Answer from Douglas Van Dalinda: Hi David, It was good to meet you at the ECA conference on Saturday. I would start by asking yourself where do you want to work? If it is a commercial gym I would start by calling around in the area you want to work and find out who is most accepted as a certification. If you are going to do in home 1 on 1 training outside of the commercial setting then you have more options to get started and you can choose the one you feel will get you started toward your goal with the least amount of investment of time and money. That will allow you to start working in the field to find out if you like it. If you do not than you have some good information to use for yourself. If you do enjoy it and decide it is something you wish to pursue you can always up the education to a better cert. When I started about 90% of the gyms I called recommended NASM as the most widely accepted certification. Buy an OnFitness magazine they have certification companies in the back that you can research online and find out what suits you for now. Good luck!!

Answer from fitcomXpo: You can check out this track at the upcoming fitcomXpo. I think it will help you get a wide breadth of understanding as far as the issues that you will need to consider when embarking into this career! http://www.fitcomxpo.com/public/department46.cfm