I Passed The ACE Certified Personal Trainer Exam. Now What?

After passing your test you should immediately work on your resume'. I personally used http://www.resumewriters.com to have someone professionally put together my resume'.

I Just Got Back From the Los Angeles Fitness Expo

I attended the LA Fit Expo today!

I am totally amazed at the physical fitness that is required to do kettlebell exercises. These guys did the following kettlebell demonstrations with 45 lb kettlebells, for an hour, with very little rest...WOW!

Note: These demonstrations were held by the following group:

http://www.fitnessworkx.com





I think it would be great to add a kettlebell certification to one's resume'. Here's the link to the RKC kettlebell certification:

http://www.dragondoor.com/wpkb50.html

Now its your turn!

Do I Need Experience Before Taing the ACE Personal Trainer Exam?

I get this question a lot. "Do I need experience before taking the ACE personal trainer exam?" According to ACE, the answer is "Yes". However, I can tell you that I had no experience prior to taking the exam and I still passed with flying colors. Do not be swayed away from taking the ACE CPT exam just because you don't have experience. Remember, prior experience is recommended but not required.

I just passed the ACSM personal trainer exam. Look for the upcoming blog, "How to study for the ACSM personal trainer exam."

Happy New Year!

Hello,

This is my 8th month as a personal trainer at Bally Total Fitness. I've now made it as a level 3 trainer (level 5 is the highest level at Bally's) and I'm about one month away from taking the ACSM personal trainer certification test. Keep posting your questions and I'll do my best to try to answer them.

Do I Have What it Takes to Become a Personal Trainer?

Hi Everyone,

I have now been working at Bally Total Fitness for 4 months, and I've now made it as a full-time trainer. I absolutely l0ve my job, and it is very rewarding to see my clients get the results they want. I would have to say that if you are not good at sales and prospecting, then you will have a very difficult time working at a brand-name gym. Each month all the trainers are given a sales goal, and each trainer is expected hit their goal. So, you should evaluate your sales skills before you jump into becoming a personal trainer. I will keep posting my experiences on this blog to help you realize your dream of becoming a personal trainer.

What Chapter to Start With When Begining to Study the ACE Personal Trainer Manuel (3rd edition)?

Hint! When studying from the ACE Personal Trainer Manuel 3rd Edition begin with chapter 4. Skip chapters 1-3 and when you're finished with the rest of the chapters, come back and read chapters 1-3. Beginning with the 1st three chapters instead starting from chapter 4 is like getting bogged down in the Beach on D-day and not being able to advance into the mainland. So, do yourself a favor, skip the hardest chapters (1-3) and start with chapter 4.

Hi Everyone. I just got hired as a personal trainer at Bally Total Fitness. Please post any questions you may have regarding the interview processes at various gyms and I will do my best to answer your questions.

I interviewed at the following gyms before getting hired at Bally's:

Equinox
24 hour fitness


Things I learned the first day I got hired:

You must be able to SELL, SELL, and SELL. However, Bally's does an excellent job of teaching one how to sell from the get go. The training is absolutely fantastic. I already sold a 4 session personal training program to my fist client.

Review of 9 week Excercise Etc. Course for the ACE Personal Trainer Exam

I took the ACE CPT exam in Dec. of 08 and I took the 8 week Exc. Etc. course prior to the exam. The course was really helpful but I have to mention a discrepancy between what you're taught in Exc. Etc. and ACE. Exc. Etc. teaches that if you have 2 ACSM coronary artery risk factors you automatically have to refer the client out to a doctor. However, when you do the ACE questions you will realize that ACE does NOT go by this.

For those of you who have taken the ACE 2-day exam review course, I'm going to mention the exact question that points to the discrepancy between what ACE teaches and what Exc. Etc. teaches. Go to page 77 of the review book, and look at question number 6 on top of the page. In this case study, the client has 2 ACSM coronary artery risk factors; despite that fact, the trainer puts his client on a low intensity exercise program instead of referring him out to a doctor.

The New ACE Personal Trainer Manuel, 4th Ed. Will Come Out in 6 Months

Hi Everyone!

I just wanted to give you the heads-up with what's happening at ACE. The new ACE Personal Trainer Manuel, 4th edition, will come out in 6 months. So, if you have already purchased the ACE premier package (which contains the ACE PT Manuel, 3rd edition), then I would highly suggest that you take the ACE exam within the next 6 months as the textbook and its accompanying material will be updated.

Read the discussion board for ACE Exam candidates on acefitness.org

If you haven't already done so, read the discussion board for ACE Exam candidates on acefitness.org. Here's the exact link to the discussion forum:

http://acefitness.infopop.net/3/OpenTopic?a=frm&s=799290654&f=452108123

If the above link doesn't work, just copy and paste the above URL into your browser and you will immediately gain access to hundreds of people talking about the exam.

How long should I study for the ACE certified personal trainer exam?

ACE recommends that you study between 3-6 months prior to taking the exam. However, I can tell you that I took an entire year to study for the exam. I studied about 1 hour everyday. How much time you have to put in all depends on your past experience and education. Even though I had a B.S. degree in Biological Sciences, I still had some difficulty with the material since I had never had kinesiology or human anatomy. I also did not have any background knowledge about personal training, so it took me longer than most to study for the exam.

ACE2 day personal trainer practical training

Hi all!

I just got through taking the ACE 2-day personal trainer practical training called

"Personal Training in Practice: Effective Tools & Techniques"

in San Diego. It was a great class with a ton of information. However, I would not recommend it to someone who is not yet certified through ACE for two reasons: 1) There's way too much information that you will not need for the exam 2) You will not get continuing education credits if you take the course prior to the ACE exam.

However, one thing that I came away with from the class that might be of some use to you is that the ACE CPT exam won't reflect the new ACSM Coronary artery risk factor stratafications for the next 6 months. So, your 2-day exam review guide should be appropriate for the exam for the next 6 months.

P.S.

Feel free to post any questions that you may have and I will do my best to answer them accordingly.

Warning! The ACSM Coronary Risk Factor Stratification Criteria Have Changed!

Warning!

The ACSM Coronary Risk Factor Stratification criteria have changed as of February of 2009. Be proactive. Call ACE and find out when the changes will be reflected in the 2-day ACE exam review workshop and the ACE exam itself.

What Score Do I Need In Order to Pass the ACE Personal Trainer Exam?

The ACE Personal Trainer Exam consists of 150 multiple questions, and 2 written Simulations. You're allotted 3 hours for the multiple choice part of the exam (approx. 72 sec./question). Then, you get a 10 min. break, and after the break you are given 1 hours to complete the 2 written simulation questions.

The multiple choice exam makes up 75% of a candidate's final score, while the written simulation questions make up the remaining 25%. You must achieve a combined score of 500 or more points out of 800 possible points to earn an ACE Personal Trainer Certification.

Note: that the multiple choice exam has 25 experimental questions that are being evaluated for potential use on future exams, so only 125 of the multiple choice questions are actually scored. However, you must complete the entire 150 questions during the 3 hour time period as you will not know which questions are real and which questions are experimental.