I sit here on the eve of achieving a long-term goal at the conclusion of 7 years long experience: taking the NASM Personal Trainer Certification Test. 

In today’s world, it doesn’t matter if you know your stuff. You gotta have that magical piece of paper that says you’re legit. 

In 2018 and 2019 I took the test multiple times…and missed it by five questions each time!

I was very distraught, it was one of those things that got into my head. 

Fast forward four years. I have quite a bit more industry experience under my belt. 

WHAT WE DID AT THE YMCA 

I spent almost two years at the YMCA, first as a gym attendant setting up backend sales of Personal Training packages to existing members, and then in direct membership sales. 

The fantastic sales team I was a part of financially turned our facility around, and these sales records prevented the facility’s closure during our associations’ tough financial decisions made during the dark days of Corona 2020. 

Four out of ten facilities closed in our district. 

We weren’t one of them. 

And that wasn’t all I was part of at the time in the industry…

KNEES OVER TOES AND BJJ 

While working in direct membership sales at the YMCA, I was doing independent research for Ben Patrick, the Knees Over Toes Guy. 

In addition to that, I was immersing myself in the world of BJJ and MMA, for a year and half attending an MMA gym that had twenty-five pro-fighters fighting out of it. 

Ultimately, these experiences led me to working for Ben Patrick’s company, ATG, as a form coach for three months after his debut on the Joe Rogan Show in January 2022. 

During this time, I learned quite a bit. 

And it was all stuff I tested on myself! 

THE BEST BITTER TRUTH 

I originally had the idea of becoming a Personal Trainer after attending physical therapy for two months at the end of 2017 for a Grade 2 MCL Tear. I learned a heckuva lot there, and absolutely loved all the therapists.

I knew that I couldn’t stay there forever though, and so I asked them: “what’s the best certification I can get that will give me the level of knowledge closest to what you guys have?” 

They answered unambiguously: 

“NASM. The National Academy of Sports Medicine.” 

When I care about something, I want the best. And I knew I needed it: when I went to Physical Therapy, I thought I was in pretty good shape outside the Grade 2 MCL Tear. 

In the months leading up to therapy, I had been on a very simple Push-Pull-Legs program given to me by a Filipino named Vladimir from the Krav Maga gym I was attending at the time. And I was setting some new records for myself!

But when I got into Physical Therapy and they did the initial assessment, they shook their heads in disbelief and told me: 

“You are one of the least coordinated, least strong individuals we have ever seen.” 

True story! 

INTUITION IN LOGIC CITY 

For the preceding weeks, I’ve been eyeballs deep in the NASM Test Study Guide. And I have found it a very interesting experience.

You see, with 7 years of research, testing, and experimentation under my belt, I have a lot of my own ways of doing things in the Strength and Health arena based on my direct experience. 

I find that I understand theory better when I have a baseline of research and experience under my belt. Theory is a Logical system of organization, based on compartmentalization and Reason. 

I am not a Logical, Rational person, however. I am an Intuitive person, and I think in Images, Symbols, and Emotions through the Subconscious. 

For me, that’s my baseline. The Logic and Reason of Theory comes in when to help me understand the patterns at work within the Intuition of my Subconscious. 

It helps me understand why Consciously it is what I do, and how it is different from the way other people do things. 

And the NASM Test Prep? 

It’s Logic City! 

SCIENCE IT UP! 

NASM bases its training system and philosophy off 7 key components: 

• Flexibility 
• Cardiorespiratory
• Core 
• Balance 
• Plyometric 
• SAQ 
• Resistance 

This is very different from my baseline I learned from guys like Paul Wade, Pavel Tsatsouline, Matt Furey, and Thomas Kurz. 

With those guys, it’s bodyweight, weights, dynamic movement through a full ROM, and static flexibility. 

The NASM guys like to science it up a little bit more! 

FLEXIBILITY 

In terms of Flexibility, NASM really likes 30 second static stretches, foam rolling (“self-myofascial rolling”), and Active and Dynamic moves for 5-10 reps. 

I do things very differently. 

I learned Flexibility concepts from Thomas Kurz, Jeffrey Wolfe, Keegan Smith, and Ben Patrick. 

These guys’ work taught me that for static stretching, you gotta do a minimum of five minutes to start seeing results. You can get away with three minutes, but five minutes is a heckuva lot better. 

People stretch for thirty seconds at a pop all the time. Nothing ever happens, no matter how long they maintain the thirty second routine. 

This is because the nervous system is not being patterned to learn to set the muscles to a new length. You are not giving it enough time to learn. 

You stretch a given stretch for 3-5 minutes every day, or even just a few days a week, and your nervous system is learning the new desired length because you are giving it the time. 

This is the way to get static flexibility. I have been doing it myself for four years now, and have almost reached the side splits. 

But that’s not all there is to flexibility. 

Not by a long shot. 

STRENGTH THROUGH LENGTH  

Static flexibility isn’t the only thing you need. In Keegan’s Smith’s immortal words, you need “Strength through Length”. 

Keegan Smith and Ben Patrick were both big on this phrase, and Pavel Tsatsouline made the same concept the centerpiece of his masterful book Super Joints, in my opinion the best book he ever wrote. 

What it means is, you need to dynamically take a movement through a full range of motion, working strength and flexibility at the same time. 

This is the foundation of the old time 19th Century systems of gymnastics and physical training that I have written about extensively before. It is also the same concept found in Paul Wade’s awesome bodyweight strength book, Convict Conditioning. 

And it is the centerpiece of my training. 

For these, you can do them for low reps for maximal strength, in the 5-10 category. This is what Pavel Tsatsouline recommends in his fantastic book, The Naked Warrior. 

Fellow Russian Vladimir Vasilev recommends doing them super-slow and controlled while relaxed in his wonderful book, Let Every Breath…Secrets of the Russian Breath Masters. 

Alternately, you can do them for high reps, 30-100+ for joint lubrication, tendon and ligament strength, and strength endurance as Pavel recommends in Super Joints and Beyond Bodybuilding, based on the work of Thomas Kurz in Science of Sports Training. 

WHAT THE COMMIE BLOC KNEW

Now most Americans will only push the envelope to 30 reps on this, citing the post-WWII work of Delorme and Watkins, as Dan John does in The Hardstyle Kettlebell Challenge. 

However, I have found the Eastern Europeans, as well as the old Chinese masters, have got it right: 30 reps should be a base if you’re going for high reps. 

According to these guys, the standard you should shoot for is 100, and if you want to go beyond once you’ve reached it, then more power to you!

Having experimented with this for four years, I can tell you, they are 100% right on 100+ reps. And I’m not the only Westerner who’s gotten excellent results from this system. 

This is something Americans like Matt Furey and Bud Jeffries understood very, very well based on their own experiences. 

These high rep movements can be both multi-joint compound movements and single-joint isolation movements. So can the low rep movements!

This was the entire basis of Ben Patrick’s Knee Ability Zero program, and is the basis of my training system as well…with a very liberal application of Internal Hip Rotation thrown in! 

However, especially for multi-joint compound movements, I find the 5-10 rep range for maximal strength, and the super-slow controlled reps of Systema prepare you for the 30-100+ reps in these exercises. 

However, single-joint isolation movements are very easy to do for 30-100+ reps, and in doing these, they help your progress significantly in working  multi-joint compound movements in the 5-10 rep range for pure strength. 

And of course in all of these, I am talking primarily about mastering your own bodyweight alone!

Isn’t that the goal of flexibility anyway? 

CARDIO 

Cardio is very weird. Though we are many decades removed from it, we still live in the fitness world shaped by Kenneth Cooper and his obsession with slow-jogging Aerobics.

A lot of people of all ages, particularly Bourgeois types, really buy into this as the benchmark golden standard of fitness. 

Of course, because they have many muscle imbalances and inflexibility, they get hurt, so they ditch the jogging (“it’s bad for your joints”) and move to the mindless exercise bike and the elliptical. This is often termed “pure cardio”. 

I have found in the fitness world, any time anybody uses the phrase “pure” before a type of fitness quality, they are usually seeking to divorce it from reality. “Pure cardio”, “Pure strength”, and the like. 

The quality in question becomes so bizarrely specialized for its own sake, that cart is put before the horse, and you forget why you wanted the quality in the first place. The means becomes the end in an endless cycle of madness. 

Science types operating in the super-specialized, mechanistic division of labor model based on False Descartesian Duality love to compartmentalize stuff for its own sake. 

And average joes and janes alike eat it up like candy. 

This is no different with “Pure Cardio” of the Kenneth Cooper Bourgeois set on one end of the extreme as it is with “Pure Strength” of the Meatheaded Powerlifting set on the other end of the extreme. 

GREAT ADVISE, TERRIBLE EXECUTION

Now NASM does seek to address this when they state: 

“Cardiorespiratory exercise that involves the lower extremities requires proper mobility at the ankle joint.” 

Their recommendations, however for doing this fall under the same silly kind of stuff they recommend for flexibility up above: “Emphasize self-myofascial techniques and stretching for the calves, adductors, and hip flexors.” 

We have seen above that the way they go about fixing this does work. 

They also recommend that “Additional strengthening exercises for the gluteus medius and maximus are also recommended.” 

This advice is critical…but yet again, the way they go about fulfilling this stated mission is extremely flawed, as we shall soon see. 

CORE

Core is a word that can mean a lotta different things to a lotta different people. I’ll let NASM give you their definition themselves so we all know exactly what we’re talking about: 

“The core is defined by the structures that make up the lumbo-pelvic-hip complex (LPHC) and includes the global and local core musculature.” 

So we’re not just talking about abs here, people. We’re talking about everything in the lumbar spine area, the pelvis, and the hips as well. 

NASM has three levels of Core training. We’ll get the third and final level out of the way first, as it is the big goal everybody is shooting for in the end. 

The third and final level of Core training consists of sporting type movements like medicine ball throws from all different angles…Sagittal Plane, Transverse Plane, Frontal Plane…the works. Essentially the sexy stuff that makes it on the highlight reels. 

But it is the two levels of training beforehand to get to that goal…that’s what we’re really interested in. 

The first level of Core training is based on stabilizing the spine and pelvis with no movement…it’s about generating tension to make sure that the spine doesn’t move and is secure in space. Primarily, it works the local core musculature. 

The second level of Core training is about dynamic movement at the spine, pelvis, and hips…flexion, extension, and rotation. Sagittal, Transverse, and Frontal Plane movement through a full range of motion. Primarily, it works the global core musculature. 

STRENGTH SECRETS OF THE LITTLE MAN 

Now the concept that the first level of training is built off of is not a bad one at all. It’s particularly important in generating maximal tension for big strength pursuits. 

Hollow Body Holds by Gymnasts and other Bodyweight enthusiasts are an example of this. You see this in Powerlifting and Strongman type pursuits as well. 

Pavel Tsatsouline’s entire system is based upon this principle, as his former publisher from Dragon Door Publications, John Du Cane, explains in detail. Pavel himself explains how to put this principle in action at a very advanced level very, very well in his book, The Naked Warrior. 

This for me has been very foundational in my training. I have been doing this for five years, this has given me a very high level of strength that is surprising to many people given my smaller frame at 5’5” and 150 lbs.

 It has translated very well onto the grappling mats, and I attribute the majority of my success in that arena to this type of training. 

This is because the principles involved here work on generating tension in the nervous system, and not building muscle size. 

So even if you’re  a hard gainer who has trouble packing on the pounds, you can generate very high levels of usable strength in no time. For the little man who wants to pack a bigger bang for the buck, this is the way to go! 

However, some people take this idea of stabilizing the spine and pelvis with no movement to levels of “pure” insanity…

KOOL-AID FOR ALL THE PAIN IN THE WORLD 

Some people have decided to take the idea of stabilizing the spine and pelvis with no movement and make it the only way to train every movement in the entire body…no spine and pelvis movement whatsoever. 

In fact, they teach that having any kind of dynamic movement at the spine and pelvis is dangerous and will lead to injuries…

They even say dynamic movement at the spine and pelvis is the cause of all lower back, hip, knee, and ankle pain in the world! 

As David Weck explains, the devotees of this system call it “The Pedestrian Theory of Locomotion”, and since 2007 it has ravaged fitness circles like the Bubonic Plague. 

The chief guru of the no movement tribe is Dr. Stuart McGill. His chief disciple is Dr. Aaron Horschig. 

Dan John really likes this kind of stuff, too, as he explains in The Hardstyle Kettlebell Challenge. So does Pavel Tsatsouline to a great extent, as he explains in his book, Hardstyle Abs. 

They are really all about pushing “The McGill Big 3” to supposedly fix all the lower back, hip, knee, and ankle pain in the world. 

All manner of Planks are the main course in their menu. If you’ve ever wondered where the Plank craze came from in the last decade in fitness circles, well, you don’t have to wonder anymore. 

All these guys who buy into this stuff are personal friends who run in the same circle. 

And on top of that, the entire National Strength and Conditioning Association has completely drunk their Kool-Aid. 

And they drink it by the gallon. 

AS IT WAS YESTERDAY, SO IT IS TODAY  

This system is of no spine and pelvis movement whatsoever, and the belief that said spinal and pelvic movement is the cause of all lower back, hip, knee, and ankle pain is completely nuts. 

The spine, pelvis, and subsequently the hips were made to flex, extend, and rotate through a full range of motion in the Sagittal, Transverse, and Frontal Planes…and you better believe that means Internal Hip Rotation, too! 

And because of this, the principle of Strength through Length outlined above applies to the spine, pelvis, and hips as well. 

This was well understood in the old time 19th Century systems of gymnastics and physical training that I have written about extensively before, and Pavel outlined this historical heritage in an excellent one-stop shop format in Super Joints. 

One of the major things that makes me a big fan of Ben Patrick’s work is that he fully embraces this heritage and makes it a cornerstone of his ATG training system. 

Not only does he apply it to the knees with his flagship Knees Over Toes exercises, but he also applies it to the spine with things like Jefferson Curls. 

These two training modalities, Knees Over Toes and Jefferson Curls, were the cornerstones of the old time 19th Century systems of gymnastics and physical training. That’s why there were much lower incidences of low back pain and knee pain back then…because they were training these areas that are the most common sites of injury today with Strength Through Length!

Another trainer who gets this fundamental principle is Jeffrey Wolfe. He has led the charge in exposing the no movement club for the fraud that it is. 

Lucas Aaron likewise applies these training principles in the modern day while rooting them in their historic contexts. 

Strange Grayson has made applying Strength Through Length principles to Internal Hip Rotation the cornerstone of his training system, drawing much inspiration from the work of Dr. Andreo Spina and his Functional Range Systems of training.

And of course, the man, the myth, the legend David Weck has fundamentally and systematically refuted The Pedestrian Theory of Locomotion, replacing it with his Coiled Core Theory of Locomotion and Head Over Toe running observations. 

Which are just his fancy names for the truth of how the human body moves…as he’ll be the first to tell you!

BALANCE

NASM’s emphasis on Balance training is absolutely fantastic. 

I first discovered my love of Balance training in Physical Therapy. I had terrible Balance when I went in, which I now understand has been caused by a previously unintegrated Moro Reflex. 

After getting out of Physical Therapy, I kept at it…and have made it a key piece of my training system. 

Essentially, balance training is based on the idea of making your base of support smaller…challenging you to balance more. 

Pavel made this a cornerstone principle of bodyweight training in The Naked Warrior, taking much inspiration from Gymnasts like Christopher Sommers. 

My favorite modality of balance training comes from two people: Eric Orton and Ben Patrick. 

I picked up Eric Orton’s masterful book, The Cool Impossible, at an estate sale in the Summer of 2017, one year into my Strength and Health journey. 

The book is built around Isometric strengthening of the feet, ankles, and hips using a slant board with a slight slant at various angles. 

This thing changed the game for me…you do it on your tiptoes with your ankle plantar flexed, one leg at a time. This builds incredible full body strength from the feet on up…and the balance comes with it! 

This is something NASM doesn’t bring up…while they change the modalities to make balance harder as you progress through their system,  they never have you raise your heel to make your base smaller!

How did they not think of this? 

STANDING MOVING PLANKS

After experimenting with Eric Orton’s system for years, as I discussed with my good friend James Lafond,  I came up with some new ways to improve upon this system in November 2022. 

As I have discussed before, Ben Patrick teaches the Straight Leg FHL Calf Raise and the Bent Leg KOT Calf Raise. 

He likes to use a very aggressive angled slant board. I’ve used a homemade version of this before, and like it for some things. 

However, Eric Orton likes to use a very mildly angled slant board. I’ve found I like this a lot better for single leg training both the FHL Calf Raise and the KOT Calf Raises. 

Now Eric Orton really likes isometric holds, as I have said before, I love these too. They changed the way I train!

In fact, Eric Orton’s isometric centerpiece of his training system led me deeper into its study, leading me to the isometric classic Functional Isometric Contraction by WWI Hero and Fitness Pioneer Bob Hoffman! 

This ultimately led me to seek out Paul Wade’s updated take on isometrics, The Ultimate Isometrics Manual by Dragon Door Publications. 

Ben Patrick never really much liked Isometric holds. He prefers dynamic movements. I love these too. 

So with Eric Orton’s mildly angled slant board and single leg balance system, I like to alternate his isometric approach with Ben Patrick’s dynamic approach with his flagship FHL Calf Raise and KOT Calf Raise. 

Of course, if you have read any of my previous work, then you know that none of this will work unless you are doing Internal Hip Rotation as well. 

I’ve tested this from November 2022-August 2023 and found it to be the defining fact in success with this system. 

These movements become, as Dan John explains in The Hardstyle Kettlebell Challenge, standing “moving planks” in their static and dynamic variety respectively. 

And that, my friends, is the secret of balance!

PLYOMETRICS 

Ah, to one of the most controversial topics in the fitness industry: Plyometrics. 

People are nuts about this, which is really just a fancy name for jumping around. Coaches prescribe it and people do it blindly…without fixing their muscle imbalances in the Flexibility department first.

No…30 second stretches, 10 hip swings, and endless foam rolling will not prepare your body for the rigors of Plyometrics, as the Crossfit Gurus would brainwash you to believe. 

Just look at the toll of injuries left in this false belief system’s wake!

Coaches got nuts about Plyometrics after discovering the Soviet literature on it after the fall of the Iron Curtain. 

What they missed was that Plyometrics worked for the Soviets because they didn’t allow you to do them until you had a rigorous foundation of “General Physical Preparation” (GPP)…

Which is just the fancy Soviet name for the Flexibility doctrines I have outlined in detail above that fix muscle imbalances! 

This is something Ben Patrick understands very well by way of his late mentor Charles Poliquin, as we shall soon see. 

WHAT BEN PATRICK KNEW 

NASM explains very well that Plyometrics consist of an Eccentric Phase, an Isometric Holding Phase (“Amortization”), and a Concentric Phase. 

This takes place primarily in the lower body…it’s jumping around, duh. 

Olympic Lifting is an excellent example of this kind of thing. So are Kettlebell Swings, derived from Olympic Lifting movements. 

However, Kettlebell devotees Pavel and Dan John don’t call these “Plyometrics”, but instead “Ballistics”. Different name, same thing! 

If we look at the Eccentric Phase, we find the lower body does a number of things: the ankles dorsiflex, the knees flex, and the hip flexors flex.

Then in the Concentric Phase, the ankles plantarflex, the knees extend, and the hips extend. This is the mythical “Triple Extension” of force production we often hear coaches talking about. 

What Ben Patrick understood was that if you want to do Plyometrics without getting injured, in his case in the game of basketball, you have to strengthen each link of the chain individually.

And you most definitely can’t ignore the Eccentric links in the chain, as most trainers do! 

Consequently, for the Eccentric links in the chain, Ben Patrick taught Tibialis Raises for ankle dorsiflexion, all manner of Step Ups and Knees Over Toes Squatting for knee flexion (it’s how he got his name!), and direct Hip Flexor strengthening for hip flexion, with machines, tools, and mere bodyweight! 

For the Concentric links in the chain, he taught the Straight Leg FHL Calf Raise and the Bent Leg KOT Calf Raise for ankle plantarflexion and hit the Hip Flexion with lengthened ATG Split Squat. 

This prepares the body for Plyometrics much better than 99.9% of what is out there today…because it uses the old Soviet system that made Plyometrics such a success in the first place!

And honestly, how guys as brilliant as Pavel and Dan John missed the boat on this is beyond me. It really is. I love those guys and they are geniuses, but they completely let this ship sail right past them. 

It leaves me scratching my head to this day. 

SAQ

Next we come to what NASM abbreviates as SAQ…Speed, Agility, and Quickness training. 

They define Speed as running really fast in a forward direction. 

They define Agility as moving the lower body around fast and coordinated in response to an external stimulus…the coach’s whistle, the opposing player’s movement, the direction of the ball.  

And finally, they define Quickness as moving the entire body around fast and coordinated in response to an external stimulus…again, you know the drill!

Essentially, all sports fall into the SAQ category. For my particular area of interest, this includes Combat Sports and life-or-death Combat itself.

You run really fast to meet the enemy. You maneuver in with footwork. Then you bring your whole body to bear for the strike, the takedown, or the kill shot.

That’s it. 

Now, for this to work, you have to have established a baseline in all the other categories outlined before. And you have to do it the right way, not the NASM way.   

That means high reps through a full range of motion for Flexibility. 

That means allowing the spine pelvis and hips to move as well as working Internal Hip Rotation at the Core. 

That means getting your Balance straight. 

That means squaring away all the weak links in the Plyometric Chain. 

And that means having some wind from Cardio done after all these things above. 

If you don’t do these things beforehand, you’re gonna end up injured and you won’t be able to do things you truly love. 

I don’t want your Warrior Caste dreams to die. 

Do you? 

RESISTANCE 

Ah, the Holy Grail of fitness. Resistance Training. 

Really, you can do it five ways, according to NASM, and they are right. 

Stabilization, which is what they call getting the right movement patterns down to fix muscle imbalances and not get hurt for 12-20+ reps, which is everything we have discussed above. 

Muscular Endurance, which is being able to move with the above right movement patterns for a long time for 12-20+ reps. 

Muscular Hypertrophy, which is lifting medium weights for higher reps in the 8-12 range for gaining Muscle Mass in the Bodybuilding mold. 

Maximal Strength, which is lifting heavy weights and lower reps in the 1-5 range for generating maximal internal tension for Strength along the lines of the Nervous System in the Powerlifting mold, and as outlined in Pavel’s The Naked Warrior. 

Power, which is lifting moderate weights and lower reps in the 1-10 range moved fast for Explosive Strength along the Olympic Lifting mold. 

And really, that is it. As long as you have a solid foundation of what they call Stabilization..again, done the right way…you will be ok. 

If you don’t…well, by now you know the drill. 

The choice is yours!

THAT MAGIC PIECE OF PAPER 

Well, there you have it my friends. 

The NASM Personal Trainer Certification test prep filtered through the 7 Years of research and experimentation on myself. 

I know my stuff, and have lived it all. 

Now, it’s time to get that magic piece of paper!

Sincerely,

Richard Barrett

08-10-2023

Written at 1:59 PM, somewhere in the USA…

Sources Cited

Image 1