Hello Blogger world!
After many years of sub-par writing activity and deleting many partially created blogs-- I am back.
I always feel like what I have to tell the world is nothing unique, then I meet people who want nothing more than to hear my story to inform theirs.
I have been asked what agency I used to certify through. I spent months researching what personal training certificate I would end up with because I wanted to make sure I was marketable across the world. When you are a travel nut, you don't want to pass up an opportunity to coach in Bali (but more on that later). Only 5 of the many certs were really accepted worldwide, and of those 5, I really only saw people in the fitness industry globally with two of those. (ISSA and NASM)
I also am not entirely sure that I wouldn't end up with a degree in the fitness industry that would require a medical background. This made me heavily favor the NASM certification with more of a medically focused background than the others. I figured, I could either learn the basics now or later and learning now could help inform the later decision.
Lastly, I am not a particularly humble person and wanted to take the most prestigious and difficult test I could. Seriously. If people are going to pay lots of money for training they want their trainer to be the best. I would at least. By picking a certification that I KNOW was not a cake walk, nor was it cheap, I would feel more valuable.
This led me to choosing to take the NASM e-teach course. I hadn't taken a health class in 13 years (probably more but who is counting) so I decided to take the class with deadlines and quizzes. I felt enormously under prepared when I walked into the test and vastly over prepared when I left.
I can truly say that the things I learnt in that course and from the certification book itself have directly impacted the quality of my training. Years of sports and fitness can only do so much for you when someone has a strange gait or compensation pattern in a movement.
Is NASM the end for me? Probably not.
I will more than likely go on to to get a strength and conditioning cert as well as nutrition one as every other fitness goal in the world is inherently linked to nutrition.
Is that medical degree happening?
Maybe not. After many years chasing academia down a very different path, I am hesitant to get yet another degree. However, a DPT looks very tempting. Far away and a pipe dream, but tempting nonetheless.
Are other certifications good if I am not considering medical or sports specific goals?
Absolutely. I would, however, note that NSCA and ACE are two other top tier agencies that I can actually do my continuing education credits through as well. AND I am not saying that you couldn't have one of these certifications and train athletes either.
Its all of these things that added up to NASM for me. They also were excellent communicators through email and phone calls and team up with some of the top names in fitness branding.
I have appreciated NASM as a whole and would absolutely recommend their certification, but like I mentioned before, really do the research and digging to see what agency fits with your career goals.
Feel free to shoot me an email or DM on my instagram @thelittlestmeathead with any questions you might have!
After many years of sub-par writing activity and deleting many partially created blogs-- I am back.
I always feel like what I have to tell the world is nothing unique, then I meet people who want nothing more than to hear my story to inform theirs.
I have been asked what agency I used to certify through. I spent months researching what personal training certificate I would end up with because I wanted to make sure I was marketable across the world. When you are a travel nut, you don't want to pass up an opportunity to coach in Bali (but more on that later). Only 5 of the many certs were really accepted worldwide, and of those 5, I really only saw people in the fitness industry globally with two of those. (ISSA and NASM)
I also am not entirely sure that I wouldn't end up with a degree in the fitness industry that would require a medical background. This made me heavily favor the NASM certification with more of a medically focused background than the others. I figured, I could either learn the basics now or later and learning now could help inform the later decision.
Lastly, I am not a particularly humble person and wanted to take the most prestigious and difficult test I could. Seriously. If people are going to pay lots of money for training they want their trainer to be the best. I would at least. By picking a certification that I KNOW was not a cake walk, nor was it cheap, I would feel more valuable.
This led me to choosing to take the NASM e-teach course. I hadn't taken a health class in 13 years (probably more but who is counting) so I decided to take the class with deadlines and quizzes. I felt enormously under prepared when I walked into the test and vastly over prepared when I left.
I can truly say that the things I learnt in that course and from the certification book itself have directly impacted the quality of my training. Years of sports and fitness can only do so much for you when someone has a strange gait or compensation pattern in a movement.
Is NASM the end for me? Probably not.
I will more than likely go on to to get a strength and conditioning cert as well as nutrition one as every other fitness goal in the world is inherently linked to nutrition.
Is that medical degree happening?
Maybe not. After many years chasing academia down a very different path, I am hesitant to get yet another degree. However, a DPT looks very tempting. Far away and a pipe dream, but tempting nonetheless.
Are other certifications good if I am not considering medical or sports specific goals?
Absolutely. I would, however, note that NSCA and ACE are two other top tier agencies that I can actually do my continuing education credits through as well. AND I am not saying that you couldn't have one of these certifications and train athletes either.
Its all of these things that added up to NASM for me. They also were excellent communicators through email and phone calls and team up with some of the top names in fitness branding.
I have appreciated NASM as a whole and would absolutely recommend their certification, but like I mentioned before, really do the research and digging to see what agency fits with your career goals.
Feel free to shoot me an email or DM on my instagram @thelittlestmeathead with any questions you might have!
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