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One of my very first jobs was at a small gym. I was in high school, and I took care of the front desk on the weekends, which offered me the convenience of a free membership. I also got to walk newbies around the gym, showing them the little circuit training section they could use. Back then, I took a series of workshops on personal training but never ended up sitting for the test. I used the information I’d learned in the workshops to program my own workouts, and I kept that with me throughout my years of working out. But last year, I was ready to really get a bit more serious about it, since I was about to open my own studio and wanted to offer personal training.
In May of 2019, I finalized my purchase of the National Academy of Sports Medicine’s Certified Personal Training guided study program, and I took and passed the test on the first attempt on December 31st, 2019, which I was really proud of because apparently they have about a 66% pass rate. It’s definitely not an easy test, and I get pretty bad test anxiety, so I am really proud of this achievement and wanted to share the tools I think helped me most, in case someone out there is studying for it and looking for some advice.
Should you read the NASM book cover to cover?
As I mentioned, I’m not the world’s greatest test taker, and suffer from test anxiety. I wanted to be as prepared as possible, so I started reading the book with the intent to read it cover to cover. I took notes on each chapter along the way, and right around the time when I got to the final two or three chapters, life got crazy for me and I set the book aside. Then, when I went to take practice exams, the questions I struggled with the most were the ones with info from the final few chapters. So I went back and finished the book, and subsequently did so much better on the practice tests. Do you need to read it cover to cover in order to pass? Probably not, but if you have the time, it certainly doesn’t hurt to just read it. Further, I found I learned so much about seemingly unrelated topics like customer service skills. (In retrospect, customer service skills are obviously related to personal training, but initially when I thought of the term personal training, I thought solely of program design.) For me, it wasn’t just that I wanted to pass the test, but I wanted to retain the information and be the best personal trainer that I could be.
What to study to pass the NASM CPT exam?
In short, if it’s in the book, it is fair game for the test, so you’ll want to study everything, in my opinion. I kept that in the back of my mind, and any concept I had trouble understanding (like how exactly does the blood flow through the heart?!), I would read through in the book, watch the videos on NASM’s guided study program page, and if I still couldn’t understand it, I went to YouTube and tried to find someone who could better explain it for my learning style. That’s how I found this amazing woman who taught me how the blood flows through the heart, which ended up being a question on the exam for me!
NASM also provides a study guide, and it’s basically just a condensed version of the book. There really wasn’t one thing on the study guide that wasn’t on my exam, so I would print it out, and know those concepts front and back. If you don’t know them, go back to the book and read up. If you still don’t understand, head to YouTube and find someone who can explain it. I would generally search “NASM + concept I was having trouble with” - that way, you may get someone from NASM if they have that resource on YouTube.
Any tips or test hacks for prepping for the NASM CPT exam?
The best $30 I ever spent was on Pocket Prep, an app that has over 800 NASM CPT test questions. I used this app every single day leading up to the test. What’s so nice is that if you get an answer wrong, it tells you where you can go to find the info in the book, so you can quickly head to the book to better understand. You can also create customized practice tests on the app for yourself, based on questions you’ve gotten wrong in the past, and it’ll also break down your percentage of where you excel and where you need to study more. While I didn’t see the exact questions from there on the test, they were very similarly worded.
I’d also take the time to figure out what type of learner you are, and study according to how you learn. I took the quiz I just linked, and I was 55% auditory and 25% visual, so that’s why I focused on using the app, watching videos and lectures of people explain concepts, and I did a lot of reading, underlining, and writing to help myself understand the concepts. Because - remember - while it’s awesome to pass the test, you also want to be able to fully grasp all the concepts, so that you can apply them to your personal training when you start working with clients.
Another thing I did that was very helpful was program my own workouts based on the training systems described in the book that I was studying. I designed a Vertical Loading Training System workout and went through it (and shared a couple on the app). I designed and did a Horizontal Loading Training System workout. I also experimented with the different tempos 4-2-1 and 2-0-2, etc, to experience what it might feel like to be working on stabilization or hypertrophy. I also started designing complete workouts which included plyometric work, cardio work, balance, core and SAQ, so that I could understand and experience the different sets and reps. These were really vital, at least for me, in understanding programing and also made me feel so much more confident in my ability to program for others.
Speaking of others, I asked close friends and family members to let me program for them. This was vital as well because it gave me real-world examples of who I might be working with in the future, and their situations mimicked questions that were on the test. I feel like this is similar in yoga - but when you’re more advanced, it can be really challenging to understand how to sequence yoga or program a workout for someone just starting out because you haven’t been in that position for so long in your body. That’s where this part was essential for me. For example, my dad, age 60, is about 25 pounds overweight, deconditioned, and wants to lose fat, build a bit of stabilizing strength and work on his balance. He enjoys a challenge, likes sweating and working hard. So we did a balance and stabilization program, and I started him on a cardio program as well. Being able to go through it with him and see what was challenging for him and what he had no problem with helped me to better understand how others like him would fare with a program of similar design. If you can work with someone very close to you, you can apply those FITTE principles and SMART goals to their programing which will really help reinforce those concepts to you as the trainer.
Ultimately, I think the more time you give yourself, the better. You can put a strategic plan into action to help you better understand each concept, which will yes, help you on the test, but more importantly, will help you as a trainer.
I really do feel like the program was so high quality, and I felt so confident taking that test. I’m now working with a handful of in person and online clients and feel so good about it. If you’re interested in working with me as an online personal trainer, you can DM me for details.
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