5 Courses to Help You Start Your Fitness Career

Like many other career paths, a career in the fitness industry requires certifications. Without these certifications, you may still work as a personal trainer or fitness coach, but your career choices would be severely limited.
This is due to the fact that most fitness centers and gyms would only hire duly certified instructors. Also, no client would trust a personal trainer without certifications.

Now, in order to pass the exams required to obtain these certifications, one would need to prepare by studying courses that cover the curriculum. Thankfully, there are plenty of options available, and many of the certifying bodies also offer special courses that can help you prepare for the certification examinations.
Here is a list of courses that can help you start your fitness career:

The NSCA - Certified Personal Trainer Essential Plus
This course covers everything you need to prepare for the NSCA-CPT exams, which is a certification exam of the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA). It is more of an introductory course designed for those who are new to the business of personal training.

Just like many other fitness career courses, the NSCA-CPT Essential Plus is offered online, and serves as a supplement to the Essentials of Personal Training textbook published by the NSCA. Also, it must be noted that this online course is only accessible to those who have bought the textbook.

NSCA’s Foundation of Coaching Lifts
This course is also quite helpful for beginners in the industry. Also put together by the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA), the Foundation of Coaching Lifts course will teach you the basics of coaching athletes to perform lifts using weights.

The course which covers compound lifts will help you identify the correct technique and progressions.

NSCA’s Foundation of Coaching Lifts includes a manual, videos and quizzes, all accessible online. There are also live events for which it is advised that you attend only after you’ve completed the online course.

The ACE Personal Trainer Study Program
This beginner course for aspiring personal trainers is put together by the American Council on Exercise (ACE). The course is available online, and is designed to cover the curriculum for the ACE Certified Personal Trainer exams.
There is also an optional package for this course that includes a hard copy textbook and study companion.

The NASM Certified Personal Trainer Course
This self-study online course is packaged by the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM). And everything needed to pass the certification exams for the NASM – Certified Personal Trainer program is included in the course.
Presented in an easy to grasp format, this online course is also reputed to be quite user-friendly.

NASM’s Group Fitness Certification Program
This fully online course is also put together by the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM). It covers everything you need to know about leading a group fitness class.

It also covers the curriculum for NASM’s Group Fitness Instructor Certification exams.

In conclusion, it must be noted that American Council on Exercise (ACE), National Academy for Sports Medicine (NASM), and National Strength & Conditioning Association (NSCA) are all reputable bodies whose certifications are recognized by most employers in the fitness industry.
And any of these courses, packaged by these well recognized bodies, can serve as a foundation to a fruitful career in the fitness industry.

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