FREE ACSM Study Guide 2023 – Studying Made Simple

Hello ACSM learners, and welcome to the PTPioneer Study Guide page. This article is the meat of the study materials and will provide the majority of the study content.

All in all, the basics covered in this article will be:

Get your copy of the ACSM CPT exam cheat sheet and our study plan. It helps immensely in studying for the exam.

Make sure to check out Trainer Academy for premium ACSM CPT study materials. Trainer Academy offers premium study guides that go more in-depth than any free materials online. Read my full review of them here. You can save $100 on their MVP study system with the code: PTPSUB

Let’s dive into this deep ACSM Study Guide!

ACSM CPT Study Series

• ACSM Exam Prep Home Page
• ACSM Study Plan
• ACSM Study Guide
• ACSM Practice Exams
• ACSM Flashcards
• ACSM Cheat Sheet
• ACSM Exam FAQ

• Chapter 1: Importance of the Field and Profession of Personal Training
• Chapter 2: Career Track for Personal Trainers
• Chapter 3: Anatomy and Kinesiology
• Chapter 4: Biomechanics
• Chapter 5: Exercise Physiology
• Chapter 6: Nutrition and Human Performance
• Chapter 7: Theories of Behavior Change
• Chapter 8: Adherence to Exercise: Helping Your Client Stay Active
• Chapter 9: Eliciting Positive Perceptions and Behaviors: Coaching Techniques
• Chapter 10: The Initial Client Consultation
• Chapter 11: Preparticipation Physical Activity Screening Guidelines
• Chapter 12: Client Fitness Assessments
• Chapter 13: Comprehensive Program Design
• Chapter 14: Resistance Training Programs
• Chapter 15: Cardiorespiratory Training Programs
• Chapter 16: Guidelines for Designing Flexibility Programs
• Chapter 17: Personal Training Session Components
• Chapter 18: Advanced Program Options
• Chapter 19: Populations across the Lifespan
• Chapter 20: Metabolic Disease and Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors
• Chapter 21: Business Basics and Planning
• Chapter 22:  Legal Issues and Responsibilities

The PTPioneer study guide for ACSM and all other Certification Study Guides within this website will cover each and every chapter in their current order, and some of our materials will detail older materials if the newer edition changed a lot.

With the ACSM, the current textbook is in its 6th edition, and there were mostly minor changes from the 5th edition and a small reorganization and replacement of one of the chapters.

Ideally, readers will go chapter by chapter throughout this study guide, while also studying the textbook, but our study guide can help condense the information compared to the textbook.

When using the great free study guide on this page, make sure to utilize the flashcard study system within the study hub.

The flashcards will shine a light on the terms and topics throughout each chapter, and partnered with this free study guide, you will get a pretty good breakdown of the contents of the book.

It won’t fully replace the text, so I would recommend giving those chapters in the official textbook at least one read-through to go along with your studies.

If you are looking to help organize the reading of these chapters, make sure to look into our study plan, which serves as a basic calendar to follow and help learners organize their study time.

Next, let’s look at some basic study material tips for other materials you may seek out.

Although I pride myself on having a pretty decent ACSM study guide and other study materials, these are by no means meant to replace the full textbook. These are just tidbits to help you along the way.

Below is a complete list of additional study tools and study materials that I highly recommend you check out so that you can rock the test with a hundred percent confidence. These study materials should be your go-to guides if you want to pass the exam guaranteed.

Premium ACSM Study Guide

The free study guide here on Ptpioneer is a decent place to start and might be the best free study guide on the internet.

That being said, there are definitely better paid options out there that will greatly reduce your study time and focus on the most important parts you need in order to pass the final ACSM exam.

My study guide has lots of information, but it is not meant to help you save time by any means.

The company that I recommend the most is Trainer Academy. They have a fantastic group over there, and every single student I send their way only tells me fantastic things. Their study guide avoids all the fluff material that you won’t get tested on. This is a fantastic study guide to use whether you have a year to study, and especially if you need to cram as much information in a short period of time.

More ACSM Practice Tests

The ACSM Practice test that I have on my website only contains 50 questions. If you want to feel extremely confident about taking the final exam, you will need a lot more practice using practice tests.

Overall, I recommend taking at least 3 to 5 practice exams to know if you are 100% prepped. Lots of my students have come to me saying that they failed the exam. Typically the number one reason is that they had never once taken a practice exam before taking the real thing. If they had, they would have realized that they were not prepared enough.

The best ACSM practice tests can also be found over at Trainer Academy. For the ACSM exam, they have five full 150 question practice tests. On top of this, they also have a timer for 2 1/2 hours to simulate the real testing environment.

If you can pass all five of their practice exams, you will know that you are ready to dominate the real thing.

Spaced Repetition ACSM Flashcards

Every time I start talking about space repetition learning, people pause me and say, “Tyler, what the heck are you talking about?”.

Well, let me tell you. If you have not heard of spaced repetition learning, you are wasting a lot of time studying.

Basically, spaced repetition flashcards help you separate the flashcards that you know well, from the flashcards that you have a hard time with. From there, you will be continually shown your more difficult cards more frequently and your easier cars less frequently. It is basically a learning algorithm that will save you hours of study time.

Although my flashcards are pretty decent, they use the standard flashcards study technique, which does not take into account the flashcards difficulty.

The team over at Trainer Academy has put together a deck of 700+ space repetition flashcards for ACSM that will save you hours of study time.

ACSM Mnemonics for the Tough Parts

If you asked me which study technique is the best for keeping the information in your long-term memory, I would hands down respond with study mnemonics.

Although study guides, practice tests, and flashcards are very helpful for studying in passing your personal training exam, these do not help concrete the information in your long-term memory.

This is where to study mnemonics come in. By learning personal training concepts using weird, funny, and unusual mnemonics, it will be much harder to forget these principles. This is true even years after you have studied the material.

I highly suggest either creating your own study mnemonics or picking up some premade ones. The team over at Trainer Academy has also created an excellent deck of 35+ mnemonics to help you study for the ACSM exam.

ACSM Cheat Sheet

A cheat sheet is a very handy way to get all of the most important information on one simple page.

It can be a good way to study by making your own, or simply clicking this button below to use our own Cheat Sheet.

Okay, everybody, that’s the end of my ACSM study portal. I hope you have gone great use out of the study materials. Make sure to come through here a few times to use the study guide so that you can obtain the knowledge to become an excellent personal trainer!

Go ahead and start our free study guide for ACSM by clicking the button below!