Everyone wants to get the best results they can. Being a specialist is going to give you more tools to help your clients safely and effectively meet their unique needs and goals. It's also going to make you more competitive and give you the educational recognition to market yourself as a specialist.

ACE Specialist Programs are designed to build on the knowledge, skills and abilities of your professional credential or license and to provide career advancement opportunities for exercise or health professionals with a personal and professional passion for a specific population or area of practice. Specialist programs focus your professional development in a chosen area of study to help you obtain the knowledge and skills to provide advanced training to specific groups or clients. They also provide you with more than 20 hours of continuing education to apply towards the renewal of your ACE or other NCCA-accredited certification. For these reasons, specialist programs are completed after you have earned a professional credential or license.

Each specialist program is designed to provide information in a specific area. Whatever Specialist Program you choose should be based on what area you are interested in acquiring more focused knowledge and expertise.

ACE uses multiple forms of research and information, including survey data from our network of professionals, industry reports, educational conference offerings and discussions with ACE certified professionals worldwide to identify relevant and emerging subject areas.

There are no pre-requisites to purchase. ACE encourages anyone interested to pursue our specialist programs, as we believe that health and fitness professionals with a broad education can better serve special populations in communities everywhere.

Upon successful completion, you will earn the designation of ACE Specialist and receive a corresponding certificate. Specialist credentials do not need to be renewed, nor do they expire.

The designation of ACE Specialist does not expire, however ACE reserves the right to discontinue the sale and/or support of any continuing education course at any time, in order to cancel, correct, or update content based on current industry standards, guidelines, and/or technological advances. Notification will be given 6 months prior to expiration to allow for course completion and no refund will be given for expiring courses.

The cost for all of the individual components will vary. ACE has selected the best combination of courses for each specialist program, offering them at an average savings of $80.

Through your My ACE Account, you will be able to print your own ACE Specialist Certificate upon completion of the course.

Non-ACE created courses are included in some of the specialist programs to supplement and enhance the learning experience for participants. Non-ACE courses are carefully selected from approved ACE continuing education providers, as they have already been vetted for science-based and relevant content.

Like most other continuing education experiences, an open-book online quiz is administered for ACE Specialist Programs. The purpose of quizzes is to evaluate your understanding of the material. The passing score is set at 70%.

No, the Find an ACE Professional search engine is reserved only for health and fitness professionals who currently hold one or more of our four primary, NCCA-accredited certifications — including the ACE Personal Trainer, Group Fitness Instructor, Health Coach, or Medical Exercise Specialist certifications.

ACE reserves the right to revoke an individual's ACE Specialist designation should ACE acquire knowledge that the individual did not complete the specialist program on their own merit.