PFIT In The News

By Allison Stephan

Photography by Randy Brown

Dahelia and Wayne Hunt, co-founders of Houston-based Professional Fitness Instructor Training, admit that PFIT began life as a work in progress. While the name PFIT has only been around since 1994, the concept has evolved over several years.

“This whole thing was molded through a series of other classes that we’d done over the years,” said Dahelia Hunt. “It has also been shaped by the way the industry has changed in the last 30 years.”

Dahelia started her career teaching dance lessons in Hawaii. Shortly thereafter, the YWCA needed a substitute teacher for an aqua dance class and Dahelia accepted the challenge. “I didn’t know exactly what it was when I accepted, but it worked out,” Dahelia laughs. “Before I knew it, the aqua dance turned into jazz dance, which turned into ‘dancercise.’”

Dahelia soon found herself teaching dance/aerobics in South America, making aerobics the natural place to start when she again landed on American soil. This time, she called it “Daheliaerobics” and the idea caught on. Meanwhile, the International Dance Exercise Association was founded, with Dahelia becoming the first person in the U.S. to be gold certified–a prestigious distinction reserved for industry pioneers who took and passed the test in its earliest form.

Responding to the public outcry for an instructor preparation course, Dahelia put together her first instructor training manual and course curriculum that helped many instructors get through the doors of fitness facilities to teach group exercise.

Dahelia developed PFIT (pfit.org) in the early ‘90s. “It really took off in 1991 when we went into Women’s Hospital and brought doctors on board,” said Dahelia. “Wayne and I always knew that you need common sense and that you have to surround yourself with industry giants. You also have to be willing to share with others out of passion.”

They sought out the help of Dr. Ross Querry, associate professor at UT Southwestern and Dr. James Giordano, founder of the American College of Integrative Medicine, who serves as their executive director.

The structure of PFIT is streamlined, yet effective, with Wayne and Dahelia on the frontlines. They developed the program, compiled the curriculum and still teach. They also ask physicians, who serve as experts in various fields, to teach and fill in the blanks where their expertise does not extend. In addition, those professionals keep the program updated with the latest findings in medical research.

Throughout their travels and teaching, the one thing that has remained constant is their dedication to education. While PFIT is well known as a certification body, its main focus has always been education. “PFIT’s purpose is fitness education,” said Wayne Hunt. “Many come for certification, but many come for exercise knowledge–to learn about themselves and not necessarily for certification. We have people all the time that want to educate themselves so they’ll know if they’re about to hire a bad personal trainer.”

PFIT offers several different education and certification courses, including ones for personal trainers, group exercise instructors, rehabilitative exercise specialists and exercise and sports nutrition specialists. Most courses meet once a week for seven weeks and have a two-day review before written and practical tests. In addition, all students receive adult CPR and first aid instruction. “Classes are intense, but they are also lots of fun,” Wayne says. “We try to keep students involved through our passion for the materials.”

While many certifications pepper the market, few of them still offer real world, practical testing as PFIT does. However, in order for a certification to be considered “legitimate” by many gyms, it has to be approved by a certification body such as the National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA), which focuses primarily on written test evaluation. PFIT, with its emphasis on education and hands-on testing, is not a member of NCCA.

“It’s kind of interesting,” Wayne laughingly remarked. “What these certifying bodies designate is that basically what you say you teach is what you, in fact, teach. However, the downside is that the NCCA-certified programs are only written tests. So what they’re saying is that they can test verbal communication abilities and not hands-on abilities. It’s like thinking that just because someone comes out of college with a degree, that they will be a good trainer. That’s not always the case.”

While PFIT is not a part of NCCA, it is the program that prospective trainers who are taking NCCA tests, such as the American Council on Exercise (ACE) exam, utilize to learn the material and prepare to take those written exams. In addition, after completing PFIT, you qualify to sit for the National Board of Fitness Examiners test.

“At PFIT, we want to make sure that our students not only know and understand the material,” Wayne says, “but that they can take that material into a gym setting and safely use it.”

Allison Stephan is a cyclist, Spinning instructor and frequent H&FSM contributing editor.