Personal trainer cert best for cyclists - Personal Trainer Community - Forum

[Susan]

Hi,

I have researched this to death, so wanted to get the opinions of certified personal trainers.

I am a cyclist and someone who has always been interested in fitness, health, etc. I have ridden for years and years, riding (road) on average 3000 miles annually.

I want to get my certification as a personal trainer and like any newbie I'm not sure what would be a good cert for me.

I do not want this cert to work in a gym or fitness club, I want it primarily for my own use/knowledge/benefit and secondarily to work with other cyclists (beginning women).

I've looked at most if not all of them, understand the top 3 are from ACSM, NSCA and NASM, but would consider any personal trainer certification, preferably accredited (either through DETC or NCCA) if one particular cert would be better for cyclists.

I know to some this may seem silly to get a cert and not plan to work in a club or something, but I have the time and the resources to do this and I'm looking forward to all that I will learn and can then apply to improve myself as a cyclist and to use with other cyclists down the road (no pun intended) .

Which cert(s) would you recommend and why? I really would appreciate your help.
Thanks!

[Susan]

Does anyone have any suggestions for other personal trainer forums where I could post my question?

[Dinah]

Hi Susan,

I'm not sure of any other forums that could help you with your question.

Have you asked anyone in the cycling community?

ACSM is very clinical and NSCA focuses on strength training. Not sure what NASM is know for. Have you considered ACE? I've heard it's not as intensive as ACSM or NSCA, but has good study materials and support. It's very popular and appears to offer lots of great specialized certifications. Perhaps there's one for cycling??

Dinah

[Susan]

Hi Susan,

I'm not sure of any other forums that could help you with your question.

Have you asked anyone in the cycling community?

ACSM is very clinical and NSCA focuses on strength training. Not sure what NASM is know for. Have you considered ACE? I've heard it's not as intensive as ACSM or NSCA, but has good study materials and support. It's very popular and appears to offer lots of great specialized certifications. Perhaps there's one for cycling??

Dinah

Dinah,

Thanks very much for replying. I did ask other cyclists and they suggested I ask the personal trainer crowd.. lol - so that's why I came here. I've googled personal training and cyclist/cycling and haven't really found much.

From what I've read NASM seems to be focused more on sedantary people, non-athletes. As you said, NSCA focuses on strength and although core strength, legs, glutes,etc strength is important cycling is primarily an aerobic sport so I was looking for a program more geared to that - I know they all will cover cardio-resp system to some extent.

Maybe ACE makes the most sense. They just changed to an assessment model, I think it's called I-Fit. It seems similar to NASM's OPT model. I know ACE is one of the easier certs to get and seems to be not that well respected (no offense to anyone), but that wouldn't keep me from considering it since I'm not looking to work at a club or something.

I'll consider ACE more and if anyone else has any suggestions, chime in. What do you think of ISSA, I've read mixed reviews but heard curriculum is good. My hesitation with them is I heard they are geared more toward body building, is that true? Anyone have ISSA?

Thanks again Dinah.

[Chris_78]

To be honest, all of them are lacking in true practicality.

My recommendation would be NSCA for a few reasons...

1) It's well supported by the academic community just like ACSM

2) And, I think it's actually less expensive

3) It's more sport-oriented and less clinical-based

4) Annual membership is less expensive and you get two journals (a bi-monthly "lay" journal and a monthly scientific journal)

NASM has its perks, too - it does actually look more at musculoskeletal assessment aspects and corrective exercise. But, if I recall, it's the most expensive of all 3 of these.

The reality is that they all have their shortcomings. NSCA is far too "old-school" in its approach and still promotes more of the "body-part" approach to training. I haven't actually looked at the ACSM textbook, but I would imagine that it's still fairly clinical-based and "old school" research-based and not up with some of the current trends. And, NASM is a bit more cutting edge in that it has a physical therapy "twist" since its founder is a physical therapist (Michael Clark, I believe is his name). However, I think that the NASM's OPT model isn't perfect and I think that the assessments such as the overhead squat are too simplified. A single movement like an overhead squat cannot detect everything that is suggested nor is every movement compensation just the result of what they have listed in their text. There is more to the "story" and NASM presents it in too simplistic of a manner. I have issues with that.

The reality is this - none are perfect. You are going to gain your greatest knowledge from your own self-pursuits. The certification is just a piece of paper to get you in the door if you do want to train others. The real education is on-going and continuous.

I do know of someone who is very much into cycling and I'd probably recommend pursuing something like a bike fit certification as a compliment to any personal trainer certification. I think it's called the Serotta Institute (SICI). You can probably Google it. I'm sure that something like that would be extremely useful for you to go along with the training stuff.

Good Luck.

[Susan]

Chris,

Thanks so much for taking the time to reply and give me your thoughts. I've sort of come to the same conclusion that none of them "fit". I actually like clinical type info and read a lot of it just for my own benefit, particularly related to cardio-vascular fitness, athlete's heart, etc.

I came across an old text of ACSM and it had a lot of info on cardio fitness which as an endurance athlete I'm most interested. I'll have to check them out more.

More research I guess...

Thanks again.

Susan