The NASM Youth Exercise Specialist (YES) program is designed to equip fitness professionals with the knowledge and skills needed to safely and effectively train children and adolescents, while ensuring exercises remain fun and engaging. The program focuses on enhancing youth athletic performance, including strength, endurance, balance, and overall fitness, using evidence-based strategies tailored specifically for younger age groups.
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Upon successful completion, participants will be able to:
Key Knowledge & Skills Gained
Professional Benefits
The Youth Exercise Specialization is designed for fitness professionals who want to work confidently and effectively with kids and teens. This specialization gives you the knowledge and practical tools needed to train youth clients using age-appropriate methods that support healthy development, movement skills, confidence, and long-term fitness habits.
The course focuses on the important differences between adult and youth clients and teaches you how to adjust training programs for a younger client base between the ages of 6 and 19. It covers key areas such as youth development, coaching strategies, cardiorespiratory training, resistance training, plyometric training, movement skills, program design, and safety considerations for youth exercise.
This specialization helps you create engaging programs that make exercise fun, effective, and suitable for different ages and ability levels. It prepares you to support young clients in building athleticism, improving movement quality, developing confidence, and creating a positive relationship with physical activity.
As one of the most trusted sources of fitness training certifications in the world, NASM is a distinguished name that will stand out to fitness employers. When you choose NASM for your Youth Exercise Specialization, you'll get access to world-class fitness experts, your top choice of gyms to work for, and much more:
A fitness credential is recommended, but not required, for the Youth Exercise Specialization.
You can complete your Youth Exercise Specialization in as few as 2-4 weeks. In addition to its interactive multimedia-rich content, learning tools, and other resources, you can also receive assistance from NASM experts when questions arise.
Absolutely! You can complete the Youth Exercise Specialization while also working full-time. The study material is 100% online and self-paced, and can be accessed on a computer, or a mobile device such as a phone or tablet.
The Youth Exercise Specialization exam is taken online inside your customer portal. You'll have 365 days from the date of purchase, to study and complete the exam. This exam features:
Don't worry! You'll have three attempts to pass the exam, and you can purchase additional retests.
No. Once you pass the exam, your Youth Exercise Specialization with NASM will never expire.
After this chapter, students will understand youth population terms, differentiate between overweight and obesity, and explain the main causes of youth obesity.
After this chapter, students will understand physiological differences between children, adolescents, and adults, recognize hormonal changes in boys and girls, and differentiate exercise capacity between youth and adults.
After this chapter, students will understand success traits, the role of self-perception and confidence in youth fitness, and apply strategies to support goal-setting, persistence, and behavior change in young clients.
After this chapter, students will understand the importance of youth assessments, professional expectations, how to conduct fitness tests and questionnaires, and key considerations when testing youth.
After this chapter, students will understand flexibility guidelines for youth, different flexibility training options, and the reasoning behind these recommendations.
After this chapter, students will understand the importance and guidelines of cardiorespiratory training for youth and be able to design enjoyable programs.
After this chapter, students will understand the importance of core and balance training for youth, apply the OPT™ model, and design safe and effective programs.
After this chapter, students will understand the importance of plyometric and SAQ training for youth, apply the OPT™ model, and design safe, effective, and engaging programs.
After this chapter, students will understand the benefits and safety of resistance training for youth, correct common myths, follow proper guidelines, and design safe, progressive programs.
After this chapter, students will understand the OPT™ model for youth, cardiorespiratory training stages, RPE and the Borg scale, and how to integrate circuit training with cardio.
After this chapter, students will understand the effects of obesity on youth, current eating trends, nutrition and fluid guidelines, and basic weight management recommendations.
After this chapter, students will understand legal and ethical responsibilities, apply the NASM Code of Conduct when working with youth, and identify marketing strategies to reach youth clients.
You have 365 days from the date of purchase to pass the exam. The exam consists of 60 multiple-choice questions and must be completed within 90 minutes. To pass, you need a minimum score of 70%. If you don’t pass, you have up to three attempts.
