Given that I’m a full time software engineer, it’s a reasonable question.  You might first ask “What is a CSCS®?” Well, it stands for Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist®.  Its a fantastic certification offered by the National Strength and Conditioning Association and is generally considered the gold standard for professionals working in secondary education, rehabilitation or professional sports organizations.  You may even find a few in local gyms that have a serious personal training program however most personal trainers will carry a personal training certification like the NSCA-Certified Personal Trainer®.  More about the differences between the two here in just a minute….

I’ve been involved in various athletic activities my whole life but the only one that has really stood the test of time is weight training.  Interestingly enough though, I spent very little time researching the science behind what I’d been doing for 20+ years, until recently that is.  A few years ago, I began doing some reading as part of recovery from back surgery (more on that in another post) and that got me into reading about personal training as that source of information seemed to be the quickest way to cut through the tons and tons of “how to get big” books out there. I read the NSCA-CPT® materials and found that a decent amount of time and energy was spent discussing the business of personal training which totally makes sense.  I wasn’t really interested in that though because, well, I wasn’t thinking of becoming a personal trainer.

Some time later I ended up using the services of a personal trainer myself,  you will find a few posts about that in time as well, and the CPT topic came up.  She told me about the CSCS® program as she was currently studying for and it sounded perfect! Unlike the CPT program, there was really nothing in the material about running a small business. Instead, I was very pleasantly surprised by a 600+ page textbook that was just chalk full of science.  Many of my posts will reference the book Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning as I see it as “the bible” of really everything about everything at the gym (and much more). If you ever wanted to know what and how your body generates energy and muscle this is the program for you. If you ever wanted to learn the latest thinking on designing a sport specific conditioning program (or your own program) including all of the methodologies, variables, tradeoffs and recommendations then this is the program for you.

OK, so it’s a bit overkill for a someone “not in the field” but not for someone with a passion for strength training and a lifelong commitment to learning; for me it was perfect.  It wasn’t easy though, I studied for 6 months including several study sessions with my trainer where we took a number of practice exams, an online course and watched some pretty goofy videos of people demonstrating what not to do in the gym. The test itself is broken into 2 parts, a science section that was scheduled for roughly 90 minutes and an applied section that was scheduled for 180 minutes – all multiple choice.  Being a science nut, I breezed through the science section in about 30 minutes and passed without a problem.  The practical side was really tough though and that’s where not having experience as a trainer dealing with various populations and a variety of sports really hurt me.  I missed passing by just one question; a very difficult thing for me to handle let me tell you.  Questions ranged from nutrition to proper rowing stroke to how to adjust your bicycle seat when struggling near the end of the race and you find yourself standing up before your opponents.  After the mandatory 90 day waiting period, I re-took the practical and passed doing almost as well as I did on the science side.  My trainer, by the way, passed both on the first try 🙂