NASM Recertification cost is too high

NASM is the worst certification I have ever encountered.

They are more of a marketing and sales company than a serious organization for educating personal trainers and advanced level sports and medical oriented trainers.

My certification expired and instead of giving me more time, because it was month 4, (past the 3 month grace period) they said I had to take the entire test again.

My plan was to use an ACE (a seemingly much higher level certification program) to count as my CEUs as I did not want to spend $700 on NASM CEUs just to keep a certification that expires every 2 years. In addition I did not think the original NASM book was anywhere near what a personal trainer needs to know to effectively get every client results and trouble shoot clients who are genetically difficult to train.

The worst part of NASM is that you have to spend $700 just to keep your certification by buying a specialization certification or other small add ons.

First of all, I do not find their certification valuable. I read the book in a week and passed the test based on my knowledge of anatomy and physiology from University and also from hands on application.

My mother is a medical doctor, she spends $800 a year to re-certify. But that is a 10 year medical degree to treat people medically. It does not make sense that a book you can read in a week or a month has a $700 CEU fee plus the re-certification fee of $50.

The NASM system is so basic that the only thing I learned is that the 25 rep range may elicit some of the same muscle building response as lower rep ranges with heavier weight, relearning how to use the calipers, and building core muscles on those who have not been physically active in their life before building other muscles. I disagree with the latter as I think they overemphasis their training system and core training which is developed anyway when you train other muscles, your core is always involved. Training the core too much compromised your ability to handle heavy weight on say the bench press. To test this, simply do a 5 exercise 5 set ab workout before you do chest.

NASMs most valuable theory is the Time Under Tension theory. I am not in full agreement with it as it takes away from the explosive nature of muscle contraction but it has merit in developing size.

I started out with a simple NESTA for $400, and that turned out to be ten times the investment as NESTA does not require you to spend another $400 every year 2 years just to keep your certification.

I do believe in CEUs to keep those who do not update themselves regularly, updated. However, I do not believe in CEUs being used to sell a company's other products as a marketing and sales tool.

NASM feels like AMWAY or a pyramid scheme.



In terms of personal training knowledge, you can develop that yourself better than having a NASM certification. Everything I know is from personal research, reading the articles of the top people in bodybuilding and my chosen specialty of football and self defense training in addition to classes at a University.

When I train a client, I am fully engrossed in getting my trainee as close to his goals and aspirations as possible.

The certifications programs I have seen are too basic and too ineffective. You really have to READ constantly, using sports medicine websites to clear out fad knowledge when you then go to bodybuilding or sports training websites to learn more training methods.



Currently I am searching for a certification that treats its certification process the way a University treats its BS, MS, MBA, or MD degree.

So far, I like ACE as they look to be a serious training company. Another one is NSCA, they look to be very vigorous in their testing and standards.



I should say that NASM will get you a job.

However, I feel employers who hire based on NASM are biased towards it. This is most likely because it is such an easy certification to get.

Those of you who have University level personal training, sports training, or medically based physical therapy or other medically based training modules will not find NASM helpful or an appropriate certification for serious education.

I think that NASM is a certification based on their business model, NOT an education based certification. They will keep trying to sell you specialization or other certifications when yours is close to expiring. When they do this you will feel as though you are not part of a serious certification company but a marketing company.

If you do go with NASM, you might as well get another certification that NASM will accept to earn your CEUs after your certification expires every 2 years.

But I would like to see NASM either change their ways and become a serious education based certification or to not be accepted as a certification authority.