Training seniors

Nikki, congratulations upon deciding to pursue a career as a fitness professional.

It's great that you have identified specifically the population you wish to work with once you satisfy what's required in order to reach your goal to become a senior fitness specialist.

Here is what I would suggest. If you want to train seniors in a group setting as well as on an individual basis, you will have to earn two certifications, one as a group fitness instructor one as a personal trainer. It is important for you to know that the scope of the personal trainer certification and the group fitness instructor certification is different.

As you mention, it is a great idea to follow up your certifications with courses designed to help you to be the best with the population you will be working with.

More importantly, it is vital that you understand how the body of the older adult responds to exercise. There's some changes the body goes through when we all age and these changes have to be taken into consideration when we train this population.


I hope this give you a bit of direction as far as your career goals are concerned. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to shoot me an email.

Hi Nikki,

I work predominantly with seniors, and it is a most rewarding field.

You'll probably need both certifications, as a trainer and as a group exercise instructor. I suggest you check out the Senior Fitness Association at this site http://www.seniorfitness.net/. What makes this organization appealing is the fact that they focus on senior fitness and do not offer a broad array of specialties. Thus they are a great resource.

As Joanne said, working with seniors will present you an incredibly wide array of abilities but also pathologies. If you are dedicated to this group, you will need to continue to learn and widen your knowledge base.

Of course the more training you can obtain, the more prepared you'll be to meet all of the needs of this population and your career goals. Even though learning is a lifelong process it's understandable that you may have to choose somewhere to start the process. If you can't work on all the education needs at once, I suggest starting with the personal training certification and continue to read everything you can about training seniors. My next priority would be a senior-specific curriculum so you know the needs and conditions directly related to and most common in this population. Then the group fitness certification which will help you with the group dynamics but probably won't include as much of the science/physiology/etc as the other courses. Just my 2cents. Good luck!

Hi Nikki,
I too work with Seniors and have both a Group Fitness Cert. and my Personal Trainers. I would say that the Group Fitness would not have prepared me to work specifically with this population, but is a great certification as far as learning how to lead a class and safety concerns for the general population. I would definately pursue your Personal Trainers and then when selecting your continuing ed credits there are numerous courses that are for the Senior population. Also helpful will be CEC courses that guide you through training persons with knee, shoulder & hip issues which you will encounter a lot. I have found numerous courses of specific interest through American Council on Exercise.
Best of luck to you!

Personal trainer certification is important because you acquire more in-depth learning about individual biomechanics. Each person in a group is an individual and we need to be able to assess individuals when working with groups. Group instructor certification is essential for teaching classes. As others have already stated, depending on what you want to focus on first, get that certification first. ACE or NASM are both top notch organizations. ACSM tends to be more advanced. If you want to work independently, it is not as important as being a staff trainer. Companies usually prefer a well-known, national certification such as ACE, ACSM, or NASM.

It depends on what you are going to teach one on one or group. I suggest you get the foundation of whichever first then get specialized.

Hi Nikki!

I work with mostly seniors and I have to say it is very rewarding. ACSM, NSCA and NASM, give you some idea on how work with older generation. However, the Amercican Academy of Health and Fitness has a training certificate for Senior Fitness. It is a great resource and well worth it.

Good luck!

I work with "seniors" but I don't see them as "seniors"

I say go for the Group Certification first, you will get more exposure by doing group training, then once you get your Personal training Certification you can get more specific!

ACE or ACSM

Good Luck!

Karin's response gives you an excellent resource on the Web. Depending on how you define a senior (60..80?), your exercise program design will vary with regard to intensity, duration, type and frequency. Gardy's reference to AAHF gives you one source of specific info regarding the over-50 age group. One other major consideration is whether your client is fully functional or limited by orthopaedic or other medical conditions that will need specific attention.

Good luck. It's great that you're interested in working with this population.

Nikki, as some other posters have said, which certification you start with should depend on where you see you initially focusing your new practice. I think that a lot of the 'Active Adults' and seniors population tend more towards the group setting, although I must say that I work with several seniors one-on-one or as partners.

As far as "best" certification, that's very subjective. You should take a critical look at several factors including cost, requirements to sit for the certification exam, industry recognition etc. What I always recommend is that perhaps you check with some local gyms and other fitness organizations like the local YMCA to ask what certifications their trainers and group exercise instructors hold. Then start by looking into some of those organizations.

Good luck with your career!

LaRue, CSCS
www.lecfitness.com
larue.cook@lecfitness.com

Hi Nikki!

Congrats on choosing such an awesome field to work in! I have a full time job working with seniors in a retirement community and it's incredibly fun and rewarding. From my personal experience, I would say that starting with a Personal Training certification would be more beneficial if you can only choose one. It will give you a good base of knowledge and a lot of the information can be carried over into group training as well. Which one you choose will be up to you. You may want to start your research by talking to people who have similar jobs to the one you'd like to end up in and see where they earned their certifications.

Some other advice I can give would be to network with some physical therapists and even physicians if possible. I've found that they can be a huge help when working with older adults. They are very helpful when I am unsure of limitations that a certain medical condition may cause. A few times, I've had clients with problems that extended beyond my scope of practice and it was great to be able to refer them to a physical therapist who works specifically with older adults as well. It works the other way too, sometimes they will refer their patients to me when they've finished working with them in therapy. That way, there is a seamless transition and the client can continue to exercise knowing that their physical therapist is encouraging it.