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CERT vs. CERT: Industry Comparison
What is the difference between the IFPA and ACE? ACE is a fine certification and is one of the oldest (ACE and ACSM are the oldest certifications). ACE and the IFPA have significantly different philosophies on what a certification should do. ACE’s program is designed by some of the world’s foremost academic scholars of the fitness sciences. While all the scientific material is highly detailed and accurate, ACE ran into the problem the IFPA worked diligently to avoid. The problem: how do you develop a scientifically based program and still make it practical for the fitness professional? How do you apply the sciences to the real-world needs of the fitness professional? This was an extremely difficult task. The IFPA recruited a highly select group of educators that met extremely rigid qualifications. All IFPA Faculty would be required to have: (1) a minimum of a Masters Degree in exercise, nutrition, sports medicine and related fields of study (M.S., PhD, MD, DO, DCM, etc.); (2) all IFPA Faculty would be required to have practical, hands-on experience as trainer, coach, athlete, etc.; (3) all IFPA Faculty would have to have exemplary teaching skills (not all PhD’s are great teachers – many are great researchers, since the IFPA’s goal was to become the world’s foremost Fitness Certification and Education Association, the IFPA wanted great teachers!; (4) All IFPA Faculty would be required to have dedication to the fitness lifestyle. If you are not intimately familiar with the fitness industry, you probably don’t realized how daunting a task this was! The IFPA went through well over a 1,000 resumes to find the elite core of Faculty that developed and continues to teach IFPA programs. If you look for one single reason for the superiority of the IFPA over all other certifications it would have to be our uniquely qualified Faculty. The hard work and dedication of the IFPA Faculty is responsible for the development of the finest, most practical and most useful fitness, sports conditioning and sports nutrition courses and certifications available in the world today. Development of these programs was essential. The job analysis the IFPA performed in order to determine precisely what knowledge and skills were necessary to perform the fitness professional’s job safely, efficiently and competently, lead all of our experts to determine that there was no training program available on the planet that would adequately prepared anyone for the job. Since the safety of the public was our primary concern, we were tasked with developing both the education program as well as the certification test. The Job Analysis determined what knowledge and skills the IFPA would test to determine proficiency, but in order to be fair to our applicants, we would first need to teach them the required knowledge and skills. The legacy began in July, 1994. The IFPA started a revolution in the fitness industry with the start of the first ever fitness certification based on the actual job, fitness professionals needed to perform, in order to be both safe and effective. Now, nearly 10 years later the IFPA has over 40,000 Certified Instructors world-wide, and the IFPA continues to lead the industry with both the most practical certification available and the finest Faculty of educators ever assembled. What is the difference between the IFPA and ACSM? ACSM is a fine certification and is the oldest in the industry. ACSM certification was specifically designed by medical doctors and exercise physiologists for exercise physiologists who planned on careers in the health and medical community. ACSM certification is generally required for any exercise physiologist working in hospital or medical clinics with cardio-rehabilitation patients. ACSM certification requires a college degree in exercise physiology or related areas. The ACSM is the one and only organization to offer a certification of this type. The IFPA does not have or plan to have any certification to compete with the ACSM. The ACSM’s medical expertise is better suited to dealing with this special population than any other certification including the IFPA. The ACSM has attempted to develop personal trainer type certifications, but this is far a field from their medical expertise (how many doctors do you know that have any interest or knowledge in fitness or nutrition). The ACSM fitness certifications lack the practical understanding of the fitness industry. We at the IFPA feel very strongly that the vast majority of the medical and health care concerns, expenses and problems of today can only be resolved by an army of dedicated fitness professionals. Estimates run as high as 80% of all medical and healthcare costs are a direct result of lifestyle choices. The only logical conclusion to draw is that: the fitness and nutrition experts of today – will become the doctors of tomorrow. The IFPA is asking you to join the fight. The fight is to motivate, train and educate the public away from the destructive “anti-lifestyle” that is so prevalent in our community. The “anti-lifestyle” is (1) physical inactivity (2) smoking, (3) poor nutrition, (4) substance abuse and (5) stress. The IFPA and the rest of the fitness community would like you to join us and together we can win this fight. (Please take the time to read the information under the ACE comparison to learn critically fundamental differences of IFPA Programs from all other organizations.)
The NSCA’s CSCS (Certified Sports Conditioning Specialist) is a fine certification. The CSCS is designed for college and professional strength coaches. The CSCS is designed for the most popular sports. The IFPA has taken a different approach to sports conditioning. The IFPA has a basic sports conditioning and ten sports specific certifications. The basic course covers all aspects of sports conditioning of all components of fitness. The sport specific courses (baseball, basketball, football, soccer, volleyball, tennis, hockey, running, golf and martial arts) allow the IFPA to go into much greater detail in the sport or sports of your choices. The NSCA has more recently developed a personal training certification, but similar to the ACSM the NSCA’s expertise is not in the fitness industry. The job description of a strength coach dealing with highly trained, highly motivated elite athletes is significantly different from that of a personal trainer dealing with doctors, lawyers, accountants, business owners, housewives and other non-athletic, overweight and out of shape individuals in a fitness center environment. The IFPA recently purchased a Tennis and Fitness Academy in Tampa, Florida. There is no doubt that the training of elite athletes is significantly different than training the average gym member. The academy athletes train 6 hours/day, sometimes 6 – 7 days/week. The average gym member has trouble getting 6 hours of training in a month! Therefore several aspects of NSCA’s Certification, while very well meaning, simply will not work in the practical real-world scenarios faced by personal trainers in fitness centers. (Please take the time to read the information under the ACE comparison to learn critically fundamental differences of IFPA Programs from all other organizations.)
The real claim to fame for the IFPA: PRACTICAL. The IFPA did not build our programs to win acclaim from academicians in the “Ivory Towers of Academia;” we don’t care about their opinion. The IFPA did not build our programs to win acclaim from doctors in the medical community – we don’t care about their opinion. The IFPA did not build our programs to win envy from the other certifications available today – we don’t care about their opinion. Most academicians have never trained anyone, have never built their own business or ever had a real job. Most doctors have never trained anyone, have ever been in a gym or ever learned anything about fitness or nutrition. Most of the other certifications have never trained anyone, have never consulted with fitness professionals or ever experienced training as those in the trenches have done. The other certifications available today are reminiscent of the old legend of the 3 blind men who are brought to an elephant to experience by touch what an elephant is. The first blind man is brought to the elephant’s trunk and after feeling all around the elephant’s trunk exclaims: “Ah! The elephant is like a snake!” The second blind man is brought to the elephant’s side and after feeling all around the elephant’s abdomen exclaims: “Ah! The elephant is like a wall!” The third blind man is brought to the elephant’s leg and after feeling all around the elephant’s leg exclaims: “Ah! The elephant is like a tree!” Each blind man felt sure he knew what an elephant was, but obviously, to a man with sight the blind men only got a small piece of the overall big picture. The same is said of the other certifications, they each have their own specialty in medicine (ACSM), in athletics (NSCA), in power lifting (ISSA), in academia (ACE), in nursing (AFFA) and thru their own self-imposed blinders – filter what they believe personal training and other aspects of the fitness profession are all about, without having been in the trenches, doing the job themselves, they fail to understand the whole “BIG” picture of the fitness profession. The IFPA looks at the whole elephant. The IFPA certification and continuing education courses are put together by professionals who have been in the trenches, have done the job and have succeeded. They also have extensive science backgrounds as exercise physiologists, kineseologists, sports nutritionists, chiropractors, doctor’s physical therapists, sports psychologists and other related expertise. (Please take the time to read the information under the ACE comparison to learn critically fundamental differences of IFPA Programs from all other organizations.) |