European Register of Exercise Professionals

Hundreds of exercise professionals take part in survey on anti-doping

During the summer the largest survey ever to take place on doping practices in fitness in Europe took place and this included 1,750 exercise professionals. The European Commission is concerned about the harm being done to the health of fitness centre customers who regularly take doping substances. The survey covered banned substances such as anabolic steroids, recreational drugs such as ecstasy and amphetamines, and the use of food supplements such as protein powders.

The identity of exercise professionals who took part in the survey was kept confidential but the role and experiences that exercise professionals have at the “front line” will provide an invaluable insight into what is actually happening. Customers of fitness centres and managers were also surveyed.

The EU Commission is part funding the research into anti-doping and a new strategy. The results and findings will be presented at the Brussels Summit on Tuesday 8th November with the evidence providing the future of targeted interventions to further the fight against doping. More details of the Brussels Summit are available at www.ehfa-events.eu 

Qualifications for European exercise professionals to be published

The European Health and Fitness Association develop the standards used by training companies to deliver qualifications for exercise professionals. These standards are developed with wide cooperation from many technical experts and are constantly being updated and reviewed.

They are rapidly becoming the standards used around the world for referencing and now they are going to be published in a series of books by Human Kinetics – the world’s biggest publisher in the area of technical books in fitness. This will mean that existing and new exercise professionals can access the very latest standards. The first books will be on personal training, fitness instructing and group fitness and are being written by over 50 different expert contributors from across Europe who will ensure these are the best publications available. The books will be ready in late 2012.

Full details will be sent to all EREPS members when they are available.