QUESTION: Which certificates are the best?

[Aesthetical]

Ordering my book for the ACE exam. Roommate and I plan on taking it by the end of the summer. Both our gf's are flying back to sweden for the summer so we have no excuses not to study and certify ourselves.

On another note, my friend was certified by the National Personal Training Institute. He did the courses in the classroom setting, paid around $6k. How does that cert compare to ACE?

[artmansg]

Love CSCS

[eddydalem]

Hi everybody,

So I'm a 24 Belgian and I have a degree in physical education, really interested by the fitness industry and particularly personal training, outdoor and functional training.. I also love nutrition.

In my country the industry is growing but in my opinion the courses available are not good enough for the money you have to pay and not recognized the most populars.. but one NASM course has been open last year, I don't know if its the "real" nasm.. I mean that's only 7 days working on a group classe for a 4 months full home learning. What do you think about that ?..

I'm in Australia at the moment and thinking about studying a bit here.. the outdoor fitness is awesome. Maybe I'll try to study functional training, a short course.. and come back in Belgium and be a part of the nasm program..

A bit confused about all the different courses, accreditations about fitness. Please let me know your advices and sorry if English is a bit bad but I've been learning for 4 months only

Cheers

[tommyangel21]

Ordering my book for the ACE exam. Roommate and I plan on taking it by the end of the summer. Both our gf's are flying back to sweden for the summer so we have no excuses not to study and certify ourselves.

On another note, my friend was certified by the National Personal Training Institute. He did the courses in the classroom setting, paid around $6k. How does that cert compare to ACE?

ACE is by far the top certification out there but realistically if you're going to spend 6k you're better off looking at the Associates in Exercise Science being offered by ISSA. The whole program is around 16k and is offered with quarterly online courses so you can pay as you go! Hope this helped man

[mrsbstine]

Im interested in a career in fitness and health and am looking into the ACE CPT but am also looking into ACSM. is ACE still the best?

[tommyangel21]

Im interested in a career in fitness and health and am looking into the ACE CPT but am also looking into ACSM. is ACE still the best?

ACE is a solid certification

[rizay]

Ace is good, but I prefer NSCA first, NASM 2nd. Best bet is talk to gym owners in your area (assuming you plan on working with a gym), and find out what certs they put highest priority on.

Of course, if you are going on your own, then that's different.

[RyouBakua]

i went with NASM


gym love it but youll be surprised how some other trainers look down upon it

[rizay]

i went with NASM


gym love it but youll be surprised how some other trainers look down upon it

Some trainers will look down on anything lol. Just out of curiosity, what do they prefer?

[RyouBakua]

Some trainers will look down on anything lol. Just out of curiosity, what do they prefer?

whatever they have

[FyrFytr998]

First post. So be gentle.

Now that they are NCCA accredited through 2019, has anyone here given the Action CPT cert an honest look? The reason I ask is that I help out at my brother's gym that he owns. He himself has ISSA and CPPS certified and his gym is geared more towards athletes and military/first responders. I ask, because it seems like a great value and every review I've found has stated that the learning materials are on par with ACE and NASM by people that actually hold those certs.

Now I understand one could sign up and take the free online test relatively quickly, and like ISSA it is open book. So you could be "technically" non NCCA certified in a day or so, but I'm not looking at that route. I was more interested in paying the $45 dollars for the pro plan and actually taking the online classes along with studying the text, and paying the $60 for the proctored NCCA CPT test in a few months time.

So I was just wondering if anyone here has actually done this cert. I'm not looking to kick start a second career. I just want to be able to legitimately help my brother out when he is slammed with clients, which happens often. Also to help cover on the days he's on duty, as we are both firefighters. There are a couple other trainers working with him, but he feels more at ease when I'm there overseeing the facility. And truthfully, I'd rather not spend thousands of dollars going about the process (I've got kids to feed and a mortgage to pay, lol.). Did I mention that I help him for free? So since there is no other gym employment in my future, all those other certs seem unnecessary since he has no requirements of his own.

If no one has, I guess I will be NCCA ACTION-CPT guinea pig and post back with my thoughts. If it turns out to be crap, I'll look into ISSA like him.

P.S.- I used link from post #4 to compare all the different Certs.

[DGAFitness]

I have NASM and a few certs from ISSA as well (Youth, S&C, and Exercise Therapy). In my one cert from NASM, I feel I learned more than I did in my 4 certs from ISSA and that the test was harder. ISSA allows you to do the test open book at home, but includes essays and short answer questions while NASM is just multiple choice. NASM you have to go to a testing site and it is closed book and timed.

I am taking my ACE cert next. I let my ISSA expire and WILL NOT recertify because most gyms I have looked in to are not accepting it anyway, and if they are they give you a smaller percentage (lower level in the tier system). So far, the ACE appears to be a more difficult program. I chose the Academy Elite study program because they had a military tuition program and it came out F-R-E-E. So if you are military you may want to look into that as soon as possible. I have been training for 4 years and with ACE I feel like I am still learning new things.

[sclark911]

Hands down, NASM. I walked into my first training session not only having "book smarts," but also the practical knowledge to create specific personalized program.My first "client" was my potential boss who was 7 months pregnant. I was nervous as hell, but used the material in the book to come up with the workout and was pretty much hired on the spot.

[PETC]

Hi Guys,

Physique Elite offer excellent training courses for Personal Trainers in the UK.

This Physique Elite aim to make trainers stand out from the rest with their high level of training from some of the worlds leading athletes.

Physique Elite are currently hold their Nutrition training courses in Birmingham and London in October 2014.

Visit their website for more details.

[cameronvincent]

Signed up for AFAA workshop.... they cancelled two days before. Prob not a lot of takers here in Mississippi... so i get the shaft

[TF1984]

[QUOTE=DLStar64;220632841]just found a pretty cool site that compares alot of these, not sure if we can link but it includes cost

thanks that is really helpful! ]

[Reza2kn]

First post. So be gentle.

Now that they are NCCA accredited through 2019, has anyone here given the Action CPT cert an honest look? The reason I ask is that I help out at my brother's gym that he owns. He himself has ISSA and CPPS certified and his gym is geared more towards athletes and military/first responders. I ask, because it seems like a great value and every review I've found has stated that the learning materials are on par with ACE and NASM by people that actually hold those certs.

Now I understand one could sign up and take the free online test relatively quickly, and like ISSA it is open book. So you could be "technically" non NCCA certified in a day or so, but I'm not looking at that route. I was more interested in paying the $45 dollars for the pro plan and actually taking the online classes along with studying the text, and paying the $60 for the proctored NCCA CPT test in a few months time.

So I was just wondering if anyone here has actually done this cert. I'm not looking to kick start a second career. I just want to be able to legitimately help my brother out when he is slammed with clients, which happens often. Also to help cover on the days he's on duty, as we are both firefighters. There are a couple other trainers working with him, but he feels more at ease when I'm there overseeing the facility. And truthfully, I'd rather not spend thousands of dollars going about the process (I've got kids to feed and a mortgage to pay, lol.). Did I mention that I help him for free? So since there is no other gym employment in my future, all those other certs seem unnecessary since he has no requirements of his own.

If no one has, I guess I will be NCCA ACTION-CPT guinea pig and post back with my thoughts. If it turns out to be crap, I'll look into ISSA like him.

P.S.- I used link from post #4 to compare all the different Certs.

I actually got my first cert from ACTION about 2 weeks ago.
It's fine , It's free , But NOT THE BEST.

I mean for someone who doesn't know all the jargon and could be overwhelmed with reading books like NASM's it's a very good start , But the book doesn't have a very good design ( so it could hurt your eyes a little bit ) and here and there I found some mistakes in the stuff that they're teaching.. ( Little annoying for me ) , But again they have some cool webinars that help you understand stuff that you didn't get just by reading the book

BTW I got my cert through the Online&Free Method

Good Luck

[Ajk_Lpool]

Sorry to ask something that's probably already been asked, but: what about for people in the UK? Any suggestions on courses you can do online, supplementary for somebody who already works full time?

Thanks guys

[jnewman0910]

I have been a full-time trainer gym owner for 10 years and some of the best trainers I know have a low-level certification but are much better in the field than some of the high level ACE type people I have met. just keep in mind those cert's are good if you going for a corporate job but if you work for yourself I say get it going and dont worry about it so much. I have never had one client ever ask me where I am certified through. I would advise to find out who is making some real money in your area and shadow them they dont teach you any of that in those course's how to make money 101..

What about if your in San Diego,ca which do u recommend I was thinking nsam

[jnewman0910]

I have NASM and a few certs from ISSA as well (Youth, S&C, and Exercise Therapy). In my one cert from NASM, I feel I learned more than I did in my 4 certs from ISSA and that the test was harder. ISSA allows you to do the test open book at home, but includes essays and short answer questions while NASM is just multiple choice. NASM you have to go to a testing site and it is closed book and timed.

I am taking my ACE cert next. I let my ISSA expire and WILL NOT recertify because most gyms I have looked in to are not accepting it anyway, and if they are they give you a smaller percentage (lower level in the tier system). So far, the ACE appears to be a more difficult program. I chose the Academy Elite study program because they had a military tuition program and it came out F-R-E-E. So if you are military you may want to look into that as soon as possible. I have been training for 4 years and with ACE I feel like I am still learning new things.

I'm in the military as well where do you go to for the military tuition program? I've never used ta

[FyrFytr998]

I actually got my first cert from ACTION about 2 weeks ago.
It's fine , It's free , But NOT THE BEST.

I mean for someone who doesn't know all the jargon and could be overwhelmed with reading books like NASM's it's a very good start , But the book doesn't have a very good design ( so it could hurt your eyes a little bit ) and here and there I found some mistakes in the stuff that they're teaching.. ( Little annoying for me ) , But again they have some cool webinars that help you understand stuff that you didn't get just by reading the book

BTW I got my cert through the Online&Free Method

Good Luck

Thanks for the reply. Do you plan to take the $60 CPT test? It seems that all the free certificate is good for, is showing you participated in the course. From what I have been reading, a person has to do the $60 test to have CPT after their name.

Another thing I have noticed is that their forum is relatively dead. I would think that with not having an actual phone number to call, the forum would be more livelier.

Either way, I'm still gonna at least continue with the certificate and see what happens from there. We've had a few new interns working towards their NASM's and CSCS' start at the gym, so the need for me to help out on the floor is less now. Thus allowing me to focus on managing the gym.

[jonasdk]

good one

[chrisisntfit]

I flipped through a lot of this thread but does anyone know off hand which is the best for Canadians?

[Chuq06]

I'll have mine through I.S.S.A shortly, hardest part is paying for it.

[KJTrance]

UK brahs?

[L00pinator]

I have NASM and a few certs from ISSA as well (Youth, S&C, and Exercise Therapy). In my one cert from NASM, I feel I learned more than I did in my 4 certs from ISSA and that the test was harder. ISSA allows you to do the test open book at home, but includes essays and short answer questions while NASM is just multiple choice. NASM you have to go to a testing site and it is closed book and timed.

I am taking my ACE cert next. I let my ISSA expire and WILL NOT recertify because most gyms I have looked in to are not accepting it anyway, and if they are they give you a smaller percentage (lower level in the tier system). So far, the ACE appears to be a more difficult program. I chose the Academy Elite study program because they had a military tuition program and it came out F-R-E-E. So if you are military you may want to look into that as soon as possible. I have been training for 4 years and with ACE I feel like I am still learning new things.

How does the tier system work?
Like if someone has a Masters degree in exercise physiology, is placed at a higher Tier than someone who has just a certificate from NSCA?
And how much does the pay scale differ between each tier?

[southrue]

[QUOTE=DLStar64;220632841]just found a pretty cool site that compares alot of these, not sure if we can link but it includes cost which is was i was lookihng for


Great post. Thanks for this.

[JSGymbo]

Thinking about getting my ACE, but not really sure I know the point...does everyone feel like it's worth it? What if I already have a solid list of clients, or a ton of reviews/testimonials built up on my FB page--are there certs still really helpful?

[BMQ86]

Been into fitness for a long time. Always wanted to become a trainer. I am 28 now and still figuring out what i want to do in life. Starting to study for the NSCA CPT

If anyone has taken this test, and info or free study guides would be great. I got the essentials to personal training study guide already and its like 700 pages. So i have a lot of reading to do.

[PureCuring]

This thread has a lot of pages. I skimmed through a few but I wasn't seeing any mention of the NCSF exam. Anyone here know much about it? That's the exam I've been preparing for and it seems to be pretty legit, but again, I haven't seen any mention of it. Right now I'm debating between the NCSF or ACSM. Every PT position I've looked at all had NCSF as a legitimate certification.

So any thoughts on the NCSF one? I followed the link here: starting-a-personal-training-business.com/accredited-personal-training-certification.html and so long as this isn't outdated, they seem to be a great choice. I compared them to ASCM and there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of difference.

In my case, I already have the NCSF textbook and already took a class that was organized for the NCSF exam. But I absolutely want to make sure I'm going for a decent certification. If the ACSM is my best bet, I don't mind switching over. More knowledge for me anyhow!

One more thing, "The ACSM is the best personal training certification in the country. It's ACSM Registered Clinical Exercise Physiologist, is the hardest exercise cert. to get and also the most prestigious." this was mentioned on the first page way back in 2008. Is it accurate?