---
title: Personal Training & Strength Coaching
description: Personal trainers and strength coaches design safe, effective programmes. You will learn exercise science, programme design, assessment and the NASM, ACE and CSCS certification routes.
category: sports-recreation
subcategory: fitness-exercise
difficulty: beginner, intermediate, advanced
url: /subject/personal-training-certification
---

# Personal Training & Strength Coaching

Personal trainers and strength coaches design safe, effective programmes. You will learn exercise science, programme design, assessment and the NASM, ACE and CSCS certification routes.

## Available Resources

2 Books • 1 Courses • 2 Websites

## Websites

### 1. Barbell Medicine Articles

**Author:** Jordan Feigenbaum, Austin Baraki

Long-form articles by physicians and coaches Jordan Feigenbaum and Austin Baraki on programme design, pain and injury management, training around medical conditions, and nutrition. Each piece cites the literature and is written for coaches handling general-population clients. Covers the part of the job certifications handle worst: clients in pain, clients with comorbidities, and knowing where the trainer's scope of practice ends.

**Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free

**Link:** https://www.barbellmedicine.com/articles/

**Tags:** program-design, pain-management, injury-management, evidence-based-training, nutrition

### 2. NSCA Position Statements

The NSCA's official position statements, published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research and posted free as PDFs: youth resistance training, long-term athletic development, resistance training for older adults, weightlifting for sport, safe return to training, and professional standards.

**Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free

**Link:** https://www.nsca.com/about-us/position-statements/

**Tags:** position-statements, resistance-training, youth-training, older-adults, professional-standards

## Books

### 1. Science and Practice of Strength Training (3rd Edition)

**Author:** Vladimir M. Zatsiorsky, William J. Kraemer, Andrew C. Fry

Zatsiorsky, Kraemer and Fry set out the theory behind strength development: force generation, overload and timing, exercise selection, velocity-based methods, training for special populations, and recovery monitoring. Denser and more mechanistic than any certification text. The canonical theory text for strength coaches - it explains why programmes work rather than handing out templates, which is exactly the gap left by certification study material.

**Difficulty:** Advanced | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid

**Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/1492592005?tag=edmonddante07-20

**Tags:** strength-training, training-theory, program-design, periodization, biomechanics

### 2. Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning (4th Edition)

**Author:** G. Gregory Haff and N. Travis Triplett (editors)

The single highest-authority text in the topic: it is simultaneously the CSCS blueprint source and a genuine exercise-science textbook covering physiology, biomechanics, assessment and programme design. The NSCA's core textbook and the reference for the CSCS exam. Thirty contributors cover exercise physiology, biomechanics, bioenergetics, testing and evaluation, exercise technique, programme design, periodisation and facility organisation across twenty-four chapters.

**Difficulty:** Advanced | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid

**Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/149250162X?tag=edmonddante07-20

**Tags:** cscs, exercise-science, program-design, periodization, biomechanics

## Courses

### 1. Understanding Fitness Programming

National Academy of Sports Medicine course covering cardiorespiratory training with the FITTE-VP principle, flexibility and self-myofascial release, core training, and resistance training with periodization. Learners can design balanced exercise programs and coach safe exercise technique.

**Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free

**Link:** https://www.coursera.org/learn/understanding-fitness-programming

**Tags:** fitness-programming, resistance-training, cardiorespiratory-fitness, flexibility-training, core-training

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