How to Pick a Personal Trainer Certification
Before beginning a career in personal training you will need to get certified to help people meet their fitness goals. When you start your research you will likely be astonished to find that there is no single personal training certification authority but rather dozens of them all vowing for your money.
If you were to ask other personal trainers how much of a difference the certification makes in their day-to-day lives (i.e. careers), they probably would tell you that it didn’t really matter too much and that you should just get certified somewhere. Rather than outline all of the various personal training certification programs, let’s look at some of the most popular based on their ranking in a basic Google search:
American Council on Exercise (ACE)
National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM)
American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM)
National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA)
Aerobics and Fitness Association of America (AFAA)
There are a few other notable companies but the one you select really depends on how well you relate to the contents of each programs’ test as well as the cost, continuing education, accreditation and of course, what the certification requirements, if any, are of your desired place of work.
Program Contents
In today’s digital age more programs are popping up that allow you to prepare for your certification online and no longer require you to do on-site training. For example, NASM and the AFAA both provide online coursework and give students the opportunity to view online lectures, access practice exams and familiarize themselves with the personal trainer certification study guides that are available. If you learn better in a classroom setting you’ll want to pick a class that allows you to do this. Similarly, if you are good at self-study, an online course may be the way to go.
Cost
Whichever CPT certification you go for you’ll have to make a financial investment. Some courses will allow you to purchase the exam only or offer bundle packages that provide your resources to textbooks, online resources, live workshops, practice exams and other resources for an added cost. While all these programs offer additional study resources, it is important to recognize there are a wealth of free and premium CPT study materials on the web should you want to shop around or find a study resource whose students have an exceptional pass rate.
At the time of this writing, the prices for the certified personal training courses for the most basic packages are as follows:
ACE: $599
NASM: $599
ACSM: $279*
NSCA: $435
AFAA: $499
The ACSM price only consists of the price of the exam whereas the others mentioned provide additional study materials.
CPT Continuing Education
Unfortunately for your wallet but fortunately for your clients, personal training certifications require ongoing continuing education (CE) to maintain. This can be kind of confusing but each cert requires different fees as well as continuing education hours in order to maintain. For example, the NASM CEs have a $99 recertification fee and require 20 hours every two years. However, NASM is the only provider that allows PTs to pay a $299 lifetime coverage fee at the time of certification. ACE and NSCA require recertification every two years as well, and cost $129 and $50 respectively. They both require 20 hours of CE credits. The AFAA also needs to be recertified every two years, necessitates 15 CE credits, and costs $85.
Accreditation
Of the five programs mentioned, four of them are accredited by the National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA): ACE, NASM, ACSM and NSCA. The AFAA is by the Distance Education Accrediting Commission (DEAC), a nationally recognized accrediting agency by the U.S. Department of Education.
If the organization that you wish to work with requires a specific accreditation or certification, find this out before you spend the money to take any specific exam. Some gyms won’t accept some types of personal training certifications and this is important to know before you walk in looking for employment.
So what’s the Best CPT Certification?
The personal trainers at most gyms will come from a variety of different certification backgrounds and this requirement doesn’t make them any better than one another. The important question to ask is “what is the best CPT certification for me?” based on the above-mentioned factors. There is so much more to personal training than the certification; it’s really just the gateway to start helping people and building your book of business. Do your research, study hard, and get it right the first time!
The post How to Pick a Personal Trainer Certification appeared first on .