Certified, But Are You Qualified?

The terms professional and qualified are complementary characteristics; however they are not one and the same. Profession speaks to money, while qualifications are used to measure or predict the thoroughness of someone’s actions. The idea of receiving a fee for performing a service is relatively straight forward, but the variables that qualify someone to do their specific job(s) are debatable.

The personal training profession is largely unregulated by most governments anywhere in the world including the United States, which is not to say the industry is without any guidance or quality assurances. In fact, there are a number of reputable organizations certified by the NAAC (National Accreditation and Assessment Council) such as ACE (American Council on Exercise), NASM (National Academy of Sports Medicine), NSCA (National Strength & Conditioning Association) and ACSM (American College of Sports Medicine) that administer exams to become a certified personal trainer and help develop effective and safe standards for performing health assessments, fitness testing and designing exercise programs. Kudos to those fitness trainers who have obtained one or more accredited certifications, but that achievement alone does not make for a good trainer. This is true even if a government agency were to throw in their blessing as well. Knowledge is only useful when it can be readily applied through practical experience to achieve consistent and meaningful results. For example, who cares if you can academically explain how to take a manual blood pressure reading, if when presented with the opportunity to do so your fingers stumble to adjust the knob on the air valve at the right speed leading to a botched reading? If similar mishaps continually occur your professional credibility will be diminished significantly over time, especially if those blunders result in injuries to clients.

Becoming a certified personal trainer means that you have been recognized as having the basic core knowledge necessary to create exercise programs for the general population. But to truly excel and perfect your skills requires frequent and consistent practice along with continually exploring and learning additional knowledge related to but not covered in your particular certification program.

If you honestly want to be able compete with the heavy-weights in the industry a single ACE personal training certificate is not going to be enough. The fitness industry is highly competitive and many trainers have college/university degrees related to exercise, multiple certifications, competitive sports experiences, international internships, published material, awards, media exposure, etc.

So come correct and bring the thunder, or get lost and dusted!