What is the best group fitness certification?

Which group fitness certification is best for you?

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There are many options for Group Fitness Certifications on the market.

That’s what makes it tough to choose the right certification for yourself and your future career as a group fitness instructor!

But worry not!

This article will review the top Group Training Certifications and ways you can take advantage of having top tier group fitness instructor credentials.

We will discuss group fitness certifications from ISSA, NASM, ACE, AFAA, and ACSM.

You will gain the following knowledge about Group Fitness Instructor certifications:

• Certification exam information
• Top Group Fitness Certifications in the fitness industry
• Course content, study materials, required books
• Exams and pricing

We promise that upon reading this article, you will be more confident in deciding what is the best Group Fitness Certification to get based on your needs!

Let’s dive in!

We highly recommend that you take our helpful quiz to find the best group fitness certification for you.

Why are we qualified to recommend the best group fitness certifications?

At Trainer Academy, we have experts that specialize in each type of fitness career out there. Many members of our team have had experience as group fitness instructors, holding a range of different group fitness instructor certifications from all across the industry. Some team members have even educated students on group fitness instruction at the college level. This has allowed our team to have unique and in-depth knowledge about not only the certifications on this list, but plenty of other certifications that did not make the cut. 

Our trainers have industry-spanning wide levels of expertise, having instructed groups at large chain gyms, private group fitness  studios, workplace wellness studios, university settings,  and plenty more. As a natural extension of this, our coaches have designed and led group fitness classes across all imaginable styles including group cycling, HIIT-style classes, group exercise classes involving weights, CrossFit, and more. 

Due to all of this, we have a very in-depth understanding of how all of these certifications translate to practical work in the field. We understand which real-world skills each certification best cultivates, and which ones are less emphasized. If you follow our guidance, you’ll be well on your way to a successful career in group exercise by getting a strong start with the right certification for you.

Our Top Group Personal Trainer Certification Pick

ISSA Group Fitness Instructor

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• The #1 rated and reviewed certification program
• NCCA-accredited exam option
• 12 class formats covered

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Make sure to consider what type of group fitness instructor you want to become. Look at the types of classes you want to teach, and any gaps in your current skills you feel a specific certification could help you make up for. It can also help to reach out to specific gyms you hope to work for to see which certifications they prefer their instructors to have.

Your budget is also important. Fitness certifications can pay for themselves over time, but they never guarantee that you will have a job, and that you will have one immediately. It is completely appropriate to purchase a certification you can afford. If you can’t afford the one you want most, there is also a chance you will find it on sale in the near future. Many certifications have somewhat frequent sales, so you might be able to snag a big discount if you time your purchase just right. 

Then consider your budget and if you have a gym you want to work at specifically, find out which certifications they prefer.

Although all major certifications cover all major areas of group fitness instruction adequately, each certification out there has slightly different strengths and weaknesses.

For example:

• ACE is highly effective at teaching effective group coaching skills
• ISSA is highly effective at teaching about the logistics of business and work as a group fitness instructor
• NASM is highly effective at teaching fundamentals of kinesiology

So, if your goal is to work as an independent instructor, go with ISSA.

If you want to improve your ability to inspire, lead, and energize a class in a way that feels natural ACE may be a better fit.

If you want a more in-depth focus on fundamental exercise sciences, then NASM may be a better fit. 

NASM also offers two certifications.

If you’d like to coach large groups, go with the NASM Group Fitness Instructor. If you desire to work with small groups, choose the NASM Group Personal Training certification.

So, it all depends on your goals.

When it comes to getting certified, legitimacy and authenticity should be a top priority. You can tell if a certification is going tobe considered legitimate and authentic by employers based on whether it is accredited or not.

There are many types of fitness certifications out there, but one of the most important distinctions among them is whether or not they are fully accredited.

Accreditation is sort of like a certification for a certification agency.

It signifies that what you’re getting when you sign-up for a certification meets a minimum standard in terms of its content, the administration of that content, and the evaluation of candidates who receive that certification.

When it comes to the world of health and fitness certifications, you’ll find that the top programs and those with a high degree of industry recognition are NCCA accredited certifications.

The National Commission for Certifying Agencies is the body that ensures that certifying institutions are providing relevant and correct education and doing it in a way that benefits the learner.

There are some other accrediting bodies. One outlier you’ll come across with the top-tier certs is DEAC, short for distance education accrediting commission.

That’s the body that accredits ISSA certifications.

The International Sports Sciences Association, or ISSA, was built up to be a distance-based institute, so in order to authenticate their method of education delivery, they had to go a different route.

Accreditation can help you identify which certifications are more trustworthy and which are not. Their are plenty of unaccredited low quality certifications available online that are not affiliated with any major organization in the fitness industry. Going with one of these certifications can be a mistake since most gyms won’t accept them as professional credentials.

Let’s explore the accreditation for each of these certs.

The key to success in any situation is preparation, and when it comes to getting certified, preparation hinges on the quality of study materials you have access to.

This is another crucial factor in helping you determine which group exercise certification is your best option.

While some offer plenty of materials to support your education, others do not.

What we’ll do is give each certification a rating out of 10 based on the quality and variety of study materials out of the box.

This rating won’t count any prep material from third parties or first-party material that’s only available as an optional extra.

Both ACE and AFAA have a more robust offering when it comes to standard study materials.

We would even consider these to be the gold standard when it comes to Group Fitness Training certs.

This, together with the multiple packages (3 and 4, respectively), adds value by providing you with plenty of different options for tackling your exam prep strategy.

It’s important to note that AFAA’s study package offerings are modeled after the NASM structure.

AFAA is, in fact, a subsidiary of NASM, so on that basis, the same organization has two competing group fitness programs.

This allows NASM to address two different corners of the same group fitness market by addressing the needs of the standard group fitness instructor and the needs of the group personal trainer. Although there is some overlap, it is structured in such a way that holders of one certification would still benefit by studying for the other. Many trainers interested in one of these certifications will have a passing interest in the other at some point in their fitness career. This allows NASM to appeal to the same candidate twice, rather than once.

Needless to say, both AFAA and ACE have great study materials that you can work with.

On the opposite end of this spectrum, you have ACSM coming in with a basic package that only includes the exam registration.

The ACSM certification does allow you to purchase additional study materials, but at this time there is no comprehensive study package being offered for the exam. We are only basing our score off of what can be purchased in a single study package.

In any case, the resources that options available from ACSM provides for exam prep are still pretty limited when compared to the competition.

By contrast, ISSA and NASM do a good job of giving you exactly what you need right out of the box. But they still pale in comparison to the range of study resources provided by the ACE group certification.

Don’t worry if your preferred certification falls short, though. Trainer Academy is adequately prepared to help you with premium study materials.  that We’ve worked to create certification prep materials that you can easily study to quickly improve your understanding of exam content and improve your odds of passing the exam.

You can choose to make use of these MVP packages to have a 99% pass rate inclusive of our money-back guarantee offer.

Kindly make use of the links below to access them.

• ISSA MVP study package
• ACE MVP study package
• NASM MVP study package
• ACSM MVP study package

Using any of these packages gives you access to our time-tested study techniques such as spaced repetition flashcards, mnemonics, practice exams, etc. which are meant to help you study with ease.

The quality of the study packages is one thing, but it can also help to consider how much they cost in order to better understand their value.

This will also determine what you can realistically afford and may factor into your final decision.

The group fitness certs in this article have quite a wide distribution in terms of pricing.

One of the primary factors for certification cost is going to be the textbook and study materials.

The textbooks will come in various pricing structures and package deals depending on the organization.

Let’s have a look at the pricing structure. 

From this, we can see that the NASM Group Fitness Instructor certification, or the National Academy of Sports Medicine certification, is the cheapest option. Although it isn’t too far behind its competition at ACE.

Although you can reduce the price of some of these certifications by purchasing a membership to the organization that offers that certification. Most organizations offer this option. As an example, purchasing an ACSM membership will reduce the price of their cheapest option from $399 to $299.

So what exactly is the membership? To illustrate how memberships work, we’ll break down ACSM’s membership specifically.

It’s basically an annual fee that grants you access to some premium content, resources, and networks, including student support, opportunities for career advancement, and CEUs.

It also gives you a discount on any and all ACSM purchases made after you become a member.

From our own inspection, membership with ACSM is certainly worth it, especially with the discounts and resources it provides. If you are an active student, you can even pick up the membership for as low as $10 per year. 

Next up, from cheapest to priciest, we have the  AFAA Group Fitness Instructor certification. This certification is what we would rate as the best value for money.

It is very well-priced and comes with a decent study package, even with the cheapest option.

AFAA is run by NASM, so you can rest assured you’ll have access to the best support and administration at a very agreeable price point.

Next, we have ACE, and NASM. These two institutions do have plenty of differences, but are both very well known.

Overall, we would say that ACE has a better deal simply based on the amount of study material options presented and the lower overall upfront cost.

However, when you look at lifelong cost, NASM is cheaper if you purchase the bundle that allows for you to have a lifelong certification without a need for renewal.

That’s right; the NASM Group Personal Training Specialization does not expire, nor will it require renewal of any sort.

Last on the list, and the most expensive by far, is ISSA Certified Group Exercise Instructor.

With a whopping price point of $639.24, this cert costs as much as most standard certifications on their roster. 

ISSA is a great certifying agency, certainly a top 5 institution, but it is a bit pricey for a group fitness course, even when you consider everything that it has to offer

One important thing to consider when weighing out your options in terms of cost is the fact that most certifying agencies often slash prices periodically for a limited time.

These limited-time offers happen quite often to the point where you’ll hardly have to deal with the standard price.

So while we have managed to provide you with a fair account of how much these certs cost, you’re very likely able to score a decent discount.

To benefit from these offers and discounts, a quick click on the links below will give you access to them.

• ISSA Group Certification
• ACE Group Certification
• NASM Group Certification

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Each certification in this article presents its own set of unique challenges. Because of this, it is important to gauge how much time you will need to complete your fitness instructor training and pass the exam. So how long does it take to become a fitness trainer or class instructor?

How much time you will need also hinges on how much time you’re allowed and in the case of these group fitness certs, that comes in the form of an enrollment period.

Let’s look at each cert’s enrollment period and from there, figure out how much time you should take within that window to adequately prepare.

From the data, we can immediately see that ACSM has the most flexible allowance when it comes to the enrollment period.

You can enroll from 3 months up to two years, allowing you to truly learn at your own pace.

The rest of the certifications give you 6 months in which to prepare and write the final test.

ISSA provides a nifty guided study plan. This plan allows you to effectively break down your study time into time-managed segments that are easy to follow through a ten-week guided schedule.

NASM students take 10-12 weeks on average from enrollment to test readiness while AFAA students range between 6-8 weeks of preparation.

Here at Trainer Academy, we actually provide study blueprints that help you manage your time effectively. 

We understand that no individual situation is the same. Each person has their own unique commitments and time constraints.

You may have a full-time job, other academic obligations, or social/family commitments.

There’s also the possibility that life just happens. You may fall ill or have to deal with a tragedy. Maybe the entire world falls apart, who knows?

But with our Study Blueprints, you can set and modify your approach to time management from a drawn-out, relaxed approach to a crunch time cram situation. It’s all up to you and your circumstances.

Click here to find these study materials.

The next stop in our grand exploration of group fitness certification is the layout of the exams.

This is one of those categories where you can start to draw clear separations between the certs and start determining which one is best for you.

It’s also a great metric by which you can figure out where to focus your exam prep energy.

Let’s look at the stats real quick.

From this, we can tell that most of the exams for fitness professionals range between 120 to 160 questions, all multiple-choice.

It’s important to remember that when it comes to total exam questions, you will get a number of unscored questions that go with the scored questions.

The scored questions count towards your final grade, while the unscored questions are not counted. 

That’s because the unscored questions are simply there to assess their viability for future testing. The certification companies wants to see how questions perform in a live testing environment to make sure that they are fair and assess what they intend to asses in the way the company intends to assess it.

In a practical sense, it really doesn’t matter, though. Since you won’t know which questions are scored and which are not. So just treat all questions the same and do your best on each. 

As for passing grades, we see quite a range of scores from 62.5% with ACE and NSCA, all the way up to 75% with ISSA.

Ease of testing is something to consider when we look at how to become a fitness instructor.

The percentage we’ve provided is calculated based on the required amount of points vs. the total available.

This way, we can maintain consistency with the percentage-based data from the other strength training certifications.

ISSA has the highest required passing grade of 75%.

You would easily assume that makes it the hardest of all the group fitness certs on this list, yeah? Well, think again.

ISSA certifications consistently rank as the easiest to pass in terms of pass rates.

The way the ISSA exam is administered (open book/self-paced) allows little room for failure, but at the same time, this exam format still manages to produce top-notch trainers.

Once you’ve passed your exam, it means you’re officially certified; however, your certification won’t last forever.

To ensure you have covered all the bases before going for your final exams, we recommend you make use of the free practice test available on Trainer Academy to assess your level of preparedness after using the free study guides also. In addition to the group exercise cert we have materials for other tests like the NSCA CSCS exam, including a CSCS study book and a practice CSCS test.

Once you’ve become a certified group fitness instructor, the clock is ticking between the time of your certification and the expiration date by which you will need to recertify, unless you opted for NASM’s lifetime certification option.

Recertification is necessary in order to keep your skills sharp as a trainer, as well as to get you up to speed with any developments in knowledge or research, or trends that may have arisen from the time you initially gained your cert.

The group fitness certifications in this article require recertification, but in order to do that, you will need to fulfill certain requirements.

One of the major requirements in this regard is the fulfillment of continuing education.

This comes in the form of continuing education units or CEUs for short.

These time-based credits are earned through participation in educational activities from your cert agency’s approved CEU providers.

Let’s see how each certification handles the CEU requirements to give you an idea of what it will take to recertify.

Right away, we can see that ACSM has the heftiest CEU requirements, demanding 45 hours of continued education. At the same time, ACSM also has the widest certification window of all the limited certs.

It also has the cheapest recertification fee out of the ones that require payment.

That brings us to the outlier, which is NASM. Since the NASM GPTS is a CEU course itself, it has no recertification requirements and is a lifetime certification. That means all you’ll pay for is the initial registration.

ISSA is pretty standard in that it has a two-year validity period and requires 20 hours worth of CEUs, but the bonus here is that there is no recertification fee to worry about.

Of all the certifications with CEU requirements, AFAA is the most lenient, only asking for 15 hours of continuing education before the two-year expiration period.

Just remember to check each individual certifying agency’s preferred and approved CEU providers, as stepping outside this range can make recertifying a little more complicated than necessary.

While this isn’t exactly a popularity contest, the notoriety and reputability of cert will definitely influence how useful it is in your career as a group fitness instructor.

Right away, we can point out that as certifying agencies, ACE and NASM definitely hold the top spot, with ISSA coming behind in third.

ACSM is recognized in very high regard within the inner circle, so to speak. That’s because while it may not pluck the same mainstream strings as NASM or ACE, it is recognized as a legacy institution.

ACSM has been around longer than most other certifying academies and has a strong reputation as an academic research hub that produces research used as the foundation for industry standards of practice. A lot of research produced by ACSM influences the decisions made by other certifying bodies about what content to include in their certification, and which recommendations to make.

The AFAA fitness certification sits on the lower end of the totem pole in terms of recognition and popularity.

That’s not to say it’s unpopular by any means. It’s just that this AFAA certification is not an NCCA accredited cert. Along with that, it is a subsidiary of NASM, the most popular certifying agency. When it is correctly identified as a subsidiary of NASM, employers usually view it more favorably. 

So nabbing an AFAA Group Fitness Certification is good enough, although it may not be your best in terms of industry recognition. 

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Your earning potential in the training business is a top priority.

It’s your job and business at the end of the day, so it’s important to understand what your income could or should look like.

Group fitness, and in particular, small group training or boot camps, can be a lucrative career option.

That’s because the format of training groups of people, as opposed to individuals, allows you to earn more while charging less.

Each individual client pays less for your services as a tradeoff to the lack of personalized instruction.

But with adequate class enrollment and class size, you’ll essentially be making more per session than you would with private clients. However, the exact amount you will earn will heavily depend on your setting. Some gyms pay you a flat rate per class independent of enrollment, while others pay you based on attendance. Gyms that do the latter will allow you to have a higher income ceiling, especially if you are effectively able to get class attendees to come back to class each week.

What’s more, because there’s no personalization attached to group fitness, less work is required with regard to assessment and programming.

Basically, you get a higher return overall when time and labor are factored in.

In the US, the average annual income for a Group Fitness Instructor is approximately $41,901/year, with some netting as high as $74k per year.

Factors that influence fitness trainer salary include:

• Location
• Years of experience
• Education reputation (industry acceptance)
• Educational relevance
• Educational level (certification, diploma, college degree, etc.…)

Trainers with different fitness certification types, such as corrective exercise, wellness coaching, or weight management, tend to earn more, while trainers with a combination of qualifications, including relevant college degrees (i.e., bachelor’s degree in exercise science), are often in the top income bracket.

Hourly figures for a Group Fitness Trainer sit at $20.23.

This is lower than the average for one-on-one trainers who earn around $24/hour.

As we indicated, group fitness sessions tend to be cheaper per head than one-on-one sessions, resulting in a lower hourly average.

There are different ways to make money in fitness. To increase earning potential, a lot of personal trainers are learning how to do virtual personal training online. This is just as possible with group fitness classes across disciplines. So whether you become a cyclist instructor, certified yoga instructor, or just do basic fitness classes, you can teach people across the globe.

Next, we want to take a dive into each cert and look at the advantages and disadvantages each brings to the table.

This will help you decide on the best option when weighing up benefits and drawbacks against your own goals and circumstances.

So what is the best certification for Group Fitness Instructors to get?

There is a lot to consider for these four certifications. ACE, ACSM, ISSA, and AFAA all bring a lot to the table for the average group fitness instructor.

Having gone into the various certs and their pros and cons, we feel it’s fair to give a bit of an insider opinion.

Our Insight and experience with each of these certifications will help you arrive at a more informed decision, so let’s take a look:

In the end, it is up to you to decide what is the best Group Fitness Instructor certification.

We are aware that it could be a tough call to choose which group fitness certification is the best one for your needs.

That’s why we’ve gathered all of the best, most reputable group fitness certification programs overall.

Each certification program is NCCA-accredited, which is a gold standard of accreditation in the fitness industry, except for ISSA.

However, you can purchase an NCCA-accredited ISSA-CPT exam. This is recommended.

Just be sure that the program you choose is the best one for you!

We wish you nothing but the best on your quest to become a certified Group Fitness Instructor! Go out there and change some lives.

References

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2. ‌Yorks DM, Frothingham CA, Schuenke MD. Effects of Group Fitness Classes on Stress and Quality of Life of Medical Students. The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association. 2017;117(11):e17. doi: https://doi.org/10.7556/jaoa.2017.140
3. ‌Graupensperger S, Gottschall JS, Benson AJ, Eys M, Hastings B, Evans MB. Perceptions of groupness during fitness classes positively predict recalled perceptions of exertion, enjoyment, and affective valence: An intensive longitudinal investigation. Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology. 2019;8(3):290-304. doi: https://doi.org/10.1037/spy0000157
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5. Magal M, Neric FB. ACSM CERTIFICATIONS: DEFINING AN EXERCISE PROFESSION FROM CONCEPT TO ASSESSMENT. ACSM’S Health & Fitness Journal. 2020;24(1):12-18. doi:https://doi.org/10.1249/fit.0000000000000542
6. Mikeska JD, Alexander JL. Fitness Professionals’ Perceptions and Attitudes toward Certification, Online Education, and Medical Fitness. International Journal of Kinesiology in Higher Education. 2017;2(1):1-14. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/24711616.2017.1328204
7. Yoke MM, Carol Kennedy Armbruster. Methods of Group Exercise Instruction. Human Kinetics; 2020.
8. Bryant CX, Green DJ, Merrill S, American Council On Exercise. ACE Group Fitness Instructor Manual: A Guide for Fitness Professionals. American Council On Exercise; 2011.
9. Pojednic R, O’Neill DP, Flanagan MG, Bartlett A, Byron LaGary Carter, Kennedy MA. Exercise professional education, qualifications, and certifications: a content analysis of job postings in the United States. Frontiers in sports and active living. 2024;6. doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fspor.2024.1338658