NASM vs ACE (Battle of The Giants): Which PT Cert Is Better? (2024)

The NASM certification focuses on exercise programming and corrective exercise through their Optimum Performance Training model (OPT), while the ACE certification focuses on health behavior change psychology and the development of healthy habits. Both personal trainer certifications are NCCA accredited, which means they are considered reputable and accepted in most gyms.

Let’s find out which certification is best for you and your unique needs.

There are few personal training certification programs that are as well known as ACE and NASM. Both organizations have been around the fitness industry for many years.

Both organizations are of a roughly similar quality, but have different strengths and weaknesses.

Different types of gyms will prefer one certification over the other, depending on the type of clients that workplace serves.

But, overall,is ACE or NASM better?

In this article, we review and compare the following on NASM vs ACE CPT Certification:

• Accreditation
• Cost and quality of study materials and packages
• CPT exam preparation and strategies for passing
• Expected Income
• Specializations and continuing education credits

By the end of this article, you will understand the differences between the ACE and NASM personal trainer certification programs. And, you will be able to make an informed decision about which you should pursue in order to best pursue your own career goals.

We highly recommend that you take our helpful quiz to find the best personal trainer certification for you.

So with that said, let’s jump in and see the ACE certification vs NASM certification!

One thing we have to mention right off the bat is how valuable earning multiple certifications at the same time can be.

Personal trainer certifications provide you with the education and training to become proficient at personal training in a general sense. However, personal training certifications don’t prepare you to be an expert in any of the content areas that the certifications touch on. There is plenty of room to grow, learn, and improve when it comes to any content area covered in a certification.

That’s why topics like nutrition, corrective exercise, and strength & conditioning are often the focus of specialty certifications. The better you understand any content area, the more you will be able to help your clients achieve their personal health and fitness goals.

Furthermore, having multiple certifications can also benefit your career. It makes it easier for you to land work at a local gym. It also makes it easier for you to earn a higher pay rate once you do land a position at a gym. Many gyms offer trainers a per session pay rate that is based on the combination of their education and experience. If you come into the job with more certifications, you will be more educated. This makes it easier for you to earn more, and can help you compensate for limited previous work experience as a trainer.

That’s why at International Personal Trainer Academy we recommend you get multiple certifications if you find that you are able to do so.

However, this can sometimes get a bit expensive. Although the long term return on investment means you’ll most likely end up with a net surplus of money over time, the upfront cost for purchasing multiple certifications at once can be pretty high.

NASM has a deal where you can get their personal training certification and nutrition coach cert for $2,397. Fortunately, they often offer this at a discount around 40%-60% off, so you can usually get this at a much lower rate. Double check their website to see if they are currently offering a sale for this deal. Similarly, they offer a bundle for $3,295 where you can earn a personal trainer certification, nutrition coach certification (CNC), and corrective exercise specialization (CES) all at once. This is also often offered at a discount.

Before we even begin to take a look under the hood of these certified personal trainer certification agencies, it’s important to discuss accreditation.

Accreditation is a seal of approval authenticity issued by a third party organization that indicates a certification has met a certain minimum standard. Accreditation considers the standards of test administration as well as the standards of the content in the certification relative to the career that the certification is intended to prepare candidates for.

The third party organization basically checks to make sure that the test is fair, uses best testing practices, and actually tests what it sets out to test. To do this, the third party organization works with one or more panels of subject matter experts to verify that the certification meets their standards. This is all evaluated through a mix of qualitative and quantitative means.

In the case of personal trainer certification companies such as the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM) and the American Council on Exercise (ACE), accreditation shows that the third party organization asserts that candidates who pass those exams have demonstrated the minimum level of competency to safely and effectively practice as a professional personal trainer.

For both ACE and NASM,the National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA) acts as the third party organization that provides accreditation. It is a, a non-profit organization.

In fact, pretty much all the major certifications you will encounter in our reviews and insights are accredited by the NCCA. Pretty much all major certifications that are reputable seek and earn NCCA accreditation. There are only a few exceptions to this, such as when a high quality certification is new and still going through the process of being vetted by the NCCA.

As far as accreditation goes, ACE and NASM are both similar. They are both nationally accredited personal training certifications.

Cost is an important factor when deciding on which certification to go for and which certification company to invest your time into working with.

The price of the CPT certifications for both ACE and NASM are pretty similar. They each cost just under $1,000 for a stand alone personal trainer certification, but they still make the list for our cheapest CPT certifications given how expensive becoming a personal trainer has become. Although their base prices are similar, their prices differ greatly when considering the bundles they offer.

Torn between the NASM or ACE certification?

Both offer multiple study packages and bundles. Each package offers different resources, and some even come with bonus certifications. It’s also important to keep in mind that both organizations are known to somewhat regularly offer discounts and change the prices of their offerings. So, you may be able to purchase a study package with either company for a lower price than we have listed here.

ACE has 3 standard tiers, while NASM has 4.

As you can see, NASM barely comes out as the more expensive option.

The average cost of NASM personal trainer certification packages is $1,997.50, while ACE averages out at $990.

So, NASM on average is more expensive. However, this is largely due to NASM’s two most expensive packages offering multiple certifications at once. Both ACE and NASM are similarly priced to one another when considering their lower tier study packages because those tiers just focus on offering study materials.

It’s also worth noting that the costs in practice are a bit lower than they appear, given both companies are known to offer somewhat regular discounts. NASM weights these discounts more heavily towards their more expensive plans, meaning that the percent price reduction tends to be greater in their higher tier packages than in their lower ones. When accounting for this and the bonus certifications offered, the price differences between ACE and NASM are pretty minimal.

Check out the current price of each certification by clicking the links below.

• NASM
• ACE

As far as NASM’s special deals for earning multiple fitness certifications at once goes, their Elite Trainer Bundle is their current most cost effective option. You can get 4-different certifications in one bundle. Although this costs a lot up front, the amount you are paying per certification is actually pretty low.

Making this investment early on in your training career can provide you with a lot of extra career flexibility down the road. This will give you a greater job opportunity because with this you can earn a basic personal training certification, become a certified nutrition coach, become specialized in corrective exercise, and become a performance enhancement specialist well equipped to work with athletes.

Having multiple certifications helps you become more employable, and allows you to earn more per training session when working with a gym. It also makes it easier for you to attract clients if you end up going the route of becoming self-employed as an independent personal trainer later in your career, as many personal trainers eventually do. It also prepares you to better help clients in a holistic sense, since you will be more skilled at a variety of different aspects of personal training.

We definitely recommend you give the Elite Trainer Bundle a shot if it’s still available at NASM. Head over to their website for details.

Again, is NASM or ACE better?

Both the NASM training certification and the ACE fitness certification offer top-notch studying material!

ACE or NASM certification both come with the standard offerings you would expect.

The tier 1 packages of both certs sport the course hard copy textbook, a few options for practice tests and quizzes, access to the final exam, and a couple of supplementary materials.

ACE personal trainer certification program offers a generally better deal than NASM’s in the early tiers because they offer better study materials relative to the cost.

However, when it comes to higher tier study packages, NASM tends to offer both more and higher quality offerings. Although this is partly the case because NASM’s higher tier packages are more expensive and come with multiple certifications. They naturally need to provide more study materials in order to allow you to effectively study for those extra certifications.

Having more and higher quality study materials are important, because the information you learn from them follows you through your career. It can set you up to be a much more effective personal trainer down the road.

Let’s take a look at what each cert presents in terms of study materials to get a better idea of which route is best for you as an aspiring certified personal trainer.

Both of these tables provide a breakdown of the study materials, supports, and benefits offered from each organization.

Regardless of which study materials you end up working with, the core information is similar. You will learn about the fundamentals of exercise science, biomechanics, anatomy, exercise physiology, health behavior change, and professional practice as a personal trainer.

Each certification program will also come with materials that help you learn about how to perform and progress different exercises through their own version of an exercise library.

One thing that stuck out when it came to NASM was the sheer volume of resources, especially in the upper-tier packages.

The ACE personal trainer certification has great offerings too, but they are a bit less varied. Naturally this is because the higher tier NASM study packages need to provide study materials for the bonus certifications they offer, which inherently causes their study materials at those tiers to be more varied.

Many personal trainers often start off their career by working in a commercial gym or some other traditional setting for personal training. However, it’s common for mid and late career personal trainers to begin exploring independent work. Working independently allows you to earn more money from personal training because you don’t have to split the revenue from each session you hold with a gym that you are working for.

Although revenue splits vary, personal trainers can find themselves only making between 30% and 70% of the total revenue made from each personal training session. This means that there’s plenty of opportunity to earn more money when not splitting earnings. Since this is such a common route that personal trainers explore at some point in their career, we wanted to take the time to point out how helpful it is that NASM offers a Business Accelerator in their higher tiered personal trainer packages. It can set you up for success with future independent personal training work done inside the gym and as an online trainer.

Once all is said and done, we give both ACE and NASM a score of 7/10 each.

While NASM has a variety of self-study support materials, ACE isn’t far behind and still offers a great value relative to its price.

The team of experts from International Personal Trainer Academy who have taken and passed the NASM CPT certification and the ACE CPT exam has created well-researched and highly relevant study materials to help you pass your certification exams on your first attempt.

Use the link to access the NASM MVP study package and ACE MVP study package.

Is the ACE personal trainer certification exam or NASM personal trainer certification exam easier?

Let’s look at the NASM vs. ACE certification exam layouts and difficulty.

Is it well structured and comprehensive?

Is it going to help you understand the material on a deeper level, or support surface level memorization? Both of which are valuable when mastering material, since some it’s important to memorize information effectively. It is also important to be able to effectively apply that information. Highly effective personal trainer exams test both.

The NASM personal trainer certification exam is 120 multiple choice questions long. You will be required to complete all of these questions within the two hour exam time limit.

The NASM exam was originally administered exclusively through registered testing facilities, but can now be taken remotely online with a live proctor.

You’ll need a minimum score of 70% to pass and become a certified personal trainer through NASM.

To increase your odds of passing the exam on your first attempt, try considering how much the exam focuses on different types of content. This can help you manage your study time and resources efficiently.

Let’s look at how the exam content is broken down:

From this table, you can tell that the most heavily represented areas on the exam are Exercise Technique and Training Instruction Workout Program Design and Assessment.

This is appropriate and generally aligned with what other large personal trainer certifying bodies do with their own emphasis areas on their personal trainer exams.

Now let’s look at what ACE brings to the table with its exam.

The ACE final exam is 150 questions long and runs for 3 hours, but many candidates finish well before the 3 hours are up.

Just like NASM, ACE’s examinations are conducted in approved testing facilities, but there’s now the option to take a remote exam with a live exam proctor.

This is done through your computer’s webcam, allowing for a similar degree of in-exam monitoring as you’d expect from a real-world testing environment.

The exam itself is spread across four domain areas. Each of these is weighted differently on the exam, so let’s look at how it all breaks down.

As you can see, the focus of the ACE CPT exam is on exercise programming and the actual application of exercise science. This aligns with the NASM exam as well as other large personal training certification companies. Since all NCCA accredited exams focus on evaluating whether a candidate is able to professionally practice with a minimum level of competency, they tend to focus on more practical components of personal training that are most directly related to client’s abilities to safely and effectively attain their desired training outcomes.

Although the exams for ACE and NASM only require you to understand a certain percentage of the information covered in their study packages, the study packages allow you to master more of the material on your own time. This means that even if a content area feels under represented on an exam, you can always go back and study it more to become more proficient as you like.

The layout of both the ACE and NASM exams is effective great and adequately reflects the responsibilities of personal trainers.

Familiarize yourself with the free NASM study guide and NASM practice test alongside the free ACE study guide and ACE practice test from International Personal Trainer Academy.

Taking practice exams can help you improve your test taking skills, which can help improve your odds of passing the personal trainer certification exam on your first attempt, regardless of the certification company you went with!

With the actual structure of the exams out of the way, let’s look at how hard each actually is.

This is yet another statistic that sees ACE and NASM coming close to face value.

NASM has a pass rate of 74% while ACE has one of 65%. This means that the average candidate who applies for the NASM personal trainer exam is more likely to pass than the average candidate who applies for the ACE personal trainer exam. There may be a few factors that contribute to this. Although it is worth noting that part of this effect may stem from the difference between the types of candidates that apply to each exam. Since NASM is so focused on exercise mechanics and ACE is so focused on psychosocial elements of exercise, the candidates that apply to each exam will likely have different skill sets and interest areas. Despite this, both programs heavily focus on exercise mechanics, programming, and applied exercise science – which favors candidates who are more interested in NASM.

Although, regardless of which exam you aim to take, either can be challenging. We offer some second-to-none additional study solutions that go beyond what comes in the box with both ACE and NASM.

At International Personal Trainer Academy, we’ve developed an extensive suite of study materials designed by experts who’ve taken the exams and passed.

Use these links to access the NASM MVP study package and ACE MVP study package.

Should you happen to fail your final exam, fear not, there’s usually an opportunity to try again soon after.

Both ACE and NASM have a retest policy for candidates who fail their first or and subsequent exams.

The opportunity to retake your failed exam comes at an additional cost of course.

Let’s take a look:

As you can see, both ACE and NASM have the same retake fee.

Be wary of exam retakes.

If you’re not adequately prepared you might not pass the exam on your first attempt. This can result in you spending more money and time on retaking the exam. So, it can be helpful to invest in a study package early on in order to increase your odds of passing the first time around.

Both ACE and NASM are popular NCCA accredited certifications, and offer certifications that are widely recognized by employers.

We’re going to look at two metrics to explore certification company popularity.

First, let’s look at enrollment figures.

Enrollment is an average of the annual number of people who enroll in studying for each certification. This is the most direct measure of popularity, since it directly measures candidate interest.

This data supports that NASM’s personal trainer certification is more popular for aspiring personal trainers than ACE’s.

We can also look at unique monthly visitors to each organization’s web homepage in order to make an inference about the general popularity of each organization, independent of certification enrollment. This provides more information about how familiar people may be with either brand.

Expected study time is subject to the test taker and their circ*mstances. So how long does it take to become a personal trainer with ACE or NASM?

The amount of time that it will take you to pass will depend on a number of different factors. How much time you have available in your schedule to study will influence how much time you can spend weekly on your exam prep. This will naturally also influence the total number of weeks you’d need in order to be ready to successfully complete the exam and pass.

Other factors like your ability to study effectively, ability to retain information, and prior familiarity with topics covered on the exam will influence how quickly you finish studying as well.

Naturally, there will be a lot of variation in how long different candidates need to study for the exam. The amount of time you take will drastically differ depending on if you have no prior experience with the material or a lot. Similarly, it will also greatly differ depending on which study package you go with. Some study packages offer materials that help you learn more quickly than others.

Another major factor is the difficulty of and scope of exam content. This will play a role in how long it takes to study for the exam, since more difficult content may take longer to master. Which content you find most difficult will depend on your own personal strengths. It’s common for some candidates to struggle with psychology. Other candidates struggle with biomechanics. It really depends.

But, at the end of the day, all you really need to do is pass before the enrollment window expires.

The enrollment window is the period of time from when you buy your cert up until the test deadline.

You have to complete the certification exam in this timeframe. Otherwise, you will have to purchase the exam again.

Let’s look at the enrollment periods for each.

So, you have 50% more time to study for ACE’s exam than you do for NASM’s. However, this only matters if you anticipate needing greater than 6 months to study for the personal trainer certification exam, which is uncommon.

If you want to increase your odds of success and need help managing your study time, International Personal International Personal Trainer Academy has you covered.

International Personal Trainer Academy actually specializes in providing structured, guided study timetables with our study blueprint and cram guide that comes packaged with most of our premium study materials.

Now here’s an exciting stat, one that many of you reading this will have been waiting for.

“How much can I make after becoming a personal trainer” is a question that we get asked often.

It’s a bit tricky to answer because your earnings will depend on a number of factors. Even when looking at industry averages, they don’t reflect what a lot of trainers make. This is because the income range for personal trainers is very diverse. So, although there are averages, that average comes from a wide range of salaries.

We did however manage to pull average earnings for both ACE and NASM certification holders. Let’s break it down:

Average earnings from ACE and NASM are pretty similar, suggesting they are similarly effective certifications for making money as a personal trainer.

Personal trainer salary depends on many variables. Although this may not be strongly influenced by the personal trainer certification a trainer holds, it is strongly influenced by what they do with that certification, which other certifications they hold, the setting they work in, the clients they work with, and their years of experience.ACE and NASM are both certifications that can help the average trainer land a job at a commercial gym, and lead to generally similar career opportunities. Although, ACE will be better fit for organizations more focused on lifestyle change like a YMCA. NASM may be a better fit for a gym like LA Fitness or Gold’s.

Regardless, holding an NCCA accredited personal trainer certification can increase income potential and improve your personal trainer career outlook.

Different personal trainer certifying bodies emphasize different training philosophies and information.

While all personal trainer certifications are aimed at equipping passionate candidates with the skills to be able to train individuals from a range of population groups, each has its own strengths.

Did you know about the ACE senior fitness certification?

You may earn not only that specialization but others as well!

Learn more about how to get ACE certification in any other area that appeals to you and fits your career goals.

ACE is primarily focused on public health impact awareness mediated through health behavior change psychology and lifestyle improvements.

That is to say, ACE takes up the mantle as a cert that equips trainers to support clients in developing healthier habits that support their fitness goals and long term wellbeing.

This is implemented through ACE’s IFT model or Integrated Fitness Training.

This is a program design model that is grounded in community driven engagement theories.

Working with a client directly to mutually create and execute a plan of action will help build rapport with the client, allow you to better tailor your approach to helping them, will increase exercise adherence, and will very effectively help the client develop fitness skills that they can apply independently throughout their lifespan.

Next, we have NASM and its approach to fitness.

The NASM personal training certification leans towards corrective exercise and performance enhancement, rather than psychosocial elements of personal training. Although it still does consider them to some degree.

But what exactly is meant by corrective exercise?

Simply put, it’s exercise that is geared toward improving weaknesses, imbalances, and deviations.

Corrective exercise might mean balancing antagonistic muscle pairs, realigning spinal deviations, post-recovery rehab, or pre-performance prehab.

This is done through the OPT model, short for Optimal Performance Training.

The premise is to build a stable foundation that will make it easier for clients to achieve their fitness goal.

The OPT model starts with stabilization. Developing a body that is stable and balanced makes it less likely that you will experience injury in the future. It also makes your training more efficient. Emphasizing stability is also helpful, because it being relatively lower intensity and lower in volume means that it is an effective time to focus on teaching new movement patterns.

Next up is the phase where you develop muscular strength, increasing your body’s ability to produce force.

Last in the OPT model is power. This relates to how quickly your body can produce force. It is most relevant for athletes and for fall prevention, which is particularly important for older clients given that it is a leading cause of death in the elderly.

Ultimately, what NASM personal trainers and the OPT model aim to do is to equip people with the ability to take control of their bodies and enjoy a longer, more productive life by doing so.

At the end of it all, we can see that both ACE and NASM PT certifications are aimed at improving the health and well-being of the average person.

They both fulfill teaching the major aspects needed in the personal trainer job description.

ACE is more focused on health behavior while NASM is more focused on physiologic adaptation, but areas are considered by each organization to some degree.

If you really want to improve your ability to develop highly effective of strength and conditioning programming, we recommend looking at the NSCA CSCS certification. This cert will give you all the tools to train athletes. We have a CSCS practice exam to see if you’re ready to pass that cert and CSCS study material to get you ready!

When you certify through a NCCA accredited trusted certifying body agency such as ACE or NASM, you will eventually need to renew your certification to keep up to date with emerging industry trends and science.

This is done to keep up with industry and research trends since our understanding of health and fitness sciences and practices regularly evolves as new research is produced.

Recertification occurs every two years for most personal training organizations, but some rare organizations have different timelines for recertification.

ACE and NASM are not exceptions, and you will need to recertify once every two years from the date of your initial certification.

This requires you to pay a fee and submit CEUs, or continuing education units.

CEUs may be earned by taking online courses, attending seminars, webinars, live workshops, and even earning other certifications.

Certified by NASM?

Add the NASM Nutrition certification! A good nutritionist certification will increase your income potential and mean you can get hired for a nutrition coach job. We have a breakdown of the ISSA Nutritionist vs NASM CNC if you are looking at both and need some help deciding.

Go on to earn your NASM group exercise certification and become a fitness instructor.

If you choose the NASM group exercise certification, you will not only obtain CEUs, but you will then be able to instruct group classes!

These time-measured academic credits allow you to qualify for recertification by proving that you have remained active and engaged in your career as a trainer.

Let’s look at the cost and CEU breakdown for both ACE and NASM.

From this, we can see that NASM has a better recertification policy, requiring a lower recertification fee.

Both ACE and NASM have the same CEU requirements.

NASM vs ACE certification; they are pretty similar overall in terms of quality, despite having different emphasis areas.

So which is better ACE or NASM?

In any case, we will give NASM the overall win. It scores higher than ACE.

At the International Personal Trainer Academy we want you to pick the best cert for you!

Of course there are options out there like the ISSA CPT the NCSF CPT or ACSM certification.

We have a NASM vs ISSA article which covers those two certs head to head as well as NASM vs ACSM.

With that said, your choice will depend on individual preferences and circ*mstances.

References

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2. ‌Bryant CX, Sabrena Newton-Merrill, Green DJ, American Council On Exercise.ACE Personal Trainer Manual. American Council On Exercise; 2014. https://www.worldcat.org/title/ace-personal-trainer-manual/oclc/888068865
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4. Akerson M. Investigating Personal Fitness Trainers’ Qualifications. Published online January 1, 2014.
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7. Craig AC, Eickhoff-Shemek JM. EDUCATING AND TRAINING THE PERSONAL FITNESS TRAINER. ACSM’s Health & Fitness Journal. 2009;13(2):8-15. doi:https://doi.org/10.1249/fit.0b013e318198e4cc
8. Cieslinski Q. Comparing Personal Training and Strength and Conditioning Certifications Across Multiple Organizations. Published online January 1, 2016.