In 1992, I founded the SuperSlow® Exercise Guild. I wanted the Guild for several purposes. For one—as a platform to conduct a certification program that represented exercise principles and standards alternative to those feigned by the general fitness industry.

At the outset, I encountered one major dilemma with the structure of the SuperSlow® Certification Program. This revolved around one simple question: "How can instructor competence be tested?" I could devise a test devoid of the Aerobics, plyometrics, isokinetics and other invalid persuasions that pass for exercise principles in the ACE, ACSM, AFAA, ISSA, NASM, and NSCA tests. I could successfully weed out those faulty intellects who are in lock step with the target heart rate/VO2 mentality. But how does a competent instructor prove expertise at instruction?

Obviously, a practical is required as part of the certification process. If you consider all ten of the certification programs reviewed by Andrew Baye in recent issues of the SuperSlow® Exercise Standard, only the ISSA fails to include a semblance of a practical. Then further consider that of those remaining nine, only three—AFAA, NASM, MedX—include a practical whereby the examinee is required to demonstrate instructional skills. In the remaining six programs—Nautilus, ACSM, NSCA, ACE, The Cooper Institute for Aerobics Research Training and Certification Program, ACSM—either the practical is totally unrelated to instructional competence, because it emphasizes expertise in testing or the practical is merely a demonstration of exercise performance by the examinee, not his ability to convey the information to a trainee.

A practical that scores the student pass/fail on the administration of some test like skin fold does not certify instructional ability.

A practical whereby the examinee demonstrates his ability to perform an exercise does not test his ability to safely convey said ability to a client or patient. It might—assuming the information is factual—certify the examinee to be qualified to instruct himself!—not others!

In the early 1980s at Nautilus Sports/Medical headquarters in Lake Helen, Florida, we experienced a problem: Employees ignorant of proper Nautilus exercise desired access to the exercise equipment. Merely granting access proved embarrassing and dangerous. To solve this, Ellington Darden, PhD, devised a certification program that included a workshop, a written test, and a practical wherein the employee demonstrated how to operate the equipment. This certification did not qualify nor authorize the employee to discuss exercise principles with customers or visiting researchers. Also, it did not qualify them to instruct others. I now understand that most of the Aerobics-based certifying agencies have just recently initiated their programs for strength instruction. They are Johnny-come-latelys to the subject, because they have had their heads buried in their invalid Aerobics for 50 years. Our experience with the certification issues precede their interest in the subject by decades.

A practical whereby the examinee demonstrates training a volunteer in one or two exercises does not prove his instructional ability either. This ignores crucial questions: Can the examinee identify and correct discrepancies? What if the volunteer trainee for the practical performs so admirably that the discrepancies do not occur in the practical? In this case the examinee does not deserve an award for competent instruction. Rather the award should perhaps go to the volunteer for either volitional or accidental perfection!

If we consider how practicals are administered in other industries we may discover a solution to our certification dilemma. In nursing schools, 30-40 percent of the curriculum is devoted to clinicals (practicals): demonstrate blood drawing, demonstrate IV administration, demonstrate drug administration, demonstrate moving the patient, demonstrate infection control procedures, demonstrate CPR, demonstrate, demonstrate, demonstrate.

To obtain an automobile operators license you must take a written test, a vision test, as well as a driving (practical) test to demonstrate basic skills. This test is often simplistic, and there are those who fail at this basic competency level.

In the test for operating a tractor-trailer you must be prepared to prove your ability to control a yet-more dangerous machine than a simple passenger car. And in many, if not most, cases another experienced driver will ride with the novice driver for several months as a term of apprenticeship. I know from experience that this apprenticeship is required on concrete trucks—very dangerous vehicles that most other drivers on the street pay little caution.

To SCUBA dive you must pass certification. You must demonstrate ability to properly assemble equipment. You must demonstrate knowledge of air compression tables. You must demonstrate proper mask clearance and many other skills before you are considered safe to go on your first open-water dive.

To pilot an airplane you must have flight instruction. In such, the flight instructor is there to present to you a range of situations and problems that you must learn to successfully manage. The instructor will deliberately cause potentially deadly circumstances so that you can experience them. Otherwise you will not likely and safely learn from these experiences, and with the flight instructor this is made possible because he is there to save you and the plane as you profit from necessary but death-defying mistakes.

Note that in the five preceding examples of practical—nursing, automobile, truck, SCUBA, aircraft—the practical is directed toward the user of the equipment. Denote this as management level one. The examinee is to prove competence in managing his equipment or tools. But with exercise we have a second level of managerial control with the examinee. He must prove that he can make his client perform properly. I am told that this is analogous to instruction in any course work but particularly that in nursing. A CPR instructor must take a CPR instructor course and certification. Similarly a SCUBA instructor is required to complete an instructor course. A flight instructor must know much more than how to fly an airplane. The same is true for a driver-ED instructor. This underscores a common need for instructors in any endeavor:

My only solution to this dilemma was to develop the SuperSlow® Certification Program in such a way that the basic test (Level-I) emphasized instructional ability rather than academics. I briefly considered inclusion of some of the academic material which other certification agencies use—muscular function, diet & nutrition, etc.—but I decided this material not to be directly pertinent.

These topics do provide the examiner with materials to make a test that is easy, convenient, and highly profitable to administer. By keeping the practical to a minimum, testing agencies can replicate a test whereby 25-300 examinees are crowded into an auditorium for simultaneous testing by one examiner and several proctors. Any inclusion of a practical greatly complicates the issue. It also may cause a lack of standardization as a practical is often scored by pass/fail, not by quantification.

There was other academic material—equipment design principles, comparison photography, motor learning principles, the Nautilus Ten Requirements of Full-Range Exercise, cam design—not available to the other certifying agencies that I also considered. "Is it beneficial for an exercise instructor to know these academics?" I asked. Answer: "Certainly." "Are they directly required to competently instruct?" Answer: "No." These academics are withheld from the Level-I Certification and placed in the Level-II Certification.

So what do I consider important for the Level-I Certification? The following list of study topics is included in the confirmation letter to each registrant.

[We have experienced that the greatest impediment to most examinees is that they fail to take study of the scripts from the SuperSlow® Videos seriously. They then find themselves in grave trouble for the practical. It is impossible to overstate the importance of thorough study and rehearsal.]

Realizing the limitations of time for testing, the objectives of the test, and the quantity of material directly pertinent, the SuperSlow® Level-I Certification occurs as follows:

The examinee first submits the certification fee to the SuperSlow® Exercise Guild, Inc. Upon receipt, the Guild mails this registrant a confirmation letter. The Certification fee is presently $695.00. The registrant must also purchase and study, the book, SuperSlow®—The Ultimate Exercise Protocol as well as Volumes I & II of the SuperSlow® Video. With the letter is sent a copy of the checklist to be used by the examiner for the practical.

At this point, the examinee makes a choice to contact a local SuperSlow® Master Certified Instructor or to contact me in Florida. One of us must serve as examiner, and an appointment is made accordingly.

If the Florida option is taken, the examinee should arrive on the appointed Thursday afternoon to check out the location. In this way he is ready to take the written test at 8 a.m. the next day. With this three-hour test out of the way, his mind is now free to focus on the practical. He is encouraged to roam throughout my facility to familiarize with the equipment and to test himself against other examinees and assistants I might provide depending on the size of the test group.

Each written test is thereafter graded privately with the examiner. Some of the essays are discussed so that the examinee can defend his answers. If he described the sought material incorrectly due to a misunderstanding and can prove understanding, he is granted verbal credit. Any and all uncertain questions are discussed and explained, so that the test becomes an educational experience as well as a certification of competency. The minimum passing grade is 80%. If the written is failed, the practical is not permitted unless the written is retaken at a later date and passed. However, any second attempt at the written is graded harshly with no allowance for defense of essay answers.

Assuming the written is passed, the oral and practical occur on Saturday. After reciting the preliminary considerations, the examinee puts the examiner through 8-10 exercises. The examinee must demonstrate instruction of:

•proper setup and weight selection

•proper entry/loading

•proper execution

•recognition and correction of all common discrepancies

•proper unloading and exit

•proper breathing

•spinal alignment

•axial alignment

•specific knowledge of safety considerations

•the ability to cadence a 10-second positive contraction

It is not enough for the instructor to know how to properly perform an exercise. He must be able to describe it to his client. But proper description is not enough. He must be able to present it so that the client performs it properly. The instructor must make proper execution happen. Example: Suppose you want your client to enter and load into a Nautilus Multi-Exercise machine for the purpose of performing heel raises. You tell him, "Place your feet onto the middle of the first step." There are several ways to center the client's feet on that step. And he assumes that you intend centering his feet laterally and you assume that he will assume you intend to center them front-to-rear. Communication between you and your client failed, because you did not proactively control the situation. You failed to state your intentions to center the ball of his foot. You failed to tell him where the ball of his foot is located on his anatomy. You failed to show him the front and back sides of the step on which you intend to center. You failed to make it happen.

This feature of the practical is often very demanding on the examinee, because it is common for many exercise instructors to state utterly nonsensical, if not merely imprecise, instructions. They must mean what they say exactly and exactly say what they mean. This demanding element of the exam is what has prompted several examinees to remark that, ". . . the SuperSlow® Certification is as demanding as medical school oral exams." Some examinees who were already some of the best instructors in the country have remarked that, momentarily, after the practical they were not sure they knew anything anymore. Physicians taking their boards have often made similar comments. As I put one instructor through his practical, there were several instances when I thought he might hit me in anger. As he received his certificate, he remarked that it was the first time he had ever received a piece of paper in this industry that meant something.

With the Level-I Certification an instructor has demonstrated fundamental knowledge and skill to instruct exercise. The Level-I Exam, though extremely demanding, is not comprehensive, but passing performance does indicate that the instructor knows those required principles that he should be able to extend to most of the other exercises when needed.

The comprehensive material resides with the Level-II Certification.

If the examinee completes Level-I, scores a minimum of 90% on the written, and is recommended by his testing Master for further study, he is eligible to take the Level-II exam. To register, he must submit the certification fee to the Guild and arrange to spend nine days in Orlando, Florida, with me. The fee is presently $1,395. During this nine days he will take a second written test with all the aforementioned academic topics not included on Level-I. If he scores a passing grade (90%), he then performs a practical that includes an additional 75 exercises.

This practical, for the most part, is somewhat of a show-and-tell. However, there is one area that is as demanding as the Level-I practical: neck exercises. The neck part of the practical lasts 2-3 hours. Exercise for the neck is a tedious undertaking involving a delicate area of the body that the rest of the fitness industry avoids and should avoid, because they do not know what they are doing, and because what they practice and promote as exercise is going to maim and kill people if they apply their nonsense to the neck. The application of specialized neck information enables me to personally evaluate the examinee, not just related to neck exercise, but it also enables me to gain a perspective on the examinee's competence and get in sync with the Master who certified him Level-I. In addition, the examinee is expected to keep my hours and follow me as an intern with my clients throughout the week. Spending this time also permits me to get to know the examinee, to learn his personal values, and to appraise the possibility that we can cooperate to foster greater competence and quality among those who wish to accomplish the SuperSlow® approach.

Assuming that he completes the Level-II, and assuming that I trust him to properly represent the Guild and SuperSlow®, the examinee is given the option to be appointed a Master. As a Master he has the authority to administer Level-I Certifications. To maintain this status it is expected that he will attend the National Guild Convention each year. The appointment to Master involves no fee or test. It is an honorary position of trust and authority that can be removed by me or the appointee.

If you will briefly reflect on the process of academic credentialing, you may appreciate that our process is similar. Bachelor degree programs are meted out according to extreme structure and objective testing. The subject matter is old dogma. Master degree programs are somewhat less objective and include slightly more progressive approaches to a subject. The PhD program usually involves cutting-edge research and little or no objective grading of the student. His PhD is awarded or disapproved by a committee who reviews his work by their personal experiences with him. He gains approval often due to their perceptions of his reliability, his faithfulness, his punctuality, and his willingness and ability to assist them and to follow their instructions.

As of June 30, 2002, and since 1992, over 400 instructors have been awarded SuperSlow® Level-I Certifications. 33 have been awarded Level-II. There are 26 Masters. If you are interested in the only real certification program in the industry, contact the Guild at (407) 862-2552, send email or contact a Master in your locality. (See the Instructor Directory on our website at SuperSlow®.com.)

Nine examinees have failed the Level-I test. Three of these have successfully retaken the test.

No one has yet failed the Level-II test, but I have discouraged several so aspiring from taking it.

Both tests have undergone considerable revision and upgrading several times over the years. This has produced yet better informed instructors than in years past. This is an ongoing process of continual refinement.

Before the 1992 inception of the Guild I believed in the need to develop our certification program, although I harbored many doubts as to the possibility of making it work. I have already described my frustration with its structure to test what we actually want to certify. I also doubted whether anyone—assuming I devised a successfully structured test—would desire to take such a grueling exam.

I administered the first exam to a facility owner in September 1992. The practical included 16 exercises and lasted nearly all day. The test was very arduous for me as well as for him. I knew that it needed to be condensed. I also doubted that anyone else could be persuaded to administer the test. It would be very expensive to pay the examiner.

With further development, I certified seven instructors in a weekend at a facility in Philadelphia a month later. With this second-stage pilot development, it became financially feasible to conduct the certification.

This greater presence and respect is already effecting the desired outcome. One state has already approved the SuperSlow® Certification Program for academic accreditation. And this is the template for other states to follow. The most important point to remember; however, is the fact that we are the only ones with standards in a virtually standardless industry.