This article is taken directly from my free book on “How to Create a Personal Training Website“.

Believe me, once you understand the benefits and tailor your site correctly, the answer to this question is obvious. It is difficult to express how essential a web presence becomes once you get accustomed to the branding, passive income, and convenience of online payment and marketing.

Brand Building – Your brand is the most important aspect of your business. It encompasses the quality instruction you provide, the inspiration you give to your clients, the general look and feel of your business persona (like the continuity from your business cards, to your fliers, to your website), everything that makes your company yours.

A professional, clean, and helpful website will help solidify and extend the presence of your brand. Heck, 90% of personal trainers don’t even own their web persona. Just having your business on the web will put you in the top tier of marketing trainers and differentiate your business.

Alone, a site can’t make an average trainer better, but it differentiates the better trainers because it demonstrates their ability to work for their clients using all the resources available to them.

Lead Generation – Yes, even though it is not the main reason to have a site, you will get new leads from it. The leads you get will easily pay for the site’s set up and maintenance costs.

Personally, I receive about 10-20% of my ‘new’ leads (leads that are not referrals or people I meet by happenstance) through my website. Now, think about that for a moment…this website that I worked on once continues to engage new clients and convince them to email me for more information. That is powerful stuff.

Why does a professional site benefit you? Because a prospective client’s first interaction with you is when they review your website. A typical new client will first interact with you on the phone or in person…who knows if you’re in a good mood when you first meet a potential client. But if they first ‘meet’ you through your site, and you’ve invested in a professional and informative site, you know you’re putting a good foot forward 24/7. Although we acknowledge here that a good site won’t always solidify a new client, a bad site will definitely turn away potential clients.

Client Maintenance – Once I begin working with my clients, we set up a password-protected personal program page (say that 5 times fast!) where they can pre-pay for 3 months of training, pass messages to me, or keep track of their workouts on an excel spreadsheet. This personalization brings you and your client closer, allowing you to work together asynchronously at your own convenience.

Allowing them to post their results to my site let’s me track their progress (from their point of view) and learn how motivated they are after each week. This allows me to give the right stimulus when my clients begin to hit their personal wall of resistance.

Online Payments - By allowing my clients to pay me through the web, I’ve eliminated the uncomfortable song-and-dance where we have to send a ‘reminder’ to bring cash to the next session. This, in and of itself, has knocked off half of my stress level because I’m not particularly comfortable reminding my clients repeatedly for money.

Newsletters, Marketing, Books, Articles, etc – Remember stuffing envelopes and dedicating a Saturday Football game to maintaining contact with clients? With my site, now I create one brochure or article that I want my clients to read, post it on my site, and then send an email. Know what’s even better? I can track who opens the email and views my material. That’s an incredible advantage of ‘knowing’ your customer.

Quite a few professionals have found the avenue of ‘blogging’ as a quick way to get their name recognition and authority status on the upswing. Although I haven’t begun blogging, I respect it’s ability to connect with readers, sway opinions, and create a cult of authority. This may be an unexplored avenue for personal trainers to exploit in the future.

Email marketing – One aspect that my personal trainer website has opened up that I never imagined is targeted email marketing. When I have clients lagging, I send them a special offer for a free session or mile-marker session to life their spirits. When I have a potential client I haven’t heard from in a while, I can quickly check up on them to see if they may need my services. These hooks can reel in clients that were just about to call it quits to suddenly pony up 3 months of sessions.

New media : video, tele-seminars, audio/visual demonstrations, interviews – Even more fantastic (and I’m just starting to explore these options) is the ability to use social media to interact with my customers. Instead of waiting until our next session, my client can email me about a certain exercise that she forgets exactly how to do. I shoot a quick video, put it on her personal web page, and she sees not only the correct movement, but reconnects with the program and is less likely to burn out. I can also post videos of other trainers that show good technique for clients that need another point of view.

These are a few of the possibilities and your website really is just limited only by your imagination. Hopefully you’ve seen one or two ideas here that made you stop and think, “Ya know, that would be nice to have…”. So let’s keep moving forward on some of these ideas and expand how they work for your business.

In my free book on How to Create a Personal Training Website, I detail step-by-step how to get your site up and running. Go ahead and grab it for free and get your own personal training website up!

— Leslie

Q: What has my Personal Training website done for me lately?
A: Well, that depends on what you designed it to do for you…

Staking out your place on the Internet is an exciting, natural desire for any service based businesses. It seems everyone is doing it, so why not you?

A website gives you a designated place to call your own, describe your value to potential customers, and gain new clients. It’s the promise of the Internet where by putting yourself out there, your new clients will find you!

Guess what, generally they won’t. Not unless you bridge the gap between what new clients are interested in and how your services can fulfill those interests. Very few personal training sites understand this and even fewer take advantage of this knowledge.

It’s better to hear it from me for free than wasting time and money on designing a killer site that withers away in obscurity because you aren’t driving new (and current) customers to talk to you about your business.

In fact, let me state here, I don’t believe the money is well spent to have someone else create a ‘personalized personal training’ website for you. I’ve seen these services out there, but with this book and some effort, you can do this for yourself for less money with better results.

Having a space on the Internet that says “I’m Brian, I’m a Personal Trainer, I service this town and that town, and I’m as close as a quick email” doesn’t bring in many new clients. Why? Well, when you think about it, you already know the answer…

Personal Training is a service based business…a very personal service. We’re not product based (at least, as a majority of our business). Many times you’re asking to go into someone’s home, discuss their most uncomfortable weight situations, and be present when they wheeze and get embarrassed at failing very simple exercises.

The type of trust needed to allow a new personal trainer into your life doesn’t come from even the most professional web sites. The fact of the matter is the level of trust needed to sell a new client on a service business doesn’t translate well on static web pages.

Service oriented business have trouble selling their business without the personal interaction and relationship building process that one must go through for new clients. In-person conversations, genuine client referrals, and targeted marketing are the classic techniques that service oriented businesses use to get new business. Posting a sign in the sand doesn’t sell many services…in our industry or any other. This is especially true when you work in larger cities, where your site may be lost in the noise of hundreds of other trainers.

So where does that leave our Personal Training Website?

This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t have a website. What it means is that you need to use your website to deliver in areas where the web is advantageous to your business, and not expect your site to deliver in areas where it is can’t. It also means you need to perfect the skills that put your website at the top of Google searches so that new clients will find your site.

What to use a website for, if not primarily for new clients?
If my site doesn’t primarily bring me new business, what can I expect from it? Plenty, luckily…Here’s ways that a well run website can increase your business income, client retention, and brand name authority in the business:

* Forum to post articles you’re written for the fitness community and your clients.

* Storefront to sell products and services to your clients.

* Site for promoting yourself as an authority in the field or niche that you work in.

* Place to post news and medical research for your audience.

* Provide avenue for clients to pay you without hassle.

* Location for you to post client-specific programs and results tracking behind password-protected pages.

* Bring in a few clients that find your site, are impressed with what’s above, and email you for more information about your services.

Experimenting with self-promotion and brand building is where the Internet can really help in the long run. Establishing your presence as a competent, well-respected, and up-to-date Personal Trainer can help seal the deal with new clients that you meet offline. It’s fantastic to pass along your card and say “Check out my website if you have any questions.” People love that. Having a site won’t be all they need, but it definitely can help.

It’s important that we all apply our time and energy into the right vehicles to generate new business. Although your personal training website won’t be your main tool to gain new clients – don’t worry, you will gain quite a few – you should spend a measurable amount time perfecting your site to attract new clients and service your current clients. How? By distributing information, highlighting your expertise, and providing information for your current clients. New clients see these tools and respect your abilities much more than a static web page that says “call me…”

A Personal Training Website is one of the many revenue-generating vehicles your business can use, but don’t let it take away from your time and effort of getting real results through traditional ‘offline’ techniques to get new clients. The best way to accomplish this is to know what you’re doing when you start your website, utilize the right tools, and do it once.

NETA Certification Review - National Exercise Trainers Association Personal Trainer Certification

NCSF Certification Review - National Council on Strength and Fitness Personal Trainer Certification

NASM Certification Review - National Academy of Sports Medicine Personal Trainer Certification

Cooper Institute Certification Review - Cooper Institute Personal Trainer Certification

ACSM Certification Review - American College of Sports Medicine Personal Trainer Certification

ACE Personal Trainer Certification Review - American Council on Exercise

This is a Chapter Excerpt from my book “How to Become a Personal Trainer” written to help aspiring trainers understand the certification business

NCCA
NFPT is NCCA certified and has been for a few years now.

Certifications
NFPT offers a Certified Personal Trainer (CPT) program with a whole slew of additional ‘advanced’ courses also available.

They offer quite a variety of ways to get the education needed to pass the exam. They have at home, online, workshop, and even correspondence courses at a few local colleges.

Reputation / Popularity
The industry recognition, for some reason, isn’t as high for NFPT as the other certification programs. I haven’t had any gyms say that NFPT was enough, they always asked if I would also get something like ACSM or NSCA.

Eligibility
All you need to become eligible for the NFPT exam is to be 18 years old with a High School diploma. They do strongly recommend that you have your CPR certification, however you do not need it to sit for the exam.

Deep in their Student Manual, the line “Applicant must have at least 2 years of practical hands-on experience in weight/resistance and/or cardio
Training” can be found. However I can’t find anywhere that requests verification of this information before the exam can be taken. I believe this is more of a ‘wish’ than a requirement.

Exam
The exam is administered at over 300 sites and they even send you the closest centers to make it easier for you to pick the most appropriate for your schedule.

There is also an optional ‘practical’ exam if you want benefit from some hands on experience and testing. Although I highly recommend it, I do wish they made this a mandatory part of the examination itself. That would definitely help their industry recognition and respect.

The nice thing is there are no exam dates, so you can take it any time you wish.

Workshops
There is a workshop option, with two different ways to attend. The caveat is that you must own the “Home Study” course previously before you can sign up.

On their website they show classes where the Workshops are held. They hold them in their affiliate companies. Therefore, if you’re already a member of one of those companies, you’re lucky because you’ll get a reduced rate for the Workshop.

People that are studying at home can do this workshop for an additional $159. The affiliate companies are some amount less than that, but I haven’t heard a firm amount for the price of the course.

Distance Learning
NFPT has a Computer Distance Learning Program that lets you work in ‘virtual’ classes, just like if you were really in a workshop.

I agree that this is the wave of the future and NFPT seems to be the only group that’s doing it in this way. I have no idea how well trainers will do with this technique, but I am sure that over time it will improve.

It costs about $550 to complete the Distance Learning portion of the training. That includes all the books and materials you will need.

Costs
Since there are a variety of ways to pay for the education/exam, I’m going to list them here just to make it easier.

Home-Study Course - $450 (includes exam fee)
Computer Distance Course - $550
Workshop - $159 or less (must own Home-Study Course)
College Course – Dependent on the School

Miscellaneous Fees
$20-$44 for proctor exam (payable at the exam)

Validity
Now here’s something interesting, the certificate is only valid for one year. However, here’s the catch, the yearly fee pays for all of your CEC fees! Interesting, huh?

Although it’s not very easy to learn from their web and printed materials, the recertification fee is $75 a year according to their handbook. That’s not terrible, considering you get 2 CEC’s free with it.

CEC’s
As mentioned above, NFPT considers CEC’s as part of your continuing certification criteria. Therefore it’s free and you need to get 2 CEC’s each 12 months.

You also have Semi-Annual “Self Tests” administered through the NFPT website are required (unless a CEC satisfies the requirement)

They certainly care to make sure their trainers are continually learning. Instead of having a cramming of CEC’s in the last 2 months of your 2 year certification, you continually learn with NFPT. Not a bad idea!

Renewal
Renewal is yearly at the cost of $75. This cost covers all your CEC’s that you need for the following year to renew in 12 months.

Summary
With a fresh approach to education and CEC’s, NFPT is making itself different in an attempt to distinguish itself in a field where, frankly, many organizations seem the same.

The recognition isn’t as strong as some, however the education is constant and very valuable. If recognition isn’t that important to you (if you’re not trying to join a gym), then I would definitely check this certification out.

This is a Chapter Excerpt from my book “How to Become a Personal Trainer” written to help aspiring trainers understand the certification business. Feel free to browse more chapters on the left side of this webpage. - Leslie

NCCA
Guess who’s the newest NCCA approved Certification? You got it, NETA!

Within the last few months, NETA is now recognized as one of the top certification programs with their accreditation from NCCA. Good news for us!

Certifications
NETA has two certifications, Personal Trainer and Group Exercise Instructor. I’m going to concentrate on the Personal Trainer certification, but check out the website if you are interested in the Group Exercise Instructor certification as well. (It’s very similar to the Personal Trainer Certification)

The Personal Trainer Certification goes after my most valued aspect of training, actually practical hands-on experience in their training! Although you do NOT have to take any workshops or buy any materials to take the exam (unlike places like NASM), I believe it’s a required part of your education.

The exam materials are pretty cheap. My weak addition tallies all the books up to be a total of $80.

Reputation / Popularity
NETA is new on the scene and is not as recognized as the longer term players (ACE, ACSM, NASM, NCSF, NSCA). It’s going to take some time for people to know what NETA is, especially since it changed its name from NDEITA not too long ago. It also gets a bit confused with NESTA…needless to say, the Acronym Soup is getting mixed up quite a bit!

Eligibility
In order to sit for the NETA exam, you must be 18 years of age, have a current CPR certificate, and that’s it!!!

Exam
The exam is administered all over the country at various testing centers, called “Comira”, which is great news! As I mentioned, there is no pre-requirements other than what’s stated above to sit for the exam. You don’t need to purchase or attend any NETA courses to sit for the exam.

Although I recommend at least getting the books, you can really take advantage of their weekend workshops to really learn your material well.

Workshops
NETA offers a Personal Trainer Certification Workshop for a quite reasonable cost ($349 if you register 30 days before) and is available all over the country on the weekends.

It runs Saturday to Sunday and is equivalent to 14 CEC’s (for those of you who need a massive amount of CEC’s quickly for recertification!)

They also recommend that you purchase the $80 in reading material and study it before you attend.

Costs
So far, they’re not too bad in the cost department. Here’s the breakdown:

Workshop - $349 (early registration) to $389 (walk up)
Exam Alone - $249
Books Recommended - $80
Home Study Review - $39

These all seem quite reasonable to me, especially since the workshop should be local to your area, or at worst, a one night hotel stay.

Validity
NETA’s Personal Trainer Certification is valid for two years once you pass the exam.

CEC’s
The CEC requirement is for 20 hours of Continuing Education before you can renew your Certification. (Cost for Renewal - $45)

NETA accepts almost all the other NCCA CEC credits too. So you could take a CEC class for ACE (and still use it to recertify with ACE) and get credit with NETA too. Pretty slick, huh?

NETA does require that 6 of your CEC’s come directly from NETA, but that’s less than 40% of the requirement.

Check their website to verify that your CEC’s at other organizations will count, but their policy seems quite liberal. They aren’t trying to milk every single dollar from their members like a few of the other certification organizations.

Renewal
Renewal isn’t too difficult, you include any photocopies of your CEC classes(those that aren’t from NETA), the $45 fee, and the recertification paperwork postmarked by the expiration date.

If the letter is postmarked later than the expiration date, various fees are added based on how late the letter is received. After 180 days, you can’t renew and must recertify.

Summary
NETA is a new player on the NCCA block, which instantly gives it a lot of credibility that it didn’t have just a few years ago. They appear to really be working hard on expanding their client base with honest pricing, fantastic learning opportunities, and other amenities.

Although walking into a gym and saying you’re NETA certified may get a few quizzical looks, in time this certification will only gain in acceptance. Coupled with another certification, NETA would be a great way to augment your education and professional credentials.

This is a Chapter Excerpt from my book “How to Become a Personal Trainer” written to help aspiring trainers understand the certification business. Feel free to browse more chapters on the left side of this webpage. - Leslie

The NCSF Certification comes from the National Council on Strength and Fitness organization and is one of the premier groups in the business. They offer one of the top Personal Trainer certifications (in fact, I believe they may be the best…) called the “NCSF CPT” (for Certified Personal Trainer).

The NCSF Certification is a little different - in a good way - than the other certifications. Get this…they actually want you to take hands-on classes to learn the material! I know, what a shock! When you compare it to the textbook nature of most of the other exams, NCSF already signals itself as a more prestigious certification.

Does that mean it’s going to be more difficult, cost more, and involve more time to get an NCSF Certification? Yes, it does…so if you’re just interested in being a small-time trainer, the NCSF may be too much for you. However, if you are a Personal Trainer career person, then I strongly encourage you to give NCSF’s CPT certification a good review.

Requirements
According to the NCSF certification site, to earn the “industry leading” NCSF-CPT credential, candidates must take and pass the NCSF-CPT Certification Exam. The exam is a 150 question multiple-choice formatted evaluation tool which thoroughly tests the knowledge and skills that are necessary to effectively work with a wide range of clientèle.

Although you do not have to take any workshops beforehand, due to the difficult nature of the exam, I would recommend that you do take one to know what you’re getting into beforehand.

Furthermore, you do not even have to take a workshop offered by the NCSF certification organization.(!) Although they have great workshops, training schools, and home study courses, you could also take classes at your school or study at NPTI.

Almost everyone I’ve met with the CPT certification says that you really, really, need to know your stuff for this exam. That’s why I urge you to check out NCSF’s workshops, classes or take a program like NPTI. Again, it may sound like a lot of work, but that’s why you take this exam, because when you go anywhere and tell them that you are an NCSF CPT, everybody knows that you know your stuff!

Exam Study Options
To continue on the education vein for a bit, NCSF offers workshops and courses for anyone interested in taking the certification exam. They claim the workshop program is one of their ‘more popular’ ways to study for the exam. (Although I’m sure that’s influenced by how much they’d like you to pay for the workshop vs. study-at-home materials!)

The workshops start with you reviewing the material beforehand…and then a two day seminar where a trainer professional attempts to teach you all that you need to know to be a good Personal Trainer.

Unfortunately, you can’t cram everything you need to know into a two-day review, so expect that even paying for the seminar, you will still have to work quite a bit on your own to learn the material for the exam.

The workshops are about $299 and spread out over the major metropolitan areas of the US. Classes start almost every week in some part of the country. Check the calendar on the website to see if it’s near you in the future.

To spread out the challenge a bit, they also offer a “Training School Course” option. This is an 8-week training course - total of 30-40 hours - that helps you slowly absorb more information while you’re learning from certified instructors.

Unfortunately, the Training Schools option for the NCSF certification is only offered in Southern Florida…so unless you can commute to Miami-Dade College or Broward Community College, you may be outta luck! Add in about $495 for these courses, and it makes it convenient only to people that are local and have the time to attend. Which totally stinks for the rest of us…hopefully the program expands out of South Florida some day!

If both of those options are too much for you, you always have the home-study option. Again, my recommendation is to do a workshop, training course, or something like a an NPTI training school, but I’ve probably drilled that into your brain enough by now!

Putting exercise theory into practice is the hardest piece to overcome when you’re just learning in the comfort of your own home, with a beer in hand and 10 distractions begging for your attention. NCSF tries to help with this problem by having exercises shown on a DVD training video. Although I haven’t seen it, it does show that at a minimum, you will learn something about how exercises work.

Now, for my other pet peeve of home-study guides (That would be mispronouncing muscles and such), I’m not sure if a home-study course is going to get good pronunciation through to a new student very well. So if you do the home-study, find a way to learn how to pronounce Supraspinatus.

If you ask me, I would do a workshop, training class, other personal training course or similar before I gave up and did a home-study course. I can guarantee you that the highest percentage of failures on the NCSF Certification exam are from home-study students.

In order to not waste hundreds of dollars and a lot of hours, it’s best to try and attend some type of in-person training. The retake fee is almost as much as the registration fee for a workshop, just to put it into perspective…

Costs

Here are the costs broken down:

NCSF Certification Exam: $199 (retake is $135)

Study Materials: $299

Workshop: $295

Training Classes: $495

Shipping: $10 (for the materials)

CEC’s and Validity

Good old CEC’s! My favorite way for certification organizations to suck more money out of us! Well, NCSF isn’t too bad really.

Your NCSF CPT certification is valid for two years after you take the exam. You need to collect over those two years 10 CEC credits before renewal. They even have ‘products’ you can buy to home study for exams that will get you CEC’s. Also, there are online CEC’s quizzes that you can take to get .5 CEC’s towards your credit! Plus, you can take college credit or other CEC courses.

NCSF makes it a little more…let’s say ‘manageable’… to get credits that actually make you a better trainer, rather than just making you give them money year in and year out without teaching you anything. For that, I give them a much higher rating as it shows they really care that their CPT’s are experts and continually growing in their field.

Summary

The NCSF certification is one of the best - if not the best - certifications that a new (or existing) Personal Trainer can get. Recognized everywhere as a leader in the field, it shows that you have a very solid foundation of knowledge and skills that are desperately needed in this field.

If you aren’t afraid of a difficult exam, then you should seriously consider the NCSF CPT exam. If you think you want to be a Personal Trainer because it’s easy and you can get away with minimum effort, then you should do a different certification. However, for the rest of us, this is the type of exam that is very rewarding to pass and pays off many dividends over the life of your personal training career.

This is a Chapter Excerpt from my book “How to Become a Personal Trainer” written to help aspiring trainers understand the certification business. Feel free to browse more chapters on the left side of this webpage. - Leslie

NCCA
NASM – The National Academy of Sports Medicine – is NCCA accredited.

Certifications
NASM offers a CPT designation, obviously short for “Certified Personal Trainer”. Surprisingly, unlike most of the other certification organizations, it only offers one certification! What a shocking idea!

NASM claims (although I have not verified it with each company) to be a ‘preferred’ provider of trainers for places like Gold’s Gym and Bally’s. Although I do not encourage you to make a career out of those establishments, while you’re learning they could be a good place to get some experience.

Reputation / Popularity
NASM is one of the less recognized NCCA accredited organizations in the industry. Maybe it’s just because they only offer one level of certification, who knows. But it’s rarely the certification of first choice for many gyms or fitness studios.

Again, that’s not necessarily bad, especially if you are just training for your own clients. But just keep in mind that many times a studio will want you get yet another certification (like NSCA) to keep all their trainers on an even keel.

Eligibility
The eligibility requirements are basically the same as everyone elses. You must be 18 years of age, have a current CPR and AED certification, and be able to fork over the exam fees.

Exam
The exam is done a little bit differently than the other certifications. …OK, on second thought, make that a LOT different…

You have to buy one of their ‘educational packages’ to get the exam. So, in a sense, the exam is included with the study materials (at least the cost it). Then when you’re ready, you set up an exam date (minimum 3 days ahead) and then take the pas/fail exam.

This means that you can’t really just take the NASM CPT without buying all of their materials. Just purchasing the “exam” only package is $549!

The weird thing is that if you buy the materials, the cost is only $50 more. The ‘recommended’ PLUS version is $679 (which includes a Live Workshop)

Another odd thing is that you only have 120 days to take the exam after ‘enrolling’ as a NASM member. I respect the effort to bring people on board quickly and make it like a classroom (where deadlines are quite common), but it is very out of the mainstream for this industry. It’s up to you if you feel that is appropriate with your time constraints.

You also need to order things through one of their “Education Consultants” to order the recommended PLUS version of the study/exam materials…which to me is just another barrier to me getting myself moving.

Workshops
NASM has a Live Workshop (included in a few of their packages, like the PLUS package) that is a two-day program where you can get some really solid hands on experience. Of course, you know how much I value the hands on experience, so I consider this a fantastic advantage of NASM.

The Workshops (Live Workshop) are held in major cities throughout the year. The calendar of the upcoming years workshops is out well in advance and you can check the website for the current schedule.

Costs
As you’ve probably guessed, the ‘cost’ of the exam is hard to separate from the study/workshop material, so I’m just going to list them all together.

CPT PLUS (Recommended for new Trainers) - $679
CPT Regular (Textbook, Study Guide, DVD, and Exam) - $599
CPT Exam (Just the Exam) - $549
Live Workshop - $199
CD-ROM Course - $149

So basically you’re going to pay around $550 just to sit for the exam, whether you need any review or materials at all.

Validity
The NASM CPT certification is valid for two years. During those two years, you need to take about 20 hours of credits for your future recertification.

CEC’s
NASM offers a ton of CEC’s for you to take to get your 20 hours of CEC’s completed.

Unfortunately, it appears that you really need to take their NASM CEC classes, as they don’t seem to provide a list of ‘other’ approved courses. Many certification organizations allow you to take classes at colleges or other institutions, however I can’t find any evidence that’s available from NASM.

The list of CEC classes is quite extensive and, although I can’t find a way to substitute other classes, these should keep you learning for quite some time!

Renewal
Renewal is every two years, 20 CEC hours, and has a fee of $99 with a $30 late fee if you file (or complete your CEC’s) late.

Summary
As you can see, NASM does many of its certification procedures very differently than other organizations. The cost of the exam, since it’s built into the course materials, is much higher than other exams. Any hope of just “Certification Adding” by taking the exam is going to cost you even if you don’t need the materials.

NASM does offer a lot of continuing education and support for its members. It’s, again, not really the first choice of many gyms, but it’s an NCCA approved organization that provides real quality education (especially the Live Workshop) and instant recognition in the industry.

This is a Chapter Excerpt from my book “How to Become a Personal Trainer” written to help aspiring trainers understand the certification business. Feel free to browse more chapters on the left side of this webpage. - Leslie

The Cooper Institute (CI) was founded by the guy who wrote the book “Aerobics” in 1968 and started the whole world on this fitness craze. Since most of us are too young to remember a time before physical fitness was a common factor in our lives, it’s interesting to see how much Dr. Cooper’s book changed the way we live.

CI is located in Texas and runs many of their education courses in Dallas. If you’re not local to Dallas (or willing to take a vacation), then their education programs may be of little help for you. Even their DVD course has a ‘hands on’ component that’s given for a day and a half at their Dallas headquarters.

NCCA
The Cooper Institute Personal Trainer Certification, also known as “CI-CPT” is accredited by the National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA). Therefore it qualifies as one of our premier certifications around. It’s accreditation is relatively recent, however that isn’t a negative at all. The NCCA takes so long to permit new members, it’s a very positive sign that CI has made it through the tough process.

Certifications Available
For our purposes, we’re interested in the CI-CPT designation…or the Cooper Institute Certified Personal Trainer certification. (This use to be known as the CI-PTr, in case you see old references, it’s the same thing.)

Eligibility
The eligibility isn’t too difficult. You must be 18 years old, like all the others. You must have your CPR training from a trusted organization. By trusted, they mean American Red Cross. Online Certifications are given the standard “Not Accepted, No Exceptions” answer; so don’t even try to use that as your entry pass!

Guess what, that’s it! Really. As you noticed, you do NOT need to pass one of their classes in order to take the exam. Which is a nice deal compared to a few of the certifications that want you to pay them for classes and materials you may not need just to be eligible to sit for the exam.

Exam
Well, the one problem with the exam is its only given in Dallas, TX. So if you aren’t going to be in Dallas on your exam date (which is around twice a month), you aren’t going to be Cooper Institute Certified.

Which is really too bad, as the CI Certification is a good certification that’s well respected in the area and slowly getting more popular around the country. Until they start to branch out (if they even intend to…), it’ll probably be more of a regionally recognized certification. That doesn’t mean that walking into a gym with a CI-CPT certification will be a negative, but you should be prepared to describe what CI is and have a reference for them to check out.

Costs
Disregarding the travel cost if you are out of town (they do have a hotel at the Institute!), the certification isn’t prohibitively expensive. To take the exam it costs $250 to sit for the exam. You can even register 48 hours before the exam. (It’s given twice a month and the dates are known for about a year out)

The retake fee is a tad bit less, $195 to retake the exam again. You get a year to retake the exam at that rate. I don’t believe there is a minimum wait period…other than the 2+ week wait between exams.

Workshops
There are two ‘workshops’ that Cooper Institute offers, both are non-mandatory to sit for the exam, but very helpful in preparation for the exam.

Personal Training Education Workshop

Personal Training DVD with Live Training

They both cost over $500 and you have to be in Dallas to participate.

Validity
The CI-CPT certification is valid for three years from when you pass the test. That’s a good period of time, since most are for 2 years.

CEC’s
Like all NCCA accredited certifications, the Cooper Institute requires mandatory Continuing Education Credits before you can renew after the three year certification. They expect their certificate holders to stay current with at least 30 hours of the new information in the industry.

To make sure you take all the right courses, they suggest you check their website (http://www.cooperinstitute.org)

Renewal

Renewal isn’t really that difficult. Here’s what you need to do:

1. Complete a Renewal Form

2. Pay the Renewal Fee ($62.50, with an extra $50 if you need to extend an extra 6 months to get all your CEC’s completed)

3. Submit proof of your minimum 30 hours of continual education over the last 3 years.

That’s it! It’s really not too bad with no ridiculous requirements or anything that is just a sham payment back to Certification Company like a few organizations do.

Acceptance / Popularity
The popularity and value of the CI-CPT is much greater in the Dallas / Texas area than in, say, Maine. It’s seen as a regional certification, not because it’s worse than an ACE or NCSF, but because it’s just locally administered and therefore harder to find outside of the immediate area.

Summary
In the Texas region, there are few better certifications than the CI. It’s very well respected in the area and has a TON of resources for local trainers. In fact, it’s a fantastic set up for the Texas area, such that I wish I had that type of support in my area from my organizations.

Until CI starts to branch outside of its immediate area, it’s going to be a limited option for the most of us. However, if you’re in the area, I think you should definitely check it out. Keep in mind the entire experience – not just the exam – and support network they have in the Dallas area. You may find it is your best option by far.

This is a Chapter Excerpt from my book “How to Become a Personal Trainer” written to help aspiring trainers understand the certification business. Feel free to browse more chapters on the left side of this webpage. - Leslie

NCCA
The ACSM certification is NCCA accredited and very well respected in the industry. And because of that, it costs a bit to earn…but you could have guessed that anyway, right?

But let’s look at that later, how about we start with the certifications offered by the ACSM Certified Organization.

Certifications Available

Health Fitness Certifications

Certified Personal Trainer

Health / Fitness Instructor

Exam
True to the reputation as a leading certification organization, the ACSM certification exam is a tough one. They will try and slip you up with the dreaded “pick the best answer” from a bunch of correct answers. Also, the material is pretty thorough and will requite a good 4-6 months of study for a novice in the exercise science world.

The exam is about 120-150 questions and you have 150 minutes to take it. Even if you know your stuff, the ACSM certification exam is pretty tough. If you try and wing it, you’re in for a rough afternoon!

ACSM’s Personal Trainer certification is attractive to fitness professionals because the exam, for all its faults in not having a practical component, cannot be passed by a sub-standard trainer. This is why ACSM is so well respected…and also the reason the ACSM certification should be seriously considered for your personal training career.

Eligibility
This is the easy one, all you need are two things:

- A high school diploma or equivalent (like a GED) and be at least 18 years of age

- Currently have an adult CPR certification that has a practical skills examination component (such as the American Heart Association or the American Red Cross).

Cost
If you’re interested in attending one of their Personal Trainer Certificate Workshop Sessions, the cost is:

Three-Day Workshop $375

One-Day Workshop $129

Exam Costs

ACSM has a ‘membership’ that you can purchase that costs in a range from $50 (for a student) to $210 (for a ‘professional). The membership gives you discounts on the exam. So, for prices…

ACSM Certification Exam (ACSM Alliance or Regular Member) $219

ACSM Certification Exam (nonmember) $279

Retest $150

Don’t forget to add about $40-$60 for review courses that they offer for the exam. And about $150+ for the books they recommend. I looked on Amazon.com for them and found them much cheaper than the list price from ACSM.

ACSM is one of the more costly study-at-home certifications. It can run about $700-$900 when all is said and done. A lot? I guess. Are you doing this for one year, or on a whim? Then it would be costly, wouldn’t it? If it’s the start of your career, think of it as a lot cheaper than spending $85,000 on an Exercise Science degree.

Continuing Education Credits

ACSM also has continuing education credits to keep you good and current with their programs. (and to get more money out of you, of course!)

Luckily, ACSM’s validity period is three years, instead of two, like with ACE. (It use to be four years…)

An ACSM Certified Personal Trainer needs 45 credits for recertification and must pay a $30 fee.

That’s pretty steep in terms of CEC time, about 7-8 days worth of work in three years. Other certifications are less, however that doesn’t necessarily make ACSM bad or the others better.

ACSM let’s you earn CEC’s through participation in a whole bunch of ACSM workshops and classes. Here are a few:

- ACSM National Meetings

- ACSM Regional Chapter Meetings

- ACSM Endorsed Programs

- ACSM Self-Tests

They also certify a number of organizations a year to provide ‘interest areas’ that then can be used as CEC’s. Please see ACSM’s website for the most up to date CEC’s that are valid.

As I said, the ACSM Personal Trainer Certification has a 3 year validity period. The rest of the qualifications are pretty simple, in fact:

1. The candidate accumulates the required number of Continuing Education Credits (CEC’s) and/or the equivalent.

2. The candidate maintains a current CPR Certification.

3. The candidate pays the required recertification fee.

Summary

ACSM has many more ‘cool’ certifications than those above to let you go beyond just being a ACSM Personal Trainer. So if you’re interested in advancing your career with more education, ACSM has the ability to advance with you!

ACSM is really one of the top certifications, it’s hard to go wrong if you just say “I want ACSM’s Personal Training Certification” and then start your career.

Just make sure you study hard and keep on those CEC’s through the years!

This is a Chapter Excerpt from my book “How to Become a Personal Trainer” written to help aspiring trainers understand the certification business. Feel free to browse more chapters on the left side of this webpage. - Leslie

Well, here are some of the specifics that may help. All of this is available on the web, mostly from ACE Certification website itself, but there is so much junk on their website that it’s so much easier to just throw all the important stuff into one page that you can just bookmark for quick reference.

Is Ace NCCA Certified?

Yes, ACE is a well-respected personal training certification. It has quite a few certifications available, including:

Personal Trainer (PT) - standard

Group Fitness Instructor (GFI)

Lifestyle & Weight Management Consultant (LWMC)

Clinical Exercise Specialist (CSE)

Exams

Let’s talk about the serious stuff, the EXAM! Well, like many certification organizations, ACE doesn’t require that you actually show anyone that you know anything about how to properly be a trainer in person!

All you have to do is sit and take a computer (or pencil) test. It’s like taking a drivers test behind a computer…well, that’s all that ACE requires. They strongly recommend that you do 100 hours of practical, hands on experience, but it’s hardly a requirement.

So what do you need to know? Let’s start with where the exam comes from and how it’s created.

Supposedly, a group of industry experts analyzes personal training requirements to create an outline of your average expected job tasks, knowledge and skill sets required to perform a personal training job effectively. The results from this are then made into a survey, which is sent to a random sample of fitness professionals to, hopefully, validate the presumptions.

Somehow from this, a set of questions are selected to be approved by the “exam committee” that will decide what are good questions and what go into the trash. And that’s basically how these exams are made!

A “passing score” is determined by calculating (secretly, of course) the overall difficulty of the exam questions. Your goal is to get a passing score the first time.

There are 150 questions on each certification exam, and you have three hours to complete the exam. The Personal Trainer exam even mixes it up and adds two written simulation questions.

A simulation question checks your ability to recognize and use information you can expect on a real job. These are probably so ACE feels better about itself when it doesn’t require you to show some practical skills. For example:

You have a new client fill out an introductory form and get the following information: Age: 39 Height: 5′5″ Weight: 135 lbs. Lean body mass: 103 lbs. Triceps measurement: 15 mm Suprailium measurement: 25 mm Thigh: 34 mm. What is this clients body fat percentage?

The ACE exam isn’t the easiest, it isn’t the hardest, and there’s plenty of material on the web about sample exam questions.

Exam Materials
ACE sells its own study materials. (That’s my guess as to where the real money is made…)

They break it into “Study Material”, “Study Aids”, and then practice exams. The Study Materials is what you’d expect; books, instructions, etc. The Study Aids are live workshops and online courses. Finally there are practice exams given online.

The prices vary whether you get the Premier, Deluxe, or Standard package. Basically it’ll run you between $300-$400 for the exam materials. The difference between the three is minor, so check their recent offerings to see if you really need the Premier for the extra $100.

Every three months or so, the ACE certification group runs an Exam Review course in major cities in the US. For a mere $220 (plus travel, hotel, etc) you can get two days of asking questions about things that concern you. (It can also count as 1.6 CEC’s towards your 2.0 CEC requirement, see below for more on CEC’s)

I don’t know, but all that money to ask a few questions…seems like the local ACE certified trainer at my gym should be able to explain it to me for the price of a latte. Up to you how you want to learn! But if you need help before you sit for the exam, this is an option.

Also every three months, ACE runs a 2 day Practical Training Program. This 15-hour course is supposed to give you insight into critical areas such as Assessment, Program Design, and Strength Training. This runs about $300 and can be counted as 1.5 CEC’s. Again, if you need help before the exam, this is an option.

The Online Diagnostic Test costs about $30 and, but as the website tells my mac here…, it is only compatible with Windows. You get a sample of real questions from old exams and I believe it gives a much better feeling for what the exam really will be like on exam day. I don’t know about you, but doing something once makes the second try – even if the material is 100% different – so much less stressful and easier.

If there’s anything I recommend doing before the ACE certification, do the $30 Online Diagnostic Test!

Eligibility

There is a fairly short list of eligibility requirements for the ACE exams:

- You must be at least 18 years of age

- You must hold an adult CPR certification and it must be current at the time of the exam

Cost

There are two formats you can take the ACE certification exam in; good ol’ fashioned pencil-and-paper or computer. Contrary to all that makes sense, the computer exam costs more than the pencil-and-paper exam. Well, whatever, right? I guess getting the answer right away is worth the extra dough.

Here are the current costs for taking an ACE exam:

Paper and Pencil Format (U.S. and Canada)

First Time: PT - $219

Retake: PT - $135

2nd ACE Certification: $150 for any certification.

Computer Based Format (Only available in the U.S.)

First Time: PT - $249

Retake: PT - $184

2nd ACE Certification: All are $199

Continuing Education Credits

Good ol’ Continuing Education Credits (CEC), each organization does it differently. ACE requires them, but luckily you can apply them to all your certifications if you have multiple ACE certifications. (Like Personal Trainer and Group Fitness Instructor) So there is no penalty for adding certifications. (However you do have to pay to renew each certificate! What’d you expect, a free lunch?)

Here’s how ACE’s CEC’s work, first of all ACE requires that you get 2.0 CEC’s before your two year renewal period. What counts as a CEC credit? Well, 0.1 credit is one hour of instruction. That means that for 2.0 CEC’s, you need 20 hours of structured “ACE learning” before your renewal period.

ACE offers their own CEC’s or you can get a variety of credits from other organizations. Sometimes college credit counts, CPR recertification counts, etc. Basically what you need to calculate into your certification is the fact that you’ll have to pay over the two-year life of your certification for at least 20 hours of additional instruction or recertification classes.

CEC’s are such a great way to add a bit of skills to your repertoire. (Who expected me to use that word?) Maybe add Yoga Instructor or Pilates and not only will you get your CEC credits, you’ll open up many new opportunities for your career. Plus it can be fun and a great networking opportunity.

Renewal

As stated earlier, your certification is valid for a two-year period. During that two years, you need to complete 2.0 CEC’s and then and submit your renewal application(s) and fee(s) to ACE before your certification expires.

Each certification has a $69 renewal fee. Luckily, you can renew at any time during your certification period, so you don’t run the risk of being uncertified while waiting for all the processing. Even better, renewing early does not change your two-year certification period.

If you’re a procrastinator, then you’re going to pay for it…ACE certification renewals up to two months after your expiration date have a renewal fee of $89. For renewals between two and six months, the fee is $109.

If you’re really late, like after six months, you may be required to take the certification exam again. That would not be a smart move!

Summary

The ACE certification is well recognized in the industry and well respected. It’s testing format does allow for a significant amount of really bad trainers to get ‘certified’ and tarnish our image with our customers. Obviously, I feel strongly that ACE let’s us down with it’s lax exam and experience requirements for PT’s.

However, there are many good trainers with the ACE certification that the number of bad trainers that have your certification won’t affect your career in the slightest.

My suggestion is to work at a gym part-time while you’re studying for your ACE certification exam to get the practical skills that ACE ignores. This will also get your network going, get you comfortable working with clients, and show you if it’s really the career for you before you plunk down hundreds of bucks.

This is a Chapter Excerpt from my book “How to Become a Personal Trainer” written to help aspiring trainers understand the certification business. Feel free to browse more chapters on the left side of this webpage. - Leslie