Hi, how’re you doing everybody?
Jonathan here.
In this video I’m going to answer a question I see very often and that is what is the best
personal training certification that you can get, specifically in this video in the US?
I see a lot of videos on YouTube where somebody makes an assertion based on research that
they’ve done or they ask around but nobody has actually earned these actual certifications.
Given the fact that I earned these certifications specifically to service you guys better as
I started my business and had eight years of training before I ever earned my first
cert and I’ll explain why I think I’m in a position to give you your best advice
on how you want to educate yourself and promote yourself and your career.
But before I do that, if you have not yet make sure you click on that link up there
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I’m going to give you a quick story about me and I’m going to go through all these
certifications.
Quick story: I kind of fell into personal training.
I started off working in a gym called Powerhouse.
I really thought I was just going to be racking weights for the summer but the PT director
over there took a liking to me.
I was a football player for a Division One school so he liked my story about learning
about fitness, learning how to train myself and wanting to help other people.
I essentially went through a mentorship program where I was just kind of like an apprentice
to the trainers.
I was there for like twelve hours a day for at least a month just learning how to train,
how to talk to people.
I didn’t get certified for a very, very long time because I was at that gym for a
while.
I even started my own boot camp, having not gotten certified yet.
Around the time I started the boot camp I started to make these videos and I number
1: wanted to educate myself as much as possible and I wanted it to be as much of a resource
as possible to you guys.
I’ve earned some of the most popular certifications you could find out there.
Down here is my ACE certification which a lot of people ask about.
Here you have the NSCA certification, the National Strength and Conditioning Association.
Here you have probably the most popular certification right now which is the NASM certification.
I’ve earned all three.
I actually made a study course for the NASM course.
In terms of which certification is right for you, the first thing I want to help you understand
is that certifications are very, very similar.
In terms of the testing for these certifications I’m pretty sure that I could’ve studied
for the NSCA certification and passed the ACE pretty easily and maybe even passed the
NASM pretty easily.
It just depends on how well you study and how well you retain information.
In terms of the testing information, in terms of what you learn from certification, it’s
pretty much the same because fitness is the same no matter what.
There’s always going to be risk factors, you’re always going to have to have a base
line understanding of nutrition.
You want to understand how certain exercises work certain parts of the muscle.
You’ll want to understand fitness testing.
You want to learn how to keep clients safe.
That’s essentially what all personal training certifications do.
There are a lot of other certifications that I haven’t mentioned besides ACE, NSCA and
NASM.
Such as NESTA, ISSA, ACSN but when you look at the requirements for gyms that are hiring
you’re not going to find any gym that wouldn’t take any one of those three: ACE, NASM, and
NSCA.
So those are the three for the baseline.
Now when it comes to ACE, that’s the first certification that I earned, I actually purchased
the ACE study material three or four years before I ever took the exam.
Even though I wasn’t officially certified I had all of the knowledge and implemented
all of the knowledge of the ACE program into my training.
I was just very scared to test and a lot of people are scared to test and that’s why
I put together videos on my channel on what you want to know for each certification.
If you search “ACE Review” you’ll find a video for an ACE review after I took it.
NCSA review, NASM review I give information and tips on how you’re going to want to
do well on that exam.
What do you want to take from that?
Number 1.
You can’t be afraid of testing because if you study the material you’re going to be
okay.
The second thing that you want to take from that is you want to consider your path.
If you specifically want to start off your career working in a gym, and that’s probably
the path of least resistance in a lot of ways because you get a lot of people thrown your
way without having to do a lot of marketing on your own.
You’re going to want to work at a gym.
It’s helpful for you to have this, having have passed the test.
I really didn’t need to get any other certs when I started my business because a lot of
clients don’t even know what certs to ask for.
When you think about it, you don’t even know what certs to get.
So, clients don’t really know what certs to ask for.
It’s kind of an integrity thing as a trainer for you to educate yourself.
Now, being completely practical and transparent if I were going to train on my own again and
I wasn’t going to work at a gym I would purchase the study material for a given certification,
I would get one version back because fitness doesn’t change much.
They just have to put out more versions because they can make more money that way.
I would purchase the previous version of whatever certification I chose and then I would read
through that information and I would be as educated.
The only difference is that I will not be given this piece of paper that they issue
you after you pass their thousand-dollar exam.
You have to understand I’m kind of a cynic when it comes to education and the way that
they charge money for just a piece of paper that doesn’t necessarily determine whether
or not you are a good trainer or not.
Some people test really well and won’t implement anything they learned in the book.
Some people test really poorly but know the book like the back of their hand.
What I’m saying is if you want to work at a gym you have got to get this piece of paper.
If you want to go solo and you are short on money, I would say purchase the text book
from one version back.
I actually think the previous version of the NASM is clearer than the current version.
Version 5 I believe it is right now.
I’m going to pause the video and grab the book.
Here for instance is the current edition for the NASM personal training exam.
This is the fifth edition.
I created my NASM study guide using the fourth edition.
A lot of people pass the fifth edition NASM study guide using the fourth edition material
because material doesn’t change much.
I actually found the previous version to this one, the third edition, a little bit of an
easier read.
That’s what I used to pass my fourth edition NASM exam.
Like I might have said earlier in the video I had the ACE study material for the longest.
This is the ACE booklet that I used to study for the ACE exam back in 2013.
I had this for years, read it front and back, knew everything in it but was afraid to test.
This is the current version of the ACE manual and honestly this makes me want to jump off
of a bridge.
My biggest issue with ACE is that they load up so much useless information and they repeat
themselves so often.
I honestly think that the book could be this big if they were a little bit more concise
with how they explain their information.
If it were me and I had to give you guys advice on it, I personally wouldn‘t recommend the
ACE because to me it’s a very complicated read and a lot of the fitness testing and
screening things that they you would probably never do.
This is the NSCA study guide and I believe this is still the same edition that they use.
I don’t think they’ve updated it yet.
To be honest with you the NSCA exam was the hardest exam that I took.
I honestly thought that they gave me the wrong exam and I was taking the CSCS exam instead
of the personal training exam.
It was the hardest one to study for but the NSCA certification will give you I believe
the broadest amount of information as it relates to how to train.
But if I were to recommend a certification for you guys to start off with, especially
if you’re just looking to train the layperson, not exactly high intensity athletes I am actually
a fan of NASM.
I feel that their screening is going to be most relatable to the average person that
you’ll see walking down the street if they were looking to get fitter.
I believe that even though the newest edition isn’t as clear as the previous editions,
it is the easiest to understand.
There’s a lot to absorb in the NSCA booklet but at least it’s not repetitive and it’s
explained clearly.
It’s just a lot.
With ACE, I’m sorry ACE you’ve got to figure out a way to give that information
a little bit better.
Now you might not agree all you ACE certified trainers.
I did it too so that’s my two sense.
If I were going to have somebody new start I think the NASM is the best way to go if
you’re looking for something that’s going to train the layperson.
I think the NSCA is going to have more information.
I think you’d be better prepared to train a larger demographic of people than just the
layperson if you have the NSCA cert but it is harder.
Like I said, if I were doing this and I didn’t have any plans on working at a brand-new gym,
this is the current version of the NASM I would go on Amazon and buy this version and
study it front to back because the information is the same but the order is different.
You’ll save a lot of money and I definitely know you could pass exam of the fifth current
version with the previous version because that’s what I did with almost all of my
certifications to save for the NSCA.
I would go NASM if I were you.
I know you only need one of these.
There’s no reason for me to have three of these as a professional trainer, but as a
mentor to you guys I had to get multiple certifications so I could explain things like this to you.
I hope you found this video helpful.
You might have some opinions that you want to throw back my way, put them in the comment
section below and I would be happy to answer them.
As always, I said that I saw a lot of my success because I had mentors.
If you’re looking for a mentor I definitely recommend that you check out my Dumbbells
to Dollars courses.
I can serve as an online mentor for you as it shows how I essentially not only how learned
how to train but how to build a business.
I evolved from doing one on ones to boot camp group training because I didn’t want to
work the long hours and I wanted to train multiple people at the same time.
It gave me my best opportunity to see success as I learned all about business marketing
and it’s all in that course.
If you’re looking for extra mentorship I definitely recommend that you check it out.
That’s about it.
I hope you found this video helpful.
Remember if you have any questions or comments, make sure to comment below.
Your comments will fuel the videos that I put up for this channel.
If you have an opinion I would be happy to read it.
Stay tuned as I will be making more videos as long as you remember to eat healthy, hydrate,
drive safe, stress levels low, get rest, don’t slap anybody, love your clients and they will
love you back.
I will see y’all tomorrow or the next day and you have a good one.