ISSA DNA-Based Fitness Coach Review 

A few years ago, I started hearing a lot about DNA-based fitness. I had friends and family who started getting DNA tests to see what their biomarkers were and if they had any genetic predispositions to certain types of foods or exercises.

Eventually, I did the same. 

But I found that the majority of services out there gave you a test and then printed a report with your findings. That was it.

A few services offered comprehensive online dashboards and continuing recommendation as well as access to supplements, but those were very expensive and you had to pay a monthly fee to continue your access. Plus, they kind of focused more on different areas of life and less about how I should be exercising based on my DNA or what I should be eating based on my DNA. 

As soon as I saw the ISSA DNA-Based fitness coach program, I signed up. 

Not only was I excited, but so were my friends and family, who were just waiting for me to finish my certification so they could pay me for my services. Now, you may not have a handful of people in close proximity who are chomping at the bit to get a new exercise and diet plan from you, but this is still a great investment in your career, even if you only do it on the side. 

The ISSA Certified DNA-Based Fitness Coach Course 

The ISSA Certified DNA-Based Fitness Coach course is there to help you look at over 30 genetic identifiers that relate to how each person responds to things like:

1. Motivation techniques
2. Different types of exercise
3. Nutrition

With this information, you can give clients personalized programs. This works incredibly well if you are already a certified personal trainer and a certified nutrition coach, as you can not only use that DNA-based data to understand client responses but apply it for improved athletic performance and weight loss in conjunction with things like nutrition-based services.

This is truly a one-of-a-kind certification, and I was very happy to see it offered by ISSA. This is a growing field with more and more people looking away from their GPs and looking toward genetic tests to improve their quality of life. 

Cost

• Around $800

What’s Included in the Cost

• Online platform with an easy-to-use dashboard that tracks your progress and shows individual, weekly modules
• Content broken down into weekly recommended “modules” which can be done whenever you have time
• Video lessons help explain more complicated content
• Quizzes after each module are untimed and open-book; you can even use the search tool in the online textbook to look back over things you forgot
• Final exam is taken online, untimed, and open book; no stress
• Case studies are included with analysis templates to help you build your skills, looking over DNA test results and curating reports/instruction for your clients

CE Credits

• 20 credits–If you have any other certification and you need continuing education units to keep your certification current, this course will fulfill your needs with ISSA and many other companies 

What I Love

• Very detailed information in each chapter
• Affiliate program for DNA tests

What I Don’t Love

• Honestly, how short the course is compared to others, but I get it; there is only so much in the field

Curriculum

Let’s start with the curriculum.

As someone who’s done DNA tests for health reasons and compared many companies offering biometric data and health and fitness support based on that data, I was very interested to see what ISSA could offer that was different.

I’ll be honest, I was worried it would mostly just overlap with things I had already googled.

I was, thankfully, very wrong. 

The course curriculum is highly detailed, and it is designed to facilitate better coaching, meaning you get an introductory section to each type of gene that is tested with their test kits, and how those genes relate to things like weight loss ability or exercise response.

After that, the course breaks down exactly what adjustments should be made to things like weight loss attempts or exercise programs, including how frequently, what time of day, and duration, based on what the potential DNA results for that gene turn out to be. 

Not only is this fascinating information, but once you start coaching, your job will be to give your clients one of the test kits (from the affiliate program), receive their results, and basically guide them or write a personalized report for them based on that information. So you can turn to the textbook (I would recommend buying a physical one for reference) and review what adaptations need to be made based on each of their data points and where they fall, such as “normal” or “sensitive.” 

I will also say that there is some overlap with other courses, but that is minimal. For example, several of the chapters talk about macro and micronutrient response as well as vitamin and mineral utilization based on DNA results. So, if you’ve taken things like the nutrition coach cert, you’ll see a couple of pages that look very similar in their basic breakdown of things like how the body uses protein. 

Testing

I was also curious as to how this program would work once you actually started coaching because, after all, your clients would need a test.

So it turns out ISSA has an affiliate program with a test kit provider. That company is just an option, not a requirement.

One of the many things I learned about that company is that they can use data from existing DNA tests, specifically from places like 23andMe or ancestry.com. So if you are working with someone who has recently done a DNA test through those places, it can save them on the cost of the testing process.

This company had an incredible array of flexible and supportive opportunities for coaches. For additional costs, you could get things like:

• Personalized test kit boxes with a sticker for your coaching business on the DNA test kits
• Fully customizable report content, so you get all of the client data from the tests and then have the option to generate customizable reports that reflect your business name and brand

The company also gives you wholesale prices on the test kits and different test kits, but from there you are allowed to charge whatever you want when you present those services to your clients. The company even offers recommendations for what the average client charges. 

This makes it really easy to figure out what you want to charge for services. 

This is juxtaposed by basically all their other courses, where you finish and then you’re like, “Wait, how much can I actually make doing this? What do I charge?”

Course Layout

The course is laid out in 12 modules, as well as the introduction section, the downloads section, where you can get actionable resources for your work as a DNA-based fitness coach, and of course, the final exam.

Everything you need is contained in the student dashboard specific to your course, which has a very easy-to-use layout. The dashboard actually monitors your progress and shows you how many units of content you still have to complete in each module.

So, if you look at your week 9 module, for example, you might see that it has three sections listed to complete. Those three sections are likely:

1. Chapter reading
2. Video content
3. Quiz

Some modules might have multiple chapters and therefore multiple quizzes, but in general, the course is laid out where each week you read a chapter or two from the book, watch some video content, and take your quiz.

I suppose it was refreshing for me to figure out that the video content wasn’t just regurgitating everything from the chapters. It was certainly relevant to the content, but it added value to the curriculum instead of just repeating what you had read. 

Course Length

All in this is a very short course. You have 6 months to finish it, which makes sense because it’s divided into 12 weeks worth of content, and honestly, each week seems to be less than 2 hours of work.

Then again, you can make courses as long or as short as you want if you access all of the additional exercise videos and supplemental content they provide in your student dashboard. 

Still, if you are budgeting for time versus payout, this is well worth the investment because it can be completed in a short amount of time, and you can immediately start making money through the affiliate program. 

Textbook

I found the textbook to be incredibly useful, very detailed, and not nearly as mundane as some of the other textbooks from competing companies. It focuses on all the key areas relating to health and fitness, as compared to DNA results like:

• Exercise response based on DNA
• Macronutrient utilization based on DNA
• Recovery and injury risk based on DNA
• Vitamin and mineral utilization based on DNA
• Exercise response based on DNA

You get a lot of case studies in the end as well, and I found that to be particularly useful.

The case studies gave you an opportunity to look at sample situations and practice your ability to read the results from a DNA test and apply them to a personalized health and fitness plan for your potential clients, specifically how they should exercise and what type of exercise, as well as what they should expect from that exercise.

Summing Up

The ISSA Certified DNA-Based Fitness Coach course is a great investment. It is affordable (with monthly payment plans if needed) and highly informative. What’s more, it fills a niche that is growing in popularity. 

This is truly a one-of-a-kind certification, and I was very happy to see it offered by ISSA. This is a growing field with more and more people looking away from their GPs and looking toward genetic tests to improve their quality of life.