ISSA Final Exam Questions and 2026/2027 New Update

ISSA Final Exam Questions and Answers 2026/2027 New Update

ISSA Final Exam Questions and

Answers 2026/2027 New Update

Q: What is the most superficial (closest to the surface) muscle of the abdominals.

Answer:

External obliques

Q: Utilizing the FITT principle, how many times a week should a beginner client workout for?

Answer:

3 times a week. This principle works best for beginners because it will show them how to get

started.

Q: What is responsible for sensing excessive stretch to protect the muscle?

Answer:

Muscle spindle.

Q: Cycling your training to help account for shock, compensation, and exhaustion is an

important part of periodization and refers to which principle?

Answer:

The GAS principle.

1. "Alarm stage" applying intense training stress.

2. "Resistance stage" muscles evolve and adapt to handling heavier loads and resist stressful

weights more easily and effectively.

3. "Exhaustion stage" continually adding stress will exhaust our reserves and will cease to

function at peak performance.

To prevent the third stage from even happening, you need weeks of going "light"; decreasing the

weight and intensity to give your body time to rest and recover.

Q: The need for different phases of training helps to prevent what?

Answer:

Overtraining

Mix things up a bit. Don't get stuck with using the same program/workouts over and over again,

which will lead to orthopedic stress. Incorporate different modes of training and experiment. A

good example is cross-training, which involves performing different activities and sports to

achieve a well-rounded and healthy body.

Q: Individuals with hypertension should moderate their intake of what?

Answer:

Salt

It has been shown to increase blood pressure in sodium-sensitive individuals. Half of

hypertensive individuals are sodium-sensitive.

Q: A client performs 8 reps of the seated leg press at 320 lbs. What is their estimated 1RM?

Answer:

400 lbs

Take the weight that he lifted (320 lbs) and divide that by 80% (0.80 is the percent of max) and

that = 400 lbs.

Q: What would be a symptom of overtraining?

Answer:

Decrease in performance

There are two types of overtraining:

1. Sympathetic: mostly seen in anaerobic clients, this type of overtraining affects the sympathetic

nervous system (speeds up bodily functions; increasing energy needs) and results in increased

resting heart rate, increased blood pressure, loss of appetite - which leads to weight loss and

decreased body mass, sleeping problems, emotional instability, and an elevated basal metabolic

rate.

2. Parasympathetic: mostly seen in aerobic clients, the opposite occurs. Since this system slows

down bodily functions and conserves energy, overtraining will result in early onset of fatigue,

increased resting heart rate, heart rate recovery after exercise slows down, and an increase in

resting blood pressure.

Q: What is primarily responsible for strength gains in beginner clients?

Answer:

Neural adaptations

Beginners will see a spike in strength and then hypertrophy comes after. Once they have more

strength, then they'll be able to lift heavier weights for more reps (6 - 12) = hypertrophy.

Q: What plane of motion does squatting take place in?

Answer:

Sagittal plane

Any exercise where your body moves back to front or vice versa.

Q: In a client's training cycle, one day or training session is known as what?

Answer:

Microcycle

A microcycle can last a few days to a week, where mesocycle lasts months, and a macrocycle

lasts at least a year.

Q: How often should information be collected when training with a client?