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Is exercise physiology a profession like law, theology, and medicine? No, but that doesn't mean that exercise physiology is not on the road to becoming a profession. The problem is that far too long the field has been defined by academic exercise physiologists. While they understand the college environment, there is a lot they don't know when it comes to surviving in the world off-campus. The graduates from their programs have been struggling for some time with the job market and what it pays. There are simply too few good jobs for the number of graduates who must move into the work force each year. Unfortunately, they lack the professional identity to achieve professional status and yet they don't understand why they aren't considered professionals without realizing that their professors probably said no more than 10 words on the subject.

The fact that the public doesn't understand what an exercise physiologist does is not the fault of the graduate looking for a job! The problem lies with the professors who have simply failed to go beyond the walls of the college to witness the real world with a BS or MS degree in exercise physiology (science). In time, the college graduates either find a job outside of the field or goes back to college. In college, again, they either get yet another degree in exercise physiology thinking it will help them to accomplish what they could not do before or switch to another academic major. Either way, the college professors are the winner because classes continue to be filled with students. They get paid, tenured, and life goes on. If the master's degree doesn't work in getting a job in the field, there is always the PhD degree!

The events just described (however brief) have contributed to the lack of professionalization of exercise physiology in the United States. Academic exercise physiologists have been reluctant to look beyond the walls of the college where their students must find jobs. Instead, they teach their classes, do research, talk about writing a book, and plan their professional development through scheduled meetings, committee work, and the like. During the mean time, in the real world, exercise physiology graduates aren't happy. They have begun to realize that their college courses did not prepare them for the reality that is different from their earlier assumptions and information about the field. In short, they realize somewhat after the fact that exercise physiology is in the process of being professionalized. It is not a profession but instead a marginal profession. There is the potential and the obligation to provide a service to the public, but the public has little to no knowledge what exercise physiologists do. The challenge before academic exercise physiologists is to change the present way of thinking and image of exercise physiology. Apart from society, the term "profession" has little meaning. If society is to recognize what exercise physiologists do, then the academic setting must be reconfigured to help the student and society realize how they need each other.

On way to understand what is needed to change is to look at what professors do. Academic exercise physiologists do not engage in the type of work that generally goes on in fitness centers, business related health facilities, and clinics. Instead, they are academic guides, researchers, and mentors.

Teachers are guides. They help students learn how to think and share in the critical analyis of important information in texts and research findings. Students learn a common sense of purpose and vision about how exercise physiology concepts and ideas can help the sedentary subject or athlete get stronger and/or run faster. But, more importantly, they learn leadership skills to get people to work and take care of themselves. They learn the importance of motivating individuals and groups who also can advocate their visions and ideas.

Teachers are researchers. They teach students how to do good research, and the importance of rejecting poor research. They understand the value of hands-on experiences and laboratory examples of text information.

Teachers are mentors. They realize that success requires knowing and acting on the right skills for the times. They share with their students the traits and behaviors that make special circumstances happen. Their students are prepared for whatever they will be called on to do, using appropriate skills to motivate, meet specific needs, or to resolve differences.

Students learn these skills from their college teachers. Of course they also learn a lot of book information about intensity of exercise training, guidelines for stress testing, oxygen consumption, and so forth. Equally, if not more important, students have to learn how to make it after graduation without making too many professional mistakes. If you look closely at the most successful students, you will find that many if not most of their professors played a major part in one way or another. Thus, quite obviously, exercise physiologists who are college professors play a major role in the development of contemporary exercise physiology.

Students need teachers, but the idea that college teachers can just teach and not get involved with the graduates' reality after college is increasingly troublesome. It suggests images of "What was I doing wrong?" Naturally no one wants to listen to someone saying that "Too many of your students are graduating without an idea of reality aside of the classroom." But, unfortunately, many college teachers have been and still are part of the problem. They lack a sense of direction and community with their students aside from lecturing and giving grades. They lack a professional relationship with and support of their students after graduation. Herein lies part of the problem, that is, students can't be abandoned at graduation. The authentic college professor must consider the interests of society and reaffirm through academic offerings as well as practical experiences the challenges graduates will face.

More specifically, the college professor might consider talking with individuals who comprise the potential job market in a given community and clarify what they need in an employee. They might brainstorm ideas for new jobs in- and outside of the typical exercise physiology market (e.g., businesses with fitness clubs, shoes stores with a physical evaluation component, cardiology suites, nutritionists and weight control, stress management, and so forth). More discussion with business owners might improve the image of the field as well as create new contacts and employment opportunities. Ultimately, college teaching is about taking a personal interest in the product, the student, and his/her likelihood of success. It is getting beyond the notion that students are in college to make the professors' day. It is instead helping students grow professionally even should it be at the professor's expense of doing research.

This global age has very real consequences for college graduates who are not emotionally prepared. For one thing, it has expanded the opportunity with which hundreds of people may apply for the same job. Similarly, jobs have become diverse, complicated, and ever-changing. In many respects, while the academic exercise physiology concepts and ideas are of generally high quality, there hasn't been a comparable balance and strengthening in the basic necessities of the job market. This condition has resulted in conflict between the graduate and the academic institution. To see this connection, all one has to do is look to those who are challenged to find a job that will pay the bills including the college loans.

Academic departments and the faculty enjoy a higher standard of freedom than most members of the community might imagine. Exercise physiologists, in particular, have relatively no restrainsts on course offerings and discussion of personalized issues. In some sense, it is an enormous iceberg well beneath the water. Only the tip is evident to those who might ask questions. For example, "Why are the students required to take cardiac rehabilitation or sports nutrition and not some other course? Likewise, the question might be raised, "Why is exercise biochemistry an important course for exercise physiologists? Are there exercise physiology research laboratories that hire exercise physiologists?

Because of the student's dependence on the exercise physiology faculty for guidance and academic development, it is even more important that they understand that the student is in college to get a job that pays living wages. Although the student may like the professors and enjoy their company, both are beside the point. Financial security, respect, and connectedness are more important issues at graduation. Seeing the big picture is, therefore, being able to look at things from the students' viewpoint and their shared reality with the world. This point will become increasingly clear to all professors in the 21st century. At the same time, it doesn't mean that college professors will have to refrigerate all of their interests on behalf of students. But limiting their interests and putting the students' interests first will result in less conflicts and differences and more shared professionalism.

In a nutshell, thinking beyond the classroom is in essence a way of accepting responsibility for the college curriculum in exercise physiology. It means balancing course offerings to match possibilities not impossibilities. It means dealing with real world issues from the students' view. Will it really make a difference in the student's life after college if such and such course is not part of the curriculum?

Despite the lack of connectedness of the exercise physiology departments in the United States, time is right to act on this problem by working together. The solution requires a participatory commitment that empowers the exercise physiology faculty to act.

They need to see themselves as stewards of the exercise physiology profession.

They need to understand the complex issues college students are faced with.

What kind of job will I be prepared for?

Will I get a job?

How much technicial knowledge do I need?

Is certification, licensure, and accreditation necessary?

What will my boss think if I don't have business or management courses?

How much biochemistry do I really need?

What percent of the students are hired in fitness, clinical, athletics, community colleges, hospitals, universities and so forth?

How many graduates stay in the field?

What if exercise and fitness are just fads?

How will new medical thinking and interventions (such as new drugs) replace prevention or change society's attitudes toward exercise?

These questions reflect the uncertainty about the future. What is really uncomfortable is that there seems to be no one person or organization other than the American Society of Exercise Physiologists (ASEP) asking these questions. The risk that exercise physiologists will continue to make bad decisions is clearly linked to the uncertainty about the future. It seems that recycling of the old and tried is keeping the profession on the wrong track. Like new technology replacing old, useful machines, exercise physiologists must avoid the pitfalls of the present by accepting responsibility of leading their students into the 21st century.

Twenty (or even 10) years from now, our academic programs cannot be as they are today. Our students need more certainty and control in their days after college. One way to realize change in the curriculum is by updating the course offerings. Creativity is good, but course consistency and relevancy are better. Why? Because there are too many programs requiring "whatever" to "specialize" or "major" in exercise science (physiology). Regardless of the fact there is no magic cure for getting rid of the 60+ department names that associate with exercise science (physiology), an effort should be made to mainstream the academic major without alienating everyone else. In short, those who believe that it is possible to create change look to images of a future toward which professionalism is discussed equally as often as creatine, strength building, running faster, or aerobics.

Those who look to the future with a carefully crafted vision, such as ASEP has stated, believe that it is the sum of what a group's response should be. For certain, it is the sum of what ASEP is about. It gives ASEP members a reason for belonging. It was born from a sense that something is missing. In particular, in the middle of major sports medicine gatherings, what was missing in the past (and still is in the present) is the shared and respected work done by exercise physiologists. Gradually, through dialogue with other exercise physiologists, the ASEP vision emerged that symbolized the seeds of many -- unification and professionalization. Interestingly, no one person or group in the history of exercise physiology from the Harvard Fatigue Laboratory to the contemporary diversity in academic settings has ever reached out to other exercise physiologists like ASEP members are doing. The vision is exciting, relevant, and binding for every exercise physiologist who has dreamed of a different future. It is also achievable and challenging.

The ASEP vision has provided the impetus to develop ASEP goals, which are in effect a plan or path to achieve the ASEP vision. The goals have identified different aspects and implications of the vision. They are doable and agreed upon by all members of the Society. They are are clear, specific, and under the control of the members of the Society. They also encourage the question, "What must be done by ASEP members to realize the vision?" The members input is absolutely imperative to the success of ASEP, especially with such issues as certification, licensure, and accreditation. ASEP members participate in the Society, in part, simply because of the satisfaction received from being part of an organization that is working towards empowering exercise physiologists. The fellowship, identity, and support are important to their shared success in changing the face of the profession by encouraging exercise physiologists to think beyond the classroom.