I was a Dance major….until I got badly injured. I literally woke up and could not walk, let alone dance, due to severe back pain. I took several months before I felt somewhat “normal” again. The injury got me thinking long and hard about my choice of major. If I was in the real world of dance, IF I was lucky enough to get auditions and land a job, I would be out of luck and out of money if I ever got injured again. My intuition was telling me to change majors, so I switched to Exercise and Sports Sciences after my junior year. The change was abrupt but welcomed and I jumped right into my new life. No more long rehearsal nights dancing in tights! I didn’t ditch dance completely, I made the collegiate dance team’s squad and traded tights for pom poms…hello again, long rehearsal nights! I also got a job at the local fitness gym and started teaching group fitness classes after a mini training held by the gym. This is where my fitness career started.
Seeing where my life was going, I decided to get certified. I decided to go for the ACE Group Fitness certification because that is what the other gals had. I remember only studying for a couple of weeks because I was already learning a lot of the same material in school. I had to drive to another city a couple hours away to take the exam via scan tron! After some time, I finally received a letter stating I passed, along with my shiny new certification! I went on to get my ACE Personal Trainer certification a couple of years later.
Fast forward about 6 years, I decided I wanted to be a RN and got accepted into a nursing program. While earning my BSN, I slowly left the fitness industry due to the amount of hours necessary to go to clinicals, study, write papers, etc…all while still cheering professionally! During my final semester, I met a nurse who was certified in group fitness and taught on her off days and I said, “I will be like her. I can still have the best of both worlds.” Unfortunately, I wasn’t like her. I made the stupid mistake of letting my both ACE certifications expire. Though I was not teaching group fitness, I ended up teaching yoga (which required it’s own 200 hour certification that took several months to earn) but I still regretted the decision to let them expire.
Here we are today, 6 years after my certifications lapsed. What’s up with the 6 year intervals? A couple of months ago, I came across the DREAM JOB for a local hospital looking to hire a part time Wellness RN. The job required a RN license AND fitness certification! Guess who was kicking herself for letting her certifications ago! I was hoping that my Exercise Science degree would make up for lack of certification, but the job listing disappeared after a few days (lucky nurse). Participating in group fitness classes is still one of my favorite ways to workout and I miss teaching, so I decided to get certified in group fitness again…you know…just in case. As I said, everything old is new again.
Though I was ACE certified for a decade, I researched other organizations. I looked into ACE and AFAA and even contemplated getting NASM certified in Personal Training. I spent a few days reading reviews and even had to contact both customer service departments for different reasons. In the end, I decided to go with AFAA based on the customer service experience I had. I’m getting BLS re-certified (CPR for healthcare professionals) in a few days and plan to test for my AFAA certification later this month. I will document how things ago in another post soon!
Are you certified?
