Is Certification or Experience More Important?

I have a love/hate relationship with fitness certifications. Yes, they show that someone has a minimum amount of knowledge. Yes, that helps to protect the consumer. Yes, they give a standard for which trainers should strive to reach.

Do they guarantee that a client is getting a good trainer?

NO!!!

What goes into making a good trainer? Many things make a good fitness professional. Knowledge is one but experience and the abilities to communicate and solve problems are also critical skills. Those are attributes that I think a lot of new, and some not-so-new, trainers really lack. These areas are also hard to improve because it takes more than just reading a book.

I have spent countless thousands of dollars on certifications and continuing education over the years. The mentoring I have received from key people and key experiences comprise what I now use most. I also now realize that the certifications have done very little for my career or level of knowledge.

I work with and mentor a lot of different trainers and exercise physiology students around the country. My feelings are that they tend to focus more on the certification than experience. Many feel that they will gain immediate respect from supervisors and peers when they get that certification or finish their degree. Everyone needs to know that the piece of paper is a starting point and not an end itself.

Certifications are usually geared toward one area of fitness and health education. Many are, in my opinion, very low level and are only in existence to increase profits for the “certifying” agency. I have seen many of the big ones go through some pretty profit-driven political changes that made me lose a lot of confidence in them. Especially when I see some of the certificate recipients dumber than a proverbial “box of rocks” by many peoples’ standards.

Unfortunately, the public puts their ignorant trust in these certificate holders who don’t understand what part they just played in the big picture.

I’ve always prided myself on staying on top of the latest research in the health and fitness arena. I remember working for a health club years ago that used interns from various Exercise Science programs. I was always surprised at how much they DIDN’T know after so many YEARS of study. They always talked about how well they did or thought they were going to do on a certifying exam.

Certifications and degrees have their place but real experience should be what people focus on in their search for a competent exercise professional.