What’s New in the ACSM’s 8th Guidelines for Exercise Testing and Prescription?

ACSM’s publishing partner, Lippincott Williams and Wilkins, has just released the newest edition of these Guidelines (a.k.a. GETP8). Walt Thompson, Ph.D., FACSM, Regents Professor from Georgia State University served as Senior Editor, working with a team of outstanding associate editors (Linda Pescatello, Ph.D., FACSM and Neil Gordon, M.D., FACSM) and expert contributors. Thompson has a distinguished history of leadership with ACSM, a significant part being devoted to advancing ACSM’s exercise practice guidelines and related education and certification programs. In addition, he has helped expand the influence of ACSM Guidelines by advocating their translation in other major venues, such as CoAES and CAAHEP. These two entities promulgate accreditation standards for academic programs that impact health-fitness and exercise science curricula.

The SMB editorial staff recently discussed GETP8 with Thompson, so that we could share some of his perspective on important updates since the time GETP7 was published in 2006. In all, Thompson and authors highlighted more than 17 changes that he believes reflect not only translation updates from the latest science, but also advances that demonstrate great consistency with current scientific and clinical pronouncements and position statements of ACSM and other important public health and science societies. Beyond these changes, there are clear updates in organization and treatment of certain complex topics that will clarify intent and lead to easier application in both teaching and professional practice.

Here are just a few specific examples: 1) In Chapter 2, the Screening Algorithm of GETP7 has been replaced with two “easy-to-understand and apply” decision trees for pre-participation screening and risk stratification; 2) In Chapter 5, material on “indications” for exercise echocardiography have been added in tabular form that cover exercise nuclear imaging, dobutamine echocardiography, and pharmacologic nuclear stress testing; 3) In Chapter 8, the text on exercise prescription for apparently healthy populations is written to be fully consistent with the 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans (US DHHS).

For further information on what’s new in GETP8, attend the Colloquium on this topic at the ACSM Annual Meeting in Seattle on Friday, May 29, 2009 at 9:10 a.m. The major changes in GETP8 will also be discussed in an article scheduled to appear in the July/Aug 2009 issue of ACSM’s Health & Fitness Journal®. The article, “A Preview of ACSM’s Guidelines for Exercise Testing and Prescription,” is authored by Linda Pescatello, FACSM, Walt Thompson, FACSM, and Neil Gordon, FACSM.

ACSM is recognized, nationally and worldwide, for defining a scientifically-based framework for those who conduct exercise evaluations, individual physical activity plans, and health-related exercise programs for adults.