It’s Time For Personal Training Licensure
For better or worse, the fitness industry has grown significantly in the past few decades. We’re suffering from metabolic disorders at an astronomical rate here in the United States, and people are looking to right the ship and get their health in check. In 2023 the fitness industry grossed 30.8 billion dollars, up slightly from 2022 where we brought in 30.6 billion dollars.
This is a pretty big industry, and you know what’s keeping people from becoming a fitness expert? Absolutely nothing.
Now, I’m the absolute last person to ever want or ask for government intervention in markets. Government tends to tilt the markets in favor of whoever is lobbying the hardest (AKA paying the most), and box out competitors. I legitimately hate the government along with most of the people in it. It makes me feel physically ill to call for government intervention. But, it’s time we take a look at how low the barriers to entry are for personal training, sports performance, and strength and conditioning. Because people are getting hurt.
Fitness Certifications
Believe it or not, you don’t have to be certified in anything to do what I do for a living. You should be, but many either choose not to get certified or even fail to pass the national board exams to be a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist. I wrote a while back about a problem that happened at The University of Oregon back when Willie Taggart was the head football coach. If you have the time, give it a read because it outlines a lot of the issues I’m going to discuss here and it helps make the case for licensure (and certification) when it comes to training in general. It’s wild what gets let go in this industry.
For the purposes of this article, I’m going to break down a few things here and clean up some language.
Personal Trainers, Athletic Trainers, Strength and Conditioning Coaches, and Sports Performance Coaches are not the same thing.
Personal Trainer - Typically works with the general population and general fitness is the goal. This can include aesthetics, losing weight, gaining muscle, or getting “fit” (cardiovascular/heart health).
Athletic Trainer - These are the guys and gals you see on the sidelines of sporting events that hand out water and sprint onto the field of play when someone gets injured. Most athletic trainers, however, work in the clinical setting in physical therapy clinics.
Strength and Conditioning Coach - Work primarily with an athletic population. In recent years a new industry has also emerged and it’s called Tactical Strength and Conditioning. These professionals also work with SWAT, military and special forces, police officers, and firefighters.
Sports Performance Coach - This is a catchall for noncertified professionals who work with an athletic population. The verbiage sports performance was created to signal to the general population that these facilities/departments are for athletes. The words strength and conditioning tends to make people think of powerlifting/Olympic lifting, so we created a new term for all of it.
Personal Training Certifications
There are a billion certifications but in all reality, there are three organizations to look for when looking for a competent personal trainer:
National Strength and Conditioning Association - NSCA-CPT
National Academy of Sports Medicine - NASM-CPT
American Council on Exercise - ACE-CPT
Honorable Mention
American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM)
International Sports Sciences Association (ISSA)
It has been 15 years since I took my NSCA-CPT exam, but back then you had to physically go somewhere and take an exam. We had to check all of our belongings (phones, keys, etc) into a locker prior to sitting down to take the exam. Things could have changed, but having to sit down to take the exam in a room with a proctor (in my opinion) will yield better trainers. If you can’t cheat, you have to know the material.
Many personal training certification exams offer online versions where one can take the exam from the comfort of their own home. This should make the exam null in my opinion. While I respect the NASM, NSCA, and ACE certifications, the exams themselves are all now administered online, so take that for what it’s worth. The only barrier to entry to becoming a certified personal trainer is money. If you can afford to sit for the exam, you can become a personal trainer.
Strength and Conditioning Certifications
Two organizations have certifications that are considered the “gold standard”:
National Strength and Conditioning Association - NSCA
Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS)
Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist with Distinction (CSCS*D)
Registered Strength and Conditioning Coach (RSCC)
Collegiate Strength and Conditioning Coaches Association - CSCCa
Strength and Conditioning Coach Certified (SCCC)
Master Strength and Conditioning Coach (MSCC)
These two organizations are by far the best. The exams must be taken on-site, and you must have a degree to pursue them. The CSCCa actually has a mentorship program that you have to participate in in order to even sit for the exam. The CSCCa also makes you create a year-long program, and then defend it in front of a board. While the NSCA doesn’t have a practical component, it is science and program-heavy enough that it should be considered a great certification to hold if you’re a strength and conditioning coach.
There are other strength and conditioning and sports performance certifications out there, but they don’t really hold water in my opinion. NASM has what’s called a Performance Enhancement Specialist, but it’s actually not a certification, it’s considered a specialization that is meant to be attached to a separate certification. It is also taken online from the comfort of your home so take that for what it’s worth.
Athletic Training Certifications
Here in the United States, there is one athletic training certification and it is administered by the NATA BOC. In order to sit for this exam, you must complete a 4 year degree in a CAATE accredited Athletic Training Education Program. The name of this certification is called Athletic Trainer Certified, or ATC, and you must be licensed by the state (in every state but Texas) to practice as an athletic trainer.
Athletic trainers are different from personal trainers and strength and conditioning coaches, but many still have the knowledge to practice as one or the other.
Sports Performance Certifications
This is a made-up term in the private sector that was introduced to differentiate facilities that offer personal training for the general population, and strength and conditioning for athletes. At the university and professional levels, the “Sports Performance Department” is typically an umbrella term that describes both sports medicine and strength and conditioning. This new term typically comes with some benefits, such as the sports medicine and strength and conditioning departments having better communication, and often a director that oversees both instead of having the Head ATC run sports medicine and the head strength coach run the strength and conditioning department.
There are no sports performance certifications because it is merely a rebranded and repackaged name for strength and conditioning.
These fitness certifications differ in many ways. Different levels of difficulty to obtain, are different barriers to entry, and they work with different populations. The one thing they all have in common though, is you don’t have to also pursue a license to practice as either.
What Do Personal Trainers and S&C Coaches Do?
Most people see personal trainers as meatheads or someone who is just really into fitness and decided to earn a living dealing with fitness in some way. A lot of times this actually does describe personal trainers and/or strength and conditioning coaches fairly well. However, there’s a lot more than just interest or passion that goes into this. Below, I’m going to break down the topics/subjects that these trainers and coaches need to be well-versed in:
Anatomy
Physiology
Biology
Exercise physiology
Chemistry
Physics
Nutrition
Kinesiology/Human Kinetics
Energetics and biochemistry of exercise
Periodization and programming
Injury prevention and basic return to play from injury protocols
Human development stages
Now, there are a lot more topics, but every personal trainer and strength and conditioning coach should be able to have intelligent conversations concerning the above subjects. They should be able to spout off the basics of the sliding filament theory, basic progressive overload protocols for weight training, lactate threshold training, movement patterning, strength acquisition, the difference between sarcoplasmic and myofibril hypertrophy (and should be able to pronounce hyPERtrophy correctly), etc.
As “trainers”, we should all be able to take a client from wherever they may be on their fitness journey, and design a plan to get them to where they want to go, SAFELY. Sure, some will specialize in certain areas and be better with some populations, but for the most part, we should all have the same basic understanding of the basics and be able to work with pretty much anyone at a surface level.
We plan, program, and implement exercise prescriptions for specific clientele and their current needs. We need to understand not only how to perform movements, but why they’re used in certain instances. We need to understand why certain loads and rep ranges should be used at certain times. We need to understand how to progress clients, and not just with load or volume. There is a lot that goes into it.
Now that you have an understanding of what we need to know to do our jobs effectively, hopefully, you have a better understanding of why your uncle who “played high school football and could have played in the NFL if he didn’t get hurt” may not be the best “coach” when it comes to putting you in the best position to succeed. Hell, chances are he’s not the best guy to keep you from getting hurt, in the gym.
Who Becomes Personal Trainers and Sports Performance Coaches?
There are four types of people who become trainers and coaches:
Someone who had a serious interest in the subject and wanted to learn as much as they could so they went to school and majored in athletic training or exercise physiology
Someone who lost weight and is now an “expert”
Someone who used to play sports, who is also now an “expert”
People who have a great physique, and can really sell
There are also combinations of these four types. For example, I was someone who played junior and then college hockey and was fascinated with exercise physiology. Initially, I actually wanted to go into biochemistry and develop sports supplements (until I found out the barriers to entry in that field are just as low as fitness). But, I did both. Some people lose a bunch of weight, and then decide to go back to school and become fitness professionals. While there are people who fall into two of these categories, people who aren’t one of the above four don’t exist in our field.
I want to preface this with something: I know some amazing strength coaches who did not initially go to school to get into the industry. But, these individuals spent years and years interning and learning from some of the top fitness professionals in the country. They learned while on the floor, under experts while reading as much as they could. They, in my opinion, are different from the guy who lost 50lbs and then became a personal trainer.
Now, why do I mention this? Because it’s important to understand that unless you have a real background in the information (often found at university) you need to be a good coach or trainer, then you more than likely don’t understand the “why” behind the things you’re doing. It becomes “this is what I did”, and all you have is a hammer, so everything becomes a nail.
Not having a license process for trainers and coaches is putting people in danger. And that’s not hyperbole, that’s a fact. We’re going to talk about that now.
Poor Outcomes
So, we’ve talked about what trainers and coaches need to know to do their jobs, and who ultimately becomes trainers and coaches, now we’re going to talk about the potential poor outcomes when the wrong people become trainers and coaches. When we talk about personal training, I want you to understand the long-term effects can actually be relatively devastating. We’re talking about thousands (realistically 10’s of thousands) of dollars in medical bills, orthopedic issues, metabolic disorders, and overall detrimental outcomes.
While the totality of this topic is outside of the scope of this article, we’re going to discuss the surface-level problems in the training world.
The Wrong Stuff
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen trainers doing completely inappropriate movements or loads with their clients. Overweight people should not be jumping, sprinting, or running in all honesty. They need very little external load (due to the mass of their body), and their overall volume should be low because their capacity to do work is so low.
You also have some trainers who will have their clients perform exercises that are well outside of their abilities, exercises that are a lot more specialized than their clients need, or can even do. Something on a balance modality, or something explosive, or a single limb movement, when in all reality their abilities dictate they should be way lower on the movement totem pole.
I’m going to say this as loud as I can: The general public has zero need to perform Olympic lifts, and definitely not high-volume Olympic lifts. These movements are well outside of the scope of both their abilities and needs. You’re asking for problems when you implement them into a program for your general population clientele.
Athletes should not be doing boot camps or CrossFit-type workouts. Athletes have very specific needs that are completely different from the needs of much of the general population. Their loads, volumes, movements, and progressions really need to be buttoned up to ensure they A) don’t get hurt and B) continue to progress over time towards their goals. If we’re looking for aesthetics (much of the general population) then that progression is relatively easy, but if we’re looking for increased performance on the field then that progression becomes a lot more difficult and intricate.
With athletes, there’s something called a transfer of training. This term means that what’s done in the gym, will inevitably manifest itself on the field. If you internally rotate your hip when squatting, there is a good chance you’ll do the same when you go to slow down or cut on the field. This leaves you open to knee injuries. This is just one example of many.
Trainers have zero business giving you nutritional programs (or even advice really). In fact, legally they’re really not supposed to do this. Dietetics and nutrition are incredibly intricate, and takes years to really understand how to create meal and diet plans for people that are both safe and effective. And I’m not even just talking about the macronutrient level, the micro level is where you could really hurt people.
The Outcomes
Believe it or not, you can end up with lifelong problems from training the wrong way with someone who doesn’t understand what they’re doing. From exertional scoliosis to articular cartilage arthritis, to tendonosis, even disc issues. These problems cause pain and can lead to tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of medical costs down the road. Not to mention the time cost and loss of quality of life. This sounds severe, but training with the wrong coach/trainer for a few months can cause a myriad of lifelong problems for you if you don’t find the right one to fix them. Remember, what you do training in the gym will exacerbate whatever movement dysfunction you have outside of the gym. Remember the athlete's transfer of training? Well, it’s not limited to just athletes!
Trainers can cause metabolic damage too, and even eating disorders with their clients when they start practicing science they don’t understand. Most certification programs have a very small and basic nutritional component that gives you enough knowledge to understand protein vs carbohydrates vs fats. It doesn’t give you much understanding concerning creating plans, and how to manipulate different aspects of diet safely. I’ve had clients come to see me after working with a trainer who had them on an 800 kcal diet! They lost a ton of weight early on but gained it all back when they went back to eating the way they should have all along. This is because they’ve really screwed up their metabolism, for lack of a better word. Weight loss isn’t JUST calories in vs calories out, it’s an incredible balance of many variables, and most trainers don’t understand these variables.
If your trainer gives you meal plans, say thank you but no thank you, then find a new trainer. If they’re willing to take your money for something they don’t really understand, what else are they winging?
Wrapping This All Up
If you’ve made it all the way to the end here, then hopefully you have a better understanding of why there needs to be some talk about training licensing. You have to have a license to cut hair, to be a coach at a high school, and to do specific handyman work. Why do they need licenses? Because they can create some long-term problems for their clients. Personal training and strength and conditioning is no different, and in a lot of ways can be even more harmful.
I hate the government, everything about it. The people in it are typically pretty awful and not looking out for the best interests of their constituencies. However, I’m finally willing to concede that we need some level of supervision within my industry. The barriers to entry are entirely too low, and it’s hurting people.
