There are many organizations offering personal trainer certification in the health and fitness industry. Some of these certifications are legitimate and should be considered when determining which personal trainer certification to get but others aren't certifications that are worth the paper they are written on.
How do you know which personal trainer certification to choose?
#1 - Go for the best personal trainer certification not necessarily the easiest.
Choose a certifying organization for personal training that has a third party that reviews their exams. Recently, the personal training certifying bodies have used NCCA, an accrediting body of impartial experts who ensure that the certification of that organization has met stringent standards. This brings credibility to the organization and its certifications, research, events, etc. Not many organizations who certify personal trainers will have this professional "mark" of excellence but those that do, will definitely tell you about it.
#2 - Choose a personal trainer certification that encourages fitness assessments and proper medical and general history of the client during the client intake.
You want to know what you are getting yourself into when you train a client.
How do you know if the client has a heart history? How do you know how much stress the client is under from job, family, and other commitments? What about medications the client is taking - do you know how these will affect the client's training? How do you know what exercise recommendations you should make for a client that you haven't fitness assessed?
Organizations that don't teach personal trainers through their certification programs to ask for and get this information are basically "asking" you to train a potential "walking time bomb."
Who knows, in this day in age, what is truly going on with people in the general population internally. Even younger athletes who you might be training could be "on" something and/or susceptible to something (heart attacks).
You need to know this information through proper client intake procedures. The certification program should teach you this.
#3 - Select the personal trainer certification that requires continuing education hours.
This expectation gives credibility to the certification. The personal trainer should be continually learning more about how to train safely and effectively and to make programs individualized by using a variety of teaching techniques.
The certified personal trainer should learn information to give the client of a general non-medical nutritional nature and should be constantly educating him/herself in how to motivate and hold the client accountable.
This is the standard that a certified personal trainer should be held to.
#4 - What to watch out for.
Can you get a personal trainer certification off the internet in the next half hour? Sure. If it is something that is inexpensive and you can print the certificate immediately after paying with your credit card, you really don't want this personal trainer certification.
If you aren't required to study anything nor have any study materials to purchase in passing a personal trainer exam, you don't want this certification either.
Basically, if it is too good to be true, it is not a legitimate credential. These are the certification credentials that you ought to run from.
The health and fitness industry is huge and the opportunities for certified personal trainers are growing. Start out on the right footing. Get the best certification in the industry to set you apart using these tips as guidelines in choosing.
© Copyright 2008 Kim Fischer
Kim Fischer, owner of Empowered By Learning LLC, created the ACSM Certified Personal Trainer Exam Preparation workshop and accompanying Study Guide and Action Plan for Passing the ACSM Personal Trainer Certification Exam to support people in reaching their goal of becoming a certified personal trainer by the "gold standard" organization in the industry. Kim guarantees that workshop participants will pass the exam or their next workshop is free. Learn more about how to simplify and organize the process and the content for the ACSM Certified Personal Trainer Exam by getting a free excerpt of Kim's step-by-step Action Plan when you subscribe at http://www.empoweredbylearningllc.com
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