The Show Up Fitness Podcast

Chris Hitchko, CEO Show Up Fitness
  • 5.0 (275)
  • Fitness
  • Updated Weekly

Join Chris Hitchko, author of 'How to Become A Successful Personal Trainer' VOL 2 and CEO of Show Up Fitness as he guides personal trainers towards success. 90% of personal trainers quit within 12-months in the USA, 18-months in the UK, Show Up Fitness is helping change those statistics. The Show Up Fitness CPT is one of the fastest growing PT certifications in the world with partnerships with over 500-gyms including Life Time Fitness, Equinox, Genesis, EoS, and numerous other elite partnerships.This podcast focuses on refining trade, business, and people skills to help trainers excel in the fitness industry. Discover effective client programming, revenue generation, medical professional networking, and elite assessment strategies. Learn how to become a successful Show Up Fitness CPT at www.showupfitness.com.  Send your questions to Chris on Instagram @showupfitness or via email at info@showupfitness.com."

  1. 2d ago

    Pain Science - Biopsychosocial Model of Pain

    Send us a text if you want to be on the Podcast & explain why! Pain can make smart people do weird things: avoid a squat they used to own, chase random mobility drills, or assume an MRI finding is the whole story. We want to cut through that noise with a coaching-first, pain science grounded framework that actually helps clients move again. We start with the biopsychosocial model of pain and why the way we show up matters, from being on time and setting expectations to letting a client finish their story without getting interrupted. That “front end” changes threat, trust, and outcomes more than most trainers realize. From there we dig into how pain works, including the evolution from a purely biomedical model to gate control theory, and why pain intensity doesn’t always match tissue damage. We talk about nervous system sensitivity, central amplification, and how stress and context can turn the volume knob up. Along the way, we share practical language shifts like using “discomfort” and avoiding scary labels that can lock a client into fear-based movement. We also walk through a knee pain case and the step-by-step process: check low-hanging fruit like terminal knee extension, use soft tissue mobilization strategically to calm guarding, then lock in the win with 60-second isometrics, exposure therapy, and progressive overload. We close with what professionalism actually looks like in the fitness industry, why anatomy matters, and how to stay in scope by knowing when to refer out to a physical therapist or doctor. Subscribe for more conversations on pain science, soft tissue work, rehab-informed strength training, and coaching skills, then share this with a trainer who needs it and leave a review. What’s the biggest pain myth you want us to tackle next? Want to become a SUCCESSFUL personal trainer? SUF-CPT is the FASTEST growing personal training certification in the world! Want to ask us a question?  Email info@showupfitness.com with the subject line PODCAST QUESTION to get your question answered live on the show! Website: https://www.showupfitness.com/ Become a Successful Personal Trainer Book Vol. 2 (Amazon): https://a.co/d/1aoRnqA NASM / ACE / ISSA study guide: https://www.showupfitness.com

  2. 6d ago

    Does CORTISOL make you fat? The Cortisol Myth: Stress, Fat Gain & What Actually Matters

    Send us a text if you want to be on the Podcast & explain why! Cortisol gets treated like the boogeyman of modern fitness: the stress hormone that supposedly wrecks your gut, destroys your sleep, and plants belly fat no matter what you do. We’re not buying the oversimplified story. We walk through real-world reality checks like shipwreck survivors, endurance athletes, and classic starvation research to ask a blunt question: if cortisol is the main cause of weight gain, why do high-stress, low-food scenarios reliably lead to weight loss instead?  From there, we break down what cortisol actually does during training. We talk about the “cardio cortisol trap,” why aerobic exercise consistently ranks high for reducing body fat percentage and visceral fat, and how the HPA axis and normal exercise endocrinology work across life stages, including peri and postmenopause. We also explain the key distinction people miss: transient, pulsatile cortisol spikes versus chronic, non-pulsing elevation seen in rare pathological disorders.  Then we bring it back to the day-to-day coaching problem: fear marketing sells because it gives people a simple villain and a product to buy, while the real “elephant in the room” is often a chronic calorie surplus paired with stress-driven cravings, alcohol, and nighttime snacking that never gets reported. We share practical ways to build momentum with clients, set the bar low, stack small wins, and use exercise as a stress outlet rather than something to avoid.  If you’re tired of hormone panic and want a clearer, evidence-based path to fat loss and better health, hit play. Subscribe, share this with a friend who’s afraid of cardio, and leave a review with the biggest myth you want us to tackle next. Want to become a SUCCESSFUL personal trainer? SUF-CPT is the FASTEST growing personal training certification in the world! Want to ask us a question?  Email info@showupfitness.com with the subject line PODCAST QUESTION to get your question answered live on the show! Website: https://www.showupfitness.com/ Become a Successful Personal Trainer Book Vol. 2 (Amazon): https://a.co/d/1aoRnqA NASM / ACE / ISSA study guide: https://www.showupfitness.com

  3. Sep 18

    Master LOWER BODY Anatomy: The 20 Muscles Every Personal Trainer Should Know

    Send us a text if you want to be on the Podcast & explain why! Programming gets easier the moment the lower body stops feeling like a blur of Latin words. We walk you through the exact muscle groups you need for the SUF CPT and make them stick with clear landmarks, real coaching cues, and a few memory tricks you will actually remember under pressure. If you have ever mixed up tendons vs ligaments, forgotten where the hamstrings sit behind the knee, or wondered why a seated calf raise feels different than standing, you are in the right place.  We start with the quadriceps, including why rectus femoris is different from the vastus muscles and how the patella, quad tendon, and patellar ligament connect the story. Then we flip to the posterior chain and make the hamstrings practical: how to identify the medial “two guitar strings,” where biceps femoris shows up laterally, and how foot rotation can bias what you feel during a leg curl. We also cover the adductors (longus, magnus, brevis) with an easy size-based naming framework, plus why adductor magnus earns its reputation as a powerhouse.  From there we hit the glutes with a fiber-focused view of gluteus maximus, gluteus medius, and gluteus minimus, including why pronunciation matters for the exam and for sounding like a confident coach. We close with the lower leg: gastrocnemius vs soleus, peroneals vs fibularis terminology, and the BLT mnemonic for brevis, longus, tertius. If you want better personal training anatomy, smarter lower body exercise selection, and stronger coaching confidence, press play, subscribe, share this with a training buddy, and leave a review with the muscle group you are mastering next. Want to become a SUCCESSFUL personal trainer? SUF-CPT is the FASTEST growing personal training certification in the world! Want to ask us a question?  Email info@showupfitness.com with the subject line PODCAST QUESTION to get your question answered live on the show! Website: https://www.showupfitness.com/ Become a Successful Personal Trainer Book Vol. 2 (Amazon): https://a.co/d/1aoRnqA NASM / ACE / ISSA study guide: https://www.showupfitness.com

  4. Sep 16

    Ep. 410 How to get hired at LIFE TIME 2026/27 PRACTICAL INTERVIEW w/ Show Up Fitness

    Send us a text if you want to be on the Podcast & explain why! More trainers have been hired and clear over $10,000/ month at life time with their SUF CPT than any other company.  Most trainers walk into a practical interview thinking they’re being graded on exercise selection. What actually gets judged is whether you can coach a real person, build trust fast, and lead with confidence when the room feels unfamiliar and the stakes feel high. That’s exactly what we work through with Jerry Ramos, a kinesiology student and trainer preparing for a Lifetime Fitness practical assessment. We break down the full role-play client profile: a woman in her 30s aiming for weight loss, better posture, more strength, and less neck and shoulder tension, with a desk job, low steps, and inconsistent routines. Together, we map a simple, repeatable training plan you can run in a squat rack without overthinking it, plus the small details that make you look like a pro: setting expectations, asking the right open-ended questions, coaching with presence, and using the workout itself as your assessment instead of hiding behind complicated screening tests. Then we get into the part most trainers avoid: sales. I walk through the exact wording to handle the three objections you’ll hear constantly: price, time, and “I need to talk to my spouse.” We also cover how to bring up steps, sleep, and nutrition in a way that stays inside scope, creates buy-in, and positions you as a long-term coach who delivers results. If you want to get hired, keep clients, and build a career that lasts, hit play, take notes, and then subscribe, share this with a trainer friend, and leave a quick review so more coaches learn to keep showing up. Want to become a SUCCESSFUL personal trainer? SUF-CPT is the FASTEST growing personal training certification in the world! Want to ask us a question?  Email info@showupfitness.com with the subject line PODCAST QUESTION to get your question answered live on the show! Website: https://www.showupfitness.com/ Become a Successful Personal Trainer Book Vol. 2 (Amazon): https://a.co/d/1aoRnqA NASM / ACE / ISSA study guide: https://www.showupfitness.com

  5. Sep 16

    Why We're Fat Part 5 - SLEEP | Become A Nutrition Coach SUF NC

    Send us a text if you want to be on the Podcast & explain why! Become a nutrition coach with SUF-NC. Weekly live calls with nutrition experts and RD's.  If you’re trying to lose weight, get leaner, or just stop dragging through your afternoons, there’s a good chance the real bottleneck isn’t your workout plan. It’s your sleep. We dig into why sleep is the foundation for body composition, energy, and consistency, and why “I get 6 to 7 hours” often doesn’t match reality, just like food logs rarely tell the full story. We use a blunt but memorable analogy: functioning on short sleep can look a lot like trying to perform after a couple shots of alcohol. From there, we shift into a performance mindset. Athletes don’t treat the night before a record attempt like a casual hangout, and a CEO doesn’t stroll into a board meeting half-prepared. We ask what would change if you protected bedtime with that same focus and discipline, and we share a practical sleep routine framework that reduces stimulation, limits phone-driven dopamine hits, and sets you up for deep sleep. Then we get tactical with the stuff people argue about: melatonin dosage and why too much can leave you groggy, caffeine half-life and late-day energy drinks, stress hormones like cortisol, and how chronic stress can keep heart rate elevated and block recovery. We also cover an underrated lever for sleep quality and night waking: carbohydrate intake in the evening, liver glycogen, and why some people sleep better with a simple carb snack before bed. Finally, we bring it back to coaching and behavior change: how to assess sleep like a pro, how to stop giving lazy blanket advice, and why educating clients with the right metrics, like blood pressure and daily energy patterns, can beat shaming them with numbers they don’t understand. If this helped, subscribe, share it with a friend who “just doesn’t sleep,” and leave a review with your biggest bedtime challenge. Want to become a SUCCESSFUL personal trainer? SUF-CPT is the FASTEST growing personal training certification in the world! Want to ask us a question?  Email info@showupfitness.com with the subject line PODCAST QUESTION to get your question answered live on the show! Website: https://www.showupfitness.com/ Become a Successful Personal Trainer Book Vol. 2 (Amazon): https://a.co/d/1aoRnqA NASM / ACE / ISSA study guide: https://www.showupfitness.com

  6. Sep 14

    Master Shoulder Anatomy: The 17 Muscles Every Personal Trainer Should Know

    Send us a text if you want to be on the Podcast & explain why! If you have ever hesitated when a client asks, “What muscle is that supposed to work?”, this shoulder anatomy breakdown is for you. We make the case that the most important skill for becoming a qualified personal trainer is mastering anatomy, because confidence is not a vibe. It is earned, and clients can tell when you have it. When you sound unsure, people default to objections like “It is too expensive” or “Let me think about it.” When you can speak clearly about the body, trust goes up and sales friction goes down. We share what we see trainers struggle with most, from assessments and programming around pain to getting clients and charging what they are worth. Then we teach the shoulder the practical way: by mapping the 17 shoulder muscles and putting them into a study order you can actually remember. You will hear how pectoralis major and the deltoid each have three distinct parts, why biceps brachii and triceps brachii matter at the shoulder, and how the trapezius, serratus anterior, rhomboids, and latissimus dorsi shape scapular control in real training. We also drill the rotator cuff muscles (supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres minor, subscapularis) and the big takeaway that matters for programming and shoulder pain: their number one job is to stabilize and center the glenohumeral joint. If you are studying for a CPT exam, refining your personal training assessments, or tightening your exercise programming, this is a clean, repeatable framework you can use immediately. Subscribe, share this with a trainer friend, and leave a review with the shoulder muscle you want us to cover next. Want to become a SUCCESSFUL personal trainer? SUF-CPT is the FASTEST growing personal training certification in the world! Want to ask us a question?  Email info@showupfitness.com with the subject line PODCAST QUESTION to get your question answered live on the show! Website: https://www.showupfitness.com/ Become a Successful Personal Trainer Book Vol. 2 (Amazon): https://a.co/d/1aoRnqA NASM / ACE / ISSA study guide: https://www.showupfitness.com

  7. Sep 10

    How to Pass the NASM CPT Exam 2026/27 | COMPLETE 7th Edition Study Guide & Prep

    Send us a text if you want to be on the Podcast & explain why! Pass NASM w/ SUF Study Guide $75 showupfitness.com Guarantee to pass NASM showupfitness.com which includes passing in 7-14 days, $500 worth of nasm material including tutoring AND either a SUF certification or hands on learning seminar. Failing the NASM CPT exam usually has nothing to do with intelligence and everything to do with spending weeks on the wrong pages. We’re here to help you pass the NASM CPT 7th edition test faster by focusing on what the exam actually rewards, not what feels productive to highlight. We move quickly through the early chapters that rarely impact your score, then lock onto the high frequency topics that can make up a huge chunk of your questions. We break down the Human Movement System in plain language: the anatomy terms you’ll see, the planes of motion NASM loves to define, and the muscle basics that show up again and again. Then we simplify cardiorespiratory essentials (chambers, SA node, bradycardia vs tachycardia, arteries vs veins), metabolism and energy systems (ATP PC, glycolysis, oxidative), and the nutrition numbers that are easy points if you memorize them. The real test comes when NASM shifts into assessments and program design. We walk through screening concepts like PAR Q, key cutoffs like hypertension, and the logic behind the overhead squat assessment checkpoints. From there we drill the OPT model phases, acute variables, and the fastest way to choose between stabilization, strength, and power when the exam throws weird exercise names at you. You’ll also hear how NASM expects you to apply SMR, stretching choices by phase, and the inhibition terms that commonly appear. If you want a clear NASM CPT study plan you can repeat until it’s automatic, hit subscribe, share this with a friend taking the test, and leave us a review with the topic you want us to break down next. Want to become a SUCCESSFUL personal trainer? SUF-CPT is the FASTEST growing personal training certification in the world! Want to ask us a question?  Email info@showupfitness.com with the subject line PODCAST QUESTION to get your question answered live on the show! Website: https://www.showupfitness.com/ Become a Successful Personal Trainer Book Vol. 2 (Amazon): https://a.co/d/1aoRnqA NASM / ACE / ISSA study guide: https://www.showupfitness.com

  8. Sep 8

    How to Sell More Personal Training | Life Time Trainer Sean Hyson

    Send us a text if you want to be on the Podcast & explain why! Want to get hired at Life Time fitness and become a successful personal trainer? SUF CPT is the best personal training certification for trainers who want to create a career. Sean Hyson was hired with his SUF CPT in Austin at Life Time. He had a great background as an author and writer for T Nation and Onnit. He went to a SUF Seminar in Houston for hands on learning and then got his SUF CPT. He was hired in March.  You can be great at coaching and still struggle to sell, especially in a premium gym where the numbers feel big the moment the price sheet comes out. We talk with Sean, a new trainer at Lifetime who’s already leading the company in leads generated, but keeps running into the same wall: prospects love the workout and the vibe, then hesitate when it’s time to buy training packages. We walk step-by-step through his real sales process, from workshops and goal-setting sessions to the InBody scan, the intro workout, and the close. Along the way we break down what his Austin client base looks like, why “pretty fit” members still need coaching, and how travel and inconsistent schedules complicate adherence. Then we get tactical about personal training sales: how to tighten the presentation, stop overselling, remove apologetic “it’s expensive” language, and use silence as a closing tool instead of filling the space with extra explanations. The biggest shift is learning how to turn “need” into “want.” We dig into how the last five to eight minutes of an intro session can create a clear, emotional proof of value with smart intensity, the right exercise choices, and a memorable finish that makes someone think, “That’s what I’ve been missing.” If you want better conversions, stronger fitness consultations, and a repeatable close you can refine like film study, this is the playbook. Subscribe, share this with a trainer who’s stuck at the close, and leave a review with your biggest sales objection so we can tackle it next. Want to become a SUCCESSFUL personal trainer? SUF-CPT is the FASTEST growing personal training certification in the world! Want to ask us a question?  Email info@showupfitness.com with the subject line PODCAST QUESTION to get your question answered live on the show! Website: https://www.showupfitness.com/ Become a Successful Personal Trainer Book Vol. 2 (Amazon): https://a.co/d/1aoRnqA NASM / ACE / ISSA study guide: https://www.showupfitness.com

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About

Join Chris Hitchko, author of 'How to Become A Successful Personal Trainer' VOL 2 and CEO of Show Up Fitness as he guides personal trainers towards success. 90% of personal trainers quit within 12-months in the USA, 18-months in the UK, Show Up Fitness is helping change those statistics. The Show Up Fitness CPT is one of the fastest growing PT certifications in the world with partnerships with over 500-gyms including Life Time Fitness, Equinox, Genesis, EoS, and numerous other elite partnerships.This podcast focuses on refining trade, business, and people skills to help trainers excel in the fitness industry. Discover effective client programming, revenue generation, medical professional networking, and elite assessment strategies. Learn how to become a successful Show Up Fitness CPT at www.showupfitness.com.  Send your questions to Chris on Instagram @showupfitness or via email at info@showupfitness.com."

Information

  • Creator
    Chris Hitchko, CEO Show Up Fitness
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    413
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 The Show Up Fitness Podcast
  • Show Website
    The Show Up Fitness Podcast

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