Let's Move
ACE® is proud to support the Let's Move Campaign - America's move to raise a healthier generation of kids. Let’s Move! is a comprehensive initiative, launched by the First Lady, dedicated to solving the problem of obesity within a generation, so that children born today will grow up healthier and able to pursue their dreams. Combining comprehensive strategies with common sense, Let’s Move! is about putting children on the path to a healthy future during their earliest months and years. Giving parents helpful information and fostering environments that support healthy choices. Providing healthier foods in our schools. Ensuring that every family has access to healthy, affordable food. And, helping children become more physically active.
Presidential Active Lifestyle Award (PALA)
The President's Council on Fitness Sports and Nutrition offers the President's Active Lifestyle Award. This program encourages people to add activity to their lives, asking all children and adults to commit to daily physical activity for 6 out of 8 weeks and provides tools to track progress and rewards upon program completion. It's a great chance for friends, family and clients to take part in an enjoyable and rewarding program that can set them on the path to better health and fitness. With adult and childhood obesity being a major crisis affecting Americans in the 21st century, ACE is devoted to educating consumers about the critical need to regularly engage in physical activity by connecting its vast network of certified fitness professionals with consumers at the local level to promote active, healthy lifestyles.
AARP
AARP is the leading nonprofit, nonpartisan membership organization for people age 50 and over in the United States. With shared missions, both ACE® and AARP provide a service to a population that has been greatly underserved by the fitness industry and who have the means, motivation and desire to enhance their quality of life through physical activity. ACE is the endorsed provider of personal training services under a fitness program for AARP members. Focused on prevention, the ACE Trainer Program for AARP Members provides information, resources and discounted personal training services to help AARP’s more than 40 million members lead active, healthier lifestyles.
International Council on Active Aging (ICAA)
The ICAA is dedicated to changing the way people age by uniting professionals in the retirement, assisted living, fitness, rehabilitation and wellness fields to change society’s attitudes and approach to aging. The organization is dedicated to helping professionals empower aging baby boomers and older adults to improve their quality of life. Accelerating our commitment, ACE joined with the ICAA on a collaborative initiative to help deliver to medical, fitness and recreation staff working in older-adult communities the latest information and education courses necessary to provide quality physical-activity programming for the 50+ population. Our involvement in vital strategy sessions led to the team’s active participation in two workgroups that encompass the development of courseware to advance the knowledge, skills and abilities of individuals working in the senior-living environment and the development of job descriptions with defined roles and responsibilities for those who deliver fitness and wellness programs in these facilities.
American Heart Association (AHA)
ACE joined with the American Heart Association to deliver the Heartsaver First Aid with CPR and AED Workshop, which teaches fitness professionals to effectively recognize and treat adult emergencies in the critical first minutes until emergency medical services personnel arrive, and how to properly and effectively use an automated external defibrillator (AED).
In addition, AHA leveraged our expertise in the development of three unique walking plans for their Start! Walking Program. With 35,000 consumers accessing the walking programs this year, Start! is becoming a popular nationwide campaign that promotes walking as an activity due to its accessibility, minimal cost, and low dropout rate compared to other types of exercise. Recognizing the success of the program and importance of adding strength training and stretching to the walking components, AHA then turned to ACE to deliver a more well-rounded exercise program that included exercises from the ACE Exercise Library. Over the first 90 days of these expanded programs, 21,000 individuals accessed this information, providing valuable tools to help them lead healthier lives.
IDEA Health & Fitness Association
In 2009, ACE® established a long-term collaboration with IDEA, the world’s leading membership organization of health and fitness professionals with more than 24,000 members in 80 countries. With shared goals, ACE and IDEA formed a relationship that encompasses multiple initiatives aimed at benefiting the fitness industry as a whole, and that allows both organizations to offer expanded resources for education, training and professional growth of fitness professionals.
- Co-branded Continuing Education: Expanding the breadth of our course offerings, topics and formats, ACE worked with IDEA to deliver 107 co-branded continuing education courses in a new video-on-demand format to fitness professionals worldwide.
- ACE-IDEA Fitness Journal: ACE and IDEA launched a joint communications initiative to co-brand the acclaimed IDEA Fitness Journal. The initiative extends distribution of the fitness industry journal to ACE’s network of certified fitness professionals bringing added-value in the form of access to the latest industry news and expertise on a variety of fitness and wellness topics, as well as expanded benefits for continuing education courses.
International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association (IHRSA) Advocacy Partnership
IHRSA is the fitness industry’s only global trade association, representing over 9,000 for-profit health and fitness facilities and more than 650 supplier companies in 75 countries. More than 65% of ACE trainers work in a club environment, which is an excellent conduit for newly-certified professionals to acquire growth and knowledge of the industry.
- European Congress: This year, ACE was a key sponsor of the 9th annual IHRSA European Congress in Dublin, Ireland. The Congress attracts industry leaders throughout Europe for four days of interaction, information and education allowing ACE to share certification standard "best-practices" with the region assisting them in driving their businesses forward and impacting the communities they serve.
- Ask an Industry Leader: Providing expert positioning and sharing the latest on industry news to club and facility owners, managers and directors, ACE actively participates in IHRSA’s “Ask an Industry Leader,” an online forum where more than 100 of the most respected leaders in the fitness industry respond to questions, providing valuable information to individuals around the globe.
- Public Policy Council’s Industry Defense Fund: ACE helps to ensure that the fitness industry has the support necessary to keep the industry at the forefront of health promotion and wellness policy. Through our collaboration with IHRSA, we help to keep clubs, trainers and the consumer aware of legislation impacting health and wellness so they can make better informed decisions.
- Campaign for a Healthier America: ACE supports this national grassroots project with the mission of bringing together exercise enthusiasts to make healthy lifestyles a priority for all Americans. Through a variety of campaigns and community activities, ACE and IHRSA encourage regular exercise and healthy eating for people of all ages and physical conditions, and engage Americans in grassroots efforts to make their communities healthier.
International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) & International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC)
To improve the safety, performance and quality of life of uniformed personnel in the fire service, ACE® has joined with the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) and International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) to develop a special certificate program, the Peer Fitness Trainer (PFT) Certification. Throughout the United States and Canada, the PFT Certification identifies fire fighters who have demonstrated a certain level of knowledge and skill required to design and implement fitness programs, improve the wellness and fitness of their departments and assist with the physical training of recruits during the physically challenging entry tests.
Medical Fitness Association (MFA) Advisory Committee
ACE played a leading role in the creation of the Medical Fitness Association (MFA) Facility Standards and Guidelines, as well as the resulting facility certification program. The standards adopted by the MFA fall directly in line with the National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA) Personal Trainer standards that have been adopted by IHRSA and others. This ensures the viability of ACE credentials and continues to support our standard, which ACE and other agencies have adopted as valid. ACE continues to contribute as a member of the MFA Advisory Board and serves on the MFA Facility Certification Committee.
Committee on Accreditation for the Exercise Sciences (COAES)
The CoAES determines standards for accrediting academic programs in colleges and universities that prepare individuals to enter the exercise science and personal fitness training professions. To join CoAES, an organization must demonstrate consistency with the purpose and mission of both CoAES and the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP), and also demonstrate generally accepted best practices with respect to its membership.
These guidelines, in the field of exercise science, ensure that students are adequately prepared for lasting and rewarding careers in the fitness industry. ACE continues to participate as a sponsoring member of the CoAES and has assisted in the revision of the standards to reflect a more open model that has created a path for accreditation of two-year programs in the nation’s community college system.
Institute for Credentialing Excellence (ICE)
In 2003, ACE was granted accreditation for all core certification programs. With 13 fitness organizations currently offering one or more accredited certifications through the Institute for Credentialing Excellence (ICE) – formerly the National Organization for Competency Assurance (NOCA) – it is critical for the accreditation branch of ICE to have representation from the fitness industry. To fulfill this need and deliver on our mission, ACE holds a position on ICE’s Certification Professional Role Delineation Panel. This representation gives ACE a voice to shape standards and provide stability in the industry which results in highly-qualified and educated professionals working with consumers to enhance their overall physical well-being.
National Science Foundation (NSF) Joint Committee on Health Fitness Facility Standards
ACE is honored to continue our participation on the NSF Joint Committee on Health Fitness Facility Standards. NSF International, the Public Health and Safety Company™, is a not-for-profit, non-governmental organization and the world leader in standards development, product certification, education and risk management for public health and safety. This joint committee is comprised of a diverse group of individuals representing stakeholders in the user and regulatory/public health industry, and the medicine/health sectors.
European Health & Fitness Association (EHFA)
As an industry bridge-builder at not only the national level, but also abroad, ACE serves on the Standards Council of the European Health & Fitness Association. The EHFA is a nonprofit organization representing the public and private fitness sectors in Brussels with the European Union and other international organizations. With its objective to get “More people, More active, More often,” EHFA is a standards-setting body of the health and fitness industry and promotes best practices in instruction and training, with the ultimate objective of raising the quality of service and customers’ exercise experiences and results. EHFA currently represents approximately 10,000 facilities and 18 national associations spread across 25 countries in Europe.