Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) Certification and Exam Review

By dpope2020

September 5, 2012

CSCS, NSCA, Review

Well, I finally got around to doing it.  I bought the latest edition of Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning.  I read the 600 page text book from cover to cover (twice) over a 6 week basis, paid 25 dollars to park in Philly to take the exam and left with the ability to put the letters C.S.C.S. behind my name!

The C.S.C.S. is not especially cheap.  I was lucky enough to get a Student membership into the national strength and conditioning association (NSCA) for 65$ with the normal price being $120. In order to sit for the exam with an active NSCA membership the price tag is a hefty $310.  The book is going to cost somewhere around $60 new.  The practice exams and extra study materials can easily put you out another $100 bucks.  When all is said and done, I ended up spending about $450 to prepare for the exam.

I chose not to buy the study materials but I’ve heard they’re especially helpful.  I had a class in undergrad that focused on the NSCA Essentials book and repeated a lot of the same material in my DPT program so didn’t feel the need for extra study expenses.

My general thoughts about the positives of the CSCS:

  • Great evidence based, basic and well rounded scientific background
  • Unbiased approach (until you get to the exam)
  • Well rounded philosophical approach to educating the strength and conditioning professional
  • A difficult test to ensure people thoroughly review and study the CSCS concepts.

My general criticisms of the CSCS:

  • Outdated information (the latest edition of the book is from 2008)
  • No hands on coaching of the exercises (the whole exam is based off of a text book).  In person hands on lecturing and coaching would be hugely beneficial in the teaching of: Agility, Plyometric and Change of Direction Drills, Olympic and Compound lifts.  Exercise selection also seemed a bit outdated to me.
  • Lack of injury prevention information (S&C coaches could highly benefit from some ACL injury prevention protocols, FMS overview, Y Balance, Drop Vertical Jump test  etc.
  • Biased exam questions – The exam had a lot of questions worded, pick “the best” answer.  Often times the best answer seemed debatable and was biased toward someone who had studied the CSCS supplemental materials.  This in some ways could have worked against an S&C coach with a broad spectrum of knowledge and experience.
  • Too much science and not enough practical application.  I love science but a lot of the science was presented with absolutely no clinical relevance (Why do I need to know whether or not my tibialis anterior is a pennate muscle? or the amount of ATP produced via glucose as opposed to glycogen in glycolysis).
  • No mentoring, personal coaching or internships/experience required.  Basically the NSCA says I would be capable of training a division I football team armed with only the knowledge I acquired from a textbook.

As far as studying for the exam, if you have absolutely no background in exercise science it may be helpful to:

  • Read the entire book and take notes.
  • Buy and read all of the supplemental material.
  • Utilize the practice exams to find weak areas and work your weaknesses.

If you’ve got a background in exercise science or physical therapy you can probably get away without using the practice exams or study materials but it might actually be more efficient to study with those materials then take the route I did (basically read straight through the book several times).

All in all I’m glad that I ended up getting this certification.  Several people have asked me why the hell I’d need a CSCS if I’m going to have a doctorate in physical therapy?  Well, physical therapy is not strength and conditioning and I wanted to be respected from my peers in S&C as well as have the knowledge and certification to work with this population.  Currently the CSCS is still the gold standard in the industry as far as I know.

Dan Pope C.S.C.S. (You like that?)

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