How to pass ACE-CPT in 2024 | How to Become a Certified Personal SUF-CPT

90% of textbook level 0 trainers quit within 12-months. Show Up Fitness has helped over 5,000 trainers pass their level 0 textbook certs so they can level up to become successful. SUF-CPT has partnered with Lifetime Fitness and is the best personal training certification helping trainers become qualified. Ever wondered why some personal trainers excel and others falter? Unlock the secrets to becoming a top-tier personal trainer by mastering the balance between theoretical knowledge and hands-on experience. We'll reveal why the traditional level zero certifications might not be enough and how level one certifications with internships and real-world scenarios make all the difference. We'll also highlight essential skills beyond just fitness expertise, such as people skills, trade skills, and business acumen, and discuss partnerships with leading gyms like Lifetime Fitness and Equinox.

Prepare for a comprehensive dive into the ACE certification exam, focusing on crucial elements like the IFT model and understanding your professional boundaries. We'll also shed light on how Show Up Fitness incorporates internships and verbal testing to elevate practical skills. Plus, get insights into the American College of Sports Medicine for those aiming for a niche in medical environments. Discover effective ways to break down study material, focus on key anatomy, and use engaging learning methods through our seminar tours at top gyms across the country. Whether you're preparing for certification or looking to enhance your training skills, this episode is your roadmap to success.

Want to ask us a question? Email email info@showupfitness.com with the subject line PODCAST QUESTION to get your question answered live on the show!

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Website: https://www.showupfitness.com/
Become a Personal Trainer Book (Amazon): https://www.amazon.com/How-Become-Personal-Trainer-Successful/dp/B08WS992F8
Show Up Fitness Internship & CPT: https://online.showupfitness.com/pages/online-show-up?utm_term=show%20up%20fitness
NASM study guide: ...

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Howdy y'all, favorite trainer with a belt buckle taking you through the ACPT 2024. This is the podcast. If you're not familiar with Show Up Fitness, I wrote the book how to Become a Successful Personal Trainer. We've helped over 5,000 people pass these level zero textbook certifications. What is a level zero? A level zero is taking a textbook exam, multiple choice. You don't have hands-on experience, you're not learning from a professional, you're not in an environment the likelihood for your success. As I talk about in my book, less than 10% of trainers make it past one year. We've partnered with Lifetime Fitness all 170 of their gyms, except to show up in a CPT. A level one certification has some type of internship. You have a college degree. You are learning in an environment with critical feedback, helping you program. Build up your confidence. Be confident and competent in the assessment. Textbook certifications don't do that. It's a huge market, tons of money to be made. If you want to get our ace cheat sheet, leave a five-star review and we will send it to you. We highlight the main topics that you can review. Focus on the guide, the cheat sheet, these podcasts. You will get through it. Worst case you fail, who gives a rat's ass? Maybe your common sense will kick in and you go actually, this isn't going to do jack shit for me. I'm going to get the show up in a CPT and level my game up because I want to become a qualified personal trainer. Check out the book how to Become a Successful Personal Trainer the line in the sand. To become a successful personal trainer, you need to learn hands-on, get into an environment with physical therapists, people who are doing what you want to do.

Speaker 1: 1:52

You came across show-up fitness because you're trying to pass this test. Numerous people came across this too late and cannot get a refund. That is why I'm helping you pass this. I've taught personal trainers for over 10 years. I worked at a school, taught ACE, issa, nsca, acsm, nasm, level zero certifications. Super, super easy to pass If you focus on what you're going to be tested on. I don't want you to memorize this textbook no, you don't even need it. But, like I said, a lot of people can't get a refund. You wasted a lot of money and now you're frustrated because you want to turn your passion for fitness into career. This isn't going to do it. How to become a personal trainer.

Speaker 1: 2:35

You clicked on one of the ads. Or a trainer at a gym who's frustrated with their life told you you should go get NASM, ace, issa. Why do they make these recommendations? It's accredited. Do you even know what accredited means? Show up and this is going through the accreditation process. It takes numerous years, hundreds of thousands of dollars. You have to have a team go through, cross all the T's and I's and all that malarkey. We are building the most successful certification and we don't want to be associated with the textbooks. That's why respected gyms want to work with Show Up Fitness Equinox and Lifetime. We can get trainers hired there where normally you'd have to go work at an LA Fitness and Orange Theory for a couple of years to build the confidence and the resume to go apply to these gyms. But we're getting people hired on the spot.

Speaker 1: 3:26

You focus on the skills that are required to be successful People skills, the trade skills, business skills and that's what we teach you at Show Up Fitness. You don't want to hear that. Though you want to pass Ace, I got you covered. I'm gonna fly through this fucker quick. I'm gonna flex a few times, talk about my big calves and I'm gonna annoy the hell out of you, and that's okay. I don't give a rat's ass. One goal only pass this so then you can move into becoming a qualified trainer.

Speaker 1: 3:56

Chapter one don't worry about it, skip it. A couple things you may be tested on, such as what is BMI? What is obesity, may be tested on, such as what is BMI, what is obesity? Nothing in here is going to be significant on page 12. If you don't have the book, it's okay. If you're listening to this, just timestamp it, write it down. Later on You'll be asked a question on the general scope of practice for personal trainers. You would think it's common sense, but remember, common sense is not common action, so make sure to go over that table.

Speaker 1: 4:28

You're going to hear a lot about the IFT model. That's the integrated fitness training module. That ACE is all about. Nasm is all about their OPT model. You have to put on that hat to pass their exam. Excuse me, you need to know that two CECs are required to keep your certification. You don't need it after you get it once. But I know there's a stigma. You want to run to grandma. I got my American Council of A certification. Grandma, I'm respected and she pats you on the butt and says I knew you were going to make it little Johnny 12 months from now.

Speaker 1: 5:03

If you still keep that level zero, you're probably not going to be training. You've got to level up. You want those things to put into your social media account. I got my ISSA, I got my NASM and all this other bullshit. You want to be a qualified trainer. So focus on the things that are going to improve you.

Speaker 1: 5:19

Later on in the game, getting more textbooks aren't going to do that. So, later on in the game, getting more textbooks aren't going to do that. So the only thing you need to know from chapter one that right there, the two CEUs and then otherwise get into chapter two. You're going to get introduced to the cardiorespiratory integrated fitness training in which you have the base fitness and performance. On the muscular training side, you have functional movement, load and speed. They run hand-in-hand and they really hit that in a lot within this textbook. You need to know the ABCs, ask open-ended questions, break down barriers and collaborate. You're going to see a lot and associate the IFT model with rapport, trust and empathy. You will see all of that consistently within that exam.

Speaker 1: 6:04

Smart goals, specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely. Any client who is not consistently performing moderate intensity cardio-respiratory exercise for bouts of at least 20 minutes on, at least three days per week, should begin with base training. Think of it as just beginner, intermediate, advanced Athletes are going to be doing sprints, tabatas, hiit training. That's three, or VT2, which you'll learn about here shortly. Vt, which stands for Ventillary Threshold. You have one which has an RPE of three to four, which means it's pretty low. Intense, modern intensity would be a RPE of five to seven or so, and then high intense would be an RPE seven to 10. So you need to know base training three to four, rpe fitness training five to six. Performance training seven to 10. And that is going to be the fine line between VT1, which will be base training, and then VT2, which will be performance training.

Speaker 1: 7:03

The movement patterns you need to be familiar with, according to ACE, are going to be the bend and lift, single leg movement, pushing movement, pulling movement, rotational movement, coming off. Chapter two, just know that blood pressure, the top number systolic, bottom one diastolic. Hypertension would be having a blood pressure greater than 140 and or 90 diastolic. You should know the HDL markers, which mean healthy. Those are the good blood cholesterol markers, ldl. Think of lousy Show Up. Fitness has a level zero course of which we have weekly live calls. You get to interact with instructors to focus on what you're gonna need for your ACE, your NASM, issa, nsca, whatever level zero certification you have, so you can focus on what the test will look like. So then you can pass it up to three, four, five and six, which will be section two, getting into the behavior change.

Speaker 1: 7:58

They may ask you a few questions on the difference between, like, type one and type two diabetes One is genetic onset, usually with under the age of 10. And that's going to be insulin dependent. You got to take a shot. Type two you did it yourself. You ate too much, you don't move enough, you don't sleep well, you're stressed out. All of these factors make yourselves resistant to insulin. That's why it gets a bad rep. Insulin is not a bad hormone, nor is cortisol. They just do their job and if your body doesn't recognize insulin, it's referred to as insulin resistance. That is type two. It is reversible. 90% of diabetics are type two. Metabolic syndrome is going to be having cardiovascular disease. Type two diabetes, usually being obese, which is a BMI greater than 30. Hypertension, as I said earlier, 140 over 90.

Speaker 1: 8:53

They will ask you questions about motivation. You will be asked about the self-determination theory, which is autonomy, competence and relatedness. They like asking about motivational interviewing and knowing the difference between outcome goals, process goals, stages of change is the big thing that you need to know. In chapter three you have pre-contemplation, which is you're inactive, you're not thinking about any type of movement. Contemplation, you are thinking about it within the next six months. Preparation you are exercising, you're just inconsistent Action, you're doing it regularly, but you haven't been doing it for longer than six months. And then you have maintenance, which is you've been doing it for longer than six months. So those are the five phases and this is me on table 3.1 on 71.

Speaker 1: 9:40

If you're listening to this or if you're watching again, you don't need the textbook. I'm just going to be referencing it for people who have it. You need to know the ABC approach, as I said earlier ask, break down barriers, collaborate. You're going to have different theories when it comes to behavioral change. You may get a couple questions overall, don't freak out on chapter three. You will have, maybe so far, three to four questions. Focus on the big stuff that you're going to get later on and if my voice is annoying, you just put this fucker on 1.5 or2 and just take those gold nuggets. You will pass this, I guarantee, because we've helped over 5,000 people do it. We know what we're doing because we make the best trainers in the world Go to high-end gyms and guess what?

Speaker 1: 10:26

They're going to have their SUFCPT. They're not putting ACE in their bio or NASM. That's the easiest way to tell someone is a fucking idiot. They don't know what they're doing. I'm joking. People get so offended today they're going to send some comments on there. You're so mean. What did your parents do to you when you were younger? It's fun. Social media, youtube it's a personality. It's like a game show. Don't get so damn emotional today. Grow some thick skin. Jeepers, creepers. This book is full of horseshit. Keep moving or, as you will see, o-a-r-s.

Speaker 1: 11:04

Affirmationsirmations Reflective, listening, summarizing, smart Rules, as I said earlier, specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and Timely. You would save a lot of time if you just skipped one through four and you start getting into a little bit within the ACSM stuff. You may see questions about the American College of Sports Medicine a respected certification, because they work with the medical environment. If you want to work with heart disease as an exercise physiologist, you'd need to go the ACSM route Things that they teach you when you get a degree in kinesiology, nfca, acsm, respected level zero certifications. Level one you get the internship, which is really, really important, or you take your test verbally. That's what we do at Show Up Fitness. You have to have someone ask you questions about the 17 muscles of the shoulder, 20 of the lower body, the eight core movement patterns, the agonist and synergist of each, and then design a program on the spot.

Speaker 1: 12:05

Listen to the podcast. We have a few back with trainers who've gone through the interview process with managers at Lifetime. They stop them halfway and say who the hell are you? You are this hybrid trainer. That's amazing. We want you immediately. Where did you learn? That's how we moved up to the top. More people are getting hired. They're recognizing show up. We haven't been around since 1990, like all these textbook certifications. That's why everyone's yapping about them. If you ask a hundred trainers what's the best certification to get, they're going to say old school methodologies, just like if you ask someone 50 years ago what's the best car. They're not talking about Teslas. It hasn't been invented yet. We are a new company and the training industry needs new, qualified.

Speaker 1: 12:48

When I talk to executives, I'm not talking about a manager at a gym. I'm talking about high up folk, right next to the CEO at the big four gyms. They are telling me what they need and what they need qualified trainers who are confident, who look the part, who talk the part, that can sell. You need to sell. Sales is fun. Don't freak out over it. Don't shit your pants. I got to sell training.

Speaker 1: 13:10

I charge a lot more than you. I charge a lot more than the top trainer, you probably know. $250 to $350 an hour. I don't blink. This is how much I cost. You want to work with me or not? No, go work with someone else. I don't say it like that, I smile.

Speaker 1: 13:24

The people skills is so important. Your network is so important. You need to have confidence and that's what these gyms want and that's what we deliver. You see, I get fired up about this shit because people take this test and they fail. Or they keep on wasting so much time not knowing what the hell they're doing fail, or they keep on wasting so much time not knowing what the hell they're doing. When they do pass, they go out there and they don't know how to fucking train.

Speaker 1: 13:47

You have a client who has a jacked up shoulder and neither. Oh, let's foam roll your adductors. That's going to fucking help you. They scare them about moving. This is overactive. We got to fix you. Person doesn't get results. They don't sign back up and guess what, you start thinking I'm a bad trainer. No, you just weren't taught how to train properly. You read a fucking textbook. It blows my mind that we accept this.

Speaker 1: 14:08

Any other career out there, find a career where you work with your hands hairstylist, doctors, therapists Imagine if they only read a textbook. I'm a heart surgeon. I got my piece of paper. Who wants to let me do heart surgery on you? Fuck off, doc. No way. We want to be respected. You need to be a medical professional. If you're an influencer, that's level zero. Certified personal trainer level zero. Level yourself up into the medical field. That's what we are at Shelf Fitness. We are medical professionals because we can have conversations with doctors, physical therapists, registered dietitians they are all on our team. We help you build your team. Enough of that fricking tangent, chris. Shut up and get into this.

Speaker 1: 14:51

You need to know if you can train that individual via the PARQ physical activity readiness questionnaire. So what that means. Someone comes in. If they have a risk factor one, you can train them. If they have more than one, they're going to be a moderate risk stratification. If they have a sign or symptom, which would be ankylodemia, tachycardia, which is a fast resting heart rate greater than 100, dizziness, you have trouble sleeping at night, waking up, which is referred to as orthopenia, dyspnea, myocardial ischemia, or also referred to as angina, which is chest pain. If you have any of that stuff, you automatically are high risk. You need to refer out because you cannot train them. That is a high risk stratification and you need to link up with that medical professional and get a medical clearance that has any type of contraindications, which means that you cannot do this. So if your client has some type of resting heart rate issue and it's 130 and the doc says don't do high intense cardio, well, don't do a fricking Tabata. Don't do some crazy four by four Norwegian cardio protocol, because the doc said you can't do that. Do not overstep your boundaries as a trainer. Don't practice as a dietician. You can't practice as a therapist. Do not overstep your boundaries as a trainer. Don't practice as a dietician. You can't practice as a therapist.

Speaker 1: 16:06

You need to know your lane Nutrition. You can skip most of this. Again, not that great of information, just know protein 10 to 35% of your daily intake, 20 to 35 for fat, 45 to 65 for carbs. Other things you need to know A, d, e and K. Very, very smart with these marketing companies. They don't challenge you a lot with nutrition or sports performance.

Speaker 1: 16:28

Why Think about it? You leave the test, you take your photo and you go yeah, I'm a qualified trainer. And then you go, holy moly, I didn't learn much about nutrition. I'm going to go get another fucking cert and you go waste another $1,000 to read another textbook. Yippee, you have all these credentials acronyms in your bio which mean absolutely horseshit. I teach trainers that you can always tell a new coach and trainer because they have all these stupid acronyms. They're fighting in the world of the toxic level zero trainers. It's a pissing war. I'm the best. Look at my 13 certifications Great trainers, great coaches. They just put trainer, they just put trainer, they just put coach, because that's what you are, that's what we are.

Speaker 1: 17:06

You'll hear about DRI, which is daily reference intakes. You don't need to know much about the macros, which are carbs, fats, protein and alcohol. They just have a calorie associated with the grams. So one gram of protein and carbs, four calories. One gram of fat nine calories. One gram of fat nine calories. One gram of alcohol seven calories. You'll be tested on that. The micros, which are vitamins and minerals, they can't test you on. You can see something on the DASH diet, which is the dietary approaches to stop hypertension. That's what they're really big on in the ACE approach, really focusing on the ABC approach Ask, break down barriers and then collaborate. As I said numerous times, don't worry much about nutrition. You will get a few questions about calories per gram.

Speaker 1: 17:55

If you needed to do some simple calculations 10 grams of carbs 40 calories. 10 grams of fat 90 calories. 10 grams of protein 40 calories. 10 grams of fat 90 calories. 10 grams of protein 40 calories. 40 plus 40 is 80. 80 plus 90, 170. How good are we at math? I just impressed you, I hope, because that is some hard shit. We can't do that without our phones. We live on our phones, know the simple math and then you would take the small divided by the large. So if you had 10 grams of protein, 40 calories divided by 170. 40 by 160 would be 25%, so it'd be like 28, 30%. I am good at math. I'm actually fucking terrible. I can just do basic basic math right there. You should know.

Speaker 1: 18:39

Most credible sources recommend one to 4.5 grams of carbohydrate per kilogram of body weight, depending on the type of food. When it comes to individuals and loading carbs for exercise, some research has also suggested that eating a relatively small carbs and protein, such as 50 grams of carbs and finally get 10 grams of 30 to 60 minutes before exercise, helps increase glucose availability. Vo2 Max is testing how efficient your lungs and pulmonary cardio system are at circulating oxygen. If you were to see a question on what VO2 is, that's what it's referencing. On creatine, which would be suggested to take around three to five grams per day.

Speaker 1: 19:25

Creatine was a cool supplement that we should probably all be taking. When I say all literally all what happens when we break down ATP, which is adenosine triphosphate, we have ADP adenosine diphosphate. So you have adenosine diphosphate floating around and then you have creatine phosphate floating around. They have a high affinity towards one another, so they bond. Basically they do the horizontal polka, bonka, wonka, wonka, wonka and they create more ATP. So by taking creatine, it's allowing for the regeneration of more ATP.

Speaker 1: 19:59

Think of it as you and I are walking to the wall. I am not taking creatine, you are. You're going to get there faster. I'm still going to get there, but you just have a little turbo boost. So why wouldn't you want that? Not only does it help with exercise, it helps with cognition, it helps with a lot of great things.

Speaker 1: 20:19

So we are not doctors. Everyone needs to go on creatine. You could suggest for your client to look into meta-analyses. You can go to examinecom. That's a great site filled with doctors and dieticians. Remember the difference between a dietician and nutritionist. All dieticians are nutritionists, but all nutritionists are not dieticians.

Speaker 1: 20:40

Get one on your team with a sports background. That's usually what I suggest and you are going to be better off because when that person comes in for the assessment and you ask, how did you hear about us? You let them talk a little bit and you say here's what we're going to do. Today I'm going to go through this assessment. I work with a team. I have a physical therapist, a registered dietician. Whatever your concerns or goals are, we will help you get there. 100% that confidence they go.

Speaker 1: 21:05

Wow, the last trainer I went to did this overhead squat assessment, scared the shit out of me, put me on a bowl, did some battle ropes and some ladder drills and tried to send me on this crazy pack. There were sales with all these supplements. You really seem professional and you go. That's why I'm a level one certified personal trainer. I've gone through the best program in the world. Show up in a CPT where they help us build a network. That's why I know you're safe and they go. Wow, that makes perfect sense. Here's my credit card, because you are the best. That's what happens. But you got to get through this A stuff.

Speaker 1: 21:38

And just remember, when it comes to caffeine, three to six milligrams per kilogram of body weight you could see a question on that. That's all. When it comes to supplements, 1.2 grams per kilogram of hour of carbohydrate increase muscle glycogen of 150% or more. So basically, you can supersaturate your cells by getting more carbs for the athletes. They may ask a question about protein concerns 1.2 to 2.0 grams per kilogram, according to the ACSM. When it comes to a protein supplementation. Bcaas, branched chain amino acids you have leucine, isoleucine, valine. They're not going to ask you specifics on any of the aminos.

Speaker 1: 22:24

I wanted to cover just sections one and two today. I will have other ones because if you give someone an hour long podcast or an hour long video, you start losing your shit. We're going to make it more digestible Little 20, 30 minute clips that will go through this entire textbook. I just covered chapters one through six. You'd be perfectly fine skipping all of those and getting our study guide, getting into the level zero calls where you can ask questions to the instructors.

Speaker 1: 22:51

I'm having a hard time with this. Is this how you say it? We're going to give you the confidence to get through this test, because the ironic thing is, when you start training clients, you're not going to be like, oh, chris, is my supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres major or teres minor, what's hurting right now? No, you got to know that off the top of your head. When your client says they got a rotator cuff issue, you go talk to me about it. Which rotator cuff muscle was it? And they go, huh, I don't know. And you say, huh, I don't know. And you say, well, send me the MRI, send me what the doc said. I can help you better understand this. You have the supraspinatus, the infraspinatus, the teres minor subscapularis. Those are your forward rotator cuff muscles. They stabilize the glenohumeral joint. Some of them do this, some of them do that Internally rotate, externally rotate. You are going, but as medical professionals, the new version is out and this is the version we use during our seminar tour. Show Up Fitness is going to Lifetime Gyms on our seminar tour. We've already been to Sacramento and Roseville. We're going to be in New Jersey Red Bank. We're gonna be in Chicago, dallas, oc, which is Orange County, new York, miami, denver, seattle. We are traveling to the best gyms in the world because they want us to teach their trainers to level up.

Speaker 1: 24:10

I apologize if I offended you today. We're so sensitive. It's a personality. I like to have fun with this because if I was trying to be serious like some of these fuckers on YouTube that are going through you really need to know this I would literally lose my shit. My liver already takes a beating from trying to help you pass this, because it's horse shit. I'm trying to put on my nice little ace cap and help you get through this. I can't wait to see the comments because people are so gentle today. In the meantime, remember big biceps are better than small ones.