Why does Idea fitness not show my AFAA certification as not being verified?

Unfortunately, AFAA has chosen not to participate in iIDEA FitnessConnect. We have about 50 agencies verifying credentials now. (We expect to be working with 130 US and Canadian agencies by the end of the year.)

We talk to executives at certification and training agencies every day. To be fair, their most common question is “what’s the catch?” IDEA FitnessConnect is free (certification and training agencies don’t pay anything either), so what’s in it for IDEA? The answer: We want to raise the bar of professionalism in the industry; we want to increase the value of getting and maintaining certifications and specialty trainings. A big part of what IDEA does is help professionals do this. So we benefit. Certification and training agencies also benefit. Consumers benefit, too. And the professional integrity of the industry goes up.

We hope that AFAA will participate in the future.

P.S. Just to be clear, IDEA uses the accreditations identified by IHRSA as appropriate for fitness certifications. We provide the same special designations for certifications accredited by NCCA, DETC, NBFE, and NFLA.