The Personal Training Gold Standard Is a Myth

Three different ads. Three different certifications. All calling themselves the “gold standard.” That’s where we start, because if everyone can claim the top spot, the phrase stops being a standard and turns into a slogan. We break down what most entry-level personal training certifications actually require, and why “read a book, pass a multiple choice test” is a shaky foundation for coaching real humans safely.

We get specific about what the job demands in the real world: movement assessment, exercise selection by pattern, smart loading, regressions and progressions, and the people skills that drive retention. We also talk about scope of practice, including when a trainer should refer out and why having a trusted physical therapist or registered dietitian in your corner matters. Feeling “ready” is not the same as being ready, and we dig into why confidence surveys and quick-cert timelines can create a false sense of competence.

Then we widen the lens to accountability. We talk about the incentives in the certification business, how specialization bundles and marketing dollars shape what gets taught, and why gyms share blame when they skip true onboarding and mentorship. Finally, we lay out what we believe a real gold standard looks like: hands-on education, consistent feedback, updated exercise science, and the fundamentals of anatomy and programming that let trainers coach any body, not just their own.

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Transcript

Show Opener And Promos

SPEAKER_00 0:00

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. Had day

The "Gold Standard" Claim Problem

SPEAKER_00 0:28

y'all. Welcome back to the Show Up Fitness podcast. Today we're going to talk about the gold standard of personal training certifications. NASA. Hold on a second. Oh, let me look at my notes. It's actually ISSA. They are the gold standard. Oh, one second. It's ACE. They are the gold standard. I'm looking at three ads right now that all claim to be the gold standard. Let's take a further look into this. Is it because they're NCCA accredited? Let's take a look at what that means. Oh, hold on a second. You got to pay tens of thousands of dollars. And the company then says that you have standardized testing. Great. You took a multiple choice test. You don't have anyone look at your programming. You don't have a board of personal trainers and exercise physiologists having you demonstrate exercises and training people, submitting videos. Nope. You passed a test. The entry level into the certification industry is super easy. You take one of these courses in a couple of weeks. They are now advertising. Get certified in as little as four weeks. The gold standard allows for you to go out there and do what? Safely train people? I don't think so. When I think of gold standard, I think of a car or a restaurant, like a Michelin star restaurant. It's a high-end, luxurious spot that provides amazing food, or and you look at the car case, it's safe. I'm buying that car because it's the gold standard for safety and performance, whatever there is. There's actually quantitative things that you can test. There isn't for these certifications, but there's money. Oh, private equity, they can pump in a ton of money to say, oh, we're the gold standard. Look at this. People see it a bunch. They go on Reddit, Facebook, how to become a trainer, get one of these certifications and go gain experience. Just get into the dance, and all of a sudden you're going to start gaining unsupervised experience. Find me one profession where that would be the gold standard. You read a book, take a test, and then you go out there and work with human beings. It literally takes more to become a barista at Starbucks than it does to become a personal trainer. And what trainers do is they put it back on me and say, oh, you're the asshole online making fun of trainers. No, I'm out there, one of the few who's trying to level up the industry. How is it that you

NCCA, Testing, And False Confidence

SPEAKER_00 2:52

could settle our thought process, our critical thinking settles on? So I get a book, I read it, I don't understand what the hell I just read. This is physiology, this is biomechanics, anatomy. You take a test. Let's look at the role of the trainer. You assess someone, you look at their movement competency, you apply a load that's appropriate for their capabilities. If they have injuries, you need to regress them, progress, athletes and performance-based individuals. Do you know the right exercises to choose based off the movement patterns? Do you provide a service? Do you have the people skills? That's the day in the life of a personal trainer. Taking blood pressure, knowing when to refer out to your team of physical therapists and RDs. No, no, no. Gold standard. Read a book, pass a test, go gain unsupervised experience. Let that marinade for a second. Why aren't there more talking heads challenging that process? Don't you think you need to be able to communicate what you're capable of doing? What the industry standard truly is anatomy, programming, assessments, pain management. No, you read a book. I love this because I'm out here trying to make a difference. I want trainers to be successful. In my opinion, I think a gold standard would be providing the education, hands-on learning that allows for a trainer to help their clients safely while making a good income. The 1% of trainers make over 10K per month. We have so many SUF CPTs making over 10K who are training their clients safely. We lost count. What about these other organizations? Do they track it based off of how much they're making? Is it where they're training? Or is it how they feel? Ad by NASA. 86% of trainers feel fully prepared for their first client. I find that kind of ironic. Go to Reddit, go to Facebook, talk to trainers. Are you ready to start training someone if they come in and they're overweight to obese and you're 20 years old? What about if you're 40 years old and you have a 20-year-old that comes in, they want to grow their glutes, but you've only been doing bro splits your entire life? Are you going to give them anecdotes of what worked for you or scientific back principles? There's no data that can analyze how you feel. Oh my God, I feel so great today. If someone sends you a questionnaire, in exchange for that questionnaire, they give you 50% off for the next specialization. You're probably going to give the answer that they're looking for. I feel ready to start training. Can you actually train? Can you get your clients' results? How's your retention? Are you able to get them to work with you? No. Why do so many trainers struggle? They don't have the technical skills, they don't have the business skills, they don't have the people skills. Do you truly know how to program? Don't even fucking get me started on the OPT model founded by a physical therapist. Talk to any physical therapist and they'll tell you physical therapists don't know jack shit about programming. Yet the model is based off of that. IFT model for A, same thing, bullshit. Doesn't make any sense. This is in my opinion. I have my right to say this. This is how I feel. I get to say this because they can say that. Why aren't trainers leveling themselves up? Why can't you truly do your research? And this is for someone I hope you find this. If you're just coming across show up for the first time, I hope this resonates with you because there's a point of critical thought that we've just lost. The best clients that come through show ups, students that want to become trainers, it's always moms that are doing research for their kids. Because they're like, huh, I'm in real estate. I had this conversation not too long ago with someone from Austin. I'm in real estate and I was looking like, what? You literally read a book and now you go out there and start training. It just didn't seem right. It makes no sense. But to everyone else, go get your NASA, go get your ACE, get your ISSA. That's what you're supposed to do. Doesn't make sense. We are practical personal trainers. Reading a book doesn't set you up for success. Maybe that's why 90% quit within the first couple of years. They're not given the tools for success. And if you go out there and try to gain unsupervised experience, who's your mentor? A lot of times it's survivorship bias, meaning the majority of trainers quit. Who's left? Oh, they're a master trainer. They got their NASAMP, ESC, ESW, L CNC, got all these certifications. They must know what they're doing. Have you ever had anyone look at your programming? Let's just start with the basics. Can you tell me the name of the quad muscles? Rotator cuff? What's the name of the physical therapist you work with? Just in case a client comes in, they have pain and you don't feel like it's in your wheelhouse, so you need to refer out. Oh, you don't have one.

unknown 7:34

Huh.

SPEAKER_00 7:34

Well, I thought this was the gold standard. What's going on here, people? Why don't we challenge more? We follow blindly. I don't want to go out on in and say trainers are fucking stupid,

What Trainers Actually Do Daily

SPEAKER_00 7:46

but the process is pretty stupid. Why aren't we challenging this system? Well, I think that there's two parts. You make a ton of money when you get someone to get your certification. And these big textbook search, they make a boatload of money, especially the profit organizations. I got nothing against profit. We're a profit organization, but when you're backed by private equity, Blackstone and NASA, Tailwind and ISSA, that's when I classify, in my opinion, a qualified certification. It's not an entry-level textbook. It's backed by science. NSCA, Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, ACSM, working in exercise physiology, medical settings. SUF, we have a team of physical therapists, RDs, professors, exercise physiologists, doctors who are providing the most up-to-date information, not stuff from freaking 50 years ago, upper cross syndrome. No, it's up-to-date as of 2026. It's constantly evolving. I'm not saying we know everything, but if there's something that's wrong, we have the humility to recognize that, adjust, adapt, and grow. But when you get so big, you don't have that ability. You have to just keep on going with the flow because you don't give a shit about the people out there who are getting your certification. You care about your bottom line. And that's where we differ. I care about the trainer turning their passion for fitness into a career. That's why we've partnered with Lifetime in Equinox, the higher-end gyms, because that's what truly sets you up for success. I'm not saying the other ones don't work, but it's really challenging to be charging 50 bucks an hour and you're getting 15, 20 bucks, and you have to train 70, 80 hours per week and you're making two, three grand, maybe. The average trainer makes less than 50 grand. And I really would love to see who they're interviewing and are they actually looking at their taxes and what they're reporting? Because as we know, people are notorious for saying they do so much more. I'm such a hard worker. I work out so hard. We overestimate how hard we exercise, we underestimate how much we consume because we're afraid to say it. I don't know what I'm doing. Do you think someone's going to take a photo with their certification? And the next slide's going to be, you know what? I just don't feel ready. I don't feel confident. I need help. Can I have someone mentor me and give me a roadmap for success? How to interview, how to set up my resume, how to actually train someone and go back to an individual, not freaking AI Claire, and have them say, okay, well, this is the program you probably should have done. Why did you choose this exercise? Was it appropriate? What happened to the client? How do they feel? There's no didactic learning mentorship like you have in physical therapy school. Three years of that, where you are in the clinic and you have someone over your shoulder saying, first off, you have someone telling you this is how you do it because you already know the anatomy. You already know injuries and all that stuff because you learned it for the last couple of years. But now, here's a case. Watch me do it. Now it's your turn. Monkey see, monkey do. Nope, not the fitness industry. I got my certification. I want, I'm taking on applicants. Who wants to train with me? Imagine any other profession. And I say this one all the time because it just sounds stupid. Would you allow for a doctor to start doing surgery on you if they just skipped the line and they did it as fast as they could because, oh, I have all this experience and I haven't had anyone ever look at my procedures. When you look at it that way, it sounds insane. How do we allow trainers to go out there and practice on human bodies without supervision? So one part is the certifications don't give a shit about you. They feel like they're setting you up for success. They don't care. They want more widgets by the next specialization. Get a bundle. And then the second one that needs to be held accountable, gyms. Gyms don't give a shit about you. I'm sorry. They don't. Because if they did, they would have a ramp up process where you are learning, learning, and learning. You watch the lead instructor

Money Incentives And Gym Accountability

SPEAKER_00 11:50

train someone and then you have a conversation afterwards. You do a mock session where the instructor purposely chooses wrong exercises. They purposely cue them improperly. They load them up too much. And you have to be able to recognize that and have a conversation around it confidently, stating you had them do an RDL right there. They had low back discomfort. Even though they had clearance from their physical therapist, they said that that was contraindicated. This would have been a better choice to have the dialect, the conversation. No, we hide behind our screen in the glory of social media. Here's another person that got certified. Yay, they're gonna help so many people. How? How are they gonna help people? Anecdotally. It worked for me. My favorite one I get all the time, trainers reaching out, or hypothetical trainers. I've been working out for 15 years. I know what I'm doing. Oh, I see all these trainers out there. They don't know what they're doing. I do. Who observed you doing it, quote unquote, right? The gold standard, this omnipresent spirit. Whoop, stamp, you're the gold standard. Whoops, stamp, you're the gold standard. How is that the gold standard? I don't think years of experience means that you're a good trainer. And there's numerous great coaches who agree, just because you fell through the cracks. Most trainers don't have the confidence to train people properly because they only understand their body. So you have someone who comes in and they have an issue, it's always going to be pain. Dr. Russin had a good quote the other day on his page: 93% of gym goers have pain. Now, I don't know if that statistic is true or not, but if 93%, that means if you have 10 assessments, you better believe nine are going to have some sort of pain. And then there's trainers out there on the social media and Reddit saying, never train someone if they have pain. You got to refer out. Nope, I disagree. So does Dr. Coleman. We just did a podcast with him, physical therapist. You should be working with a competent, qualified trainer who knows their scope. And if they need to refer out, they know when. Trainers don't know when. And it just fires me up on this beautiful Saturday morning because these are the thoughts that are always going through my head. I want trainers to be respected. I feel like I'm respected. I have a gym, I've written a book, we have a certification. But if you look at our team, there's fact checking, there's checks and balances. If I say something stupid about nutrition, RRDs will call me out. If I say something stupid about movement, RPTs will call me out. I've been called out before by professors at USC. I remember I was teaching the class and I said the lats did four things because that's what some textbooks say. The lats extend, they internally rotate, and they work a little bit with depression, and that's it.

Anatomy, Programming, And Mentorship

unknown 14:38

Dr.

SPEAKER_00 14:38

Waterbury said, literally, what the fuck are you teaching, Chris? That's not accurate. You are wrong. Called me out on an Instagram live. Got on a call. Doc, make this better. How can we improve? I feel like shit because I was reading this book and it said that was accurate. Here's the USC textbook for physical therapy. Here's the anatomy. This is what you should be teaching. The eight actions of the scapula elevation, depression, protraction, retraction, upward, downward rotation, anterior, posterior tilt. Most textbooks tell you four. ACE gives you six, but there's actually eight. Anatomy is stupid. You don't need to know that. Your clients don't care about that. They only care about peptides and GLP one and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You need to know Spanish in order to speak English. And if you don't know the fundamentals of movement, how can you expect to program? Programming is based off of anatomy. And if you don't have the confidence in programming for anybody, and that's the real distinguishing fact between a qualified trainer and an average trainer, average trainer, entry-level textbook, they barely understand their body. Qualified trainers understand the human body. And yes, there are certifications that set you up for success. NSCA, ACSM, SUFCPT. We get you in the trenches. But how we separate ourselves from the nonprofit NSC and ACSM, we have monthly seminars, hands-on learning. In two days, you will learn more than any textbook certification. And I'm so confident I put my belt buckle out there, money back guarantee. Because you are in an environment with trainers who are doing it, but we have conversations, great conversations, thought-provoking conversations. What are your thoughts on this? This is what someone said. Can we talk about that? What are your thoughts on barbells? What about functionality? Is this functional? Is that not functional? What about fashion? We talk about it. I don't say you're a fucking idiot because you think this, or maybe what you learn from an outdated textbook. That's a great question. I may not know the answer. Let me go to my team and I'll get back to you within a couple hours. We have those resources. I feel for trainers today, it's only going to get worse because more advertising dollars and be pumped into the system and you're going to click on a BOGO, buy one, get one free, and you're going to start reading a book and you're going to read the next textbook and the next textbook and you're going to put that in your bio and you're going to think that you're qualified. In actuality, it just shows that you're insecure and you don't know what you're doing. You need to have a variation of certifications. You need to go through something like the SFMA. We talked about this with Dr. Coleman. You need to understand barbell rehab, taught by physical therapists on how the barbell can be rehab and prehab for clients and patients. But as you learn this, you have conversations and you take little things, not just the next textbook and the next textbook and the next textbook. You need to have conversations. If you are struggling to make $10,000 per month as a personal trainer, that's what I consider the gold standard. Can you turn this into a career? And if you're not making $10K, you're probably struggling. We can help you with that. And time and time again, we've shown it works because people master the anatomy aspect. They're confident in having conversations. When it comes to pain, they know how to assess within our scope. They can implement soft tissues that are within our scope. They can refer out. They have streams of revenue from nutrition coaching. And you absolutely can turn this into a career.

Send This To A Friend

SPEAKER_00 18:10

Send this to a friend who's thinking about getting certified. We will help you get hired at the best gyms that are out there. We'll help you have the confidence to do what you really are passionate about doing, which is helping people safely. And just remember big biceps are better than small ones. Keep showing up.