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The exercise science knowledge base of commercial fitness instructors in the State of Florida

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Date Issued:
1989
Summary:
Recent anecdotal reports, surveys, studies and litigation have questioned the competency of commercial fitness instructors to provide safe and effective exercise programming. This research study was designed to measure, within the State of Florida, commercial fitness instructors' knowledge base in exercise science, a knowledge base which relates to one's ability to deliver competent instruction. To determine adequacy of exercise science knowledge, test scores of commercial fitness instructors were compared to that of fitness instructors certified by the American College of Sports Medicine. It was hypothesized that commercial fitness instructors within the State lack appropriate training and, therefore, would not demonstrate a comparable exercise science knowledge base to ACSM instructors who have to meet requisite standards to become certified. Samples of commercial instructors were drawn from five geographically distributed, large metropolitan areas within the State; and their testing scores and those of an ACSM sample were statistically treated with One-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). ACSM instructors scored over twice as high as commercial instructors on the testing instrument; and ANOVA reflected a significant difference that supported the research hypothesis. It was concluded that commercial fitness instructors in the State of Florida have significantly less knowledge of exercise science than ACSM certified Health/Fitness instructors which lends credence to the concern that perhaps practicing instructors are incapable of delivering safe and effective exercise programming.
Title: The exercise science knowledge base of commercial fitness instructors in the State of Florida.
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Name(s): Abbott, Anthony Almon.
Florida Atlantic University, Degree grantor
Type of Resource: text
Genre: Electronic Thesis Or Dissertation
Issuance: monographic
Date Issued: 1989
Publisher: Florida Atlantic University
Place of Publication: Boca Raton, Fla.
Physical Form: application/pdf
Extent: 75 p.
Language(s): English
Summary: Recent anecdotal reports, surveys, studies and litigation have questioned the competency of commercial fitness instructors to provide safe and effective exercise programming. This research study was designed to measure, within the State of Florida, commercial fitness instructors' knowledge base in exercise science, a knowledge base which relates to one's ability to deliver competent instruction. To determine adequacy of exercise science knowledge, test scores of commercial fitness instructors were compared to that of fitness instructors certified by the American College of Sports Medicine. It was hypothesized that commercial fitness instructors within the State lack appropriate training and, therefore, would not demonstrate a comparable exercise science knowledge base to ACSM instructors who have to meet requisite standards to become certified. Samples of commercial instructors were drawn from five geographically distributed, large metropolitan areas within the State; and their testing scores and those of an ACSM sample were statistically treated with One-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). ACSM instructors scored over twice as high as commercial instructors on the testing instrument; and ANOVA reflected a significant difference that supported the research hypothesis. It was concluded that commercial fitness instructors in the State of Florida have significantly less knowledge of exercise science than ACSM certified Health/Fitness instructors which lends credence to the concern that perhaps practicing instructors are incapable of delivering safe and effective exercise programming.
Identifier: 11935 (digitool), FADT11935 (IID), fau:8854 (fedora)
Note(s): Thesis (Ed.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 1989.
Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing
Subject(s): Physical fitness centers--Florida
Exercise
Held by: Florida Atlantic University Libraries
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/11935
Sublocation: Digital Library
Use and Reproduction: Copyright © is held by the author with permission granted to Florida Atlantic University to digitize, archive and distribute this item for non-profit research and educational purposes. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires permission of the copyright holder.
Use and Reproduction: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Host Institution: FAU
Is Part of Series: Florida Atlantic University Digital Library Collections.