Like NASM’s website says, “You love fitness. Do something about it.” Being a personal trainer is an awesome job. I highly recommend it if you love helping others. You also have to love being in the gym, of course. But helping others is the most important part. A lot of people like to work out, but to be successful as a trainer, you first and foremost have to love people and have a huge heart for coaching and mentoring. Here is some info on my certifications and some others that I recommend. I liked seeing all of these on resumes when I was interviewing trainers as a fitness director. Fitness directors screen lots of resumes. If a person didn’t have at least one of these on his or her resume, that resume got filed in the garbage can. Scroll to the bottom for a list of links.
National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) – Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS)
I really like this cert (or any from the NSCA for that matter) because it provides a thorough explanation of program design, form analysis, and periodization, especially for athletes and teams. This seems to be one of the most highly respected certifications in the industry. I highly recommend taking as many practice exams as you can. NSCA has a practice exam package and I used a great study guide e-book that contained 200+ practice q’s as well. Links at bottom.
National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM) – Certified Personal Trainer (CPT)
I purchased this NASM Essentials Of Personal Fitness Training
of knowledge from doing the NAS
Functional Movement Screen (FMS)
I first heard of this certification and its philosophies about 4 years ago. One of my colleagues who was certified ran me through the FMS test, which consists of 7 different movement pattern assessments to check your body’s stability, mobility, balance from side to side and front to back, and overall ability to coordinate your limbs and trunk to perform together. The test is extremely useful because it helps you to assess your body’s range of motion limitations and identify weaknesses that could leave you prone to injury. The quality of each movement patterns is assigned a score, either, 0,1,2,3, with 3 being the highest. The higher your score, the less likely you are to get injured.
The FMS philosophies are currently being used in many different settings in sports and tactical occupations that require physical fitness, namely elite military forces, firefighters, police, and olympic, professional, and collegiate athletes. If you are considering becoming a trainer or have been a trainer for awhile already but looking for ways to improve yourself professionally, this is a certification you should look in to. 
As a trainer, you are also required to take a certain number of continuing education hours to renew your main certs every 2 years. I have several certs in pregnancy/post-partum fitness, cardiovascular endurance training, and flexibility training. These continuing ed courses are a great way to help you to continue learning and growing yourself professionally, deepen your knowledge in specific subjects, and even develop your own niche.
CPR – No matter which cert you pick, you’re going to need to get certified to perform CPR / AED with the hands-on test, not just the online test. Your best off going with the more well known organizations like the American Heart Association (AHA) or Red Cross.
Liability Insurance – If you plan to be independent, work with teams, or sell training online, you are going to need a personal liability insurance policy. Even if you work for solely for a gym that has its own policy, it’s still advisable to carry a personal liability insurance policy. I know that both NASM and NSCA have partners that they work with to offer discounts for their trainers but you can also find policies from other carriers as well. The fine writing varies state to state too so be sure to find out specific details on that before you sign any policy.
Other Certifications Interviewers Like on your Resume
These are some more certs that would at least entice a hiring manager to give you a call for a phone interview.
- NSCA – CPT, TSAC, CSPS
- ACSM -CPT – American College of Sports Medicine, the CPT program that is very thorough and highly regarded in the field.
- NASM – PES – Performance Enhancement Specialist
- Precision Nutrition Level 1
- RKC or HKC Kettlebell
Sources
Here are links to everything I mentioned above. If you chose to pursue this extremely rewarding career as a personal trainer, I wish you the best! If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me anytime through the contact forms below! PS – I don’t receive a dime from any of these companies for promoting them. These are all organizations I trust and would send my friends to!
NSCA http://www.nsca.com/Certification/
CSCS Study Guide E-Book http://cscstestprep.com/
NASM http://www.nasm.org/
FMS http://www.functionalmovement.com/
ACSM http://www.acsm.org/
Precision Nutrition http://www.precisionnutrition.com/
HKC / RKC Kettlebells http://www.dragondoor.com/
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