I really do appreciate the folks at ACE. They have always been extremely helpful whenever I've called, and they really do seem to care about their customers and trainers. Their website has a wonderful wealth of information, and the continuing education is great. I have a "boot camp" coming up in about three weeks (hands on learning of all we've read and studied about).
I hate to say anything bad,....but ACE is severely lacking in certain aspects of training such as covering all the major principles and the different techniques for manipulating routines, but the psychology aspect was new to me and I feel is definitely and important part of a whole fitness program.
All in all I was not very happy with ACE's manual and felt that it is barely a starting point for a fitness education I also highly recommend that anyone with an ACE cert find another cert to add to it, to kind of round out your knowledge or at the very least start with the recommended reading lists at the end of every chapter. Also check out the articles at PTontheNet.com as they have helped me tremendously.
ISSA, NASM, NSCA are the places that I would recommend. As I have an ACE and ISSA cert and am working on others I can say from experience that the 2 cert combined make a better cert than either of the 2 alone, and once I add in NASM's CPT and then a B.S. degree in Sports Management then I will finish my Ceritfications out with the NSCA's Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist and also my Masters in Human Movement from Arizona's School of Health Sciences only then will I feel that I am a well rounded student of the Human Body.
Please don't let this discourage you, I am not putting ACE down, I am just saying what you should be realizing and that is.....that the more you learn the more you realize that there is a lot more to learn, and I encourage all of you who read this to continue your pursuit of excellence to benefit your present and future clients.
Just a side note: While there is a lot of material that is shared in each of the certifications that I mentioned above, each one has something special and different to add to your repertoire. While it is not necessary to further your education per se I felt obligated to move forward with mine and hope that you all do the same.
Also the information does get easier to retain the more you study it. So while I had a difficult time with my first certification the second was a lot easier and that just reinforced to me the importance of seeking out other certifications to conquer.
I also look forward to helping answer any questions that I can help with!
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If a person wants something that they have never had, they have to do something that they have never done. - Shawn Fears, CPT
