I Dont know were you got your info from but I can tell you that the order you list these certifications holds no water.
Ace is not the Certification it used to be. Nawsm has lost value over the years. You list NCSF near the bottom. this was one of the first Certs accepted by the NCCA. I think you need to go back to the drawing board and get your info correct

Dave,

Thanks for commenting! Take a closer look at the scoring criteria found in the paper I linked to. NCSF is pretty much “average” in the middle. They lost points as a result of lack of eduation required to take the exam. For exams from agencies like ACSM, and NSCA, you need to have an existing Bachelors of Science prior to sitting for the exam. A person with a B.S. in exercise physiology will have a much better understanding of anatomy, physiology, as well as cellular, molecular, and genetic changes to exericise versus an exam that only requires a high school diploma, or less. This is the main reason NCSF is in the middle with a score of 5.

When you get a second look at the paper a little more closely. I think he has done a nice job of evaluating the personal training certifications according to his particular criteria:

1. Required minimum education

2. Approved by the national commission for certifying Agencies (NCCA)

3. Exam protocol

4. Promotion of exercise science

Jim

I read through your article on ranking certifying agencies and I see you tried to rank them according to a set of guidelines which is mostly good. While I agree there are a number of “weekend certs” that don’t hold alot of water, there are other factors to consider. I have been in the business of teaching fitness long before any of these certs came along; you could say I’m one the “old-timers” that was on the scene teaching fitness classes almost before there were casette tapes and definately before there were step classes, and all of the pre-choreographed, franchised group classes you can buy into (which are ok, in fact I am certified by one of them.) To this day I continue to teach and lead people to better health and fitness levels they themselves evver thot possible. I eventually become the health and fitness director at a local YMCA and stayed there for 20 years. I then became certified through ISSA and I’m very proud to hold this certification. It was very thorough in every aspect of fitness science as well as building human relations. I now hold the ISSA Fitness Therapist Certification and have a private practice working with people who would never go to a gym setting and connect well with me and my less-than-educated approach to gaining health. I was one who never received “higher education” anywhere because I have a significant learning disability and I so appreciated ISSA’s approach to gaining a certification; no pressure for memorizing and quick learning, however my work on the Fitness Therapist exam was every bit as legitimate … several case studies were involved, writing programs for those with chronic illness and injury, coming back from surgery, and people that were obese. In addition, there was a requirement to mentor with professionals in your community which I did; 80 hours of internship with a local physical therapist. The work I did on gaining that certification was so involved and took me almost two years. But it was all very experiential and THAT is my style of learning. I would be very careful about discounting certain certifying organizations since there are many approaches to learning; and there are many people who absolutely have the desire to help people become healthier and enhance the quality of their lives. Education is one way to gaining experience, but there are other ways and there is something to be said for mentoring, experiential learning, and just plain having the love for fitness and wanting to help. I do believe there needs to be a way to ensure our clients are getting good quality instruction because as the fitness director of the YMCA, I saw some real lapses there. But I also believe there needs to be a variety of ways we fitness professionals can get the education we should have without boxing ourselves into a “one size fits all” approach.

Kara,

Great comment! Thanks for contributing to the conversation.

I agree 100% with you. I have highly endorsed ISSA for years. Here is my personal list of the top 9 personal trainer certification. http://personaltrainingriches.com/blog/the-9-best-personal-training-certifications. I built this list before the article was even published.

The evaluator really took education/academics into consideration. Yes, it is important, but not more important than experience. A combination of the two is ideal - education + experience.

My biggest issue is having an uneducated person, who has no interest in education, open up a personal training business, and begin working with symptomatic people. This de-values all of us personal fitness trainers who value professionalism.

It is alright with me having a high school graduate enter the personal trainer industry as long as they have interest in getting the necessary education (even if it is basic anatomy, and physiology from ACE).

It is the person that becomes a personal trainer, and feels they don’t need education that bothers me. They may feel reading Muscle and Fiction (I mean Fitness) as all they need to be qualified.

In my opinion, we all need continuing education, experiences, and a never ending amount of enthusiasm. That is what makes us an expert, and professional. Just me 2 cents.

Jim

That list wasn’t bad. If only it could take into consideration exam difficulty- then it might be more credible. Some certification agencies even post their passing rate on their sites. The NSCA, for example, boasts an average of 54% passing rate for their CPT exam.

A survey, perhaps. Since, of course, each person’s level of education, study skills/habits and intelligence varies greatly, it would have to be a scientific survey.

Can any one tell me anything about an NHE certification and NHE’s credibility? I got an email about some jobs that they have, and a certification through them is required. Are they legitimate?

I think that the NSCA education requirement applies to the CSCS, but not to the CPT. In any event, the education level of any given individual is what matters. I’m certified by NCSF (CPT), ISSA (Fitness Nutrition), and NHE (CPT Level 2), and hold an earned doctorate not related to exercise. I also hold numerous certifications in another professional field, as well. I’m not working as a trainer (I have other employment). My point is that it is one thing to rank certifications based on required minimum education, but trainers’ actual educational levels vary, without regard to the minimum required levels. I’ve also been working out for 23 years, and have been a client of very experienced trainers myself. I’ll likely take the NSCA CPT exam the next time I decide to take a trainer exam, but I think that my present background and certifications are not insubstantial.

I happen to come across this reference to my article. I thank Jim for citing it and representing it accurately! Also, it is evident from Jim’s comments that he does understand the context in which the analysis was done. It did not consider individual trainers and their backgrounds. My analsysis scientifically and objectively ranks the certifications based on the 4 criteria I chose. I defined the criteria and described my method. One can argue the merits of the criteria and the method, but once set, the anlaysis is completely unbiased (full disclosure: I’m a CSCS and CISSN because they ranked high, so I sought them out).

This gives consumers a way to figure out what the certifications mean when searching for a trainer. This gives the new trainer or current trainers a way to decide for themselves which certification to go after.

This does NOT provide evidence to attack individuals who have certifications that did not rank well. In this unregulated field, consumers don’t have a way to objectively compare their product, us as trainers. They are over-whelmed by flashy marketing and false claims not based in science. Anecdotes aren’t science. A series of “experience”/anecdotes is not science. This was a way to objectively anlayze the certifications. I’m open to Dave’s objective analysis. On what merit is he making his claim? (Just becasue NCSF was one of the firsts, does he mean it’s one of the best or worst.) Kara’s objective analysis would also be interesting. However, unless experience is a criterion on which to get a certification, it has no merit in the analysis.

If you looked more at my other articles, I wrote one on how to find a trainer. This is very different than what the certifications mean and how they rank. When considering a new trainer, one should look at the certifications as a way to gauge the minimum knowledge the train may possess, but experience and past successes are also important.

This analysis, like all science, is not a personal attack on anyone. Until the NBFE or congress somehow regulate personal trainers, consumers are left on their own. This is can be unsafe for consumers if they are given bad advice for form or nutrition. For example, the common saying “Don’t squat past 90 degrees in the knee or don’t let you knee go over your toes in lunges.” Why not? Why is that bad form? Well, if you don’t know biomechanics, then you just stick to this saying. However, one can safely do both of these things if the patella is tracking correctly during the movement. If the form is off a little bit, this will cause a high shear force on the joint and overly stress the patellar tendon, and that is bad for the health of knee/patellar tendon. However, if you have everything tracking well, deep squats/lunges will improve full range of strength and flexibility more than shallow squats/lunges. Although this is an extreme example, it shows why it is important to have exercise science knowledge. Now, how does a consumer determine who has this knowledge or not? One way is choosing a trainer with a good certificaiton. Wile none of the certificatins test this deeper understanding of biomechanics (correct me if I’m wrong, then I’ll get that certification), it is an example of why this field should be regulated. This example is beyond the point of the article.