Have a question? The NASM Stretching and Flexibility Coach certification (NASM SFC) is a great add-on certification to offer more structured flexibility training to your clients. You can complete the NASM stretching and flexibility coach certification without any other NASM certifications, but it’s helpful if you are also a NASM personal trainer.
With the rise in popularity of stretching and flexibility training, offering stretch programs to your clients can be a great way to enhance your personal trainer service offering or even start a personal training business completely focused on flexibility.
In my 12+ years as a personal trainer, I’ve had the chance to take many certifications, including the NASM Stretching and Flexibility Coach certification.
In this article, I break down the NASM Stretching and Flexibility Coach certification based on my experience taking the course and working in the field so you can fully understand the pros and cons of this program and decide for yourself if becoming a NASM certified flexibility coach makes sense for your career.
I’ll look at the following areas in this NASM Stretching and Flexibility coach review:
- Content covered in the NASM stretching certification
- Exam difficulty and study materials
- Who is this certification meant for?
- Is the NASM Flexibility coach worth it?
By the time you finish reading, you’ll have the full rundown on this certification and be able to assess whether you should become a NASM Certified Stretching and Flexibility Coach.
If you have not yet gotten a personal training certification and need help choosing which certification will best launch your fitness career, be sure to take my quiz and find out!
What is the NASM Stretching and Flexibility Coach Certification?
The National Academy of Sports Medicine Stretching and Flexibility Coach certification is a relatively short certification program from NASM that prepares you to design more flexibility-focused programming for clients.
Whether you are already a NASM certified personal trainer, hold another personal trainer certification, or simply want to pursue flexibility coaching as a career, this certification provides a great launch point.
Stretching methods and techniques are a whole different ball game compared to standard fitness programs.
Adding mobility training, stretching techniques, and related stretch coach skill sets can drastically set you apart from other fitness professionals who only offer weight training or aerobic workout options.
NASM Stretching and Flexibility Coach
- Exam cost: $399
- Study material cost: Included with exam
- Prerequisites: None
- Exam passing score: 70%
- Exam pass rate: Not known
- Average completion time: 2-4 weeks
NASM credibility and reputation
As an organization, the National Academy of Sports Medicine is well-known for its exceptional NASM CPT program as well as their other fitness specializations.
Any certification offered by NASM is going to high-quality. Between the NASM learning portal and the curriculum contents themselves, it’s tough to go wrong with any NASM course.
- Adding additional services to your fitness business
- Establishing a strong personal trainer niche
- People without a personal trainer certification
Is NASM Stretching and Flexibility Coach worth it?
If your goal is to make flexibility coaching into a solid career path, then becoming a NASM flexibility coach is definitely worth it.
It’s also a good choice if adding stretching flexibility training to traditional fitness programs would help your clients and your own personal training business or career.
Overall, this is a good way to expand your client base and potentially get better results, depending on the individual client needs.
Massage therapists and other health professionals in related fields can also benefit from getting certified as a NASM SFC, particularly if they want to design stretch programs for clients to continue following outside scheduled appointments.
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NASM Stretching and Flexibility Coach vs Other Personal Trainer Specializations
NASM offers a range of fitness specializations, as does virtually every major personal training certification provider. The biggest consideration is which area of your career you want to focus on when comparing fitness specializations.
Since you only need a fixed number of continuing education credits each year, it makes sense to choose CEUs that align with your career goals. The NASM SFC is a great compliment for many different careers but is just one of many great options from NASM.
Other NASM offerings include:
- NASM Corrective Exercise Specialist
- NASM Performance Enhancement Specialist
- NASM Certified Nutrition Coach
With over two dozen certifications, you have a massive launch point with NASM for virtually any fitness career.
If you are going the NASM route, then your best bet is checking out their NASM Elite Trainer deal, which gives you a massive discount on bundling multiple certifications and giving you an insane head start on your fitness career.
Who is the NASM Stretching and Flexibility Coach meant for?
The NASM Stretching and Flexibility certification is meant for any personal trainer, health professional, or stretching professional who wants the skillsets to provide great stretching programs for their clients or patients.
It is truly one of the more versatile certifications on the market, since many different populations can benefit from flexibility training. Whether you coach athletes, corrective exercise, or general fitness clients, you can certainly consider the NASM SFC a good add-on.
NASM Stretching and Flexibility Certification Cost
The NASM Stretching and Flexibility certification costs $399 with a one-time payment, or $34/month for 11 months, plus $25 down if financed over 12 months.
NASM Stretching and Flexibility Coach review – content coverage
The NASM Stretching and Flexibility Coach certification is split across four different sections that collectively cover the different skillsets and knowledge backgrounds you need to effectively coach clients.
Section I: Introduction to Stretching and Flexibility
The first section includes chapters 1 and 2 and covers the introduction to integrated flexibility and scope of practice for anyone working as a flexibility coach.
This is vital information when it comes to protecting your clients from injury and yourself from liability. To put it simply, stretching poses the risk of injury, especially if you perform any of the hands-on stretches discussed in the certification
Understanding the limits of your practice and knowledge as a stretch coach professional is imperative for ensuring you and your clients remain safe and make effective gains, without exposing yourself to liability.
Section II: Science and Anatomy
In section II on science and anatomy, you’ll learn about the different tissue types and motor behavior that are relevant to stretching.
These include muscular and fascial anatomy, including the fascial nets that cover all muscular tissue throughout your body. These are key bodily structures that relate to flexibility training, and they are not covered in much depth in standard fitness certifications.
Section III: Communication and Client Assessments
Of course, no flexibility coaching, or any fitness coaching certification, is complete without properly learning communication skills. This certification does a solid job of giving you those baseline interviewing and rapport-building tools you need to build real trust with your clients both before and after you close a sale for coaching sessions.
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Next, you’ll learn how to assess client flexibility. This is vital for ensuring you can prove to clients that your efforts are yielding results by the end of the session, as well as identifying areas of their body where mobility is an issue.
This is a key part of your intake procedures, and a reassessment process at the end of individual sessions and overall periods of training in your stretching plans is a requirement for anyone with true flexibility expertise and specialization.
Showing clients the benefits of your training by performing static and motion assessment practices is also a great way to get more referrals and have clients raving about their results.
Section IV: Techniques and Program Design
Finally, section IV goes into the actual “meat and potatoes” of your flexibility training: techniques and program design. This is where the rubber meets the road and you learn skills to stretch every area of the body, from the elbows, spine muscles, thighs, feet, hips, knees, shoulders, chest, and more, you’ll unlock exceptional mobility for your clients where they need it.
Stretching workouts, like strength and conditioning, are all about the right balance of exercises and recovery to ensure your programs deliver results and help with injury prevention. Every stretching program has a place, and trainers who specialize in stretching should always prioritize safety and comfort in the application of their stretching programs.
This is more than just a yoga pose sequence or floor routine. These comprehensive stretch programs include methods for assisting with traction that are appropriate for beginners and advanced individuals alike.
From the ground up, your clients will improve their range of motion in their legs, arms, back, and torso areas. The best part if you can instruct these programs from a gym or home, even virtually, since the different techniques are so versatile.
NASM Stretching and Flexibility Coach Exam Prep and Study Materials
The NASM Stretching and Flexibility Coach program includes access to the online study portal, which guides you through the entire curriculum. The program is self-paced, so you can work it into your existing schedule or finish it as quickly as possible, depending on your goals and current workload.
The portal provides all the resources you need to effectively prepare for your exam, so it’s an excellent all-in-one package.
NASM SFC Requirements
There are no specific requirements to take the NASM flexibility coach program. It’s certainly helpful to have a personal trainer certification or related credential to complete your offering, but you can become a certified NASM Stretching and Flexibility Coach without it.
Generally speaking, the certification works best as part of a complete fitness offering, so I highly recommend looking at bundling your NASM SFC certification with the NASM CPT and some additional specializations.
Fortunately, NASM does offer the Elite Trainer package, which includes the famed NASM CPT along with multiple NASM specialization options, including the NASM SFC.
If you have not yet gotten a personal trainer certification, I highly recommend checking out the NASM Elite Trainer deal.
NASM often offers an additional discount on top of the Elite program. If you can snag the whole package at a discount, it’s tough to pass up.
NASM Stretch Coach Salary
While there is not a ton of data on these specific salaries of a NASM stretching and flexibility coach, in general, stretch coaching salaries range from $35,000 to $63,000, although this varies substantially across location, employment arrangement, and experience.
A self-employed stretch coach with a full client load can easily clear north of 6 figures, but it takes time to build up the practice, clientele, and experience to charge that level of rate.
In my opinion, the best way to earn a high salary as a stretch coach is by combining it into a full offering with personal training and potentially serving a specific niche like professional athletes or corrective exercise clientele.
If you can combine fitness domain expertise with the skill sets to improve flexibility you have a much more competitive offering compared to just labeling yourself a generic stretch coach.
NASM Flexibility Coach Final Exam
The NASM stretching coach final exam consists of 100 multiple choice questions and you have 90 minutes to complete it.
The test is open book so you don’t have to memorize every single detail, but you do need to be pretty well-prepared because you need a 70% score to pass. You get 3 test attempts included with the program.
Realistically, if you prepare for a few weeks and really make an effort to learn the curriculum, it’s unlikely that you will fail.
That being said, don’t let the fact that it’s open book trick you into thinking you can just wing it.
That 90 minute time limit comes up quick if you aren’t super familiar with the material.
NASM Stretching Coach Continuing Education & Recertification
There is no continuing education requirement for the NASM stretching and flexibility coach.
However, if you need to recertify your NASM personal trainer certification, then the Stretching and Flexibility Coach program does provide a total of 16 NASM CEUs, which knocks out a fair chunk of the NASM recertification requirement.
Other NASM Offerings
NASM is well known for a variety of their fitness certifications. If you are going the NASM route for your fitness career, the NASM Elite Trainer program is hands down the best bang for your buck. Some of the top NASM offerings include the following:
- NASM Group Exercise Instructor (AFAA-GEI)
- NASM Certified Nutrition Coach (NASM-CNC)
- NASM Corrective Exercise Specialist (NASM-CES)
- NASM Weight Loss Specialization (NASM-WLS)
- NASM Performance Enhancement Specialist (NASM-PES)
- NASM Certified Personal Trainer (NASM-CPT)
- NASM Certified Wellness Coach (NASM-CWC)
- NASM Youth Exercise Specialization
- NASM Golf Fitness Specialization
- NASM Senior Fitness Specialization
NASM Stretching and Flexibility Coach Overall Rating
Overall, I give the NASM SFC certification a 4 out of 5.
The reason for this is that the certification provides some great and useful skills, but it is somewhat less robust than the curriculum from other NASM specializations.
Regardless, the NASM stretch coach certification is an excellent way to supplement traditional training skills or launch your career as a professional flexibility trainer.
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References
- Stretch coach jobs | glassdoor. (n.d.). https://www.glassdoor.com/Job/stretch-coach-jobs-SRCH_KO0,13.htm
Tyler Read
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