NASM vs. ACE vs NSCA

[abmj]

I have recently decided to go for my Personal Trainer Cert. Now I have to decide who to go get it from. Any suggestions from those of you who have been certified?
Also witch one equal to LEVEL 3 Personal trainer As REPS, CYQ, Active IQ?

[fitguy23]

i will be taking NASM in couple of weeks.From what i know NASM is more valued than ACE

[joekingpt]

All will get you in the door at a gym or training facility. Go with the organization that appeals to you most. If you like the idea of the OPT model, then go with NASM. If you like ACE's IFT model, then choose them. Both are good, it's your attitude and passion for fitness that will get you hired and help you be successful in this industry. Good luck!

[JoeCannonMSCSCS]

Dont worry about the levels of personal training. get a good cert and then keep learning after you get it. this will reduce the money you spend on certs and maintaining all those certs. There are advantages to each organization you mentioned -ACE, NSCA and NASM - but none of them are "the best" because there is no best. it depends on which area you want to focus on.

For example, do you want a good well rounded cert that will help you work with almost everybody? then Id go with ACE or NSCA. are you more interested in how the muscles work during exercises (corrective exercise as its sometimes called) then NASM may be a good bet. are you thinking about athletes -esp at the college level - then NSCA would be a good choice.

My general advice is get a cert and then buy the books of all the other organizations and study those. then you have the knowledge without having to spend thousands of dollars on those other certs. On my website I have reviews of ACE, NSCA and NASM which offer other insights into each that may help you better narrow down which is right for you.

Joe

[Ronin4help]

i will be taking NASM in couple of weeks.From what i know NASM is more valued than ACE

ACE is the absolute bottom. It's an entry certification. It's better than nothing.

[BC02]

nsca>ace>........................................n asm

[joekingpt]

nsca>ace>........................................n asm

I've held certs from all three you mention. I would say NSCA > NASM > ACE.

[SCfitness7]

I personally think that all three of these certifications are in my top four certifications available right now. They'll specialize in something slightly different but they will all provide very good foundations to build your personal training career off of. I think that NASM is geared slightly more towards corrective exercise training. ACE has a good overall emphasis and does not really specialist too much and NSCA focuses slightly more on sports performance due to their advanced CSCS certification. My website has a lot of different comparison articles as well as reviews of certifications. Two good articles for people reading this thread are ACE vs NSCA which you can find here: http://www.ptpioneer.com/nsca-vs-ace/ and NASM vs ACE which you can find here:http://www.ptpioneer.com/nasm-vs-ace/