By: Total Trainer Team
The Register of Exercise Professionals (REPs), aka the Exercise Register, is a Croydon-based charity that aims to standardise personal training and exercise professionals delivering fitness and personal training throughout the UK. The vast majority of UK qualified personal trainers will hold REPs membership, set at Level 3 for personal trainers.
Register of Exercise Professionals (REPs) CPD
All REPs personal trainers are committed to continually develop their fitness knowledge by completing new fitness courses every 2 years in order to maintain their Register of Exercise Professionals status. The aim of this is to make sure all exercise professionals are aware of the latest health and fitness knowledge, sports science research findings and exercise techniques. All qualified personal trainers will also hold valid public liability insurance; part of the REPs package that personal trainers sign up to.
The Register of Exercise Professionals Mission Statement
"To ensure that all exercise professionals are suitably knowledgeable and qualified to help safeguard and to promote the health and interests of the people who use their services." In many ways the Register of Exercise Professionals is meeting their mission.
Why do does the fitness industry need REPs?
In years gone by anyone could have claimed to be a personal trainer, regardless of their fitness education or practise as a personal fitness trainer. The development of Register of Exercise Professionals has meant that in order to call yourself a personal trainer, you must prove that you have undertaken a recognised personal training course from a recognised personal training course provider (For example, Premier International, Future Fit, Lifetime Health & Fitness, Focus Training etc). Once personal training students have graduated they can enrol onto REPs and begin to advertise their personal training services.
The benefits of the Exercise Register
The Exercise Register is both good for the personal trainer and good for personal training clients. For the personal trainer it means that they are confident that they can deliver safe and effective personal training sessions. For the personal training client it means that they are spending their money on a highly professional service rather than paying someone who, perhaps, doesn't have the acquired skills needed to help a client reach their health, fitness, exercise or weight loss goals.
Think of it like a car service. Would you rather have a trained car mechanic run an MOT on your car or your mate's dad who happens to enjoy tinkering around under the bonnet?
Are all personal training courses recognised by REPs?
In short no. REPs doesn't acknowledge all personal training and fitness courses. For example the World-renowned American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) fitness course isn't recognised by REPs. Therefore ACSM course graduates don't qualify for REPs membership unless they supplement their course with a REPs recognised course. This seems bizarre because that fact of the matter is that the ACSM typically set the benchmark standard of training that many other personal training course providers adhere to.
Are Sport Science degrees recognised by the Register of Exercise Professionals?
Typically Sports Science and Exercise Science graduates and post-graduates don't automatically qualify for member to the Register of Exercise Professionals. Many graduates gain provisional membership with the knowledge that they must supplement their degree-level education with another, perhaps lesser fitness course within the first two years of their REPs membership. This is a point of contention for many Sports Science degree holders who argue that training at a degree level in fitness and exercise for 3 years should hold more weight than a personal training course that can last as little as 3 to 12 weeks.