Facts checked against support.nasm.orgLast checked Nov 4, 2026
This NASM study guide follows the six domains of the 2021 NASM-CPT blueprint. Two carry the most weight: Exercise Technique and Training Instruction at 24% and Program Design at 20%. Each section lists what gets asked and where people lose points; the quiz at the end has three questions per domain.
The domains are not equal. The two biggest, technique and program design, cover nearly half of what is scored, and both draw on the OPT model, so learn the model early and come back to it while you work through the rest. Professional Development and Responsibility is the smallest at 10%, but its scope and ethics items reward a clear rule more than memorization.
Share of the scored questions per domain, from the 2021 blueprint.
Basic and Applied Sciences and Nutritional Concepts
Weight: 15%. Expect applied science rather than recall: which plane a movement happens in, what a muscle does as agonist, synergist or stabilizer, and which energy system carries an effort of a given length.
Energy systems: the phosphagen system (ATP-PC) covers short maximal bursts, glycolysis carries hard efforts of roughly half a minute to two minutes, and the oxidative system handles anything longer. Items give a duration and an intensity; you supply the system.
EPOC: extra oxygen use after a session. It is a recovery cost, not a separate "fat-burning" state.
Nutrition math: protein and carbohydrate give 4 kcal per gram, fat 9, alcohol 7. A food label lists kilocalories, written as Calories with a capital C.
Where points go
Muscle actions are the usual loss. Concentric shortens under load, eccentric lengthens under load, isometric holds. In a squat descent the quadriceps work eccentrically even though the body is moving down.
Client Relations and Behavioral Coaching
Weight: 15%. These items test coaching, not motivation slogans. The core frame is the stages of change: precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, maintenance. Questions describe what a client says and ask which stage that is, or which approach suits it.
Goals: SMART goals for outcomes, process goals for the behaviors that lead to them. A weekly session count is a process goal; a body-weight target is an outcome goal.
Communication: open questions, reflective listening and summarizing, used before any advice.
Where points go
Contemplation and preparation get mixed up. A client who is weighing pros and cons is contemplating; one who has bought shoes and picked a start date is preparing. Offering a full program to the first one is the wrong-answer pattern.
Assessment
Weight: 16%. Order matters as much as technique: screening and health history come before any physical test, and static and movement assessments come before performance tests.
Overhead squat assessment: watch the five kinetic chain checkpoints: foot and ankle, knee, the LPHC (lumbo-pelvic-hip complex), shoulder, and head and neck. Named compensations include feet turning out, knees moving inward, excessive forward lean, the low back arching and arms falling forward.
From compensation to plan: an overactive muscle is inhibited and lengthened; an underactive one is activated and strengthened.
Vitals and body composition: resting heart rate, blood pressure, skinfolds and circumferences, with the conditions that make each unreliable.
Where points go
Swapping overactive and underactive. Knees moving inward, for example, points to tight muscles that pull the knee in and weak ones that should hold it out; a question that offers "strengthen" for the tight group is a distractor. Also: a maximal strength test is not a first-session choice for a new, deconditioned client.
Program Design
Weight: 20%. The OPT model runs through this domain: three levels and five phases, in this order.
Strength level · Phase 3, Muscular Development (hypertrophy)
Strength level · Phase 4, Maximal Strength
Power level · Phase 5, Power
Around the model: the principles of specificity, overload and variation, the general adaptation syndrome (alarm, resistance, exhaustion), the flexibility continuum (corrective, active, functional) and the balance, core and plyometric progressions from stabilization to power.
Where points go
Two classics. Muscular Development is phase 3, not 2, even though hypertrophy is what many clients ask for first. And the two superset phases pair different things: the phase-2 superset adds a stability move after a strength lift, while the phase-5 superset follows the lift with an explosive move.
Exercise Technique and Training Instruction
Weight: 24%, the largest domain. Questions show a client mid-exercise and ask what to fix first, how to cue it, or whether to regress.
Cue types: visual (demonstration), auditory (spoken) and kinesthetic (touch or position). Pick the one the scenario says the client responds to.
Breathing and spotting: exhale through the effort phase and avoid long breath-holds for clients with blood pressure concerns; spot at the wrists for dumbbell presses over the face.
Regress before you progress: if a checkpoint fails, the next step is an easier version of the movement, not more load.
Where points go
Answers that add equipment or load to fix a form fault. When a compensation appears, the expected move is to reduce difficulty or stability demand, then rebuild. Warning signs such as chest pain, dizziness or unusual shortness of breath end the set every time.
Professional Development and Responsibility
Weight: 10%. Short questions on the edges of the job.
Scope of practice: a trainer screens, coaches and refers. Diagnosing pain or prescribing a diet for a medical condition sits with physicians and registered dietitians.
Emergencies: know the facility's emergency plan, when to call emergency services, and that CPR and AED skills are a condition of holding the credential.
The business side: honest marketing, sales that match a client's needs, retention through reassessment, and keeping your own credential current, covered on the NASM-CPT overview.
Where points go
Sales and marketing items reward honesty over closing. An option that promises a specific result, or pushes a client into a longer package than their goal needs, is the distractor.
Check yourself: 18 questions by domain
18 questions on this page · 0 answeredYour score: 0 of 0 correct
1/18 · Sciences · 15%
An 80-kg athlete eats 2,750 kcal per day and targets 2.2 g of protein per kilogram of body weight. What percentage of total daily calories comes from protein?
Use Check on the answer you favor. The verdict shows up with a short note on each choice.
Check
80 kg × 2.2 g/kg = 176 g of protein; 176 g × 4 kcal/g = 704 kcal, and 704 ÷ 2,750 = 25.6% of daily energy.
Check
6.4% comes from dividing grams (176) by calories (2,750) without first converting protein grams to kilocalories at 4 kcal each.
Check
11.6% treats intake as 1 g per kilogram (80 g × 4 kcal = 320 kcal), ignoring the 2.2 g/kg target.
Check
57.6% multiplies by 9 kcal per gram, the energy value of fat; protein supplies 4 kcal per gram.
2/18 · Sciences · 15%
A client who gets muscle cramps after long workouts asks the trainer to prescribe a specific dose of a magnesium supplement. Which response stays within the trainer's scope of practice?
Check
Halting training until a supplement is started treats the supplement as medical therapy and withholds exercise for no clinical reason.
Check
Sharing general, published information about a supplement is education; choosing a dose for one person is prescribing, which belongs to a physician or registered dietitian.
Check
Naming a mineral deficiency is a diagnosis, and recommending salts to treat it is a prescription; both fall outside a trainer's scope.
Check
A small dose is still an individual dose; a modest number does not make prescribing acceptable.
Check
A customized therapeutic protocol is medical nutrition therapy, the role of a registered dietitian or physician.
3/18 · Sciences · 15%
A client sits most of the day, and his tight, overactive hip flexors reduce the nervous system's drive to the gluteus maximus. Which concept describes this?
Check
Synergistic dominance is the next step in the chain: helpers such as the hamstrings take over for the inhibited gluteus maximus, but it does not describe the reduced drive itself.
Check
Arthrokinetic dysfunction refers to altered motion at a joint, not to one muscle reducing the drive to another.
Check
When a tight agonist such as the hip flexor group lowers neural drive to its functional antagonist, the gluteus maximus, the process is called altered reciprocal inhibition.
Check
Autogenic inhibition is the Golgi tendon organ relaxing the same muscle under sustained tension, the basis of static stretching, not a tight muscle shutting down its opposite.
4/18 · Coaching · 15%
During a private consultation, a client discloses sensitive gender identity information to their trainer but specifically requests that this information be withheld from other facility staff. Which action aligns best with professional ethical guidelines?
Check
Gender identity has no bearing on emergency care, so emergency planning does not justify sharing what the client asked to keep private.
Check
Putting the disclosure in a system every staff member can open breaches the client's explicit request.
Check
Making disclosure a condition of training is coercive and turns a private matter into a requirement.
Check
The client set a clear limit on who may know; honoring it and recording only what training requires respects both the disclosure and the client's privacy.
Check
Reporting needs do not override a direct request for confidentiality, and management does not need this information to run the facility.
5/18 · Coaching · 15%
A client observing a month-long religious fast cannot eat or drink during daylight hours and wants to maintain cardiorespiratory fitness. Which scheduling and hydration adjustment is most appropriate?
Check
Electrolyte tablets without water still break the fast and replace no fluid, and a morning session leaves a whole fasting day after the sweat loss.
Check
Telling a client to break a religious fast disregards their beliefs; the trainer adapts the program to the practice, not the reverse.
Check
A clinical hydration protocol is outside a trainer's scope, and fluids are not permitted during daylight anyway.
Check
Hard intervals at midday, deep into a day without fluids, invite dehydration and heat illness.
Check
Training after sunset lets the client drink and refuel right away, and lighter intensity limits fluid loss and fatigue during a month of reduced intake.
6/18 · Coaching · 15%
A client eats most dinners at family meals where food is served from large shared dishes, and wants to manage calorie intake. Which strategy is most appropriate to suggest?
Check
Skipping family dinners cuts the client off from an important social and cultural routine and ties eating to whether they trained, a pattern that is hard to sustain.
Check
Replacing the meal and sitting out the dinner avoids the situation rather than building a skill the client can use at every family meal.
Check
Eating quickly works against calorie control: fullness signals lag behind, so fast eaters usually take in more before they feel satisfied.
Check
Asking the whole family to change its cooking puts the client's goal on everyone else and depends on choices the client does not control.
Check
Mindful eating (slowing down, noticing hunger and fullness, and judging portion sizes by eye) fits a shared family meal without singling the client out.
7/18 · Assessment · 16%
A trainer estimates body fat with the Durnin-Womersley skinfold formula. Which four sites are measured?
Check
Chest, abdomen, and thigh come from other skinfold equations, such as the Jackson-Pollock sites; none of them is part of Durnin-Womersley.
Check
Durnin-Womersley sums four folds on the arm and trunk (biceps, triceps, subscapular, and iliac crest) and converts the total to body-fat percentage with age- and sex-specific tables.
Check
Thigh and calf folds are lower-body sites that Durnin-Womersley does not use; it measures only the arm and trunk.
Check
Only the biceps belongs here; the chest, abdomen, and calf are not among the four Durnin-Womersley sites.
8/18 · Assessment · 16%
A recreational soccer player wants a test of lower-extremity agility and neuromuscular control. Which assessment fits?
Check
The Davies test is done in a push-up position and measures upper-extremity agility and stabilization, not the legs.
Check
The YMCA step test estimates cardiorespiratory fitness from recovery heart rate; it does not measure agility.
Check
In the shark skill test the client hops on one leg in and out of a grid of squares in a set pattern while being timed, which challenges lower-extremity agility and control.
Check
The overhead squat assessment reveals movement compensations at a slow tempo and involves no quick changes of direction, so it does not measure agility.
9/18 · Assessment · 16%
When analyzing overhead squat assessment results, which combination of findings would suggest Upper Crossed Syndrome?
Check
Knees and arms drifting outward match no named distortion pattern and do not reflect the rounded-shoulder posture of upper crossed syndrome.
Check
Upper crossed syndrome is a forward head with rounded shoulders; in the overhead squat it shows as the head jutting forward and the arms falling forward from tight chest and latissimus muscles.
Check
A forward lean with an arched lower back points to lower crossed syndrome, centered on the hips and lumbar spine rather than the shoulders and neck.
Check
Knees moving inward with flattening feet describe the pronation distortion pattern of the foot, ankle, and knee.
10/18 · Program design · 20%
A trainer takes a client through one set each of a total-body, chest, back, shoulder, and leg exercise, then repeats the sequence. Which resistance training system is this?
Check
Horizontal loading finishes all sets of one exercise before moving to the next, the opposite of cycling through the list.
Check
A drop-set system cuts the load right after fatigue within the same exercise; it does not rotate through body parts.
Check
A split routine trains different body parts on different days rather than cycling through all of them in one session.
Check
Vertical loading moves down the list of body parts one set at a time and then cycles back, so each area rests while the others work.
11/18 · Program design · 20%
Trainer A increases a client's deadlift load every third week based purely on the calendar. Trainer B only increases the load when movement mastery and stable velocity are demonstrated at the current weight. Why is Trainer B's methodology preferred?
Check
Adding load only when technique and bar speed hold steady means each increase matches what the client can actually handle, not a date on the calendar.
Check
Trainer B's rule decides when to add load; it is not a hypertrophy method, and no progression rule guarantees maximal hypertrophy every session.
Check
Readiness-based progression may move more slowly than a calendar when the client is not ready; its advantage is safety and fit, not guaranteed speed.
Check
Both trainers are progressing deadlift load, a force-production goal; neither approach shifts the emphasis to metabolic conditioning.
Check
Daily undulating periodization changes variables on a preset schedule, which is closer to Trainer A's calendar approach than to Trainer B's.
12/18 · Program design · 20%
Balance training in the OPT model progresses through stabilization, strength, and power levels. Which exercise belongs to the balance-strength level?
Check
A single-leg balance reach keeps the stance leg nearly still while the free limb reaches, which places it at the stabilization level.
Check
The single-leg lift and chop moves the arms and trunk while the stance leg holds steady, an isometric, stabilization-level balance drill.
Check
In a single-leg Romanian deadlift the balancing leg moves through a controlled hip hinge, the dynamic eccentric and concentric work that defines the balance-strength level.
Check
Hopping up onto a box and holding the landing adds a jump, which places the drill at the balance-power level.
13/18 · Technique · 24%
A client sets up for a dumbbell chest press on a stability ball. Which body position is correct?
Check
With the head and upper back supported and the hips raised into a bridge level with the knees, the client holds a stable, neutral spine while the shoulders work through the press.
Check
Resting the lower back on the ball lets the hips sag, losing the hip extension and neutral spine the bridge position is meant to hold.
Check
Leaving the head and shoulders hanging off the ball strains the neck and removes the support the upper back needs during the press.
Check
A narrow stance with straight legs shrinks the base of support and makes holding the hips up much harder than this exercise intends.
14/18 · Technique · 24%
A client consistently exhibits forward head posture and shoulder elevation during a standing dumbbell overhead press despite your cueing. You reduce the load from 20 lb to 10 lb dumbbells, but the compensation persists. Which statement BEST explains this training error?
Check
Calling the deviation normal ignores that forward head and shoulder elevation are compensations movement assessments flag; repeating them under load reinforces a faulty pattern.
Check
Moving up to 15-lb dumbbells raises the demand on a pattern that already fails at 10 lb.
Check
Blaming concentration ignores that the compensation persisted through cueing and a lighter load, which points to a physical limitation rather than effort.
Check
When the compensation stays the same at half the weight, load was not the cause; a muscle imbalance, mobility restriction, or control deficit needs corrective work or a regression.
Check
More repetitions of a faulty pattern ingrain it, and the stem shows the lighter load corrected nothing.
15/18 · Technique · 24%
A client performs a standing cable chest press. Which setup best keeps the trunk stable during the press?
Check
Feet together on raised heels gives a narrow, unstable base that the cable can easily pull off balance.
Check
Leaning far forward shifts the work from the chest press to holding the body up and strains the lower back.
Check
Locking the knees and arching the back removes the shock absorption of the legs and loads the lumbar spine.
Check
A wide, toes-out stance steadies the body side to side, but the cable pulls front to back, so it barely helps the trunk resist the pull.
Check
Staggering the feet widens the base front to back, and bracing with the ribs down lets the trunk resist the pull of the cable while the arms press.
16/18 · Professional · 10%
A new client is about to walk on a treadmill for the first time. Which safety step comes first?
Check
Stepping onto a belt already moving at walking speed is a common cause of treadmill falls; the client starts from a straddle as the belt begins slowly.
Check
The stop clip shuts the belt off if the client drifts back or falls, so it goes on before the belt starts; the client then straddles the deck while the belt starts slowly.
Check
An incline makes walking harder, not slower, and adds strain for a first-time user.
Check
Stepping off the back of a moving belt can throw the client to the floor; the safe way off is to straddle the side rails or stop the belt.
17/18 · Professional · 10%
A trainer's flyer promises, 'Lose 30 pounds in 30 days, guaranteed.' Which professional standard does this most directly violate?
Check
Confidentiality protects clients' personal information; the flyer reveals nothing about any client.
Check
Keeping CPR/AED current is a credential requirement, unrelated to what a flyer promises.
Check
A result that large and that fast cannot honestly be promised, and the guarantee misleads prospective clients; professional codes of conduct require truthful, non-misleading advertising of services and outcomes.
Check
An emergency action plan covers how staff respond to incidents, not how services are advertised.
18/18 · Professional · 10%
A trainer aims all advertising at new parents who live within a few miles of the studio. What is this group called?
Check
A referral network is the set of professionals and clients who send business to the trainer, not the audience the ads are aimed at.
Check
A sales funnel describes the stages a prospect moves through from first contact to purchase, not the group the ads are aimed at.
Check
Scope of practice defines which services a trainer is qualified to provide; it has nothing to do with whom the trainer advertises to.
Check
A target market is the specific group a business chooses to reach, here new parents near the studio, so its messages and offers can speak to that group's needs.
The current blueprint was built on the 7th edition of Essentials of Personal Fitness Training, NASM's own book. An "8th edition" seen in search results is a third-party study book, not a NASM edition.
Is there a free NASM study guide PDF?
NASM posts the exam blueprint and the candidate handbook as free PDFs; both list the domains and weights this page follows. Free "textbook PDFs" on file-sharing sites are unauthorized copies.
Do I need to memorize every OPT acute variable?
Learn the five phases in order and what each is for before the acute variables.