There isn’t a person in the world who doesn’t know about online CPE courses that help the medical and legal personnel remain in good standing with his or her accreditation agencies, but how many ever imagined such requirements of fitness professionals? It’s true – with all the new discoveries being made about human health and fitness, even gym work is being professionalized!

Yes, personal trainers. That’s right; “those people!” At least if organizations like the venerable American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) or the American Council on Exercise (ACE) will have their way. The “CPE” in the term “online CPE courses” refers to “continuing professional education.” Of course, gym workers aren’t often thought of as “professionals” by most people, much less the kind of professionals that need to be recertified periodically. Isn’t that so?

Not according to the likes of the ACSM or ACE. Citing the ever increasing knowledge base that personal trainers must possess, these organizations have tried to promote a more professional image for such fitness industry workers; indeed, continuing education credits are already required of those they certify as trainers. Unfortunately, the idea is not likely to gain much more traction than it currently has. Yet after all these years, the number of different certifications available on the market has skyrocketed to little discernible benefit for everyday consumers despite, now, the endeavor to require online CPE courses for trainers, coaches, and other industry job titles remain the monopoly of the organization certifying them in the first place.

But the truth is that no one really cares about such certs – except for insurers, for whom such formalities, however non-sensical ultimately, can be used to get out of what some might consider their obligations. Everyone else, really, don’t quite have the perception of trainers as “professional” in the sense of the traditional professions, no matter how hard the certifying authorities try to change that view. Turnover is high while the quality of trainers, despite certification, is often low; many franchise gyms hire teenagers – kids – to advise clients paying eighty dollars and up an hour (of which only twenty to forty go to the trainer).For one thing, many chain gyms have college kids working as personal trainers: hard to see a doctor, lawyer, or accountant regarding such workers as fellow “professionals!”