Continuing Education for CSCS

Never stop learning is one of the more important concepts to grasp when looking at your career or job.  To be able to grasp that what you learned a few years ago, won't be good enough, in a few years, will keep you from getting in a rut.  Lately, it seems every concept or product, has a learning or certification that goes along with it.  What to do?

Continuing education is a slippery slope.  There are certain credentials that have meaning, for instance your professional licence.  There are others that may or may not mean anything to you or the population that you work with.   I had debated whether to get recredentialed in my CSCS certification for awhile.  Lately, many strength coaches have been letting that cert slide away.  In the end I decided to recert for the following two year cycle.

I think the reasoning was because I still enjoy going to strength coaching clinics, that I may or may not commit to doing without it.  There are some discrepancies that show up with recertification that I find a bit off putting.  For instance, buying a seminar in Boston, flight out to Boston, hotel in Boston, sitting and learning for a whole weekend is the same as buying a 2 twenty minute quizzes online.

In the end, a certification, doesn't really mean a whole lot.  But, it can be a clue that whoever holds it, may indeed have some interest on the subject and has taken a few extra steps in time and money to pursue it.