I am looking to get certified to be a personal trainer every time I ask a trainer whats the best certification I get different answers. My question is what certification would you reccomend and Can I do like a basic certification and move myself up from there ? and how much am I looking to spend ? Also if we have any other trainers out there feel free to chime in.
speaking of which, I've been trying to sitemail Donny because I didn't think my question was worth a thread.. but either I have the wrong Donny or his sitemail doesn't work. Donny, an e-mail add? Or just e-mail me through the board..
Would you mind answering the question in this thread? I'd like to hear about it as well. I'd rather not email you thru the board, it might go to heypartner or something.
The 2 main ones I have heared are NASM and ACE, but the thing is they offer different packages and NASM is kind of exspensive so I wanted to get some feedback before I pick a package.
NSCA and ACSM are the most well-known and arguably the hardest because of the high first-time failure rate. ACE is popular but not regarded quite as high as the other two because it's considered easier. NASM is also a good one, i know a couple people who took it, and i really liked the way their study book was layed out. it's expensive though. I just took the ACE about 2 weeks ago and passed easily with only a couple days of studying. if you have zero excercise background it'll probably be very hard, but if you have some basic anatomy/physiology down, it's not bad at all. if you don't need a certification right now and have the time to study i would definitely go with NSCA or ACSM but the ACE is an acceptable alternative especially considering it's aboult half the price. another suggestion would be to take the ace, get some experience, then take the nsca or acsm later. nothing wrong with having more then one certification under your belt. if anyone takes the ace, let me know, i have some pretty good tips that helped me on that particular test.
I agree 100% with what BigM said. NASM is my current cert, CPT, PES, and CES I really like their philosophy and their customer service is top notch too
Thanks, I think I will take the ACE and then do something else down the road, I have a pretty good understanding of some of the basics so I think I can pass the test pretty quickly.
If you really want to be good at what you do go get a diploma. I went to NPTI and was amazed at how much I learned in a short period of time.after graduating I went and got NASM and NSCA within a month. NASM is much easier, really cookie cutter. NSCA was much harder only 50% of the people who sit for this test pass it. But like I said if you really want to do this and you want to help the industry and not hurt it like a ton of trainers are doing right now go to school. in fact I have NASM and NSCA but I dont even bring them up when i talk to employers or future clients. but anyway thats just me good luck with what ever you do
I tottaly understand where your coming from. I only want to train part time and I have a good foundation of knowledge from playing sports on the collegiate level and keeping up with trends by reading and asking questions when I work. I want to get cerfitified as easily as possible and then find my niche once I see what people are looking for. I actually want to focus on training people once they have cosmetic surgery and some rehab training also any ideas on this?
What you have to remember is that there is no required national cert to become a trainer, in fact you don't NEED to have a cert to become a trainer. If rehab is what you want to focus on then ACE is the where I would start. But Ill go back to what I was saying before, if your just trying this out part time to see if you like it, start with what you know then grow. If you have a background as a college athlete then you should start by training college athletes and grow into what you want to be. Wow I did not even know they were going to open a Houston campus. I drove 1000 miles to orlando and went there(in fact making the same drive the same day that astronaut lady). I called them after I saw your post and they said January. I think Im going to talk to them about working there. you might have made my next career move. I think im one of the few if not only NPTI grad in the houston area.
So are you saying I can just show up to my gym and say hey i'm a trainer? I want be able to work with regular people as well as working with people that have cosmetic surgery I know a person that will give me referalls from where she works
that's kinda scary. i have two jobs.. and each one of them required me to be certed. background checks and all.
Some places don't really require you to have one but it would help. 24 Hour Fitness will hire you w/o one if they feel you have the potential. They'll put you through a basic Apex class for a cert. Also most of them will have you take a NASM pretest before they hire you.