Cerio began martial arts training under George McCabe after being exposed to judo in the Air Force.

Cerio visited Hawaii for two weeks in the mid to late 1960s to live and study with Chow.

In training, Cerio made to assume low, painful stances and throw as much as 500 weighted, full force punches.

[2] Cerio considered Ed Parker his senior, mentor and coach because he offered great insight and he was a great resource in contributing to the formation of Nick Cerio's Kenpo: “Ed Parker was never my instructor, but more like my coach.

Parker awarded Cerio a 9th degree black belt (Kudan) in Kenpo Karate in 1983.

Cerio can be credited with both expanding and helping to popularize kenpo on the east coast, more specifically New England.