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  • Bold Goals and New Roles: The ACSM Committee on Certification and Registry Boards

    by Greg Margason | Mar 20, 2024

    Leadership transitions give organizations the opportunity to reflect on their achievements and determine how said achievements make for lasting and impactful change. The American College of Sports Medicine® (ACSM) recently adopted a new and exciting vision, to “extend and enrich lives through the power of movement,” and mission, to “educate and empower professionals to advance the science and practice of health and human performance.” The ACSM Committee on Certification and Registry Boards (CCRB) is committed to supporting the vision and mission of the college by ensuring that ACSM certified exercise professionals have the knowledge, skills and abilities to safely and effectively help people live longer, healthier lives. As a result of their connection to the college, ACSM certified professionals have access to the latest research and the newest developments in the field. Moving science into practice is the hallmark of the ACSM certified professional.

    Over the past three years, the CCRB has actively listened to our stakeholders, including prospective certification candidates, currently certified professionals, faculty members, employers and industry leaders. The invaluable information they’ve shared includes their collective challenges, which has provided us with the opportunity to prioritize our strategies, tactics and actions to ensure that we are best serving those who have invested in ACSM certification.

    When ACSM revisited its mission and vision in 2023, it prompted us to likewise engage in strategic planning to ensure our goals for the committee’s future both align with those of our parent organization and support the unique needs of ACSM certified professionals. This engaging and exciting process resulted in the formulation of one goal unique to the CCRB: “Make ACSM the home for prospective and current certified professionals.” We are committed to supporting the development of preparation materials, certification exams and continuing education experiences that enhance the experiences of ACSM certified professionals across their careers.

    Our committee found that three other goals adopted by the college also reflected our values. These include efforts to create a compelling customer experience, deliver an ongoing commitment to technology and build a fiscally sustainable organization.

    Therefore, the CCRB’s four bold goals provide the roadmap for our future work. The initiatives described below will help us get closer to achieving our newly stated mission: “Advance the credibility and integrity of ACSM certified professionals through career-long development with evidence-based practices to benefit all.”

    In 2023, the CCRB created the Employer Advisory Council (EAC), which brought employers together to provide feedback on how ACSM can be a key resource for their employees. Through these meetings, we learned what challenges employers have in hiring exercise professionals, what employees are looking for in certifications and continuing education, barriers that prevent them from obtaining needed continuing education credits, and topics that are relevant to their growth and development. ACSM’s commitment to better serving its professionals through the EAC has helped us identify potential opportunities for collaboration with employers. Similarly, we are working to establish a Faculty Advisory Council that will help us better understand how we can support exercise science faculty and their students, particularly as the latter transition from students to exercise professionals.

    Meanwhile, the CCRB’s Continuing Professional Education (CPE) subcommittee has been working diligently to set the policy for recertification and continuing education programs. The subcommittee has developed a new framework for evaluating the applications of new and renewing education providers to better determine if their content is acceptable for the certification program they are applying for. The CCRB acknowledges that our industry is everchanging and that continuing education programs must meet the competencies of our four certification programs; by providing relevant continuing education opportunities, we aim to support our members and certified professionals throughout all levels of their careers.

    Crucially, in 2023, ACSM and the CCRB partnered with the IDEA® Health & Fitness Association to produce the 2023 Fitness Industry Compensation Trends Report, which explores compensation benchmarks, regional disparities and the overall importance of certifications and specializations on certified professionals’ compensation, among other insights. Information like this is essential for certified professionals and other members of the industry who want to understand how the certification and continuing education choices they make impact their future financial and career success. ACSM members can view the report for free.

    The CCRB will also continue to work on other initiatives, including an investment in our website to create a more user-friendly experience, using our association management system to collect valuable data that will be used to further advance our mission and working with our partners on all areas of our strategic plan.

    We look forward to the work ahead of us as we support and advance the efforts of our members and certified professionals.

     

    Christie L. Ward-Ritacco, Ph.D., FACSM, ACSM-EP, EIM, is an associate professor and graduate program director in the Department of Kinesiology at the University of Rhode Island. Dr. Ward-Ritacco is the immediate past chair of the ACSM Committee on Certification and Registry Boards (CCRB) and is actively working with an ACSM task force pursuing recognition and reimbursement for exercise professionals as qualified health care providers.

     

     

     
    Lauren Korzan, M.A., ACSM-EP, ACSM-GEI is the Southeast Regional Program Manager for Aquila, overseeing a large multi-site fitness program in Atlanta, as well as providing remote management and support for additional fitness programs in the Southeast region. With over 20 years of fitness management experience, she is responsible for all aspects of fitness center operations, staff development, and fitness and wellness programming. Lauren is the chair of ACSM’s Committee on Certification and Registry Boards and serves on a variety of ACSM committees, including the International Health and Fitness Summit Planning Committee and the Strategic Planning Committee. In her free time, she enjoys reading, teaching group fitness classes, and spending time with her husband and daughter.

     

  • ACSM and EIM: Developing a Network of Trusted Exercise Professionals

    by Greg Margason | Mar 20, 2024

    Individuals seeking expert guidance in becoming physically active face a marketplace full of exercise professionals with certifications from several reputable, and sometimes not-so-reputable, organizations. With so many exercise certifications available in the U.S. market, there is often widespread confusion as to who are trusted sources of expert guidance.

    The American College of Sports Medicine(ACSM) has long been the gold standard in certifying exercise professionals through multiple certification and continuing education programs. More recently, ACSM has been playing a major role in establishing national standards for exercise professionals under the United States Registry of Exercise Professionals® (USREPS), an effort to secure recognition of registered exercise professionals for their distinct roles in medical, health, fitness and sports performance fields.

    The EIM Credential

    ACSM originally launched the Exercise is Medicine® (EIM) Certification in 2012 to identify exercise professionals who were the most qualified to work with patients in health care settings. In 2021, the structure and requirements for the EIM Certification program were strategically reimaged as a specialty program (the EIM Credential), often referred to as an educational certificate. Educational certificates are advanced training programs used to expand a certified professional’s ability to practice in certain fields: (1) in emerging fields with limited information about and/or ongoing research into the efficacy of a particular service/program, (2) fields that require additional training knowledge or skills to safely and effectively work with clients/patients who have unique considerations, or (3) both.

    The EIM Credential includes information about working with patients with common chronic medical conditions (e.g., hypertension, dyslipidemia, obesity, metabolic syndrome, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, prediabetes and type 2 diabetes, osteoarthritis, low back pain) in their community or referred to them by health systems and health care providers. In addition, the EIM Credential requirements were updated and simplified to make it easier for health care providers to understand and refer patients to credentialed professionals. The EIM Credential distinguishes exercise pros as skilled professionals trained to work as an extended part of a health care team and guide individuals of all age groups and with multiple co-morbidities to better health through physical activity.

    Learn more about how you can earn the EIM Credential.

    Launch of the new EIM Credential online course

    eim_course_email_thumbnailA main requirement for earning the EIM Credential is completing a newly released interactive online course that can be completed asynchronously (at your own pace). The latest version of the EIM Credential online training course was developed by senior course editors Robyn Stuhr, M.A., FACSM, and Cedric Bryant, Ph.D., FACSM, through a yearlong process leading to its official launch in June 2022. The course involved input from more than 35 ACSM subject matter experts, who provided their expertise in developing content and providing the most current information on physical activity in alignment with U.S. Physical Activity Guidelines and ACSM’s Guidelines for Exercise Testing and Prescription.

    The new, interactive EIM online course consists of 17 sections grouped into five modules:

    • Health Care Basics
    • Exercise Prescription for Common Chronic Medical Conditions
    • Exercise Prescription for Older Adults
    • Facilitating Behavior Change 
    • Exercise Prescription in Special Settings

    Learn more about the EIM Online course.

    Benefits of the EIM Credential training course

    The EIM Credential presents an opportunity for exercise professionals to gain additional training and offers a pathway to become an active part of the EIM movement. Whether you receive referrals from a health care provider or simply work with clients who have chronic diseases, the EIM online course will prepare you to safely guide individuals in becoming more physically active.

    Since its release, the latest version of the EIM Credential online course has been completed by more than 1,000 exercise and allied health professionals. You can register for the online course in its entirety or take individual modules of interest. Those who complete the online course have the option of following a simple process to obtain the EIM Credential.

     

    Mark Stoutenberg, Ph.D., MSPH, is a Professor in the Department of Sport and Exercise Science at Durham University in the United Kingdom. He has always worked as a consultant with Exercise is Medicine since 2013.

     

     

    Special thanks to Robyn Stuhr, MA, ACSM-CEP, FACSM, Shelby Mandla, and Francis Neric, MS, MBA for their contributions to this piece.

  • President Biden’s 2025 Proposed Budget, Grant Management and Policy Updates and More

    by Caitlin Kinser | Mar 18, 2024

    Congressional Briefing with the Congressional Physical Activity Caucus  

    As part of its membership with the Physical Activity Alliance (PAA), ACSM recently participated in a Congressional Briefing supported by the Congressional Physical Activity Caucus. The briefing was put together to discuss the importance of prioritizing physical activity and to promote soon to be introduced omnibus physical activity legislation.   

    Panelists included: 

    • Congressional Physical Activity Caucus Co-Chair Representative Jimmy Panetta [D-CA]  

    • Dr. Ruth Petersen, MD, MPH, CDC Director Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity (DNPAO).   

    • Dr. Katrina Piercy Katrina L. Piercy, PhD, RD, ACSM-CEP, FACSM; CDR, U.S. Public Health Service; Director, Division of Prevention Science Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion 

    • Monte Ward, ACSM Government Relations 

    • Vicki Shepard, MPA, ACSW; Tivity Health Vice President, Government and Industry Relations 

    • Mike Goscinski, The Health & Fitness Association

     

    President Biden’s 2025 Proposed Budget 

    On March 11, 2024, the Biden Administration released its proposed budget for fiscal year (FY) 2025. The budget proposes significant investments across various healthcare sectors, intended to build on previous successes and aimed at addressing pressing challenges. Key highlights include expanding coverage and lowering healthcare costs through initiatives such as extending Marketplace affordability and capping the cost of insulin products, strengthening maternal and reproductive health outcomes with increased funding for programs addressing maternal mortality and health equity, and transforming behavioral healthcare with substantial investments to expand access to mental health and substance use disorder services. Other initiatives include the following: 

    • Expand Coverage and Lower Healthcare Costs: 
      • Extension of Marketplace affordability and capping insulin costs at $35 per month.
      • Expansion of Medicare's ability to negotiate drug prices.
      • Permanent extension of enhanced premium tax credits.
      • Provision of Medicaid-like coverage for low-income individuals.
      • Extension of consumer surprise billing protections to ground ambulances.
    • Strengthen Maternal and Reproductive Health Outcomes:
      • Increase in funding for Title X family planning program.
      • Allocation of $376 million for programs addressing maternal mortality and health equity.
    • Transform Behavioral Healthcare:
      • $20.8 billion investment in behavioral health.
      • Dedication of $602 million to the 9-8-8 suicide and crisis lifeline.
      • Expansion of coverage for behavioral health services.
    • Advance Science to Improve Health:
      • $2.9 billion investment in the Cancer Moonshot initiative.
      • Increase of $100 million for CDC to fund cancer prevention and control programs. 

    The HHS Budget in Brief is available here. A Fact Sheet on the budget is available here. 

    Grant Management and Policy Updates 

    To assist the research community in preparing for grant management and policy updates, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) recently conducted individual webinars. These sessions aimed to clarify agency expectations and provide updates on programs and policies. 
     
    On January 31, compliance and system policy experts from the NIH Office of Policy for Extramural Research Administration (OPERA) delivered the latest policy updates and discussed potential impacts on researchers' institutions. OPERA officers offered guidance on grants process requirements, application deadlines and forms, covering various initiatives such as the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer Research (STTR) Extension Act of 2022, as well as the NIH Peer Review – Simplified Review Framework. They shared resources on application submission, eRA Commons ID, Research Performance Progress Reports (RPPRs) and grant closeout requirements. Participants also had the opportunity to ask questions about new and existing policies during the live Q&A session. For further insights, the recorded webinar is available on YouTube, along with presentation slides, providing a deeper understanding of NIH's research priorities, funding opportunities, and the grant application process. 
     
    The Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences (MCB) at NSF hosted a virtual office hour on February 14 focusing on grant management, specifically on Working with an NSF Program Working with an NSF Program Director Before, During, and After Award. Program directors (PDs) play a crucial role in maintaining an effective proposal merit review process and serve as advisors to applicants and awardees, streamlining NSF program objectives, priorities, and requirements. During the presentation, PDs provided guidance on when to connect with them and considerations before contacting a PD regarding NSF review criteria and processes. They offered detailed instructions on an email template for queries and how to craft an effective one-page project summary, outlining research ideas and broader impact interests, along with pointers to avoid. The session also covered post-award procedures, including possible budget revisions, annual reporting, and sharing publications. FAQs addressed definitions of Categories of Personnel, Accomplishment-Based Renewal and information on CAREER grant. The recording and slides are available here. For alerts on future virtual office hours, interested individuals can subscribe to the MCB Blog.  

    The White House Announces New Partnership with Major Sports Leagues and Players Associations to Boost Physical Activity and Increase Nutrition Programming Across the Country.

    Click here to find out more about the agreement.  

  • Active Voice | What Does the Team Physician Need to Know about Initial Management of Musculoskeletal Injuries?

    by Greg Margason | Mar 12, 2024

    The team physician commonly encounters musculoskeletal injuries resulting from athletic activities, including during practice, training and competition. The most common injuries encountered by a team physician include shoulder dislocation/subluxation, disabled throwing shoulders, elbow ulnar collateral injuries, hamstring injuries, anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries, meniscus (cartilage) tears, ankle sprains, and groin and hip injuries. Discerning what is essential and desirable for the team physician to understand regarding the mechanism of injury and how these injuries present clinically, as well as the initial assessment and management options, are important. This information would be valuable for all members of the athletic care team, including athletic trainers, physical therapists, and strength and conditioning specialists, in addition to team physicians. 

    The Team Physician Consensus Conference (TPCC) Statements are a series of documents led by the American College of Sports Medicine® (ACSM) Clinical Sports Medicine Leadership Committee, that are resources for team physicians working with athletes at every level of competition. TPCC statements include representation from six major professional medical organizations, including ACSM, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine, the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine, and the American Osteopathic Academy of Sports Medicine. The TPCC statement “Initial Assessment and Management of Select Musculoskeletal Injuries: A Team Physician Statement,” recently published in ACSM’s Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise®, is the newest in this series of publications providing team physicians and athletic care team members with a framework for approaching common musculoskeletal injuries, with an emphasis on the sideline and training room. This document provides information about the nonoperative, operative and rehabilitation considerations of the select injuries and illnesses. 

    Understanding the essentials for evaluating and treating a shoulder, knee or hamstring injury if you are a team physician covering an event can be challenging, and this paper can act as a guide. How these injuries present, what to look for and what to do can be helpful, especially for younger team physicians gaining experience. What are the mechanisms of injury, and how do these injuries typically present? What should you do immediately, and what additional tests and follow-up should be considered? These can be challenging situations, and the TPCC on musculoskeletal trauma provides meaningful guidance based on consensus opinions and an evidence-based approach to common scenarios in sports medicine. 

    The TPCC on musculoskeletal trauma is one of several ACSM-led statements. These cover a variety of topics important to the team physician, including roles and responsibilities; sideline preparedness; injury and illness prevention; return to play; mass participation events; psychological issues and the response to injury/illness; nutrition; load and overload; and special populations including the female athlete, the adolescent athlete and the master athlete. Furthermore, TPCC statements have been recently published on other critical athlete-related issues, including physician management of various sport-related concussion issues. These papers are necessary resources for team physicians and are included in several sports medicine fellowship curriculums as required reading, given their applicability to clinical training. 


    Margot Putukian, M.D., FACSM, is the chief medical officer for Major League Soccer, a team physician for the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team and a volunteer physician for the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC). She is the former director of athletic medicine and head team physician for Princeton University and serves on ACSM’s Clinical Sports Medicine Leadership Committee, currently as part of the Executive Leadership Committee for the Team Physician Consensus Statements. She is a past president for the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine. 

     


    W. Ben Kibler, MD, FACSM    , is emeritus director of the Shoulder Center of Kentucky at the Lexington Clinic. He was a co-founding member of the ACSM TPCC initiative and was a member of the TPCC Executive Committee from 2000 to 2023. He is a member of multiple clinical sports medicine organizations and has published over 200 peer-reviewed papers. He is a past recipient of the ACSM Citation Award and has delivered both an ACSM Presidential Speaker and an ACSM Sutton Clinical Sports Medicine Lecture. He is a member of the AOSSM Hall of Fame. 

     
    Viewpoints presented in ACSM Bulletin commentaries reflect opinions of the authors and do not necessarily represent positions or policies of ACSM. Active Voice authors who have received financial or other considerations from a commercial entity associated with their topic must disclose such relationships at the time they accept an invitation to write for the ACSM Bulletin. 

  • Continuing Education for Professional Growth

    by Greg Margason | Mar 06, 2024

    As the associate vice president of certification and credentialing at ACSM, one area I am most passionate about is supporting ACSM’s exercise professionals in navigating their career goals. I have had the distinct pleasure of connecting with numerous stakeholders across the spectrum of the exercise profession: students starting their careers in the exercise sciences, professors connecting scientific theories and exercise prescription, employers offering interns their first real-world experiences, and rising professionals trying to find ways to advance in their careers amid growing responsibilities. Earning a certification, while certainly a significant professional milestone, represents just the first step in a lifelong career.

    First Things First

    Continuing education (CE) — often referred to as “continuing professional development” — is a key element of professional certifications. Professional certification standards from the National Commission of Certifying Agencies and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) require organizations like ACSM to have a time-limited process through which its professionals regularly update their knowledge and skills to maintain a certification in good standing. By participating in CE, certified professionals can demonstrate that they are current with updated professional standards and can meet the changing needs of their clients and patients. Certifying organizations can then provide reasonable assurance to the public that their certified exercise professionals are safe/effective throughout their working career.

    Continuing education can take a variety of forms, which provides exercise professionals the flexibility in how and when they want their education to be delivered. From workshops and conference sessions to online on-demand classes and peer-reviewed journals, there are endless ways to meet the learning style and schedule of most exercise professionals.

    Beyond Minimum Competence

    Beyond maintaining up-to-date current professional standards, certified professionals are encouraged to invest in their career advancement. (This is one among many important differences between an academic degree and a professional certification — once you earn a degree, it’s yours, but most professional certifications require you to continually invest in yourself and your education.) As such, the NCCA grants certification organizations the flexibility to distinguish between initial competence and continuing competence, where initial competence means demonstrating competency in foundational knowledge and skills at the time of certification and continuing competence means both maintaining one’s initial knowledge and skills and gaining new competencies over time. In other words, continuing competence allows certified professionals to not only remain current and relevant in their respective fields but also empowers professionals to advance professionally through specialized training or forge new professional roles within health fitness.

    Against the backdrop of the seismic changes the health fitness sector experienced from 2020 onward, successful career advancement requires additional effort from both the exercise professional and the certifying organization. The ACSM Board of Trustees (BOT) and the ACSM Committee on Certification and Registry Boards (CCRB) have taken proactive steps to identify stakeholder concerns and prioritize them in short- and long-term action plans. The BOT has undertaken a comprehensive reimagination of its strategic plan, envisioning a future where lives are extended and enriched through the power of movement. At the same time, the CCRB has revised its mission to expand beyond certification exams and include the lifelong development of its certified professionals. The CCRB’s new mission aims to provide exercise professionals with the latest evidence-based education geared toward early, mid-, and late-stage career professionals with the goals of creating a more agile and resilient workforce and making ACSM a home for certified professional to grow and thrive in their careers.

    Career Advancement through Specialty Credentials

    Successful career planning requires self-reflection and intentional goal-setting. This helps professionals develop a process to guide them toward an aspirational goal and a way to pivot in/around obstacles during a career journey. Start by creating an inventory of one’s unique knowledge, skills, experiences and the types of clients served. Identify areas where additional training or education is needed and develop a short- and long-term plan. And, most importantly, take action. With that said, it’s important to know that plans, not matter how meticulous, are never perfect, so exercise professionals should take time to celebrate their wins and, when they encounter roadblocks, take time to adjust the tactics and/or goals as necessary.

    Career-Planning Roadmap

    Take Inventory: Reflect on your existing competencies and areas of expertise to identify strengths and weaknesses and pinpoint areas for growth.

    Set Goals: Define your career aspirations and develop specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound (SMART) goals to track your progress.

    Plan: Research advanced training courses, specialty credentials and professional conferences that would support your career goals.

    Launch: Create a detailed career plan, including timelines, needed resources, and action items to stay on track.

    Evaluate: Review your progress, celebrate wins, and adjust your strategies to address any setbacks.

    (Click the infographic to the right to see it in full resolution.)

    ACSM offers a range of specialty credentials for exercise professionals seeking to deepen their expertise and expand their career opportunities. ACSM designed its specialty certificates to expand certificants’ knowledge and skills in their base certification (i.e., ACSM-GEI, ACSM-CPT, ACSM-EP, ACSM-CEP) to work with clients with special considerations; this includes, but is not limited to, cancer survivors, individuals with autism, and those with special considerations (such as youth athletes). For example, the Autism Exercise Specialist certificate equips professionals with the understanding and strategies needed to implement individual or group exercise programs for individuals with autism. Additionally, the Exercise is Medicine® (EIM) Credential teaches exercise professionals how to help individuals with common chronic diseases lead healthier, more active lives, making those with such a credential trusted referral resources for health care providers. ACSM’s specialty credentials enable exercise professionals to extend and enrich lives of their clients and patients through transformative power of movement.

    Bringing It Together 

    Navigating the landscape of CE and career advancement requires a proactive and strategic approach. At a minimum, it is crucial for exercise professionals to stay current with the ongoing changes to professional standards and industry trends. Career exercise pros must also strategically invest in opportunities for personal and professional growth. Developing a career plan helps keep exercise professionals accountable by providing a framework for setting goals, identifying areas for improvement, and tracking/adjusting progress over time. This proactive approach helps ensure exercise professionals achieve long-term success and fulfilling careers.

    Learn more about our specialty certifications and certificates:

    francis neric

    Francis Neric, MS, MBA currently serves as the associate vice president of certification and credentialing at the American College of Sports Medicine® (ACSM). With professional credentialing experience spanning 16 years, Francis has been instrumental in leading strategic initiatives to enhance the certification, advanced certificate and exam preparation programs to meet the needs of the domestic and international stakeholders of ACSM and the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA). Francis holds an MBA in business management from the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, an M.S. in clinical exercise physiology from California State University, Fullerton, and a B.S. in exercise science from California State University, Long Beach. Francis combines academic and industry knowledge to drive innovation and excellence in the health fitness industry. Francis is a passionate advocate for raising the bar for professionalism in the health fitness industry and expanding opportunities for exercise professionals in health care.

     

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