Matthew Muscat-Inglott

Professionals in the local fitness sector will often refer to themselves as, “ qualified/certified instructors”, or, “ registered trainers”. These terms are typically used by service-providers with intent to foster confidence among prospective clients, in their general preparedness or competence as professionals. Referring to oneself in such a way, however, begs the question; qualified and/or registered by whom ? This post explores regulation and accreditation of fitness professionals in Malta, specifically those with scopes of practice pegged to the European Qualifications Framework (EQF) at levels three to four, namely, fitness/gym instructors, and personal trainers. Fitness professionals have an ethical obligation to refer to themselves in a way that accurately reflects their expertise and scope of practice, without intentionally misleading prospective clients. So in this sense, terms like qualified , certified , accred i ted , registered , and licensed , warrant some furth...

Primarily, the main function of Exercise for Health (EH) professionals is to plan and supervise exercise prescriptions, where circumstances are complex, possibly unpredictable, and involve an element of risk beyond the reasonable purview of exercise professionals who essentially operate within the parameters of European Qualifications Framework (EQF) general descriptors at level four or lower. In the case of referral by general medical practitioners, the scope of EH professionals essentially exemplifies the notion of exercise [as] medicine (as espoused by the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) - see http://www.exerciseismedicine.org/ ). EH professionals are expected to demonstrate the critical thinking skills characteristic of higher education, to recognise misinformation and pseudo-scientific approaches and products, as well as plan and evaluate courses of action informed by evidence-based guidelines and peer-reviewed literature. They are expected to have a multifacete...

This post aims to shed some light on the relatively new role of Exercise for Health professionals (AKA "EH s pecialists ", as defined by EREPS), in the context of risk stratification and referral in the Maltese fitness sector. For sake of disambiguation, the terms EH professional and EH specialist are interchangeable, however the former is used throughout this post to avoid connotation or confusion with respect to medical specialists. Below is a JPEG version of a document distributed as a resource among students enrolled in the Health and Fitness Assessment  module, which forms part of the Level 5/6 Exercise for Health (EH) courses at the Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology (MCAST) for aspiring EH professionals. The document is organised according to client groups by risk, pegged to associated strategies and relevant competent professionals. The first four columns are of international scope, based on the sources referenced in the document itself, specifi...