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YOU GUYS.
I am writing this from a weirdly emotional place — because an hour ago, I passed the NASM CPT, or certified personal trainer, exam. It has been a long and difficult few months, and truth be told, more than anything, I’m feeling relief right now. I think the excitement will come, but I have that exhausted, burned-out, “thank the universe that experience is behind me” feeling right now.
Here’s the thing. The NASM CPT exam was not only the hardest test I have ever taken — college finals included — it was far harder than I anticipated going into it. And here’s the other thing. I studied my butt off. I had a plan, I executed the plan, I read and re-read and made flash cards and took online practice exams and read study guides and got advice from friends…
…and I still felt like I was run over by a truck — or more appropriately, a small plane, as I took the exam at the local airport — and a bit shocked that I got the 70% score I needed to pass.
{Also, I felt as if the universe was conspiring against me…I woke up to a thunderstorm so nasty that it shook my house and flooded the roads. At one point, after driving through a puddle, my battery light came on about halfway to the testing center. When I arrived at the center, which is at a small airport, I had to go through an intense security checkpoint and even get escorted to the final location! My nerves were a bit rattled by the time I was checked in, so I did a few light yoga stretches and lots of deep breathing while waiting for them to take me in.}
Pass the NASM CPT (Certified Personal Trainer) Exam
Overall, here are my two-plus cents:
- Having an existing AFAA group fitness certification helped me immensely, as did my experience teaching live classes. Knowing what the quadriceps, triceps and lats look like on paper is one thing. Being able to feel them work in your body through multi-joint exercises that go through resistance, cardio, etc. programs is another. I am certain that my months of studying anatomy and kinesiology for AFAA helped me in key areas of NASM.
- If you do not have a background in exercise science, make sure you allow plenty of time for studying. NASM allows 180 days from the time or purchase to take the test. {As it was, I bought the materials and exam voucher in February and took the test in June — earlier than I needed to, but it was best for my summer travel schedule and for the testing center availability. Don’t wait to look up exam locations and times, by the way. I thought I would have more options than I did, and I live in a metro area!} Not only will you need to memorize a lot of advanced musculature, exercise concepts, etc., you will need to understand them, conceptually, because the test will require you to really put the principles you’ve learned into real scenarios to answer them properly.
- I used six study sources, primarily, and I highly recommend you do at least the same (and I’ve heard great things about the full e-teach program, which I did not use but regretted not picking because I think it would have boosted my real understanding of some of the more dense topic areas). They’re listed below. BUT HERE’S THE THING: no amount of memorizing terms, anatomical positions, planes of motion, etc. will help you understand those things well enough to pass this test. You need to understand why things work the way they do.
{For example, it’s really not enough to know what muscles are underactive or overactive when you notice a postural problem during a physical assessment. You need to know what to do next — do you have the client do a static stretch, and if so, specifically what muscles? How long should you have him/her hold that static stretch and when/why would you choose that over, say, an active-isolated or dynamic stretch? If someone is obese or hypertensive or has diabetes, should they be given the same stretching protocol as someone who has not been diagnosed with one of those medical conditions?}
I promise, my goal is not to scare you. You’ll be plenty scared, no matter how prepared you are when you go into the testing facility. My goal is to really share with you why, despite my months of studying, I had so many “uh-oh” moments in the exam room. I believe that my commitment to studying helped me narrow down most difficult questions to the two best answers, and from there, I was able to use both my common sense and experience to select enough right ones to pass. But to become a good trainer, I will definitely need to keep hitting the books.
So, what did I take? What did I use to study? Any final words of advice?
I bought the CPT Self-Study package from NASM, which retails for $699 (although I did receive a discount by contacting a NASM rep, based on advice from two other bloggers who took and passed the exam; if you want to take it, email me at kwidrick@gmail.com and I’ll tell you how you can save some money on your own discount!).
I used these six study guides throughout my 10 most intense weeks of studying:
NASM’s textbook (I read this about three times during the course of studying, following the 75-day planner that NASM sends with the material)
NASM’s online resources — videos, slides, flash cards and a practice exam accessible through the online learning center that comes with the package
Julie’s NASM Study Guide
Heather’s NASM Study Guide (I actually printed out both bloggers’ study guides and used them to create my own study guide and notecards)
Fittin’ Pretty’s NASM Study Guide download (amazingly thorough and FREE!)
This BodyBuilding forum (I read all 35 pages but I recommend starting with the most recent posts and working back, as the early posts pertain to a different version of the exam)
(I did also download and use the NASM Exam app for iPhone.)
I relied on my notes, notecards and the textbook more than anything else, because there were just so many things to memorize.
Truly, I wish I’d spent more time on the specific acute variables for all phases of the OPT model, and for all of the different types of training. You’ll need to know, for example, how many exercises per body part are appropriate for someone in the Hypertrophy phase of training, but also what intensity someone in the Core-Stabilization continuum should be working at. You need to know very specific exercises that are appropriate not only for the five phases (or more accurately, three levels) of the OPT model but then, how to progress or regress them.
So, is a one-leg squat an example of a balance exercise or a core exercise? Once you know that (it’s balance), is it a balance-stabilization exercise or a balance-strength exercise (it’s strength)? If a client had mastered this move and was ready to progress, what would you do next? And in any case, how many repetitions and sets would be most appropriate for someone interested in, say, lifting heavier things? How is that different from someone who wants to get bigger muscles and compete in a figure competition? And should someone who wants to be able to swing a baseball bat faster and with more force be doing this exercise? Why/why not and which OPT phases are most appropriate for that client?
It goes on and on and on. See what I mean about memorization not being enough?
The test itself is multiple choice, so you should focus on understanding enough of the material to narrow it down to the best answer — and to avoid being tricked by the way they word some of the questions on the test.
Example: I memorized the information in the book that a high protein diet can lead to low glycogen stores. I also memorized that glycogen is a complex carb molecule used to store carbs in liver and muscle cells, which can be converted into glucose for energy when needed.
But the test asked: “What is a risk of a high protein — made up of more than 30% of calories — diet?”
The two best answers of the four were:
a) the kidneys can be overworked
b) low energy levels
{I answered “a,” which I believe is correct after reviewing the book post-exam, but since you don’t get a score or a specific list of correct/incorrect answers, I can’t know for certain!}
Memorizing didn’t help, because low glycogen stores wasn’t an option. I had to really think back to the entire page on the effect of protein on energy, muscle endurance and overall nutrition to try to reason out the correct answer.
Another example: I memorized the tables for the squat assessment, single-leg squat assessment, pushing assessment and pulling assessment.
So I knew that the underactive muscles on an anterior pelvic tilt during the squat assessment were the hamstring complex, intrinsic core stabilizers and gluteus maximus — exactly as listed on the chart. But the answer listed on the test was transverse abdominus — so I had to remember that THAT was one of the intrinsic core stabilizers…
The test is administered on the computer, so you can mark questions that you want to skip and come back to or answer but review before submitting the final exam. There are 120 questions (but only 100 actually count — there are 20 research questions, but you won’t know which ones they are!) and you have two hours to finish. The computer shows you your progress, how much time you have left and allows to you go back through any and all of the questions before marking the text done.
I went through the entire test in the first 70 minutes, skipping 10 and marking 41 to review. Once I made it through 120, I went back and answered the 10 I’d skipped — I’d say I felt more comfortable with most of them once I took the time to really read and think — and then reviewed all 41 I was unsure of. Of the 41, I’d say I felt totally lost or at least mostly unsure on 20 before I hit submit. That was a number that scared me, but I did it with 33 minutes left on the clock, knowing that I’d given it my very best shot.
And then, I asked the proctor to come in. In another rattling moment, the computer I’d been on seemed to freeze up when he tried to get my results and I feared all of my work had been lost, but thankfully, it had been saved in the system and he was able to print my results from a different computer. He handed me the paper marked “PASS” and I doubled over, putting my hands on my knees and taking a big sigh of relief.
So, what’s next? I don’t have any immediate or even long-term plans to work as a trainer, at least in a traditional way. I’d very much like to apply what I’ve learned to the classes I teach and to be a better resource for my students in class and for readers here on the blog. I have much more confidence when it comes to program design or answering questions that people ask me all the time anyway, and if the right opportunity presents itself, I’d certainly consider working with a small group of people to help them with their fitness goals.
It’s clear that despite passing, I need to continue to study, learn and grow my own knowledge base, so I don’t see this exam as the end of anything. I’m very proud I passed, and I’m proud to now be able to show that I have advanced skills in an industry that gets a bit crowded with people who dish out advice without the background to back it up.
Questions? Concerns? Did I freak you out? Leave me a comment or email me at kwidrick@gmail.com. YOU CAN PASS and I believe that if you take it seriously, try to learn the concepts and not just the terms and then let common sense lead the way on test day, YOU WILL PASS. But please don’t think this is a cake walk. It will take time, effort and a drive to study.
