ACSM's Health & Fitness Certification Review [Illustrated] [Paperback]

Jeffrey L. Roitman (Editor), Khalid W. Bibi (Editor), American College of Sports Medicine (Corporate Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0683300911 | ISBN-13: 978-0683300918 | Publication Date: January 15, 2001 | Edition: illustrated edition

ACSM's Health & Fitness Certification Review is a review manual for candidates seeking ACSM's certification in the Health & Fitness Track. The book deals with health related fitness goals for those seeking to pass the ACSM certification. Features include: outline format review for each chapter followed by certification-type review questions; content based on the KSAs (Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities) for Exercise Leader and Health Fitness Instructor Certification found in the ACSM Guidelines ; ACSM icon system for quick reference to pages that apply to specific tracks of study; and comprehensive practice exam at the end of the book

Product Details

• Paperback: 223 pages
• Publisher: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; illustrated edition edition (January 15, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0683300911
• ISBN-13: 978-0683300918
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #854,625 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Must buy, very good study guide, May 27, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: ACSM's Health & Fitness Certification Review (Paperback)

This book was quite helpful for the certification test. It prepared me well for physiology and anatomy. The questions helped me to freshen up on the ones I didn't know. The book was also well-written, easy to comprehend and a must buy to anyone needing to become certified. I also used the following which I found to help me also on the anatomy and physiology portions of the test.
Anatomy and Physiology Study Guide: Key Review Questions and Answers with Explanations by Patrick Leonardi Volume 1 (isbn: 0971999619)
Volume 2 (isbn: 0971999627)
Spinal Anatomy Study Guide: Key Review Questions and Answers
isbn: 0971999600

These four study guides helped me to pass the national certification with ease. I highly recommend these books.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent review for HFI exam - written portion only., April 30, 2005

By 

Groovy Vegan (USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)   

This review is from: ACSM's Health & Fitness Certification Review (Paperback)

ACSM's Health & Fitness Certification Review is a mostly excellent preparation for the written portion of the ACSM HFI (Health/Fitness Instructor) exam. I'm also finding it a valuable for portions of the NSCA-PT certification exam (National Strength and Conditioning Association personal trainer), which has a great deal of overlap in material.

Chapters 1 - 10 contain a generally excellent "Cliff's notes" type outline of the highlights of their 10 KSA topics found on the written exam: (1) Anatomy and Biomechanics, (2) Exercise Physiology, (3) Human Development and Aging, (4) Pathophysiology/Risk Factors, (5) Human Behavior and Psychology, (6) Health Appraisal and Fitness Testing, (7) Safety, Injury Prevention, and Emergency Care, (8) Exercise Programming, (9) Nutrition and Weight Management, (10) Program Administration/Management. Each chapter was written by one or two experts in that area. The chapters on anatomy, physiology, and pathology (1, 2, and 4) contain helpful, skillfully done, black and white illustrations. For the most part, I'm impressed with the quality of these outlines: thorough and easy to understand. Chapter 10, however on Program Administration/Management is very bare-bones and could stand a little more detail. At the end of the book is a list of sources of more information on each chapter.

Following each outline is a multiple choice quiz, typically 25 questions with four choices. To inventory my knowledge and areas that needed more study, I took all the review quizzes before reading the outlines. Having taught college, I was impressed with the questions: they were straightforward, usually with plausible distractor choices. There are about a dozen errors in quizzes, and a few in the outlines, so be sure to go to the certification section of ACSM's website to obtain their corrections.

Although overall, I find this study guide impressive and helpful, here's why I've deducted a star:

* Although the book bills itself as a certification review, it does not state on the front cover or anywhere else that this review is for the written portion of the HFI exam only. But as HFI candidates know, this exam has a practical lab portion where candidates have to take skinfolds, conduct a bicycle ergometer exercise test, and demonstrate exercise techniques. This book is of very little use for the lab portion. For example, the outline on skinfold measurement says "(1) Locate the sites to be measured. (2) Measure the skinfold thickness. (3) Use the measurements of skinfold thickness in the appropriate equation to predict body composition." The bicycle ergometer test is barely mentioned. For detailed information on these tests, I highly recommend ACSM's Health-Related Physical Fitness Assessment Manual.

* I found chapter 11 on Metabolic Calculations to be extremely confusing. For me, the only value of the chapter was in the discussion of what to expect on the exam: from 6 to 10 met calc questions and which formulas are provided, and the 23-question review exam. The technique on how to perform met calcs was virtually useless to me. It left out the system of multiplying by conversion factors with the units left on until you can cancel them out. That system is well explained in the book, "Practical Math for Health Professionals" by Dennis K. Flood, which I highly recommend for learning met calcs. Without the checks and balances of the proper use of conversion factors, doing problems involves much more memorization, greater difficulty, and there are many more places for errors.

* Although I didn't deduct a star for this, as of April 2005, the food pyramid data presented in the Nutrition and Weight Management chapter is now out of date.

Overall, I highly recommend ACSM's Health & Fitness Certification Review to HFI candidates. Just be sure to get the corrections off ACSM's website, and if you want excellent resources on the lab portion and metabolic calculations, to supplement with additional resources. ACSM does not intend for this book to be a primary study resource. Best of luck on the HFI exam! :-)

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Concise Guide for Preparing for HFI Certification, March 25, 2002

By 

HFI (Tallahassee, FL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: ACSM's Health & Fitness Certification Review (Paperback)

The text provides a wealth of information that helps the candidate focus on the concepts necessary to pass the written portion of the HFI certification exam. The chapters were brief, but to the point, and ended in an important test over the covered material.