online degree programs in pyschology counseling | Perdue’s personal fitness degree
Here’s an interesting major: personal fitness training.
Don’t think there’s a college that offers that as a major? Oh you’d be mistaken 
Ken Baldwin, has helped create Purdue University’s four-year undergraduate personal fitness trainer degree, which he thinks is the first of its kind in the nation. The year-old program is built on Purdue’s health and fitness major, and is focused on exercise physiology, basic health studies, fitness evaluation and program management, psychology and nutrition.
Ken saw people become disillusioned or injured by working with unqualified trainers, so he decided to change that.
Right now the problem is that just about anyone can become a certified trainer. That’s because there are no national educational standards for the field.
And lots of Web sites give out personal trainer certification after just a few hours of online training — and a few hundred dollars.
Sound alot like diploma mills to me.
But the market for personal trainers is growing. Just think about the nation’s aging, overweight population and you can easly see the demand for personal trainers skilled at pulling the out-of-shape of all ages to get fit.
The question is how to create the best workout for a 65-year-old man with heart disease or an obese woman in her 50s with diabetes.
Another reason Perdue has started their program. They’ve enrolled 30 students so far and they will learn the nuances of toning muscle groups and proper exercise movements, and get hands-on experience with cardiac rehabilitation patients and people in physical therapy after injuries or surgery.
Students also work with seniors and children in fitness settings and take business and management courses so they can manage fitness clubs.
So is there an online option for this major? That’s my next post