I see it way too often. I’ll be browsing the Internet visiting various strength training sites and come across an ad that reads, “Get the best personal training certification in the industry! Just attend a one-day course at…”

There are just a few things wrong with that statement. First off, there aren’t any official criteria to judge whether or not one certification is better than another. So a certifying body can’t say they’re the best. Second, you can’t come close to developing the knowledge needed to be a competent personal trainer in a one-day course.

Advertisements like these are offensive to what has become a respectable profession. The only thing holding the personal training industry back from taking the next step is the fact that there virtually isn’t any regulation. Joe Smith could wake up one day, decide he wants to do something with his life, see an ad for a personal training course, pay the fee, and boom—he’s now a “personal trainer.” This guy can then legally go out and market himself as such, luring in gullible people who see letters behind his name and think that must signify that he’s knowledgeable. After signing the informed consent forms, that client is now in danger of being injured by this incompetent man’s training and won’t be able to do anything about it. It’s a very real and dangerous situation that happens on a daily basis in the United States.

There are many stories similar to these throughout the United States. It’s a real issue, and it needs to be aggressively attacked. Recently, a board was created called the National Board of Fitness Examiners (NBFE). This board was designed to help create standardized policies within the industry, including developing a licensing program that all fitness professionals would have to possess before they could legally train for a profit. A legislation proposal was brought up in the state of New Jersey on October 6, 2008, entitled the Fitness Professional Licensing Act. This act would require a governor-appointed board to oversee the licensing and regulation of personal trainers and group fitness instructors. If the bill became law, it would require aspiring trainers who did not yet hold a bachelor’s degree to complete 300 in-person classroom hours, including 50 hours of an unpaid internship under the supervision of an already licensed fitness professional. After the completion of these hours, they would have to pass a final examination. It is currently still on the ballot within New Jersey’s State Senate, and while it appears to be a step in the right direction, it actually is a step back and has taken a lot of heat from those within the industry.

What about all the credible certifications out there? Are they just going to be tossed aside in favor of this government board that more than likely has very little relation to fitness or the industry itself in the first place? It isn’t fair to the established organizations who have earned their place in the industry, and it isn’t fair to the potential trainers themselves.

While the State Senate of New Jersey may have good intentions, personal trainers can’t be required to go through the extremes that the bill proposes. There has to be some sort of in between. There needs to be a law, but it needs to be a law that encourages someone to enter personal training, not discourage them. For example, if a lawyer has a passion for health and fitness, he should be able to obtain a certification if he studies hard enough for the exam and demonstrates practical proficiency. In the end, a certification is a marketing tool. Real knowledge is developed through practical experience and one’s own study. I would bet you that very few trainers can even remember five questions from their exam

Look at it this way—would you let someone who obviously looked to be in shape and knew what he was doing train you just because he wasn’t certified? The answer is no. If I knew a guy who worked his butt off to go from a scrawny 150 lbs to a solid 210 lbs and I was looking to gain muscle myself, you had better believe that I’m going to him, regardless of whether or not he’s certified. A certification lends credibility, but it isn’t the entire picture of what that particular person can deliver.

Here’s my proposal for regulation in the personal training industry. Every personal trainer should carry one of the following certifications—NSCA, ACSM, NASM, ACE, NCSF, NFPT, CI, or ISSA. That’s it. These are all accredited organizations that have been around for a number of years and carry a lot of weight within the fitness industry. Their tests cover the basics of what a personal trainer should be aware of and most likely can’t be passed without sufficient study. Just because a trainer carries one of these qualifications doesn’t mean he knows what he’s doing, but it ensures that he at least knows more than our Joe Smith who went online, paid a fee, and got his certificate in the mail. It would also weed out these lesser “organizations” altogether. Yes, the people running these lesser organizations would go out of business, but they were in business for the wrong reasons to begin with. Hope is not entirely lost for them though.

The benefits of this regulation give potential personal trainers flexibility in what certifications they can choose and allow them an opportunity to pursue the certification if they already happen to have a full-time job. It also maintains diversity among different certifying bodies instead of having one agency that teaches a standardized program. In the fitness industry, there really isn’t any such thing as standard practice. Everyone does it differently, and that’s the beauty of it. I want that to continue to be upheld within professional bounds. If a trainer doesn’t carry one of the aforementioned certifications, he can’t legally market himself as a personal trainer or anything resembling such. He also wouldn’t be able to be hired by any commercial gym. A trainer who doesn’t hold a legal certification would be labeled an “illegitimate” trainer and be subject to the laws of his state.

A board would also need to be created, comprised of at least one fitness professional from every legal certifying body for those organizations that wish to step into the legal certification category. The board would have the responsibility of reviewing potential applicants to see if they were worthy of offering legal certifications.

Making this proposal a law is easier said than done, but I truly believe that by enacting this law ,hundreds of people could be saved from the misguided training of individuals and organizations that enter the industry just to make a quick buck. We need to put an end to this and introduce regulation because personal training has come too far in the past decade to let it revert back to an illegitimate profession pursued by those who don’t respect the values a trainer needs to have.

I’m sure there will be opposition, and some certifications will be left off the list. However, they would still be able to apply through the aforementioned board. And that’s the beauty of the law. No one is necessarily thrown out all together. They just have to meet general, predetermined standards to be accepted. Essentially, the current certification list that I laid out could grow by as many as ten in one year, depending on what organizations were willing to up their game or start their game all together for that matter. It’s up to the board as to what certifying bodies are accepted. The standards upon which they allow organizations in are still unclear, but they would basically have to measure up to the certifying bodies that I mentioned earlier. The law still upholds the diversity of certifying bodies without sacrificing the quality of the organizations themselves. It lends respect to the industry by holding everyone to a higher standard, and I firmly believe this potential law could revolutionize personal training as we know it for years to come.

By no means am I a political expert who knows exactly what to do to turn a bill into a law, but I do know I care deeply about the profession of personal training and I won’t let it become belittled. Myself and those who choose to follow have a long road ahead of us, but I believe with a strong effort to bring awareness to the powers that be in the industry, we can make our voices heard and get the ball rolling on bringing justice to the title “personal trainer.”