Do I Need to Switch to the New ACE Health Coach Manual and Materials?

This is a good question…one frequently asked when we launch a new ACE manual. The ACE Health Coach Manual and supporting materials will be available October 1, 2012. Many candidates for this certification who currently have the 2nd edition of the ACE Lifestyle & Weight Management Coach (LWMC) Manual and associated materials may be wondering if this will be sufficient to help them prepare for their certification exam. Here is some information that can help you determine if you can continue to prepare using the ACE LWMC Manual, or if you would be better off with the new ACE Health Coach Manual. 

Can the ACE LWMC materials still be used to prepare for the exam?

The 2nd edition of the ACE LWMC Manual and supporting materials can still be used to prepare for the ACE Health Coach exam. If you've been working with these materials for a while, I'd encourage you to finish up your studies and sit for the exam. Over time, more of the updated information in the new manual and related materials will appear on the exam.

When will the exam change to reflect the new manual?

The exam does not make a dramatic switch from one manual to another. Instead, new questions are regularly rotated into the certification exams each year, even when the manual remains unchanged for several consecutive years. This is something ACE does with all of our certification programs.

ACE certification committees regularly write new exam questions, which are first rotated into exams as experimental (unscored) items to determine how they perform. Questions that perform well are then used to replace older and outdated items on future exams. These new questions may focus on updated industry guidelines, evidence-based findings in exercise, nutrition or health behavioral sciences, or they might simply be new questions on existing topics in the ACE Health Coach Exam Content Outline. As we move into 2013 and beyond, more questions will be rotated into the certification exam that reflect the updated standards and guidelines referenced in the ACE Health Coach Manual and materials.

Why switch to the ACE Health Coach Manual and supporting materials?

The ACE Health Coach Manual has some important updates that include:

• New health coaching chapters: "Introduction to Health Coaching" and "A Team Approach to Health Coaching"
• Enhanced content and practical tools for building lasting connections with clients
• Increased focus on the importance of effective goal-setting and helping clients to make lasting change with two new chapters: "A Realistic Approach to Goal-setting" and "Helping Clients to Establish Self-reliance"
• Greatly enhanced content focused on client interviews, assessments and exercise programming that incorporates the ACE Integrated Fitness Training® (ACE IFT®) model, the comprehensive system for training clients at any point along the health-fitness-performance continuum
• A case studies chapter that takes the concepts covered in the manual from theory into practice through a series of real-life client scenarios
• Updated content, guidelines and evidence-based tools for helping clients improve their fitness, nutrition and health behaviors to make lasting change, manage weight and reach their goals

In summary, the new ACE Health Coach Manual contains new information, practical tools for coaching clients through lasting health behavior change, and exercise programming based on the ACE IFT model. At this time, you can still prepare for and have success on the ACE Health Coach Certification exam using the most recent edition of the ACE LWMC Manual (with a 2012 copyright).

If you still have questions about the exam or your preparation, please contact an Education Consultant at 888-825-3636, Ext. 782.