Best organization for group fitness certification?
Thanks for the input to all of you. I have already been in the Group fitness industry almost 15 years first certified by NDEITA and then AFAA and MAD DOG with some workshops through FiTour. I teach Tabata style classes, bootcamp, Pilates, SPIN, Senior Strength, I am a Personal Trainer and I’m a Running Coach for kids. I asked about the move from AFAA because it seems there’s no connection between them and IDEA and I’d like to apply my CEUs from Idea to maintain my certifications. Also I’ve taken just about every course I am interested in eAFAA and I like learning from other sources.
We are military and move frequently and while I agree that it’s more about the passion and energy you put into your clients and classes, every gym has different requirements for which certifications they accept from their trainers and GroupX so maintaining certifications from well established organizations is extremely important when I’m in a competitive area.
ACE seems to have advance courses which interest me very much so I will look into their programs. Seems most people I talk to feel the same way about ACE.
Thanks again for our input….
Terie
Hi Teresa,
I would only suggest to go with ACE. I do not know what your future career ambitions are; ACE is NCAA accredited and is recognized everywhere. You can also take a look at on this website where you can search for certifications and compare https://www.ideafit.com/certifications/group-fitness. ACE also has such feature on their website https://www.acefitness.org/fitness-certifications/group-fitness-certific….
Good luck.
Karin Singleton
www.meltnc.com
As I tell my students who come to me with this question, a certification is only as good as the time and effort that went into obtaining it. And an instructor is only as good as the time, effort, and passion they put into every class or client’s program. If you really want to be a group fitness instructor, you will put in a lot of preparation and thought for your class design, choreography, and even music. I can always tell when an instructor wants to be leading a class. And a good instructor can pull that true desire up anytime they step in front of a group of people that came to have a great class.
That said, I am also partial to ACE for certification. After that it is up to you as to how good of an instructor you will be.
I have carried ACE for years and have been very happy with them. They have good name recognition, I feel that the test is challenging enough that the certification is meaningful, they have been in the business a long time, whenever I have had to contact any part of the organization over the years they have always been responsive and able to answer clearly and in a timely manner.
I think there are other options, but that is my experience.