And welcome back to the Wellness Paradox podcast . I'm so grateful that you can join us on this journey towards greater human flourishing . This is episode number three in our special 12-part collaborative series with the American College of Sport Medicine on the September-October themed issue of the Health and Fitness Journal on professionalization and advocacy .
As always , I'm your host , michael Stack , an exercise physiologist by training and a health entrepreneur and health educator by trade , and I'm fascinated by a phenomena I call the wellness paradox . This paradox , as I view it , is the trust , interaction and communication gap that exists between exercise professionals and our medical community .
This podcast is all about closing off that gap by disseminating the latest , most evidence-based and most engaging information in the health sciences .
And to do that , in episode number three of this series , we're joined by Brian Biolgi , and he's the lead author of an article in the themed issue entitled Harmonizing Health and Fitness with Healthcare Through the Registry of Exercise Professionals , and he wrote that with his co-authors Graham Milstrand and Rick Howard , and this article is foundationally important to much
of what we're going to talk about with the professionalization effort , because we're really going to dive into the concept of registry and what that means in terms of minimal professional competencies and standards for our profession .
Brian's going to break down some relatively technical sounding things at first in this episode around the process of registration and competency and job task analysis , and it could seem a little bit wonky in parts , but then I think Brian brings together the thought very well which is hey , all of these organizations that are on the US Registry of Exercise Professionals ,
these are all five-star rated safety organizations and it really doesn't necessarily matter which one you pick . You just need to pick one of these five-star rated safety organizations . And it really doesn't necessarily matter which one you pick , you just need to pick one of these five-star rated safety organizations .
And that's really what a lot of this conversation is going to be about is how do we determine what minimal competency and standard looks like for a qualified exercise professional and then how do we develop curricula for that test for that and then ensure there's a database that exists somewhere of registered professionals that have achieved these minimal competencies and
standards and then are maintaining those minimal competencies and standards through continuing education . I think you're going to find this a fascinating discussion between the registry and something called the National Exercise Referral Framework .
I think there's no more important foundational elements to what's happening in the professionalization effort than the things we're going to talk about in this episode . Anything we'd like to share with you from this conversation can be found on the show notes page . It's forward slash episode ACSM3 . Please enjoy this conversation with Brian Biolgi Today .
I'm excited to welcome Brian Biagioli to the podcast . Brian , thank you so much for joining us . I'm super happy to be here . Brian and I have been professional colleagues and worked together for a couple of years now .
I've had the opportunity to sit on a panel or two with you and I'm excited to have you on for this conversation about an article that you and your co-authors wrote in the themed issue about professionalization and advocacy .
But before we dive into that article and all the important things that it talked about , why don't you just give our audience a little bit more context by telling us your background ?
So I've actually been in the industry for going on 30 years now . I actually started as a professional strength conditioning coach . I did that for a number of years and then realized I could work less by becoming a professor and teaching the same thing .
So right now I'm at the University of Miami , I'm the graduate program director of applied physiology and I also am currently representing the board for certification by the National Council on Strength and Fitness , and I've worn that hat for quite a bit of time and that has , as lends itself , to a lot of additional committee work .
So currently I'm the vice president for the US registry , I am a board member for the International Confederation of Exercise Professional Registration and , of course , I wind up being on task forces as it relates to some of these things and wearing my strength and conditioning hat , I'm currently the chair for Athlete Alive 2025 , an initiative that joins a couple of
different organizations to help with athlete student safety .
So you stay busy , like a lot of us in the field , and you wear multiple hats and we're all very appreciative of those of us that do that work .
And what we're going to talk about today before we came on the air , we were actually touching on this briefly is some critically important work that has been going on behind the scenes for a very long time , and a lot of what we want to do in a conversation like this is pull this to the forefront so frontline exercise professionals understand the importance of
some of the work that groups like the US Registry of Exercise Professionals are doing and why it's so important . And the article that you co-authored in the Health Fitness Journal was entitled Harmonizing Health and Fitness Through a registry of exercise professionals , and you wrote that article with Graham Milstrand and Rick Howard , and this article talks about CREP .
It talks about the US registry , it talks about the National Exercise Referral Framework Some of these really fundamental things that I think are so important but not so many people know about . So I just kind of want you to launch in and start educating us on the most important points that you and your co-authors talked about in the article .
So from a historical perspective , it was actually policymakers that brought us together . So in the early 2000s there was a couple of cases . One death had occurred under the oversight of a personal trainer and that got broad media attention .
So in Massachusetts , one of the senators wanted to write a bill that there should be some regulation of the qualifications related to personal training or exercise professional roles .
So what happened was each of the different organizations that are currently members of CREP all flew in to discuss this with the senator and we said you know what , why don't we just do this as a collective , so that we're not having different conversations and we're representing exactly what is in the best interest of all our stakeholders ?
And so the senator said to us well , how many do we have certified here in the United States from your respective organizations ? And we had well over 10,000 . So we had critical mass . We said but that's 10,000 that you have collectively , but individually you don't have such significant representation .
To which he said why don't you guys just get together and work as a coalition so that you have a single voice , and work as a coalition so that you have a single voice ?
So that actually led us down a path to create a 501c3 not-for-profit organization to essentially represent qualified exercise professionals who have been vetted against a common standard and participate in continued education and engage with ethical practices and all the good things that our pros are doing .
So this gave a single place to vet qualified trainers , group exercise instructors , strength and conditioning coaches , we had Pilates and also the clinical exercise physiologists .
So you can see , the register is broken down into specific roles that are recognized by the Department of Labor , and so therefore we have scope and we have the qualification standards which are established by both education accreditation as well as accreditation of the certification process , and so with that , we actually were able to extend globally into the ICREPS network
, because we mapped across all of the qualification standards . That was associated with the global standard matrix , which then allows professionals . For instance , if you're a certified personal trainer in the United States and you want to go to Australia , you would have portability of your qualifications , and so this actually has a unique expansion .
So , in addition to Australia , you would have portability of your qualifications , and so this actually has , you know , a unique expansion .
So , in addition to that you referenced the National Exercise Referral Framework We've also established an alignment within the health continuum that shows not only do we have education standards and board certification standards that align with the allied health fields , we also have a registration system that is consistent with how registered dieticians work with , how athletic
trainers work with . So we already are doing all the things that are best practices for health care when we move into that next model .
Great yeah , and a lot of that can seem really complicated . You're somebody who has such institutional knowledge of that entire space that I think it all kind of fits together in your head . I know when I first started learning about this I was like , oh , what are these job tasks and what is this mapping ?
So can you kind of take us under the hood a little bit , just so our audience has a little bit better of an understanding of you ? Had that conversation with that lawmaker and he said hey , you guys should come together to make sure you can put these standards out there and you get these groups together and have a common standard . How does that process ?
How's the sausage making work on that ?
Excellent question and I'm telling you , even across , you know , discussions with high level academics and people that you would think in the space would have a clear understanding standard setting and awarding bodies are very unique , but they're consistent . So that's the great part , right ?
So you know , the way that the registered dietitians board exam is developed is exactly the same way we develop them for personal trainers . So there's a consistency . And then it extends in education .
So I'll walk you kind of through what I call the full cycle , and I've actually had to do this with policymakers in the past and if they get it at the end , everybody's going to get it . Yeah , right .
So it all starts off with a organization sponsoring a exercise professional role , and to do that we have to research , utilizing a job , task analysis or role delineation , study All of the different tasks and competencies that are necessary to do the job safely and effectively .
It doesn't necessarily mean , if you pass the board exam , that you are automatically the best . It just means that you have met a minimum qualification to be safe and effective . That leads to education domains , because you have to develop these skills , you have to develop these competencies .
So there's a period of time at which you can do this through a vocational model , if it's group exercise or personal training , or through a accredited education model , which would be more for the strength and conditioning coaches and the exercise physiologists , so that job task analysis comes up with all the different things that you need to know .
So then that is provided to the actual education institutions and it is actually what they're graded on when they go for accreditation .
So the Committee on Accreditation for Exercise Sciences , for instance , would review for personal trainers or exercise physiologists or strength conditioning coaches what should be in the curriculum and make sure that it's there so that they're qualified to sit for the board exam at the end of their two or four years , depending on what education that they're going through .
So this also defines the different domains by which you would have continued education to maintain your certification over a lifetime , and those domains also then provide the scope of practice .
So if you are a strength and conditioning coach , you shouldn't be taking courses in physical therapy and providing those services to individuals with certain pathologies because you haven't met that qualification .
But in the same way , someone shouldn't be crossing into the scope of practice when they don't have the defined capacity for proper programming and instruction as it relates to exercise .
So this helps us establish the scope , it helps us identify what we should be learning in continued professional development and it also helps to the foundation of the education so that everyone's properly prepared for the board examination . Leading to the whole point at the beginning safe and effective professional practices .
Yeah , that's a great explanation of kind of that full life cycle , and you use the term board exam . I think a lot of our audience would better know this , as I sat for my certification exam .
I mean , ultimately , at the end of the day , when you get your ACSM , ep or your CSCS or whatever it might be , that is the board examination that we're referring to here .
Yeah , and to kind of extend on that thought , mike , this is not an organizational specific document , even though it is sponsored by the organization . We use experts like yourself across the gamut of the of the United States so that all stakeholders are represented . So , for instance , the NCSF doesn't use its staff and administrators to develop these components .
These are developed by external experts so that there's no biases . And that's what creates a true board exam , because that's go through all of those scrutinies , these you know legally defensible board exams .
But that's the best thing for the stakeholder because if you pass one of those certifications that is on the US register , you are legally defensible in the court of law as to your qualifications . Now , if you go and do something , you know of negligence , that's on you , but we know that you've been properly vetted to know what you should be doing .
And then the reason that I always use the term board exam rather than certification is because certification is alphabet soup in the United States and because it's a self-regulated system .
You have venture capitalists , owned organizations , private equity organizations that are putting stamps on pieces of paper that look valid and sound valid , but they haven't been vetted in the same process as we can guarantee from the United States . Register of Exercise Professions .
I'd like to take a quick break from today's episode to tell you about a great offer from the American College of Sport Medicine . Until October 21st 2024 , the ACSM is offering a $30 discount on their Alliance membership .
This is a membership that's crafted specifically for health and fitness professionals , and getting this membership will give you access to all the articles in the themed issue on professionalization and advocacy that we're talking about in this podcast series , as well as a whole host of other member benefits .
To take advantage of this discount , go to acsmorg forward , slash , join . That's acsmorg forward , slash , join and enter in the discount code alliance save 30 . Again , this is valid only through October , the 21st 2024 . So go to acsmorg forward , slash , join and enter in the discount code AllianceSave30 . Now back to today's episode .
Yeah , now let's stay on that , because I think that's such an important conversation for us to have and make sure our audience is clear on . Everyone who's listening to this can likely tell you the difference between an ACSM , an NSCA , an NSCF certification and the fly-by-night go on over the weekend and finish the certification type of credential .
But I don't think that the public and lawmakers are quite there yet in terms of understanding that distinction . Talk a little bit more about some of the work that CREP is doing to try to create awareness around the registry and the quality of its professionals compared to the non-registered professionals .
Yeah , it's actually a real problem because , you know , essentially a marketing and branding campaign , you know presents , you know consumer confusion to a high level , and this actually extends , concerningly , also into our schools . So , for instance , I mentioned that I'm heading up the Athlete of the Life 2025 .
And the whole reason for that is because we have people that are dying on college campuses and high schools and middle schools . We just had five in the last two weeks , but no one's hearing about these things , right ? And so you have individuals who are functioning in a professional role where they're not qualified to do so .
Many of these things , as you can imagine , are overheat syndromes associated with improper conditioning environments or poor transitional conditioning situations .
If you were to ask the average parent at a high school if they have a qualified strength and conditioning professional who's providing their services , they're going to assume of course the high school had to vet that , but that's not true in many , many , many , many cases .
The same thing when I was initiated by the NCAA to investigate this whole process , with the number of rhabdo cases and the number of deaths that occur . And it's staggering If you go to UNC's website and look at the , because they track all of the injuries and deaths .
If you look at this and you start adding it up , it's like 87 deaths per year in high school and college . Now , Mike , how often do you hear about it ? Yeah , not 87 times , that's for sure . So it's something that's flying under the radar and people aren't aware .
So the whole process of the Athlete Lab 2025 was hey , all we're asking you for step one is to get a qualification through one of the Athlete Lab 2025 was hey , all we're asking you for step one is to get a qualification through one of the member organizations so that everybody can vet that you have gone through the education and training that's necessary to be
a strength and conditioning coach at the NCAA level . The same thing can be said that there's a need at the personal trainer level and at the group exercise level , because , and group exercise , I have even more concerns because of the vastness in um , the , the spectrum of you know , of clearance for the different individuals and the .
You know higher intensity and competitive nature of some of these . You know the , the boot camps and some and some of the , the related group exercise , um which , hey , physical activity is awesome . We want more people to do it , but we want the right people to do it at the right intensities under the right instruction .
Yeah .
But , mike , if you go to join a facility , you are already assuming in most cases that the employer has done their due diligence and is employing only qualified professionals who are going to be delivering these services , and they would be able to acknowledge when there's a safety concern , when things need to be , you know , regressed or modified because of a certain
individual and in many cases it's a free for all . They just bring people into a class , they're high energy and they're doing their thing , but they have no idea about what's going on metabolically or pathologically in every single person , right and so and so this is a actual initiative that we're going to be focusing on in 2025 .
We're obviously utilizing the regulatory side from the NCAA , because it's actually the first time in this industry that we have an organized body that's recognizing , from a regulatory capacity , the exercise professional role .
So if you , if you want to work as an ncaa strength conditioning coach right now , it is a requirement that you have to be certified by one of the three organizations who provides the um qualification , and all three of us are on the register yeah because hey , you could say you know what car I like , I like the ncsf car , or I like the cscca car , or I
like the nsca car . We don't care which car you buy , yeah right just buy one of the ones that is a five-star safety rating yeah , that's an easy way to look at it a great way to put it .
So let's stay on that for a second because I think it it brings up an interesting and I'll point people to a preview of episode five where I had a chance to talk to Ben Thompson about programmatic accreditation and credentialing . And obviously there's a common topic amongst people in our industry around professionalization .
Some people suggest that licensure has to happen . Other people suggest that it's what's causing all of the issues . From a workforce shortage and a portability standpoint . In healthcare we have certainly not particularly the athlete example . We don't have state licensed strength coaches .
I think only Louisiana is the one state in the country that even licensed exercise physiologists . So talk about how the registry almost acts as an alternative to licensure and then just also broadly what your thoughts are on the licensure concept for exercise professionals .
So even in Louisiana they're kind of deregulating that whole space and it's actually a common theme across the United States . So I'll give you a little historical perspective as we look at our probably very closely aligned professions .
So registered dietitians , for instance , goes through the same process as a personal trainer would , although they have education and hour requirements to sit for their board exam Athletic trainers very consistent but they have education and hours associated with their prereqs for their board exam .
When we actually take a look at it from a licensure perspective , registered dietitians are licensed in 46 states in some capacity but there's license heavy and then there's license light .
So you would have to go through the different states and read what the regulations are specific to those things and what you can and cannot do under the auspices of a particular title or in the nutrition services Athletic training .
In talking to Denise Vandal who was part of that she's now retired from the NATA but she gave a very good perspective because she was a former advisor for our board for CREP and she said you have to be very , very , very cautious with licensure because it's a state by state situation .
And so they said in some states it's actually very beneficial for an athletic trainer because the license bill was written in a positive way . In other ways it's super regulatory and actually kind of ties the hands behind their backs , which has allowed physical therapists to kind of move in and take over some scope . So you really have to look at it from .
Each state is able to define what controls it has or what lack of controls it prefers , and so when you start to get into licensure I know that everyone looks at it from the perspective of the regulatory aspects of it could put us into the health care system and maybe engage us in third party reimbursement . Licensing is not necessarily the key .
The key is having the register where you can show that they have been properly vetted . Because here's the reality you are a massage therapist , you become a certified massage therapist , you go to Florida and then you register with the Florida board .
Now they're in control of you , yeah , but all you really have to do is have the qualification and then the state has the regulatory system . Well , we already have the qualification .
So if the physical activity codes come out and it's assigned to exercise professionals which makes the most sense , right , Because those are who qualified specifically for physical activity engagement you could still have third party payer without having the specificity of the state license , because it's really a national recognition for reimbursement of payers and that's who
makes the decision . We already have the HL7 for the clear communication , a medical record communication systems , and we're on a path for the physical activity codes to be able to be utilized under these specific qualifications .
And , of course , you're going to have to be vetted by the US Register , because that would be the only place that every single person in the country can find in real time if an individual meets that standard or not .
And those individuals that actually , you know , fail to complete their qualifications by doing continued education , or those who maybe do something that they lose their certification , will no longer be recognized , you know , to be able to provide those services . So it's very consistent with what's already being done in the healthcare system .
It's just we don't have the L work .
Yeah , yeah , and I think probably for good reason , because I think now we're seeing nursing in particular , I think , is seeing an extraordinary shortage and licensure is not helping them , and you're starting to see these interstate compacts come up , but that just seems to be adding bureaucracy on top of bureaucracy , and so I don't know if that's the best solution .
So I think we've learned our lessons from other professions and started to see that there is , to your point , a different path .
So let's stay on something for a second , because now , as we kind of bring the conversation closer to a close , I think people are listening and they're going well , how do I get on the registry and how do I stay on the registry , and where is the registry and what should I be using it for ?
So let's talk about that Most fundamentally how do you get on the registry and how do you stay on the registry ?
So we are the most unique registration system within the IC Rep's shared system of recognition . So every single person who goes through one of the accredited certifications that has a defined exercise role that's on the register is automatically put on by their respective organizations . So this is what I was talking about .
We're doing self-regulation at a resource cost to protect stakeholders and to advocate for these exercise professionals . So if you went through the NCSF and you got your certification as a personal trainer or you said , you know , I got my certification as a strength and conditioning coach , you're automatically put on there .
So therefore , if you applied for an NCAA school and they said , well , we have to check to make sure that you're on the register , it's in real time . Yeah , if that individual fails to complete continued education to recertify , they fall off in real time . So the credential verification is all done through APIs and it's in real time .
The advantage too of having the different member organizations there , because you know people are like well , what's the difference ? Which one do I go with ? And again , I use the . You know the five-star safety rating of a car . Just pick which one works best for you .
But these organizations have been mapped across standards and so when we look at a 97% overlap in content and standardization , which has then been vetted by the European Observatory of Sports and Education . So we've had third-party reviews , so we have the accreditation reviews . We've had third-party reviews , so it's all consistent .
And EOS is the one that looks at the standard qualifications across portability of all the international spaces . So that's why it makes sense to use a European country .
So what I recommend , particularly for students , is to learn about the organizations you know , learn about the different aspects and the things that they can do for you , and then select one of the member organizations and get your certification and maintain it . We're going to support all of those stakeholders consistently , whether they know it or not .
One of the funniest things that I find is the first thing . When I do all these talks , I'm at the different conferences and I say okay and I throw up the website . I say everyone , go to this website , click on the register and type in your name and we'll see if you are actually qualified .
And the whole audience , you know everybody's on their phone , but that just shows you . You can just hop on your phone in real time , get credential verification . We have the system set up that you might be a huge corporate center that has 5,000 certified professionals . You can look it all up at one time . It'll be yes or no straight down .
So it has great utility and we really encourage people to know about it . But again , mike , to your point like one of the best things that no one really knows about yet unless you're on the kind of deep inner circle .
So that's why we want to amplify the communications out to the actual professionals themselves , because you know they are the ones that have the greatest reach . No-transcript .
So a thing that you said that I think is really important , that I don't want to gloss over , is that , yes , this is important for the professionals , but it's also important for the employers to be using this as a tool you mentioned the NCAA institutions are using them , but any personal training manager in XYZ Fitness Company in Des Moines , iowa , if they're
looking to hire a minimally competent professional , which is what this registry allows for they can go on there and they can look up that person to see if they're there , correct ?
Yes , that's absolutely factual and I'll just give you a quick one .
When we were first utilizing the registry and looking at the system for multiple reviews , we actually had one of the large corporate entities give us a whole list of their South quarter sector and we put all those people in and we found out that 80% were not currently certified and they were like wait , what ?
Which means that they probably were certified at one point but because they didn't do the continued education , maybe they let it lapse . All of a sudden they're not on . The other thing was , if that employer thought that a particular organization was an accredited institution and you find that they're not on the register , you can also start to learn .
Wait , I'm starting to learn a little bit more about that organization than what I thought because I have brand recognition , which is not qualification recognition .
In the same vein , that is a great statement . Brand recognition and qualification recognition are not the same thing , and you referenced this earlier .
There's a lot of certification organizations out there that spend a lot of money on marketing and promotion and they have high brand recognition , but in terms of that credibility and standards they just don't meet them because they've not gone through the work that you've done through the registry .
Yeah , and it's very important for people to understand . I always say it's pretty clear . We just think about it from this perspective who is the stakeholder ? So , if you're talking about the organizations that are on the register , our stakeholder is really the general public , because we want our qualified pros to be safe and effective with the general public .
If you look at the work that we do with KHAP and the Committee on Accreditation for Exercise Science , our stakeholder then is the student , because we want to make sure that the curriculum and everything lines with the student's success so that they can get opportunities for career advancement and pass those board examinations .
When you look at the actual organizations that are VC or private equity owned , their stakeholder is the person who owns the shares , because ultimately it's the profitability that's most important to them . So as long as everyone understands that and you can go in open-minded , open-eyed , then I think people make the best decision for themselves .
Absolutely .
Before we get to the final couple of questions here , there's one other point I want to bring up , and I think it's so important because it's really what's driven , I think , this whole professionalization effort for it and this article embodies it just even in the three co-authors that are from different organizations Collaboration is so key , it seems like for two
reasons , and I'd just like your thoughts on this . One , it's to have that collective voice , to be able to speak as a unified profession , and then two , it's also to achieve adequate scale to be able to address the population health needs from a physical activity perspective .
So I just want to hear your thoughts on why it is important from your perspective to collaborate and enhance that collaboration , if we can .
Well , that's an awesome question and it speaks to a couple of things . First of all , these organizations that are on the US register are direct competitors , yes , yet we work hand in glove to make sure that , as a trade organization , we represent our stakeholders .
And , as you know , mike , rising tides raise all ships , and so , if we can actually benefit by the strength in numbers , we can move the needle within the industry in the right direction . If we're functioning in silos , we're spinning our wheels right . We essentially find ourselves on the treadmill because no one's working together for advancement .
And this is also why we have extensions into experts like yourself on our task forces and things like that , so that we can get the different stakeholder representation and also new ideas and new ways to do things that are most effective or efficient , because sometimes someone's already doing it the best way .
So let's just skip all the dialogue and go with the best way , and this has allowed us to establish consistent best practices , and this also allows us to quickly update white papers and things like that , so that it evolves the profession . Everyone's on the same page . Yeah , and ?
And when you look at regulatory uh situations and they say , okay , who are we going to point to with regards to uh critical mass to represent our physical activity engagement . Well , the register has all the people yeah and so you're not going to one organization , you're going to all the respected organizations that are doing the right thing .
And now you're talking hundreds of thousands of people . And so when you say , okay , I know I have 100 million people with at least one morbidity , many with comorbidities , we need to have a number that is a correct ratio that we can service that .
What we found when we looked at some of the areas that we're looking at doing a national exercise referral framework , we kind of stole part of it from Ireland and the policymakers there said you know what ? This is a great idea , why don't we implement this for all of our people ?
And then , when they looked at the register , they didn't have enough people to service it , so they actually lost their opportunity .
And so that was , you know , a lesson that we took and said look , we need to have critical mass and we need to speak with one voice and we need to show a single qualification across the exercise roles and we need to be recognized by the Department of Labor and we need to have all our I's dotted and T's crossed , and that's why we use the same accrediting
bodies .
And this is so foundational to this professionalization effort . And I realize that some of this sounds complicated and there's a lot of stuff going on , but I think if you read the article and as you listen to this podcast , I think everyone will understand how this all connects and how fundamental it really is .
And I think some of your analogies , especially the five-star safety rating , I think that's a really easy way to think of this . So , brian , we're going to link up to the article on the show notes page so people can check that out .
So Brian , we're going to link up to the article on the show notes page so people can check that out . But where else should people go to find out more about the work that you're doing around registration ?
Of the things that I tell people is first of all , go to the US Register and learn about it , have an idea so you can speak to it and then just sign up for the communication aspects of that .
And then also , you should be tapping the member organizations , because we're constantly , you know , feeding out information of the different activities that we do , and many times we're doing them together .
So , as you know , mike , when you see me up on stage , you're probably going to see Cedric Bryant from ACE , you're going to see a representative from the NSCA , you're going to see Francis from ACSM . So we're doing this as colleagues , keeping it as a single message , but you can always go to the individual organizations too .
Message , but you can always go to the individual organizations too , and we all have task forces and we all have , you know , different branches by which you know you can get involved .
Awesome and we'll link up to that in the show notes page . But just real briefly , it's quite simple . It's usrepsorg , usrepsorg . Go there . Yeah , it was exciting . The first time I learned about it , I did that exact same thing . You said that the audience did . I'm like , oh , am I on here ? Shoot , I'm on here .
I was actually talking to one of the other co-authors , Rachel Pajednik , who we just had on in episode two of this series , and she said that she was amazed when she found that she was on the registry the first time , and so it's such an important resource that I really would encourage everyone to engage with it .
So it's such an important resource that I really would encourage everyone to engage with it .
Yeah , quick story on it , just because I'm going to show you the opposite .
I was with a colleague a high-level colleague in the space actually works with one of the organizations on their test development and related committees and I was explaining it to him and he goes let me see , I want to go and he went in there and he's like I'm not in here , I'm like you have to contact your organization because I think you're probably not
certified . He's like what ? How is that possible ? He's doing things that are all great , but it just shows you that this is a valid source of whether you are currently recognized as qualified or not .
Yeah , that's such a great way to think of it , Brian . The question that I'm asking all of our guests to leave with our listeners at the end of all these episodes , I think is a way to kind of tie all this together .
If you can give our listeners one piece of advice as to what they could focus on to advance and elevate the exercise profession , what would it be ?
Be part of the conversation and so you know these conversations are being had .
Next week I'm going to a Physical Activity Alliance Invitational where we're going to have 100 high level you , you know stakeholders and thought leaders there , and then that information is going to get disseminated out because you know we're going to function as a collective , but then obviously we want to amplify it . These messages need to get to people .
So I know , sometimes on instagram , it's you know it's fun to flip through and and look at the , the funny videos and things like that , but you should also be following these organizations because then you're going to be in the know and especially if you want , you know , to be a professional and look at it from a career perspective , that's you know , something
that I think is an obligation .
Absolutely , brian Begioli . Thank you so much for joining us on the Wellness Paradox . I appreciate you sir . Well , I hope you enjoyed that conversation with Brian as much as I did . If you found it insightful and informative , please share with your friends and colleagues . Those shares make a big difference for us .
Any information we'd like to share with you from today's episode can be found on the show notes page , that's by going to wellnessparadoxpodcom forward slash episode ACSM3 . Please be on the lookout for our next episode in this series when it drops next Monday , and don't forget to subscribe through your favorite podcast platform .
Until we chat again next week , please be well , thank you .