What do all of these Personal Training Certification Organization acronyms mean?

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

Have you been completely confused by all the acronyms surrounding the personal training certification process? What’s an NCSF Certification or an ACE exam? Why is it so difficult to figure out? All we want to know is…what types of certifications are available in the United States that are recognized by clients and fitness professionals? Well, let’s find out, shall we?

NCCA - The Only “Gold” Standard

Here’s the short of it… The National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA) is the main accrediting body for personal training certification programs in America.

Personal Trainer Certifications from an accredited NCCA certifying body are the top-tier certifications for personal trainers. Most gyms, clients, and people in the business expect a competent personal trainer to have their certification from one of the NCCA certified bodies.

Previously, there were five NCCA-endorsed organizations that offered certifications for personal trainers. However, there are two recent additions (Cooper Institute and NETA) that are freshly qualified to grant an NCCA backed personal training certification. These eight endorsed organizations offer a variety of fitness and personal training educational workshops, materials, and degrees. All of them are recognized as valid training certifications and can be a crucial first step on your way to becoming a personal trainer.

Certification Tips

Each organization is tailored a little different and requires its ‘graduates’ to take one or multiple competency exams. Many times these exams include an in-person practical. (I believe they ALL should, but they do not.)

If you pass the exams, you will receive a certification that will last for a predetermined time frame, usually 1-3 years.

After you’re certified, each organization has different rules about how many “Continuing Education Credits” (aka CEC’s or CEU’s) their trainers must take during the year to stay current. They also require trainers to recertify when their certificates expire…for an additional fee, of course!

Let’s take an example…American College of Exercise (ACE) has a “Personal Trainer” certification that you can take for about $300. The certification is good for two years. After the two years is up, you have to pay approximately $400 to re-certify with ACE for another two years. That includes a re-examination and registration fees. The $400 is a guesstimate of the renewal fee ($69) and the 20 hours of CEC’s you must take (and pay for!)

The eight organizations offer various types of personal training certification programs as well as their own test prep materials to prepare and take their exams. Further padding their pocketbooks, most organizations requires the previously mentioned “Continuing Education Units” (CEU) to renew your certificate. These are usually taken during the course of your valid certification years. Luckily, these can be fun courses like learning Yoga, Pilates, or whatever’s the next trendy thing that clients want to explore. Workshops and classes are offered by each organization to help meet these CEU/CEC requirements.

Although many certification programs insist that you do NOT need to enroll or purchase anything to be eligible for their exams, new trainers will need to be very familiar with the type of material on each particular exam. Each tests a central core of skills and knowledge (say, anatomy and exercise science), but most have some different aspects included (like nutrition or sports trainers) that you may not even be aware of if you study from a different set of materials!

How do I choose?

I know what you’re thinking, “Which one is better?”…well, they all are satisfactory for getting jobs or telling someone that “you are a certified personal trainer.” Some certifications are more popular than others, but all are a certified good programs that will give you the basic understanding you need to begin your career.

I get into the different programs in my book so you can choose the best one for yourself.

But before we go too far, we need to find out what the Certification Organizations are first!

The personal training certification “field” is not strictly regulated and absolutely anyone can call themselves a “guru” and offer classes. Please be careful when you are looking to become a trainer as there is a lot of cr*p out there. Talk to other trainers in your area, ask advice from people from different gyms with many different educational backgrounds. Be wary of anyone steering you to their “special” program where they are the instructor or are paid to have you sign up. Like shopping for a used car, always use your head…if it sounds too good to be true, it is.

The Blessed Eight

Let’s take a look at the Eight Personal Training Certification groups that have been blessed by the NCCA so we can understand who they are before we tackle more in-depth reviews of each organization…

The American College of Exercise (ACE) offers a personal trainer certification and three other health certifications. A series of practical training programs are offered in major cities around the country. These courses consist of fifteen hours of instruction in two days. The organization also has home study courses to prepare for the certification exam. These courses take about three to six months to complete and allow you to work at your own pace.

To qualify for this certification, you must be 18 years of age and CPR certified. The exams are given in testing centers around the country.

The National Council on Strength and Fitness (NCSF) offers a Personal Training Certification program and home study courses for exam preparation. It takes home the acronym absurdity award with a certificate labeled “NCSF-CPT”. They have quite a selection of offerings and you can choose between home study and interactive workshops. When you have finished the course and exam preparation, you will be ready to take the certification exam. The exam is available at over four hundred testing locations around the country.
The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) offers two ways to prepare for their certification exam. They offer one to three day workshops or an exam preparation home study course. They also offer a popular Health / Fitness Instructor certification for people interested in teaching classes.

If you take all three of these certification exams, you are awarded the Master Trainer Certificate. The exam is 120 questions and has a two hour time limit. There is no set schedule for the exam. It’s offered in computer based testing centers around the country.

The National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM) has a Certified Personal Trainer (CPT) certification, among a whole slew of other certifications. They are very well known in the fitness industry and many top fitness clubs accept their CPT certification. The CPT exam has some strict limits (such as number of times you can take practice exams and time given to sit for the exam) and must be done in person. It’s also offered in computer based testing centers around the country.

National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) - The NSCA Certification, also known as the NSCA-PT, comes from the National Strength and Conditioning Association. They offer two types of certifications, one known as the CSCS and a personal training certification called NSCA-CPT”.
The Cooper Institute (CI) is a new NCCA accredited organization offering a Personal Training Certification. The CI-CPT designation comes from the guy that started the entire Aerobics craze with his book published in the 70’ s called, well, “Aerobics”!
Unfortunately, unless you’re a resident of Dallas Texas, or willing to go there for the exam, this certification isn’t going to be easy to get. Until CI starts to expand their reach, it will remain a regional certification.
The National Exercise Trainers Association (NETA) is also a new NCCA accredited organization. Although its reputation is still catching up with its quality, it strikes me as a certification where the student gets a lot for his or her money.
The National Federation of Professional Trainers (NFPT) is also an NCCA accredited certification. 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.

Well, so which personal training certification should you choose? If you talk to people, they all have their favorites, but if you talk to enough people, three usually emerge as the most respected certification to go after…NCSF, NSCA, and ACSM.

Not that the others are personal training certifications, but typically the best trainers have one of those three.

All eight of these organizations are the current NCCA accredited authorities when it comes to obtaining a reputable Personal Training Certification. Each has it’s own strengths and weaknesses that vary according to your training goals. From this point, we need to dive deeper into how each certification education program works.