Acsm's Guidelines for Exercise Testing and Prescription

This book is the primary resource for ACSM certification. The newest edition is much more user friendly than previous editions and has some important changes in guidelines and protocols. I was studying for ACSM HFS cert for about 3 months with the previous edition but was informed at a ACSM workshop that I would need to purchase this edition because of the changes in the info. I got this resource only several weeks before sitting for my certification. I PASSED!! I felt well prepared and scored well.

This book appears to be a pretty darn good resource for fitness prescription and testing. I have read much of it and it is pretty well written and quite clinical. So if that's what you need, then this book is it. However, I was intending to get books to study for the ACSM Personal Trainer certification. This is NOT the book for that. Now granted, they recommend this book on their website, and it may be helpful, but the intended primary study source is the ACSM's resources for the personal trainer...book. So if that's what you are trying to do (like i was) then get that book, not this one. If you want a bunch of cool knowledge about exercise prescription, then this is the book for you.

Has all the knowledge you need to evaluate, test, and retest your client, patient, or subject. If you don't have this book (or a previous version of it) and are not following the procedures in this handbook...you're not helping your client as well as you can.

This book is a must have for all exercise professionals. All of the guidelines for exercise in healthy populations as well as with certain diseases are discussed in this book.

This book by the American College of Sports Medicine is an invaluable resourse for anyone in the field of Exercise Physioloy or other related fitness fields. I use it on a regular basis as a quick reference guide for fitness testing and evaluation. This also a necessary book for anyone taking one of the ACSM certification tests. I highly recommend this book.