NASM is a nationally accredited fitness training certification that can guide you to the career of your dreams. Even if you think your tastes are too specific, the job you’ve been too afraid to even fantasize about not only exists but can be obtained through an NASM certification. In addition to offering a personal training certification, NASM also has courses that prepare you for specialized fitness careers. Read on to see what your options are.
Careers for People With a NASM Certification
- Personal trainer (corrective exercise specialization optional)
- Performance enhancement specialist
- Nutrition coach
- Life coach
- Group fitness instructor
- Weight loss coach
- Women’s fitness specialist
- Senior fitness specialist
- Youth exercise specialist
- MMA conditioning specialist
- Golf fitness specialist
Personal Trainer
Many different certifications can help you start a career as a personal trainer, but an NASM personal trainer certification has its own perks. NASM is arguably the most popular certification for personal trainers, so the clout you’ll gain by getting NASM certified will carry you far in your career. Furthermore, NASM is accredited by the National Commission of Certifying Agencies, has fewer test questions than the ACE certification exam, and only costs $99 to recertify every two years.
Within the one-on-one personal training realm, you can obtain specialized certifications that will enable you to help your clients on a deeper level. Both of these specializations can make you stand out against your competitors:
Corrective Exercise Specialization
This specialization teaches you how to more easily spot when a client is performing an exercise incorrectly, inefficiently, or in a way that could hurt them. Giving them the right feedback at the right time can help them recover from workouts much faster, which will make them come back to you again and again.
Performance Enhancement Specialist
NASM stands for National Academy of Sports Medicine, so if you’re considering getting NASM certified, it’s likely that you have an interest in sports and sports conditioning. Getting a specialized certification with NASM can help you become a performance enhancement specialist. This role enables you to condition athletes to do their best in their sport of choice.
Nutrition Coach
You can earn the credentials to become a nutrition coach with NASM’s nutrition certification. To be a successful nutrition coach, you have to be knowledgeable about the latest fad diets, food allergies, macronutrients, and more. You have to be able to assess an individual client’s current diet and adapt it to their nutritional needs. NASM can help you do just that!
Life Coach
Do you have a particular passion for helping people but don’t have the time or money to get a masters degree in psychology? Consider becoming a life coach thanks to the behavior change certification with NASM. Many of your client’s hurdles to becoming healthier will be mental blocks. You can learn to address those internal challenges for your clients thanks to NASM.
Group Fitness Instructor
You can broaden the scope of people you can help by becoming a group fitness instructor. Working one-on-one with clients can help them address their unique struggles with exercise, but group fitness classes enable you to help so many more people in a day. NASM has a group fitness instructor certification that can get you on the right track.
Weight Loss Coach
It’s no secret that obesity has become an epidemic in the US. If you have a special passion for helping people achieve weight loss — perhaps due to your own weight loss journey — then consider becoming a weight loss coach. While a personal trainer can help anyone improve their fitness level, a weight loss coach can specifically help clients change the number on the scale, reducing the risk of heart disease, stroke, and type II diabetes.
Women’s Fitness Specialist
It’s a dangerous world out there for women. As a result, many women taking preventative measures like building strength, increasing endurance, training for speed, and self-defense. Women may feel more comfortable working with people who understand what they’re going through and what they’re unique fitness needs are. You can become more inviting to female clients by becoming a women’s fitness specialist with a certification from NASM.
Senior Fitness Specialist
Senior citizens are often neglected in the fitness community, and that’s an issue because fitness can be even more beneficial for those in this age range. Studies show that exercise can even stave off degenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s Disease. When you become a senior fitness specialist with an NASM specialized certification you can help senior clients navigate modified exercises that can have a huge impact on their bodies and their brains.
Youth Exercise Specialist
There are a fair amount of school activities available for kids and young adults, but what about for those who need sports conditioning or those who haven’t found a sport they enjoy but want to stay in shape? As a youth exercise specialist, you can help kids between 6 and 19 get stronger, build endurance, and make healthier choices.
MMA Conditioning Specialist
Similar to a performance enhancement specialist, an MMA conditioning specialist helps athletes train and improve in a sport. However, this career path makes you uniquely and specifically able to help those who practice mixed martial arts. This sport, a combination of stand-up and ground fighting, is becoming increasingly popular and is very competitive, so a NASM certification in this field could help you gain new, interesting clients.
Golf Fitness Specialist
Those who love golf know that it’s not as easy as it looks. You have to have the right stance, enough awareness of your body to know where you’re going to direct the ball, the stamina to follow through with your swing again and again — and serious golfers will need a coach. A NASM certification can swing you into a career as a golf fitness specialist.
One Specialization Not Offered by NASM…
If you have a particular passion for working with individuals with special needs, you won’t easily access a career path that addresses that passion through NASM. Strong Education, however, offers special needs-specialized courses in personal training (Level 1 and Level 2) and group instruction. You’ll receive training that will enable you to work with both cognitive and physical disabilities as well as a wide range of age groups. Sign up today!
What You Can Do With a Special Needs Fitness Certification
Special Needs Personal Trainer
Our Level 1 and Level 2 certifications equip you to handle a wide range of special needs. You’ll learn how to modify exercises to make them attainable for those with both physical and cognitive disabilities. Whether your client has cerebral palsy, autism, or a limited range of motion, you can help them grow as a special needs personal trainer.
Special Needs Group Fitness Instructor
If you want to expand your reach of people helped by your services, become a special needs group fitness instructor. Strong Education’s course teaches you how to direct a group of individuals with a variety of special needs in a fitness class. Not only are you helping more people, but you’re also making fitness more fun.
Special Education Teacher
Getting a special needs certification through Strong Education can equip you to be a special education teacher at a school. In our courses, you’ll learn how to navigate behavioral meltdowns, which are common for individuals with special needs as expressing their emotions and desires can be difficult and frustrating.
Day Habilitation Instructor
Different from a special education teacher, a day habilitation instructor works with adults with special needs who have aged out of the public education system. As a day hab instructor, you’ll teach adults with autism, down syndrome, and general IDD life skills, basic math and reading, and arts and crafts. A certification from Special Strong will look great on your resume.
Behavioral Therapist Assistant
A certification will never replace a masters degree in psychology, but it can teach you how to be a help to a licensed behavioral therapist. This profession is becoming increasingly popular as society becomes more aware of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and early intervention.
About Strong Education
Strong Education was founded by Daniel Stein, the owner of Special Strong. He started this personal training company, designed to help individuals with special needs, because he saw the benefits of exercise in his own life. As a teenager diagnosed with ADHD, Daniel was placed in special education classes. Exercise helped him better manage his emotions, release pent-up energy, and focus on what was important. When he saw how much of an impact he was making with Special Strong, he created Strong Education to teach others how they could improve the lives of people with special needs through fitness training.
Strong Education teaches personal trainers and service providers on how to adapt fitness and nutrition for children, adolescents, and adults with autism, Down Syndrome, and other disabilities through our online adaptive special needs certification course.