Have you been completely confused by all the companies offering a Personal Training Certification? What s an NCSF Certification or an ACE exam? Are they any good? Why is this so difficult to figure out?

When I started learning about becoming a Personal Trainer, I couldn t believe how unregulated and distributed the Personal Training Industry had become in the last few years. All I wanted to know was…what types of certifications were available in the United States that are recognized by clients and quality fitness professionals? Why should that be so hard?

Turns out that the fitness industry is one of the least regulated professions. The most important thing for aspiring trainers to learn before they start their career is how the industry is self-organized to highlight reputable certification organizations.

NCCA - The Only “Gold” Standard

Here s the key to it all… The National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA at http://www.noca.org) is the main accrediting body for Personal Training Certification programs in the United States.

Personal Trainer Certifications from an accredited NCCA certifying body are the top-tier certifications personal trainers can earn. Furthermore, most gyms, clients, and people in the business expect a competent personal trainer to have their certification from one of the NCCA certified bodies.

These eight endorsed organizations offer a variety of fitness and personal training educational workshops, materials, and degrees. All of them are recognized as valid training certifications and can be a crucial first step on your way to becoming a personal trainer.

General Certification Similarities

Each certification organization is administered a little differently, but all require their graduates to take one or more competency exams. Many times these exams include an in-person practical. (I believe they ALL should, but unfortunately they do not.)

The eight NCCA accredited organizations offer , along with their certifications, their own test preparation materials to study and prepare for their exams.

If you pass these exams, you will receive a certification that will last for a predetermined time frame, usually 1-3 years.

After you re certified, each organization has different rules about how many “Continuing Education Credits” (aka CEC s or CEU s) their trainers must take during the year to stay current. They also require trainers to recertify when their certificates expire…for an additional fee, of course!

Let s take an example…American College of Exercise (ACE) has a “Personal Trainer” certification that you can take for about $300. The certification is good for two years. After the two years is up, you have to pay approximately $400 to re-certify with ACE for another two years. That includes a re-examination and registration fees. The $400 is an average of the renewal fee ($69) and the 20 hours of CEC s you must take (and pay for)

Although many certification programs insist that you do not need to purchase anything to be eligible for their exams, new trainers need to be very familiar with the type of material on each particular exam. Each group tests a central core of skills and knowledge (say, anatomy and exercise science), but most have some different aspects included (like nutrition or sports trainers) that you may not even be aware of if you study from a different set of materials.

The Blessed Eight

Let s take a look at the eight Personal Training Certification groups that have been blessed by the NCCA so we can eliminate non-accredited programs that are being advertised daily on the web.

1. The American College of Exercise (ACE) offers a personal trainer certification and three other health certifications. A series of practical training programs are offered in major cities around the country. These courses consist of fifteen hours of instruction in two days. The organization also has home study courses to prepare for the certification exam. These courses take about three to six months to complete and allow you to work at your own pace.

2. The National Council on Strength and Fitness (NCSF) offers a Personal Training Certification program and home study courses for exam preparation. It takes home the acronym absurdity award with a certificate labeled “NCSF-CPT”. They have quite a selection of offerings and you can choose between home study and interactive workshops. When you have finished the course and exam preparation, you will be ready to take the certification exam. The exam is available at over four hundred testing locations around the country.

3. The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) offers two ways to prepare for their certification exam. They offer one to three day workshops or an exam preparation home study course. They also offer a popular Health / Fitness Instructor certification for people interested in teaching classes.

4. The National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM) has a Certified Personal Trainer (CPT) certification, among a whole slew of other certifications. They are very well known in the fitness industry and many top fitness clubs accept their CPT certification. The CPT exam has some strict limits (such as number of times you can take practice exams and time given to sit for the exam) and must be done in person. It s also offered in computer based testing centers around the country.

5. National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) also known as the NSCA-PT, comes from the National Strength and Conditioning Association. They offer two types of certifications, one known as the C.S.C.S. and a personal training certification called NSCA-CPT”.

6. The Cooper Institute (CI) is a new NCCA accredited organization offering a Personal Training Certification. The CI-CPT designation comes from the guy that started the entire Aerobics craze with his book published in the 70 s called, well, “Aerobics”!

7. The National Exercise Trainers Association (NETA) is also a new NCCA accredited organization. Although its reputation is still catching up with its quality, it strikes me as a certification where the student gets a lot for his or her money.

8. The National Federation of Professional Trainers (NFPT) is also an NCCA accredited certification. NFPT offers a Certified Personal Trainer (CPT) program with a whole slew of additional advanced courses also available.

These Personal Training Certification Organizations offer quite a variety of ways to get the education needed to become a certified trainer. They all have at home, online, and workshop classes and some even offer correspondence courses at local colleges. Each has it s own strengths and weaknesses that vary according to your training goals.

Hopefully this clears up some of the confusion about quality Personal Training Certifications out there in the world today.

Leslie Smith is a Certified Personal Trainer and owner of Fun-2B-Fit, LLC. She has published a book on “Becoming a Certified Personal Trainer” to assist aspiring trainers with their goals of becoming certified fitness professionals.

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