Human Movement and Applied Fitness

The Associate of Science Degree in Human Movement and Applied Exercise is designed to prepare students with the knowledge, skills, abilities, and credentials required to become an expert fitness professional in Personal Training, Group Fitness, and/or Strength and Conditioning. The program’s course work prepares students to successfully obtain an accredited primary training certification(s) and earn specialized secondary certifications relevant in today’s fitness hiring environments. Students will learn the theoretical and applied concepts of exercise science, human performance assessment and evaluation, and real-world practical experiences that have been carefully embedded in the curricula. Upon graduation students will be eligible for employment in commercial fitness, tactical fitness (military, fire, first responders), and corporate wellness facilities as a personal trainer, tactical strength and conditioning specialist, group fitness instructor, personal training manager, tactical strength and conditioning manager, group fitness manager and/or general manager.

Based on LMI Analysis provided by COE, over the next 5 years there will be 3,592 jobs projected to be available annually which is more than the three-year average of 197 awards conferred by the regional educational institutions (COE Labor Market Analyses, 2023). There is more than enough work available to justify this degree. 

The LMI data suggest that the livable wage is less than sufficient; however, the purpose of this AS is to better prepare students earn a greater starting hourly (closer to the projected $35.51/hour). Due to the curricula focusing on exercise science compared to the Kinesiology ADT, students will not only have a greater depth of knowledge than their ADT counterparts, but they will also have earned their AS which will make them superior job applicants over the Fitness Specialist CTE Certificate of Achievement award winners cited in the LMI data. Further,students graduating with the AS in Human Movement and Applied Fitness, will also be able to earn professionally coveted secondary certifications that have been embedded into the courses (i.e., Functional Movement Screen Level 1 &2, AHHPS Level 1, Certified Kettlebell Coach Level 1). 

Personal trainers (PT’s) and group fitness instructors (GFI’s) are relatively new careers in the history of the United States with them first becoming an employment opportunity in the 1980’s. Over the last 40 years the private fitness education industry has been the primary driver of employability. (Meyers, 2010) To become a PT/GFI, one must be at least 18 years old, hold a high school diploma/GED, be certified in cardiopulmonary resuscitation and automated external defibrillation and have passed one of several private industry proctored personal training certification examinations with a seventy percent or greater. With the academic discipline of kinesiology, there are two general pathways that kinesiology students may take: the allied health carecareer pathway which requires a graduate degree and passing one or more board licensing examinations (physical therapy, athletic training, occupational therapy, chiropractic) or the fitness pathway which primarily requires the minimum qualifications outlined above and the passing of a privately proctored training certification examination. Over the last 5-7 years the educational minimum requirements for the allied healthcare side of the discipline have progressed; athletic trainers moved from a bachelors degree to a masters degree in 2020, physical therapy moved from a masters degree to a Doctor of Physical Therapy in 2015, and occupational therapy standards are in the process of moving from masters to degree to doctorate. However, the entry level standards for personal trainers remains the same. The goal of Los Angeles City College’s department of kinesiology with the proposal of our Human Movement and Applied Fitness Associates of Science degree is to not only to best prepare our students for a rewarding career in fitness industry but also to simultaneously prepare our students with a well-rounded academic education in the liberal arts and sciences. Since fitness training is often considered a luxury or extra expense, many of the clientele that a fitness professional will be working with will have college degrees. And since fitness professionals “personalize” the fitness experience based on individual or group goals, a well-rounded academic education will be extremely important for the long-term success of a working fitness professional. 

Further,this degree will also better prepare a kinesiology student for future career advancement into fitness management as most of the commercial fitness and corporate wellness facilities require a degree for promotion into the various management opportunities, often being hired from within. The state’s ADT in Kinesiology does not properly prepare students with any exercise science education and is intended to prepare students with an agreed upon lower division transfer path for a bachelors degree. However, students who graduate with an ADT in Kinesiology are not ideally prepared to work in the field of kinesiology having taken no true exercise science courses. You will later seethe proposed course structure that will better prepare students in the field of exercise science. With all the courses being articulated with the CSU, students graduating with this AS will be better positioned to move into an exercise science bachelors degree program if they so desire. 

Finally,this degree will pair LACC’s current Fitness Specialist Career Technical Education program (with more course work focusing on applied exercise science)along with the LACCD GE degree. This will allow students the opportunity to finish their degree, while also achieving their Human Movement and Applied Fitness diploma. Further the unique nature of our Fitness Specialist Program at LACC (unique to the entire state) best prepares our students to be working fitness professionals because of the inclusion of courses that provide“secondary certifications” as part of the course work. Students leaving our program earn up to four specialized industry recognized certifications including: Functional Movement Screen Certified - Level 1, Functional Movement Screen Certified - Level 2, Applied Health, and Human Performance Specialist –Level 1, and Kettlebell Level 1 Coach. These secondary certifications are baked into the Kin Maj courses as the book cost which is students at a significant discount (ranging from 60-85% off the regular fitness professional cost). Students graduating from our program with a degree AND these certifications will be better positioned than many of their bachelor’s degree competitors because fitness facilities expect trainers to have more than just their basic personal training or group fitness certification. Not only can our students be hired more easily, but they can be hired at a higher pay rate. 

Students are required to take 19.5 units of Core courses.

Students are also required to take either Kin Maj 114--Techniques of Instruction: Group Fitness, Kin Maj 117--Personal Trainer Certificate Prep, or Kin Maj 225--Introduction to Strength and Conditioning.

Students are also required to take either Health 002--Fitness & Wellness, Health 008 Woman's Personal Health, Health 011--Principles of Healthful Living, Health 43--Men's Health and Fitness, or Health 101--Introduction to Public Health.

Students are also required to take either Health 46--Basic Life Support CPR/AED for the Healthcare Provider or Health 055--Adult & Pediatric First Aid, CPR, & AED Skills.

Students are also required to take either Kin Maj 118--Sports Nutrition, Kin Maj 125--Introduction to Physical Therapy Aid, Kin Maj 128--Care and Prevention of Athletic Injuries, Kin Maj 150--Senior Fitness Assessment, Strength & Conditioning Programming, Kin Maj 175--Kettlebell Fundamentals, Kin Maj 201--Health & Fitness Center Management, or Kin Maj 201--Applied Health & Human Performance Specialist.

Currently LACC offers a Fitness Specialist/Personal Trainer/Group Fitness Instructor Certificate of Achievement Program. The AS in Human Movement and Applied Fitness will expand upon that certificate by providing a more robust exercise science curricula and the GE portion allowing for a more well-rounded and academically sound fitness professional. This COA essentially becomes a feeder program for this proposed degree as students who start on the COA path will have already completed 18 of its 22 units.

Currently there are no other colleges offering programs like the proposed Associate Degree in Human Movement and Applied Fitness. This will be a first for LACC’s service region.

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