Level 4 Certificate in Strength and Conditioning • Fit Training

Want to take your Personal Training to the next level? Increase your client base and gain the skills to help athletes achieve their goals. With our Level 4 Certificate in Strength & Conditioning, you'll be able to plan, prepare, deliver and review strength and conditioning programmes.

Create strategies and plans to help your clients reach new limits and their performance goals.

Course Content

The aim of this qualification is to provide learners with the knowledge and skills to be able to plan, prepare, deliver and review strength and conditioning programmes that will help athletes to achieve their performance goals.

The qualification is divided into two key units:

Performance analysis of the activity and the athlete
Plan, deliver and evaluate periodised performance-related strength and conditioning programmes

Across these units you will cover the following:

The role of a strength and conditioning coach as part of an athlete’s support team
Methods of carrying out performance-related needs analysis, measurements and assessments
Strategies to analyse and evaluate assessment findings in order to be able to develop and agree short, medium and long-term performance goals
Planning, delivering and evaluating periodised, performance-related strength and conditioning programmes

Study Format

Guided Learning hours: 152 Total Qualification Time: 278

Course length: 12 weeks

Online Course: We’ve made it even easier for you to get qualified, just complete your e-learning modules in your own time.

Study from the comfort of your own home while working around your lifestyle, getting qualified couldn't be easier. Learn from industry experts CIMSPA enhancing provider and get access to our e-learning 24/7 & Tutor support 7-days a week.

This course at level 4 specifically includes a strong element of self-guided study and research. Assessments are: casework/project, a Portfolio of Evidence, Practical Demonstration/Assignment/Assessment via video.

Assessments

In order to achieve your qualification, you will be required to complete various assessment and casework this includes:

1. You will need to produce a professional proposal to promote the benefits of strength and conditioning coaching to prospective clients this a written/ produced presentation format:

PowerPoint or similar (client-friendly and part of normal practice)
Videos, images, audio recording
Web pages. Handouts or leaflets
Any other format which is suitable for a professional presentation to a prospective client
The core proposal should be an appropriate length for presentation to a prospective client
You include a reference list showing the sources of information used to develop the proposal
You will also briefly explain why you felt the sources used were credible and what made you discount the non-credible sources

2. You will plan, deliver and film the following sessions live with an athlete and submit to your tutor for assessment:

A performance-related warmup
A speed and agility drill
A plyometric drill
Facilitated safe/effective cooldown

Please note these sessions are not personal training/ gym-based sessions and may require setup/facility use and equipment depending on what you plan. Please prepare for this and have all the necessary equipment such as smartphone/camera and audio equipment to record your sessions, and that you are comfortable using basic software to plan out your sessions and record evaluation notes. (i.e. Word, Excel, etc., so that they can be submitted for review).

3. You will be required to study, practice and demonstrate full competence of key lifts:

High bar back squat
Clean & Jerk
Snatch

For this, you will need to practice a lot to bring your technical competency up to the required standard. You will also be required to film these lifts, showing progression and give a technical breakdown of the required phases of each lift from differing profiles. (These are also to be weighted lift not an empty bar).

4. Case study. Presentation & Viva: You will be required to have coached your athlete for a minimum period of 12 weeks. During this time, you will have devised and utilised various testing methods, proforma, session plans etc that you have designed for your s and c coaching delivery to your athlete. Everything you do must be documented as evidence toward your case study.

Once this is complete, you will then present a prepared case presentation to your tutor, giving justification and evaluation of what you have achieved with your athlete. Following this will be a viva session where you will be asked further questions pertaining to your case and presentation. This will be held live with your tutor at a scheduled time.

Important Information

At level 4 there is a STRONG FOCUS ON SELF-GUIDED LEARNING – you should be comfortable undertaking scientific research reviews and finding scientific evidence-based knowledge to support your case and learning. This will require significant time and research to find and evaluate scientific journals related to your athlete's practice and sport.

You will work with a REAL COMPETITIVE ATHLETE for a minimum timescale of 12 weeks in a training and competitive sporting environment: this can include any team sport athlete or individual athlete of a cyclical type sport that has a competitive season with regular competition throughout the year and the athlete is in actively competing. It is your responsibility to source an appropriate athlete and put an agreement in place for at least a 12-week period.

As the course is offered both online and offline, computer literacy is a requirement, including the availability and use of equipment and facilities to carry out your own lifting practice, train your athlete, and film each of these scenarios on multiple occasions. You will then edit, package, and send your videos for review.

There are strong planning and organisation elements to this course to achieve all in the suggested timescales. Please note this takes time and is a significant amount of work at this study level. We suggest allocating 5-7 hours a week to achieve this and also any time required for the coaching of your athlete.

All courses are designed in line with EmployAbility Leisure Guide B. If you need learning materials in an alternative format or other reasonable adjustments, contact us at info@fittraining.co.uk

Certification

Active IQ Level 4 Certificate in Strength & Conditioning

Please note this is not a UKSCA or NSCA endorsed programme and thus accreditation to either would need to be sought by the respective providers.

Entry Requirements

Learners must hold either:

Level 3 Diploma in Personal Training (or equivalent)
Level 3 Coaching qualification (or equivalent)
Level 3 Strength and Conditioning qualification (or equivalent)

ELCAS Funding

Are you leaving the forces and looking to retrain within the fitness industry? You can use the Enhanced Learning Credits to fund our Level 3 and 4 courses, including Strength and Conditioning.

Help and advice is available on our ELCAS info page

Check out our Level 3 Diploma in Gym Instructing and Personal Training course to get started on your strength and conditioning coaching journey.

ELCAS Approved Provider ID: 9004