What is the difference between the IFPA and ACE?
Ace is a fine certification and is one of the oldest (ACE and ACSM are the oldest certifications). ACE and the IFPA have significantly different philosophies on what a certification should do. ACE is largely an academic exercise, their program is heavily weighted toward the academicians science with little or no regard to the application of academic theory in the real world. Since ACEs program is designed by some of the worlds foremost academic scholars, someone taking the ACE program will receive a very in-depth crash course into the exercise sciences. Many of the comments we receive from fitness professionals who have both ACE and IFPA Certifications are (1) ACE testing is very difficult, (2) Many of the questions on the ACE test have nothing to do with the ACE manual they purchased to study the test, (3) With ACE there was very little they learned or tested on that had anything to do with what they have to go thru as a fitness professional. These same ACE and IFPA Certified Instruct
ACE is a fine certification and is one of the oldest (ACE and ACSM are the oldest certifications). ACE and the IFPA have significantly different philosophies on what a certification should do. ACE’s program is designed by some of the world’s foremost academic scholars of the exercise sciences. While all the scientific material is highly detailed and accurate, ACE ran into the problem the IFPA worked diligently to avoid. The problem: how do you develop a scientifically based program and still make it practical for the fitness professional? How do you apply the sciences to the real-world needs of the fitness professional? This was an extremely difficult task. The IFPA recruited a highly select group of Subject Matter Experts that met extremely rigid qualifications. All IFPA Faculty would be required to have: (1) a minimum of a Masters Degree in exercise, nutrition, sports medicine and related fields of study (PhD, MD, DO, DCM, etc.); (2) all IFPA Faculty would be required to have practic
ACE is a fine certification and is one of the oldest (ACE and ACSM are the oldest certifications). ACE and the IFPA have significantly different philosophies on what a certification should do. ACEs program is designed by some of the worlds foremost academic scholars of the fitness sciences. While all the scientific material is highly detailed and accurate, ACE ran into the problem the IFPA worked diligently to avoid. The problem: how do you develop a scientifically based program and still make it practical for the fitness professional? How do you apply the sciences to the real-world needs of the fitness professional? This was an extremely difficult task. The IFPA recruited a highly select group of educators that met extremely rigid qualifications. All IFPA Faculty would be required to have: (1) a minimum of a Masters Degree in exercise, nutrition, sports medicine and related fields of study (M.S., PhD, MD, DO, DCM, etc.); (2) all IFPA Faculty would be required to have practical, hands-
