The Education of fitness professional for health promotion

As fitness professionals, instructors and personal trainers are a resource for those wishing to get information and learn to practice proper exercise for achieving, maintaining and enhancing health. It is becoming increasingly important, therefore, to investigate the skills, abilities and knowledge of who is responsible for the training and educating inside gyms and sports centers. The questionnaire developed for this research has examined the relationship between the common indicators of knowledge (training and experience) and in 5 areas: nutrition, risk stratification, testing protocols, exercise prescription, training knowledge for special populations. Partcipants were 112 fitness professional (93 men and 19 women), ages 26 to 52 (mean 32.4±7.8), from the urban area of Milan. The majority of the 112 participants were personal trainer, worked in both independently owned or corporate-owned fitness center and 32.1% (n=36) had no college degree. Experience ranged from 1.2 years to 18 years (mean 4±3.7). The numbers of years individuals had worked as a fitness professional was unrelated to score of any of 5 questionnaire scales or overall. Individuals with at least a bachelor’s degree in exercise science scored higher on all 5 scale and overall than individuals who did not hold it (p<0.005).Individuals who had completed 4 or more non-formal education core courses scored higher on all scales and overall. than those who had completed fewer. The results given in the questionnaire are reliable in the investigated areas which are of fundamental importance in the development of a fitness program. Findings suggest that the possessions of undergraduate programmes in exercise science, characterized by a specific course, are important indicators for knowledge, whereas years of experience were not related to knowledge.