Thread: Becoming Cetrtified?

I know lots of you guys are certified here and I was wondering, when you become certified do they teach you alot of what you know today or is it just a piece of paper saying you know enough about nutrition/fitness? I have applied to many gyms and such but they all want people who are certified. I would like to get certified so I can gain experince in the workplace and continue with this further but if I do not get taught enough I would rather not. If I am gonna look like a fool directing people in the wrong way I would rather wait and study up so more heh.

So what does the certification do for you?

What i would suggest for a person who is not very confident in their training skills would be to find a certification where you attend a class. When i got my certification i did it through a home study course, and although it does teach you tons of stuff there are things about personal training that you cannot teach through just reading. On another note, you have to understand that lots of things you may learn from people, forums, cerifications, personal trainers, teachers w/e will most likely contradict each other. That is because there are tons of different views about how people should train, different studies being done all the time etc. So just don't take everything you read as an absolute truth (that is something i had to learn on my own and am still, to an extent, learning).

As far as books, you are better off sticking to the most recent physiology, kinesiology, anatomy textbooks (not some stupid ass, physiology for dumbies or something). Even a general biology text will offer help although not all of it can be applied directly to resistance training/sports dieting, but it will teach you the basics of how your body works, which will help greatly when you people say things like toes in for outer quads etc.