Acronyms are just letters arranged in an order. The validity of those acronyms vary depending on who is judging them. The list of acronyms that make up personal training certification agencies numbers at least 75, which is too many for some in the business.

“I'd like to see some certifying agencies disappear,” says Ellie Ciolfi, executive director of Strength in Numbers Inc., a personal training business in Maryland.

She's not alone.

“We want quality rather than quantity,” Al Wasser, fitness coordinator at Red Rocks Community College in Lakewood, CO, says about certifying agencies.

The large number of certifying agencies dilutes the credibility of a personal training certification because it seems that any person can walk off the sidewalk and say he or she has a personal training certification, says Joey Lowery M.S., head personal trainer at the Monroe Athletic Club in Monroe, LA.

“If we reduce the number [of certifying agencies] and people just go to a group of four or five certifying agencies, you'll see the best of the best will come out on top in this industry,” he says.

Much to the chagrin of certifying agencies, fitness facility owners and managers aren't concerned with keeping the 75 or more personal training certification organizations in business. Instead, they want a smaller group of good-quality agencies that will provide them with well-trained personal trainers.

The recommendation by the International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association (IHRSA) could be the tool to decrease the certifying agency numbers and sift out the bad certifications.

“This process was driven by our member clubs saying, ‘Give us some guidance. How do I choose from these certifying organizations out there?’” says Helen Durkin, director of public policy at IHRSA. “So the drive to do this came from the membership.”

IHRSA recommended that by the first of this year, IHRSA-member club owners only hire personal trainers with certifications from agencies that have been accredited by (or are in the process of obtaining accreditation from) the National Commission of Certifying Agencies (NCCA) or have had their curriculum accredited by the Council for Higher Education and Accreditation (CHEA) or the U.S. Department of Education. Currently, five agencies have received NCCA accreditation and at least five others have applied to receive accreditation.

Wasser approves of IHRSA's recommendation because it forces some of those organizations to say, ‘What do we have to do to become IHRSA recommended?’

“I'm for anything that will minimize the number of certifying agencies so the personal trainer will be thought of as highly as a certified public accountant,” he says.

More to the Mix

Were that all there was to the certification issue, the matter would be simple. The large certifying agencies with the funding and the small ones that secure the funding (accreditation efforts can run more than $25,000) would receive accreditation while the other certifying agencies would slip through the accreditation funnel never to be heard from again.

However, the National Board of Fitness Examiners (NBFE) has added itself to the mix by offering written and practical exams that it has termed “national boards.” At least 14 certifying agencies that are not pursuing third-party accreditation have signed on as affiliates of the NBFE, betting that personal trainers and club owners will prefer the status of passing a national board to having a third-party accredited certification. So far, 1,200 personal trainers have signed up to take the NBFE exams, according to the organization, despite the fact that the NBFE is not part of IHRSA's recommendation and the group does not intend to seek accreditation through NCCA or CHEA.

While IHRSA has not taken an official stance on the NBFE, Durkin indicated the trade association is open to seeing where the effort goes. The main concern about the NBFE is that accredited certifications have already created a pool of qualified trainers. Requiring trainers to qualify again by taking the national boards asks them to requalify themselves, but taking the exam won't make them any more qualified, she says. Therefore, the national boards could lessen the pool of qualified trainers because trainers may not want to qualify a second time.

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