 18. I was looking at the requirements and it didn't make sense. How is he going to be a qualified trainer just by reading a book? So that's why she reached out to us. Your certification, which we have S U F C P T, you get to ask questions. You get to learn from professionals. We have case examples, avatars. Every month you learn how to draw out an entire month program. So then when you go into the real life scenario and you sit down and you have to sell your services, your confidence is flowing. So the client signs up with you. Then you get them results because you're doing this to help people, not to read a textbook. And these organizations do a great job of getting in front of you. So let me ask what other resources should people not look at? So, what about stuff on YouTube where you have an anecdote from someone saying, I passed and this is what I did. I took these quizzes and I got an 80% online. Quizlet. What are your thoughts on that?

SPEAKER_01 6:09

Yeah, uh, we've had a lot of people actually come to us and say, I've got over 80% on all the quizzes. Like I must be doing good, take the test and absolutely fail it. And then we have people that have gone through a program that I've actually studied one-on-one tutor sessions, maybe got like 55% highest 60% on the NASM-specific uh questions, or like on what was it the other app you said?

SPEAKER_03 6:30

Quizlet.

SPEAKER_01 6:31

Quizlet, but then they pass the actual test. So what does it matter if you pass these other quizzes if you're not gonna pass the actual thing?

What Gyms Really Hire For

OPT Model: Phases And Purpose

SPEAKER_03 6:39

So let's do a little hypothetical. You got trainer A, trainer B, and we're gonna use um Andre in this one example. So trainer A reads the entire textbook. This is gonna take you probably six months minimum if you don't jump off a building because it's so damn confusing. Most people will spend up to a year going through it. You don't gain any experience, you're confused. And so you wasted a six month, a year when you could have passed this in 30 days, and just like Andre did, went through an actual certification that levels you up in the people skills, the business skills, the competence of programming, assessments, getting people out of pain. So then when you go to a higher-end gym, you get hired and you're able to start working towards turning this into a career because it doesn't happen over light. It's it doesn't happen overnight. It's not like a nine to five where you clock in and you clock out, and you have clients lined up out the window. No, you're not, you need to build that book of business. Time is so precious. The things that just crush me when people reach out, I got this two years ago. I studied for six months, got so frustrated and down because I didn't know what I was doing. And I was reading this. I'm like, oh man, my friends are telling me I should do this and I'm super active, but I don't know what I'm doing. And this book is making it even more confusing. So then they take another six months off. And then you try to take it, and your things expired. So you got to pay more money, and then you start studying again, and you get frustrated. So you go to YouTube and you see some girl or guy who passed, and they say, Oh, this is what I did. It worked for me. I highlighted the entire textbook. Your clients aren't going to be quizzing you on what you got in that textbook. You need to be able to take people through workouts safely. And we'll review some programs here and you use that critical thinking because textbooks don't set you up for critical thinking in the future. You need to be able to think on the fly. We did a podcast not too long ago with the manager at LiveTime, and I love it because the initial interview, he says, go out on the floor, get a client, train them, come back and let's talk about it. He's not going over how many certs you have. He do you have the confidence to go out there and perform? Because that's what we have to do. So obviously, we're suggesting for you to go out there and get through this as quickly as you can because you came across as too late. We have a certification. You may be asking, which a lot of people do, are you accredited? My question to that is do you know what accreditation means? When did NASAM get accredited? They were founded in 1985 and they got accredited in 2003. 18 years. Does that mean 18 years of certification wasn't accepted? No, it's a whole political bureaucracy expensive process. One of the first things you need to do is have your certification in process for at least a year. Check for SUF CPT to have at least 100 CPTs. Check. We've had that. Shout out to Carlos, he was our number one. He's still training at Equinox. Five years later, he got hired there because he went through our program. It leveled him up, and he is not one of those statistics. So it takes a lot of money. You got to get a legal team and they got to make sure that you're doing it as they want you to. Some gyms may just want a NASA or an ACE or an ISSA. Great. Get that cert. If a gym specifically says, I want this, you have to respect it. If you want to train at Show Up, you have to work a year at Equinox or Lifetime. You have to have all three of our certifications. You have to have an RD and a physical therapist on your team. And then you train a client who's paying anywhere from 200 to 350 per session, and you don't learn a thing about them. You show up and you train them, and you have to do it safely and effectively within the CCA. These textbooks don't set trainers up for success. That's my opinion. I don't work for NASA. I taught at a school that used the NASAM curriculum. So that's why we help people pass. This isn't like proprietary information, we're stealing and we're talking to people. What's on the test? No, I taught this stuff and I know what you need to focus on to pass it. That's the most important thing if you cannot get that refund. So, Megan, I want to do a little test right now, and I want you to help educate people on those main topics that they need to know. What's the first thing that comes to your mind and what they should focus on? Tell me everything that you need to know about the OPT model from phase one to phase five, foam rolling and all that bullshit.

SPEAKER_01 11:04

Basics, just know that there's three levels, five phases. So the three levels is gonna be stabilization, strength, and power. Within that one, easy phase one, stabilization, stabilization, endurance, phase two, uh, strength endurance, phase three is gonna be used to be hypertrophy, but it's actually muscular development now. Uh, then we have maximal strength, phase four, and then phase five is power as well.

SPEAKER_03 11:27

I was watching a YouTube the other day from someone who had like 1.5 million followers, and he went to a trainer and it was a qualified trainer. That's what it said in quotations. And she could not pronounce hypertrophy. She couldn't say hypertrophy. She's like, Oh, that one word. It's like that's qual. Imagine going to a doc, and he's like, Oh, the little the cutier thing here. It's the scoopula, it's the school baka, and they can't even pronounce the basic stuff. You need to be competent in the fundamentals. So the OPT model, I like to ask people who created it. Dr. Clark, physical therapist, physical therapist, great with injuries, rehab, prehab. The book even has a study from Eric Cressy. Eric, shout out to you because your internship, you got to name the 17 muscles of the shoulder. We have that as well. You need to know that to pass our test. He did one of the most monumental studies when it came to looking at the difference between unstable surface training and stable surface training. Our clients want to perform better, move better, look great naked, get out of pain. Pain clients need to be addressed with the right individuals and the professionals. That's why we have physical therapists on our team. When in doubt, refer out. But during this study, he found at the University of Connecticut, that's where I went to school as well, that you are compromising force production when you do things on unstable surfaces. So why are we doing it? If you sprain an ankle, get on a fucking bosom ball and do some magical shit. It's gonna help with that connection with your ankle and your hip, and you're gonna rehab better. Great. But your clients don't have these injuries. So why are we doing unstable surface for the entire phase? What are the acute variables that they need to know?

SPEAKER_01 13:15

So for phase one stabilization, you're looking at uh one to three sets. You have 12 to 20 reps, uh, four, two, one, one tempo, which if you guys know would be eccentric, four seconds four seconds down, two second isometric pause, one centric concentric, and then one second uh pause at the top again, isometric.

SPEAKER_03 13:35

So if I'm doing a bicep curl, bam! Look at that arm farm. Concentric is coming up, concentrically accelerating elbow flexion. The definition of a flexion is to decrease the angle. That's concentric. My bicep is shortening. One second up, you hold for two and you come down for four. One, two, three, four. I know some of us aren't the best at math, but four, two, one, one tempo. Eight seconds for 12 to 20 repetitions. So you're doing like two minutes of work for a squat. So when we go through this programming for stabilization, you're gonna see it's a masterpiece. The OPT model has a therapist designing that, and Dr. Clark is amazing, but therapists don't learn about optimization, periodization, programming, NPT school. They literally learn maybe a class, maybe talk to therapists. No, we don't learn much about overload and how to properly program. That's why they're doing bandit exercises, not optimizing loading, because it's rehab. We have clients who can produce force. So why are we doing it on unstable surfaces? And why are we using a model that is not meant for the general population? It's brilliant marketing. That's why they're a great marketing company and they can pay off podcasters and people over here. Hey, this gym over here, how about you only accept our certification? Could they hypothetically do that? I don't know. I don't work for NASA. I just like stirring up the bees nest and pissing people off. But when you have a company who's owned by Ascend Learning, who's owned by Blackstone, Blackstone, hmm, why don't you type in how much money they have assets under management? Over a trillion dollars. You can market. So you get this pretty little photo, OPT model, and then you put it out there and boom, people are buying into it. OPT model, in my opinion, sucks, but you don't care. You want to pass this. So after a month of being in stabilization, you move up into phase two, supersets. What is that like?

SPEAKER_01 15:36

Supersets. So you're gonna have a strength focus exercise followed by a stability one. So if you're looking at like upper body, uh, you could do like a bench press into like a push-up or push up on the bosobole, right? Uh for stability there. For lower body, you're looking at like a squat into a single leg squat. Lower body is a little bit easier. Just make it single leg versus bilateral, unilateral versus bilateral there.

SPEAKER_03 15:58

Pull up into TRX row, shoulder press into single leg scaption. Anytime you see that on the exam, always phase two. You graduate after a month. Each one of these is a mesocycle within periodization. You have macro, big picture, micro, like a micro machine. That's the week. Meso would be the month. So after your second month, we can go to muscular development. Oh boy, this is a beautiful one. Tell me the acute variables.

SPEAKER_01 16:22

So acute variables we were looking at there. Um, we're gonna have six to 12 reps. You're gonna be resting for 60 seconds, which I think that's what we're referring to here. Um, and then we're doing sets here of like it's a normal exercise here that for lower body, upper body. Um, where you're doing like your squats and your bench press, your deadlifts, all that thing. But I think the rest is what we're looking at here.

SPEAKER_03 16:45

Yeah, the rest has definitely been debunked. It's not optimal, but you gotta know it for the exam. Put your NASAM hat on. If you see you're resting for zero to 60 seconds, that's going to be phase three, zero to ninety seconds, that's phase one. Don't need to know much about the acute variables for phase two, just the supersets, stable and unstable. 75 to 85 percent for the the intensity for phase three. And then we graduate into phase four, which is oh, and I forgot the tempo is two, zero, two for that one. Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:13

Uh phase four. So we're looking at maximal strength here. Um, this one, the tempo is gonna be XXX, which a lot of people kind of get confused by just means explosive. Uh, but when we're doing this here, the reps you're gonna see is one to five. And so it's not like you're doing it really fast for some of these things. It's more like you're just trying to move that heavy weight a little bit faster, but it's not always gonna look fast.

SPEAKER_03 17:34

So if you're coming down eccentrically, controlled, and then when you press up, you're pressing as fast as you can. But because the weight is really heavy via the force velocity curve, heavy weight means the velocity is gonna be low. If it's lightweight, the velocity can be high. And that's what we see in phase five. So, what's unique about that?

SPEAKER_01 17:51

Phase five, it's gonna be another superset. So you're looking at like a heavy with an explosive. Uh, so a lot of times when it's upper body, you're looking at medicine balls. They love throwing them. And if it's lower body, you're looking at jumps or they'll say plyos or like reactive training drills, things like that.

Supersets, Periodization, And Progression

SPEAKER_03 18:07

When we quiz people, and we've done podcasts on this, and if you want to get quizzed and tutored, that's gonna help you build your confidence. But we don't ask you multiple choice questions because if you learn that way, when you go to the exam, you're programmed to think, okay, four inch, uh, and you get all nervous and then you start losing your shit, and your heart rate goes through the roof, and cortisol is blunting your brain, you aren't remembering shit, and all of a sudden you have an anxiety attack and you fail. You don't want to fail. You want to pass this as quickly as you can if you can't get a refund. So you need to be controlled and confident going in there. So when we quiz you, I'm gonna say, tell me about the acute variables within phase three. What is the rest period? What is the tempo for phase one? Give me an example of a superset for phase five. You need to be able to talk through that. And when you're confident in being able to without stuttering and thinking, is it a back squat into a backflip? No, you need to be able to phase five. You're gonna be doing a jump into a back squat, one to five reps. Intensity for the back squat, 85 to 100%. The intensity for the power exercise, 30 to 45, or 10% of your body weight. The rest period, three to five minutes. They're not gonna quiz you like, is it 90 seconds? Is it 14 seconds? Is it two minutes? It's gonna be very specific. We start with the OPT model because it gives us a lot of data points on how ready you are. And so then we'll start maybe bouncing around within the OPT model and naming exercises. So let's go to phase one name and exercise.

SPEAKER_00 19:42

A mole bot squat curl to press.

SPEAKER_03 19:46

Can't even say it seriously. So if we're doing a squat curl press, what is the agonist at the hip? That's a question I'm gonna ask you. So you need to be able to understand what is agonist? Prime mover. At the hip, we have extension, that's gonna be your glutes. At the knee, It's going to be your quads because of knee extension. When you do a curl, what is the main mover? Your bicep brachii. When you're pressing overhead, what is the main mover? Your deltoids. What is happening at the scapula when you are pressing upward? Upward rotation. That's a force couple. Upper trap, lower trap, serratus, anterior. Being able to talk through that shows that you understand the material within the guide that's going to help you pass this. So there's a lot of vocab words that we'll go over, but I want to look at the exercises to see if you know where they should be going. So, Megan, if I were to do a bench press into a stability ball press, where would that go?

SPEAKER_01 20:36

Phase two, strength endurance.

SPEAKER_03 20:38

And then we're going to ask you what is the synergist when you do a bench press? You need to know what's your triceps. You need to know that the stabilizers for all upper body exercises, your rotator cuff, your sits. You should know that. They're not going to quiz you on what the sits muscles are. Supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres minor, subscapularis, one of the things that we quiz you on when you go through our cert, you need to know those 17 muscles and link up with a physical therapist.

SPEAKER_02 21:01

And if you go to a physical therapist and tell him his traps are overactive and it's a doctor, he needs a foam roll and stretcher, he's going to die for 20 to 40 seconds.

SPEAKER_03 21:09

He's probably not going to work with you. That's why a lot of train uh therapists don't respect trainers because we are not able to think critically with the most up-to-date science. So when it comes to the OPT model, phase three, you're going to do a lat pull down. What plane of motion is that in?

SPEAKER_01 21:27

Well, if you're doing it this one, we're going to be frontal.

SPEAKER_03 21:29

We need to know the definition of the planes of motion. Can you tell us?

SPEAKER_01 21:33

Yeah. So when we're in the sagittal plane, you're going like this. There's going to be imaginary line bisecting the body into like left and right halves. So think going up, down, back, and forth. We're in the frontal plane. Think of it like that imaginary line going this way. So I can't go forward. It can't go back. I'm going like sideways here. So we have A Bduction going away from the body, A deduction going back for the sagittal plane, for God, for going up, flexion going back here, extension. And then last one, we're going to have transverse. That's going to divide the body into like superior above and inferior below halves. So you're looking at pretty much anything rotation, which that's all they're going to say, really, for the book there.

Planes Of Motion And Movement Basics

SPEAKER_03 22:09

In my book, I have flashcards, and those are terms you can just write out, and you'll be able to, you know, just memorize those definitions. If I were to stand up right now and I'm facing the camera, my back, I cannot move backwards. Any exercise that I can do in that plane is frontal. So bringing my arms out, bringing my arms down, which is A, B, and A deduction. I cannot move forward because my face is smashed. My big nose is going to be a gap against the wall. I cannot go forward. Now, if I were to stand up and look at Megan with the wall against my shoulder and the wall crushes me on this side, like we're on an escalator or going through a very small tunnel, any movement that we can do within that plane. We're sagittal creatures, running, jumping, sprinting, lunging, squatting, those are all sagittal planes of motion. The definitions they could ask you, which of the following is an imaginary line bisecting the body into superior and inferior halves, and they'll have frontal. They may even throw like coronal, which is another name for frontal, sagittal and transverse. That would be a definition for transverse. So that's what you need to know for the acute variables and the exercises with agonist synergist. And then the term antagonist, what is that?

SPEAKER_01 23:18

Antagonist is gonna be the opposite of the prime mover that we're looking at there.

SPEAKER_03 23:21

So if I do an overhead press, my agonist would be a deltoids. What is the opposite? Antagonist. Think of Romeo and Juliet. I think it was like Tibolt and the bad guy in that one. So the opposite is bad. So antagonist, think of it as just the opposite movement. Military press, the agonist deltoid. So the opposite would be a lap pull down, which would be my lats. Stabilizers will always be your sits. For lower body, it's gonna be your TVA transverse abdominis. So that's really what you need to know for the OPT model. Remember when it comes to stretching, always foam roll and stretch. You have to do foam rolling or you die. And then for the phase two, three, and four, you do active isolate, which is gonna be holding for one to two seconds. And then dynamic for phase five. It's just like sports-specific stuff. Your client's doing a prisoner squat. What where would this go in the OPT model? Phase five. So then what we also need to, did I miss anything with the OPT model?

SPEAKER_01 24:13

No, I mean that's pretty much it. You might just see like them asking, where's your client gonna be in this phase? Like what your ideal client, you know.

SPEAKER_03 24:20

So beginners, phase one for roughly 30 days, strengthen ligaments and tendons, get on a boy ball, do weird shit to a stability ball, foam roll, static stretch, and then when you graduate for a month, you choose either phase two, three, or four. And then if you want to go to phase five, you can. Another big portion is the assessment process. So, what are you going to see for the exam? It's gonna be everything based off of the Johnda approach, which is a physical therapist back in the day. And he had some good revolutionary thought experience, experiments, but today it doesn't really pan out. But you need to know this for the exam. So you have upper cross syndrome, you have lower cross syndrome, and pronation distortion syndrome.

SPEAKER_01 24:59

Try this now, pest planus distortion. All right.

SPEAKER_03 25:02

Okay, there we go. So correct me?

SPEAKER_01 25:03

Uh it's pest planus now.

Overactive vs Underactive: What To Do

SPEAKER_03 25:05

There we go. So you got to know the proper. It used to be pronation distortion, pesplantis. Have a little fun over the holidays sometime and tell an uncle, Uncle Fred, you got upper cross syndrome. See how that goes. Uncle Fred's gonna knock you out with a left cross. It doesn't sound good. So why are we trying to scare people? Oh, your lats are overactive. We have to foam roll and stretch, and if we don't do that, you're gonna get injured. There's no science to support that. We're scaring people with a lot of this stuff. You have lower cross syndrome. Your psoas is overactive. You have glute amnesia, you have text neck. Why didn't cavemen have caveneck when it was fire and they're over here and they're trying to get warm? They didn't blow out their necks. So this stuff is all fear-based. And what happens unfortunately is trainers scare their clients to sign up for a package. Clients scared shitless because they now have upper cross syndrome. Like, oh, I don't want that crazy thing. Fix me. And then you spend a month on a stability ball, foam rolling and stretching. And guess what? The client's like, well, I just spent 1200 bucks. That sucked. They're not gonna tell you that. They're gonna be like, uh, I'm going out of town. Um, let me let me get back to you. Or that, you know, it's just uh, it's out of my budget right now, it's kind of expensive. No, they didn't get the results. Clients show up because they want someone to confidently take them through a workout, not get hurt, and you are their expert. So if they have a question, they come to you and you give them the answer. They're not gonna say, Mr. Trainer, okay, ready for this one? Um, my shoulder hurts. Is it my supraspinatus? Is it my terrace major? Is it my ACL or my Anconius? Which one is it? No, you need to be able to think on the fly with the right information. So we just spend a big block of time on the OPT model. The next one's gonna be those overactive, underactive muscles. Together, you could see maybe 30 or 40 questions. So if you're not confident in those meat and potatoes for the exam, then it doesn't matter how long you spend in the other chapters because you're not acing the big blocks. So when it comes to the overactive, underactive stuff in the assessment process, what do people need to know?

SPEAKER_01 27:09

Uh, you need to know like the characteristics of them and like what you do to them. So overactive muscles, they're gonna be known as like short and tight muscles that you want to lengthen, elongate, and stretch. Uh, SMR, self-myofast release that we talked about before, foam roll and stretch with that. Underactive is gonna be weak and lengthened, and you're gonna want to strengthen them. Once again, these are gonna be in the phase one stabilization. So you've strengthened them at a 4, 2, 1, 1 tempo. Um, and then with that is making sure not only do you know what these muscles are, so like if we were to say gastrochnemius, we know it's gonna be overactive. Can you point them out? Uh, you might see some questions where it's like, all right, this muscle's overactive. What exercise should I do to strengthen it as well? Too. Those might be a little bit harder ones, but pretty much the basics, just knowing is it overactive or underactive? The terminology is big because sometimes people will say, Hey, I didn't see overactive, underactive. Oh, did you see is it short tight muscle? Do you see that you need to lengthen it? Do you see that you need to strengthen it? Those are really uh key parts to it, I would say.

SPEAKER_03 28:07

You can go on Reddit and people will divulge a lot. And then that's where we, you know, we kind of do a little research to see, okay, this person that didn't see a lot of this, they didn't see a lot, but you also have to realize that how the mind works. So if you study the entire textbook and you come across some questions on nutrition or cardio, and you didn't study that much on it, that's going to stick out in your brain. That's just how the brain works. So you have to be careful when you take one person, user 3814, says, Oh, this is what you need to do. Have they helped 6,000 people pass it? Focus on the big blocks, know those muscles. Pec major, overactive, pec minor, overactive, upper traps, overactive. VMO, where is it? It's your teardrop, underactive, 4-2-1-1 tempo. You got to foam roll the overactive ones, gastroc and soleus. You're gonna foam roll for 20 to 40 seconds, and you're gonna static stretch 20 to 40 seconds, and you're gonna activate the weak one. So your anterior tip. You wanna do some 4-2-1-1 tempo on that one. So that's the process you have to go through when it comes to those muscles. And you're doing the overhead squat assessment for 20 repetitions, five anteriorly, five on both sides laterally, five posteriorly. And so when you're on the posterior side, you're looking at what's happening at the ankles. On the anterior side, you're looking at what's happening at the knees, dynamic knee valgus. Don't ever say that to anyone. Here's a quick little test that you can do: find someone who has dynamic knee valgus, foam roll their adductors, strengthen their glutes with a four-through-one one tempo, and then do a stability ball squat curl press and see how that works and how long that takes. Versus a good coach, she had knee valgus, come to the side of their knees, draw it out, work on the motor unit recruitment and the motor processing of just learning the proper technique. That's what's called competency, movement competency. That's what we're focusing on. See which one's more efficient. Instead of foam rolling their calves for 15 minutes, why not just put some wedges behind their ankles because they don't have the optimal dorsiflexion? Those are things that we teach within our soft tissue certification and our partnership with Lifetime. They prefer our certification because we empower trainers. Instead of foam rolling, sitting back and just enjoying life for five minutes, why don't you do some soft tissue work? Get into the gastrocnemias, get into the QL, get into the upper traps. We can't manipulate the joints, but trainers can do a lot. And those are things that we teach within that soft tissue certification. We got three of them. You're gonna get CEUs, but you're really gonna level yourself up from a confidence standpoint because with the soft tissue cert, you learn to link up with a physical therapist and you get them on your team with the nutrition certification that we offer. You link up with a registered dietitian on your team so you can charge more and you can turn your passion for fitness into a career. I love tangents. Let's get back into the book because I know you're freaking out. You're like, this guy with the bell buckle has giant biceps and he's pissing me off. Megan's so sweet. Chris, you're an asshole. Sorry, back to the information. Overactive, underactive. What about tests that they could be doing?

Assessments, Tests, And Vital Signs

SPEAKER_01 31:06

Tests. Oh, so we have performance tests versus cardio tests. So now the difference between those. So cardio, you've probably seen like the rock port test, uh, the walk uh 1.5 mile test. Uh, and you also have the VT2, VT1, VT2 threshold, which that's like the talk test. That one's kind of hard when you get into like the little things and the cute variables about that one. Just know that they're cardio tests versus like performance. You're gonna see more like a squat, bench press, push-ups you'll see for endurance. You could see jumps. So we're looking at vertical going up, broad uh broad jump going that way. And then you I can also see like the left uh or like agility test as well. Too.

SPEAKER_03 31:46

The left is what type of test? And it's a subjective information, objective information, a static test or a performance test. That's what that would look like for answering that. Talking about subjective and objective, when you're doing the park, physical activity readiness questionnaire, if the subject gives you information, I'm a lawyer, that's subjective. If the personal trainer obtains information, that's objective, such as blood pressure. So, what are some things we need to know about blood pressure?

SPEAKER_01 32:15

Blood pressure, we want to look at what's normal ones. So we're looking at 120 over 80, and then what would be considered high or elevated, aka hypertension? So you're looking at 140 over 90. I know that there's like phases for pre-hypertension and all that, but just know the basics for that. And then you won't really probably see this, but the top number being systolic systolic and the bottom number being distolic. And so the top one gonna be when you're the blood that's um being pushed through the arteries, and it's the pressure when your heart's contracting versus the bottom one gonna be when it's at rest.

SPEAKER_03 32:47

Upper chambers are called the atriums, lower chambers, ventricles. All arteries go out, all veins go in. The pulmonary vein is the only vein that carries oxygenated blood. Pulmonary artery is the only artery that carries deoxygenated blood. S A node is the pacemaker of the heart. And stroke volume, what's that?

SPEAKER_01 33:10

Stroke volume, that's just the total amount of uh blood that's gonna be pumped out with each contraction there.

SPEAKER_03 33:15

If you want to go and read chapter two, three, or four, whatever the hell that is, or you can just memorize what we just told you right there, and that's all you're gonna see for that stuff. Let's talk about nutrition a little bit. What do we need to know?

Nutrition Essentials For The Exam

SPEAKER_01 33:24

Nutrition, just the basics. So know our macronutrients versus micronutrients. So macro are gonna be the big ones. We're looking at protein, carbs, and fats. Know the amount of calories that are gonna be for that one. So when we have protein, we're looking protein and carbs, we're looking at four calories per gram there. For fat, you're looking at nine. And for alcohol, we're gonna have seven. Uh, and then for that, also the percentage that you're looking at AMDR, it's gonna be the acceptable macronutrient distribution range. So you're looking at the percentage of a normal person would have for a day. So carbs is gonna be the main source that you're getting from there, 45 to 65%. Fat is gonna be 20 to 35 percent, and then protein is gonna be 10 to uh 35 percent.

SPEAKER_03 34:05

You could be a carnivore head and you may be thinking, my clients need 50% protein. I don't give a shit what you think. Put that NASAM hat on and answer it that way. Very creatively, how they design their exam, because you're probably not gonna see a ton on nutrition or a ton on performance. Wonder why? Because they're a great marketing company. So when you leave, you're like, wow, I didn't get that much on nutrition. I'm gonna go get another certification. And then you spend another six months in a book. Link up with an RD. That's the best thing that you can do. RDs don't look at trainers who call themselves nutritionists in a positive light. So, how do you overcome that? You link up and say, I'm not a nutritionist, I'm a qualified nutrition coach and I can give a lot of guidance, but I don't give out food plans and I know how to pronounce dietitian. It's with a T, not a C. Those little things are gonna get you in the door so you can build your confidence and your team. That's what's gonna set you up for success. You don't need to know much about nutrition, those ranges, yes, macro versus micro, micro vitamins, and minerals, water as well. What do we need to know about water?

SPEAKER_01 35:06

Water, we're looking, I don't know. I forgot.

SPEAKER_03 35:10

So, for water, you need to know 13 cups for males, nine cups for females, and that's pretty much it. And they're not gonna get into electrolytes again, out of our scope. They keep it very, very simple. Don't need to look at that chapter at all. Performance, same thing. They're not gonna get too deep in that because they want you to do with their PES. PES versus the CSCS. Ask 10 strength coaches which one's better, and you're gonna see which one's an actual qualified certification. That's the CSCS, of which in 2030 you have to have a degree in kinesiology. I got that because I wanted to put it on my book because it's actually respected. Having a degree in kinesiology, having a CSCS, that's stuff that people and other professionals are gonna look at in a higher regard. Performance enhancement specialist. Anywho, when uh we look at other topics. We got the vocabulary. What are some vocabulates that maybe we're missing?

SPEAKER_01 36:00

Uh, all the inhibitions you're looking at reciprocal inhibition, altered reciprocal inhibition. You have synergetic dominance, you also have relative flexibility.

Key Vocabulary And Exam Traps

SPEAKER_03 36:11

Body's taking the path of least resistance. You gotta know that for relative flexibility, all flashcards that we have in my book. And speaking of that, I want to ask a couple questions in here just to kind of give you a teaser. So there's a whole entire chapter dedicated to this stuff, but the main part of the book is how to program properly, how to get hired, like good gyms, how to go through resume development, what the interview questions are gonna be like. And then we have numerous case examples from trainers who are been doing who have been doing this for numerous years, and you're gonna learn about what they've done for their success. So let's start with question number eight. Let's look at the medicine ball oblique throw. Your client cannot achieve triple extension. Which of the following would be the best regression? Single leg scaption, prone isoab, a reverse crunch or a bird dog? What is the right answer?

SPEAKER_01 36:59

That would be reverse crunch.

SPEAKER_03 37:00

Why?

SPEAKER_01 37:01

And so when you're looking in that, this is gonna be core exercises or aka like app exercises for this. You're looking at what's happening there. And so when we're doing the medicine ball throw, we're looking at the spine's doing a lot of movement. It's kind of gonna be explosive and fast. So when we regress it to like the strength phase, now we're looking at minimal movement, so flexion extension. So we see that with the reverse crunch versus stabilization. The most regress would be when your spine's not moving. So that floor or that prone isoab also be like aka a plank, or the bird dog would be in that one.

SPEAKER_03 37:32

So triple extension, it's gonna be your glutes, it's gonna be your hamstrings, and it's also gonna be plantar flexion. Triple flexion is gonna be flexion at the hip, the knee, as well as dorsiflexion. Let's take a look at one other question from here so you can get an idea with the overactive, underactive stuff. And I also designed this for other certs too. So if you need to pass ACR ISSA, it's all the same. Let's take a look at which muscles are most likely short if a client demonstrates an arching lower back during the overhead squat assessment. Short, tight, overactive, all the same. They may just use one. Another question, they could use another. So as major and semimembranosus, hip flexor and gluteus maximus, sartorius and gracilis, and hip flexor and bicep femoris.

SPEAKER_01 38:20

So that one would be hip flexor and bicep femoris. When you're looking at these ones, like we like to do, like we said, overactive, underactive, kind of just take those ones out first. So when I see gluteus max, I already know it's underactive. I take that one out. When you look at the other ones, they'll say hamstring complex, but when we look in the most bilateral one, so our bicep femoris there, that would be overactive versus our semis on the inside would be underactive.

SPEAKER_03 38:43

Yep. So if you feel behind your leg, the lateral muscle right there, that's your bicep femoris. The two guitar strings on the medial side, that's gonna be your semis. Those are underactive, lateral, overactive, foam roll, stretch, and then you're going to strengthen the weak ones. So Jenny, it just sets you up for success on passing it. We want to go over a quick little program. Take just a few minutes to help you understand some other vocab words. Take us through one of them. Let's just go through one of them real quick.

Sample Questions And Explanations

SPEAKER_01 39:06

Okay, so for this one, we have John Doe. His goal is muscle gain, phase three, muscular development. Uh, we're warming up for a while. We're gonna foam roll our calves, our TFL, thoracic spine, active stretch, dynamic stretch. Then we're doing activation drills, cable lift, cable chop, balance, single leg, Romanian deadlift. It's a long time before we get into the resistance resistance training. From there, we're looking at barbell bench press, incline dumbbell chest press, and do push-ups. This is gonna be in phase three muscular development. So we're looking at that horizontal loading there. So doing all the sets there. Now, the funny thing about this one is we have four sets, 10 reps, not so bad, but the rest here we're looking at is at 30 seconds here.

SPEAKER_03 39:46

So that really gonna optimize if you want a giant chesticle on your front side here, doing four sets of the first one, 30 seconds rest. So you hit 135, you're not gonna be able to add weight because you're only resting 30 seconds and you're doing Another set, another set, another set, then you go to incline, four rounds of that, and then you're doing push-ups, four rounds. And then we go to the next circuit.

SPEAKER_01 40:08

The next one, same thing. We're gonna have pull-ups and then to a seated cable row, seated lap pull down, same exact sets and reps, four by ten, thirty-second rest there.

SPEAKER_03 40:17

So when you hear some of these exercises, your mind should be going, what's the agonist? What's the synergist? Where should it go in the OPT model? Phase two, three, and four, that's gonna be the strength portion. All of those are gonna be in that strength component aspect of phase three, which is the muscular development. And then at the end, you're going to find what exercise the client wants to do. What are they doing?

SPEAKER_01 40:37

Punching bag.

SPEAKER_03 40:38

And then you end off on more foam rolling and stretching, and then five minutes of cardio. So when you look at this program, the reason I think it's kind of funny because I've been a trainer for 20 years and I've never foam rolled and stretched for 10 to 20 minutes. The warm, the cool, the warm-up, five to 10 minutes. The cooldown, five to 10 minutes. You're foam rolling and stretching for 30 seconds per overactive muscle. Do you think your clients are going to want to pay you 200 bucks an hour for spending 30% of the workout warming up and cooling down? What about the pump? Is your client gonna feel empowered? I don't even know what the hell this is because where's your shoulder? Is it a full body workout or is it just chest and back? Could you do a chest and back workout? Yeah, it's fine. But what we design with physical therapists, with doctors of kinesiology, we have a team and we look at what's gonna be the most practical for a trainer. And that's why we develop the CCA. Take a core movement pattern. What are your clients' goals? So this person is a male or female?

SPEAKER_01 41:34

A male, John Doe.

Programming Critique: What Actually Works

SPEAKER_03 41:35

He wants to get jacked. So you take that first core pattern, which can be a horizontal push, you do a bench press, you complement it with a pull up because that's gonna be a pull pattern. And then you do something he wants to work on. You want some abs, great, an accessory, you do some ab work. Do that for three rounds. You get into the next circuit, you do another push into a pull, and let's do some bicep curls. Three rounds. The last one, add in some legs, you're gonna do some back squat into a military press into some tricep extensions. So you have this plug-and-place system where it's a full body, it's condensed, but you're getting more volume, you're getting more bang for your buck, and it teaches you to think critically. Because if this is your program that you have and you go into the gym and you're reading right out of the book, and the bench press is taken, what do you do? Trainers go, uh, uh, the clients can sense that. So why are they going to invest in you if they can smell your imposture syndrome because you don't know what the hell you're doing? So you need to be able to look at a bench press and go, oh, it's equinox. It's five o'clock. We don't have to bench press. We could do incline, we could do loaded push-ups, we could do another chest movement and just take that variable or that machine or the exercise and apply the variables that are needed within the client's scope and what their capabilities are. We don't try to dilute the information. We provide so you're empowered so you can be in an environment and succeed. Our cameraman back here, he's a stud, went to Equinox. The gym's constantly packed. And if you try to do one of these programs, stability ball, squat curl, press, stability ball, press, stability ball, row, single leg scaption, bicep curl, and you got to do this giant circuit, that equipment now may not be available. So where do you go? What do you do? You have to be able to confidently navigate the gym. That's what your clients want. And especially as we evolve into an era with more AI, the industry is not saturated. It's saturated with textbook trainers. When you're a qualified trainer and you're having an assessment with someone and they have discomfort and you're able to screen them and say, you know what, let me do some soft tissue on this because I can definitely help. But if it's out of my scope, I work with a physical therapist. Let me get you in contact with them. Actually, let me film this and send it to them and get a reply back pretty quickly. That client goes, holy crap, that's really impressive. I understand why you charge 150, 250, 350, because you are a competent professional and you have a team. The future of success when it comes to trainers, teams, continuing education, hands-on learning, not more textbooks. When was the last time you went to a hands-on learning seminar? We offer them twice a month with our partnership with Lifetime. They prefer SUF CPTs because they're the most competent, qualified coaches out there. If you want to level up, check out my book, get the study guide. We have plenty of free information on YouTube, also on our podcast. With our certification, SUF CPT, we guarantee you will pass NASAM Acer ISSA 30 days. You move into our program, live calls, you get to talk to professionals, learn how to program, level up your confidence with anatomy, the assessment process. So then when you're when you pass it, you have experience. You can go out there to the best gyms. We are recognized globally. We're going to be the fastest certification to get accredited. We're right on path to do it in less than 10 years. NASA did it in 18. Ace did it, I think, in 18 as well. ISSA was smart because they had a bunch of money bought by Tailspin and they just bought a certification that had the accreditation already. So when it comes to the political landscape, you want to turn your past for fitness into a career. The longer that you wait and you're not in the trenches learning by doing with proper supervision, the likelihood for success is just against you. And I don't want you to fail. I want you to be successful. That's why I wrote my book. Most importantly, big biceps are better than small ones, belt buckle trainer. Check it out. Have a good one.