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NSCA Certification Review

Filed Under Certifications

This is a Chapter Excerpt from my book “How to Become a Personal Trainer” written to help aspiring trainers understand the certification business

The NSCA Certification, also known as the NSCA-PT, comes from the National Strength and Conditioning Association. They offer two types of certifications, one known as the C.S.C.S. and a personal training certification called NSCA-CPT.

The C.S.C.S. Certification - short for Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist - is an advanced degree for fitness professionals. Usually designed with athletes in mind, it is beyond the immediate scope of the majority of the audience of this website. Therefore, we’re going to concentrate exclusively on the CPT certification.

NCCA Certified?

Yes! The NSCA CPT Certification is NCCA certified and is one of the premier certification’s available today to new and continuing trainers. It’s accepted by most gyms and fitness clubs and some are exclusively only accepting NSCA certified trainers in my area.

The NSCA is much like the NCSF certification, in that both are difficult, demanding, and well worth the effort. Although none of the NCCA certifications are easy, the NSCA is a much more thorough examination than most.

In fact, a little trivia for you, the NSCA use to be the only certified organization, however now there are a few more. But they were still the first!

Minimums

The NSCA certification requirements are the same as most of the other certifying bodies requirements, you must be CPR and AED certified and 18 years of age or older.

They will hold back your scores if you haven’t proved your CPR and AED certifications, so it’s best to have all that paperwork set before you take the exam. I hate waiting for scores!

Exam

Let’s be honest, this is a tough exam. You really need to study for this exam and know your stuff. They recommend 3-9 months of study, which I imagine could mean up to a year of study to learn the material for the exam. Nobody said the NSCA certification was easy!

Do they have any workshops to help? Errr…not really…they are mostly focused on at-home study. They provide quite a pile of materials that you can buy to study from, however it’s kind of a complete zoo, if you ask me.

Here’s the easiest thing to do:

1. Check out this flow-chart

2. Find where you are in the process (Non-Exercise-Science degree holders are on the bottom)

3. Order and do what it tells you!

At the very least, I strongly urge you to take the practice exams so you know where you fit into the ’scoring’ system right now. The exam itself is about $350+ just to take it, and if you’ve like most people, you will have to retake it…so add on another $185. My suggestion is that before you spend all of this money for the exam, do some practice tests to see how far you have to go to be considered competitive.

Exam Study Options

As I said, this is predominantly a home-study exam. It’s really tailored to people that have studied some type of physical fitness discipline in college, therefore they don’t cater to getting people up to speed from the very beginning. Not that you can’t do it, but you’re not the NSCA certification target market!

They provide CD’s, textbooks, videos, and a whole host of other study materials to get you up to speed. There really is no limit to how much you can learn from them. It comes down to time, conviction, and what you know that you can already build upon to pass the certification exam.

The at-home materials are not cheap either, ranging up to about $725 for non-NSCA members and $460 for members. Add onto that some practice exams at $30-$40 a pop and the money starts to add up quickly.

Costs

Here are the costs broken down:

Pencil and Paper Exam (Cheaper, but longer to get scores)

NSCA Certification (NSCA-CPT) Exam : $235 - $390 (retake is $305 - $330)

Computer Exam (More Expensive, but quicker scoring)

NSCA Certification (NSCA-CPT) Exam : $285 - $405 (retake is $235 - $355)

The prices vary depending upon if you register on time and are a member of NSCA

CEUs

NSCA approaches CEU’s pretty seriously, and a bit differently than the other certifying organizations.

First of all, your NSCA certification is good for three years, instead of the usual two years, however you will have to log a lot more CEU’s than the typical certification organization requires.

Recently, NSCA has changed their CEU policy and it’s in that annoying ‘transition’ phase where they have all these cut off dates that decide if you’ve done enough, too much, not enough, too little in the right place, too much in the wrong place. Generally, it’s pandemonium!

I suggest you read this page to get an idea of what is coming down the road concerning NSCA’s CEU rules.

Note that you need about 60 hours per three year period, which is a lot of hours! 20 hours a year…the equivalent of what most certification organizations require in two years.

Obviously, because this is a real top-tier certification organization, they are going to be very sure that you are abreast of the evolving knowledge and skills in your personal training profession. Don’t let it scare you, believe me, the rewards are great when you are kept up to date and current on your CEC’s / CEU’s.

Summary

The NSCA certification is one tough certification to earn. It’s even a lot of work to keep! But it’s worth it, because it’s quite possibly the best. Recognized everywhere as a leader in the field, it shows that you have a very solid foundation of knowledge and skills that are desperately needed in this field.

If you aren’t afraid of a difficult exam, spending some money to learn about your subject, then you should seriously consider the NSCA-CPT exam.

This is a Chapter Excerpt from my book “How to Become a Personal Trainer” written to help aspiring trainers understand the certification business