Senior Fitness Certification, which course is better, ISSA or NESTA?
16 Years ago, I became certified as a Senior Personal Trainer with the Senior Fitness Association http://www.seniorfitness.net/sfaspt.htm. What I like about the organization is that this is their entire focus and not just one of many.
The drawback for me was that – at the time – they seemed to go through an organizational change, and their recertification process was problematic. At the time, they required that you get the CeCs only through them, and then did not provide adequate material.
I believe that this has changed, and I am toying with the thought of getting this certification again because they provided really good information.
I just signed up for NESTA’s course since I already have a PFT cert with them. After paying for the course, the material I got was the SrFit course from the American Academy of Health and Fitness written by Tammy Petersen.
I tend to agree that a certification from one organization is “usually” (insert caveats) as good as from another. However, it’s probably best to pick one that has a wide range of courses and stick with it so that there’s no problems getting re-certified.
Hi Mary Ann. Hopefully by now you are a fully-certified and practicing senior wellness professional. Congratulations if you are. I wanted to weigh-in on your question because I think that it’s a great one that gets to the heart of why any of us chooses the specific certification that we end-up with? I think that the answers that you’ve received here are ‘right on.’ This decision often comes down to which is better recognized by the employers and industry leaders in a particular field, or which has better ‘back-end support’ for its members, or cost, or ease of entry… So many factors for each of use as trainers to consider that “best” takes on a very fluid meaning.
I try to consider what factors are most important to you as a trainer and then do some comparison shopping before deciding.
Again, I hope that you’re now certified as a senior trainer, but if not, good luck in your search!
I hope that this helps.
LaRue, CSCS
www.lecfitness.com
[email protected]