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Standards & Professionalism

Connection between standards and professionalism

As exercise professionals and health coaches become poised to more closely align with healthcare, ACE is working to ensure the high standards for practitioners in those roles. Our aim is to ensure that properly credentialed exercise professionals and health coaches are trusted and inspire confidence from all stakeholders, including those in and around clinical care, disease prevention and more.

Help us ensure consistent professionalism

If you are an exercise professional or health coach

ACE encourages you to earn and maintain a certification from a program that is accredited by a trusted third-party like the National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA) or the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

If you are another certifying organization

ACE encourages you to earn and maintain, if you don't already, voluntary accreditation of your certification programs by a trusted third party like the NCCA or ISO.

If you are an employer of exercise professionals and/or health coaches

ACE encourages you to require that those individuals earn and maintain a certification from a program that is accredited by a trusted third party like the NCCA or ISO.

If you refer clients or patients to community resources for the delivery of physical-activity programming, or are considering doing so

ACE encourages you to trust ACE Certified Professionals in your community or others with current certification from similar certification programs accredited by a trusted third part like the NCCA or ISO.

If you work in healthcare, human resources, and other people-centric lines of work who seek to learn the latest science in behavior-change coaching

ACE encourages you to pursue that education from an organization that also offers a well-established health-coaching certification program that is accredited by a trusted third-party like the NCCA or ISO.

A seat at the table where standards are advanced

ACE collaborates deeply with organizations that share our commitment to consistent high standards for exercise professionals and health coaches. Organizations that, like ACE, are working to advance the opportunities that recognized professionalism hold.

Coalition for the Registration of Exercise Professionals (CREP)

ACE is a founding member of this non-profit 501(c)(6) which represents organizations that offer NCCA or ISO-accredited exercise professional certification programs. Its mission is to secure recognition of registered exercise professionals for their distinct roles in medical, health, fitness and sports performance fields. The organization maintains the United States Registry of Exercise Professionals (USREPS), an internationally recognized registry of exercise professionals who hold current certifications from NCCA-accredited exercise certification programs in the United States. For more information please visit www.usreps.org.

Europe Active-EREPS

ACE is an active collaborator with this organization, which sets standards for the education of exercise professionals in Europe and manages the European Register of Exercise Professionals and promotes physical activity and sport for health.

Committee on Accreditation for the Exercise Sciences (CoAES)/Commission on the Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP)

ACE collaborates with this organization, which sets standards and offers programmatic accreditation for college and university academic programs that prepare students for careers as exercise professionals at the 2-year, 4-year and graduate level.

Medical Fitness Association

ACE collaborates with this organization, which develops and maintains standards and guidelines for medical fitness facilities and offers a voluntary facility certification program benchmarked to those standards and guidelines.

National Board for Health and Wellness Coaching

ACE serves on the Council of Advisors of the NBHWC, which advances science-based training, education, and research of health and wellness coaches.