Competency and Confidence in Qualitative Biomechanical Assessment of Exercise Technique Among Exercise Professionals.

ABSTRACT: Petushek, E, Breen, S, Myer, GD, Dupuis, BP, Dorgo, S, Ebben, W, and Krosshaug, T. Competency and confidence in qualitative biomechanical assessment of exercise technique among exercise professionals. J Strength Cond Res 40(1): 16-23, 2026-Understanding resistance exercise technique is critical for exercise professionals, but research on this as a specific competency is lacking. This study evaluated resistance exercise technique analysis competency, confidence, and perceived importance in a diverse set of exercise professionals. A 30-question true/false and multiple-choice instrument was developed that focused on application of biomechanical principles to resistance exercises. Subsequently, instrument data were collected from 310 exercise professionals (e.g., personal trainers, strength coaches, physical therapists), and overall percentage of correct answers was calculated across the 30 questions. Perceived importance and confidence in abilities were also assessed. Overall scores were compared across occupation and years of experience using 1-way ANOVA and follow-up t -tests correcting for multiple comparisons. Wilcoxon rank sum tests were used to compare confidence and importance data. Overall percentage of correct answers was 50%. There were no significant differences in scores among exercise professionals or years of experience ( p > 0.05). Subjects were most confident in choosing appropriate exercises to target specific muscles (72%) and identifying poor technique (70%) and least confident about optimizing exercises to maximize activation (45%). About 97% of professionals expressed a desire to learn more about assessing resistance exercises. Exercise professionals in this cohort lacked knowledge in biomechanics related to resistance exercise, exercise prescription, assessment, and modification. Most exercise professionals believed these skills were very important and desired to learn more.