- What "EIM Training" Actually Means
- How the ACSM Online Course Is Built
- The Five Modules, Explained
- Quizzes, Passing Scores and Course Access
- Training Versus Credential: Two Separate Hurdles
- Practice Scenarios: Thinking Like an EIM Professional
- Sequencing Your 365 Days
- EIM Course Versus ACSM-EP: Different Pathways
- Frequently Asked Questions
- EIM training is ACSM's asynchronous online course: USD195 for ACSM members, USD379 for nonmembers, with 365 days of access.
- Five modules cover health care basics, common conditions, older adults, special settings and the coach approach to behavior change.
- The credential requires at least 80% on every online exam, not an overall average.
- The course earns 15 CECs, but the credential also requires a bachelor's degree and a qualifying fitness certification.
What "EIM Training" Actually Means
Search for "EIM training" and you will find a tangle of old and new material. For this site, the term refers to one thing: the training pathway behind the Exercise is Medicine Certification, administered by the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM). Today ACSM offers it as the ACSM Exercise is Medicine Credential, an educational specialty program rather than a base fitness certification.
That distinction shapes everything about how you prepare. The original certification dates to 2012. ACSM redesigned it in 2021 as a specialty credential built around an educational certificate, and a refreshed asynchronous course followed in June 2022. So "training" here is not a weekend workshop or a proctored bootcamp. It is a self-paced online course you work through on your own schedule, with quizzes that determine whether you move forward.
If you are still orienting yourself, our explainers on what EIM certification is and what EIM stands for cover the naming basics. This article focuses on the training itself: what you will study, how it is delivered and how to move through it efficiently.
How the ACSM Online Course Is Built
The course is hosted through ACSM Online Learning on the Path LMS platform. Its public catalog entry is the Exercise is Medicine (EIM) Online Course. Here is what the published information establishes:
- Cost: USD195 for ACSM members and USD379 for nonmembers. A separate credential-application fee or standalone exam fee was not verified, so confirm current pricing with ACSM before purchasing. Our EIM certification cost breakdown walks through the budget side.
- Access window: 365 days from purchase to access and complete the course. This is a completion window, not an exam timer and not a credential validity period.
- Credit: 15 CECs on completion. That is educational credit, not a statement about renewal requirements.
- Prerequisites for the course: None. Anyone can enroll. Credential eligibility is a separate matter, covered below.
- Format: Asynchronous, with lessons followed by assessment quizzes.
ACSM's earlier public description organized the course into 17 sections across five modules, and the public catalog metadata has referenced 42 course items in total. The publicly indexed quiz list is incomplete as an inventory, so treat any item count as approximate rather than exhaustive. Paid lessons and assessment questions are behind the enrollment wall, which means nobody outside the course can describe individual questions with authority. Be skeptical of any site that claims to reproduce them.
The Five Modules, Explained
The curriculum is organized into five modules. ACSM presents them as preparation topics, not as a weighted exam blueprint, so no official percentage weights exist to tell you which module matters most. The published wording and order are below, along with the nested topics ACSM lists. For a deeper treatment of how these areas relate, see our guide to all five EIM content areas.
Domain 1: Health Care Basics
This module is the foundation for working alongside clinicians. It is about the health care environment you will operate in, not exercise programming.
- Models of care and Exercise is Medicine as a framework
- Terminology, documentation and communication with health care providers
- Privacy and HIPAA, and professional scope of practice
- Referral pathways between clinical settings and community programs
The Health Care Basics quiz is one of the larger ones, with 25 published questions. Expect to be tested on the difference between what you may do and what belongs to a licensed clinician. Scope of practice is a theme that recurs across every other module.
Domain 2: Exercise Prescription for Common Medical Conditions
The largest module by number of published quizzes. ACSM's curriculum names these conditions:
- Hypertension and dyslipidemia (separate quizzes, 6 and 10 questions)
- Obesity, metabolic syndrome and NAFLD (18, 9 and 7 questions)
- Pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes (26 questions, the biggest single quiz)
- Osteoarthritis and low back pain (16 and 11 questions)
- Introduction to cancer (9 questions)
Prediabetes and type 2 diabetes carries the heaviest published quiz, so give it proportionally more attention. Learning objectives also point to medication effects and referral decisions, meaning you should understand how common medications influence exercise responses and when a client's situation calls for sending them back to their provider rather than pressing ahead.
Domain 3: Exercise Prescription for Older Adults
A focused module with a 15-question quiz. ACSM publishes no nested subheadings for it, so avoid trusting any resource that claims a detailed official outline. Review the 2018 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, which ACSM cites in the course description, and be ready to adapt programming to age-related considerations.
Domain 4: Exercise Prescription in Special Settings
This module moves from individual conditions to program delivery.
- Facilitating small group medical fitness programs (13 published questions)
- Virtual training and technology (13 published questions)
Candidates who come from one-on-one personal training often underestimate this module. Running a small group for people with medical conditions raises different safety, communication and documentation issues than a solo session, and the technology content addresses how remote delivery changes them.
Domain 5: Facilitating Behavior Change - The Coach Approach
The largest non-clinical module, with a 25-question quiz. Public learning objectives reference motivational interviewing, exercise adherence and technology. ACSM publishes no nested subheadings here either, so build your understanding from the course material itself rather than outside outlines.
Quizzes, Passing Scores and Course Access
This is where many prospective students get confused, so it is worth separating the pieces carefully.
The public catalog metadata lists 14 assessment quizzes: Health Care Basics (25), Hypertension (6), Dyslipidemia (10), Obesity (18), Metabolic Syndrome (9), NAFLD (7), Prediabetes/Type 2 Diabetes (26), Osteoarthritis (16), Low-back Pain (11), Cancer (9), Older Adults (15), Behavior Change (25), Small Group Programs (13) and Technology/Virtual Training (13). Those counts add up to 203 questions. That sum is a calculation across the listed quizzes. It is not a single 203-question final exam, and nobody should describe it as one.
| Quiz | Published Questions | Module |
|---|---|---|
| Health Care Basics | 25 | Domain 1 |
| Hypertension / Dyslipidemia | 6 / 10 | Domain 2 |
| Obesity / Metabolic Syndrome / NAFLD | 18 / 9 / 7 | Domain 2 |
| Prediabetes & Type 2 Diabetes | 26 | Domain 2 |
| Osteoarthritis / Low-back Pain / Cancer | 16 / 11 / 9 | Domain 2 |
| Older Adults | 15 | Domain 3 |
| Small Group Programs / Technology | 13 / 13 | Domain 4 |
| Behavior Change | 25 | Domain 5 |
The passing standard that matters for the credential is a score of at least 80% on every online examination, not an overall average. A strong result on one quiz cannot compensate for a weak one elsewhere. That makes the smaller quizzes deceptively tricky: with only 6 questions on hypertension, a single miss has an outsized effect on your percentage. Our page on the EIM passing score explains why you should not confuse this with the generic scaled scoring used on other ACSM certifications.
Training Versus Credential: Two Separate Hurdles
Completing the course does not automatically make you credentialed. The course itself has no prerequisites, but the credential has its own eligibility requirements:
- At least a B.S. or B.A. in exercise science, exercise physiology or kinesiology.
- ACSM certification or another NCCA-accredited or ISO/IEC 17024 fitness certification.
- Completion of every EIM course module.
- A score of at least 80% on every online examination.
Participants who pass receive an email invitation to complete the credential application. Additional EIM-specific work-experience hours, reference letters and a mandatory training-hour minimum were not verified, so do not assume they exist or do not exist; confirm with ACSM. For a fuller look at eligibility, see our EIM requirements guide.
This creates a practical decision point. If you hold a degree and a qualifying fitness certification, the training leads naturally to the credential. If you do not, the course can still deliver 15 CECs and real knowledge, but the credential itself is not yet within reach. Decide which outcome you are buying before you pay.
Practice Scenarios: Thinking Like an EIM Professional
Because the course emphasizes referrals, communication and scope, the most useful preparation is working through realistic situations. These original examples illustrate the reasoning the training aims to build. They are teaching cases, not actual exam questions.
Scenario: The Referral Letter
A physician refers a client with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes and hypertension. The referral lists medications but no activity guidance.
- What should you document before the first session?
- Which medication effects might change how you monitor exertion?
- When would you send the client back to the provider instead of progressing?
Scenario: The Scope Boundary
A client with knee osteoarthritis asks whether to stop a prescribed medication because it "makes workouts harder."
- This is a medication decision, which falls outside your scope.
- Your role is to communicate the concern to the prescriber and keep the client engaged in activity.
- Practice phrasing that respects both the client and the boundary.
Scenario: The Stalled Adherent
A client with metabolic syndrome attended eagerly for four weeks, then began skipping sessions.
- A coach-approach response asks open questions rather than prescribing a lecture.
- Think motivational interviewing: explore ambivalence, reflect, then collaborate on a small next step.
Notice how each case blends domains. The medical conditions module, the health care basics module and the behavior change module all show up in a single client. That integration is why memorizing isolated facts underperforms.
Sequencing Your 365 Days
You have a full year of access, which is generous, but the content rewards a deliberate order. One sensible approach schedules foundational material first, because scope and documentation concepts reappear in every later module. For broader exam-preparation strategy, see our EIM study guide.
Health Care Basics First
- Learn terminology, HIPAA and scope boundaries before anything clinical
- The 25-question quiz sets the vocabulary the rest of the course assumes
Common Medical Conditions
- Start with the cardiometabolic cluster: hypertension, dyslipidemia, obesity, metabolic syndrome, NAFLD
- Give prediabetes and type 2 diabetes extra time given its 26-question quiz
- Finish with osteoarthritis, low back pain and cancer
Older Adults and Special Settings
- Apply condition knowledge to age-related programming
- Cover small group facilitation and virtual training
Behavior Change and Review
- Work through the coach approach and motivational interviewing
- Revisit any quiz where you landed near the 80% line
Because the 80% threshold applies to every examination, spend your review time on your weakest quiz rather than polishing strengths. Reference-wise, ACSM's description cites the 11th edition of the Guidelines for Exercise Testing and Prescription, while a later notice recommends the 12th edition, published in 2024. That mixed signal does not establish a new exam version, so use the course materials as your primary source and consult the 12th edition as a supplement.
Key Takeaway
Schedule by dependency, not by interest. Health Care Basics first, conditions next, then settings and behavior change. Reserve your final weeks for the lowest-scoring quiz, since a single quiz under 80% blocks the credential no matter how well the others went.
EIM Course Versus ACSM-EP: Different Pathways
People often wonder how this training stacks up against the ACSM Exercise Physiologist certification. They are distinct pathways with different purposes, not equivalent credentials, so this table compares what is verified rather than ranking them.
| Feature | EIM Course/Credential | ACSM-EP |
|---|---|---|
| Type | Educational specialty program | Base certification |
| Delivery | Asynchronous online course | Certification exam (see ACSM) |
| Course access | 365 days from purchase | Not applicable |
| Focus | Clinical-to-community referral, conditions, behavior change | Exercise physiology practice (see ACSM) |
| Handbook coverage | Not in ACSM Candidate Handbook | Covered in ACSM Candidate Handbook |
The notable practical point: the current ACSM Candidate Handbook covers other ACSM certifications and has no EIM entry, so its testing rules should not be imported into your EIM planning. If you are weighing value, our EIM ROI analysis and salary guide address earnings questions honestly; no exact EIM credential-holder salary series or proven earnings premium has been verified, so be cautious of promises. And if you want to get hands-on with question styles, start with the main practice test site.
Frequently Asked Questions
ACSM gives you 365 days from purchase to access and complete the course. That is a completion window rather than a required study duration. The pace within it is up to you, and the schedule above is just one workable example.
No. The course itself has no prerequisites. However, the credential requires at least a bachelor's degree in exercise science, exercise physiology or kinesiology, plus a qualifying fitness certification. See our requirements guide for details.
The credential requires at least 80% on every online examination, not an overall average. A weak result on any single quiz must be addressed even if your other scores are high. Read more in our passing score article.
No. The published counts across 14 quizzes sum to 203 questions, but that is a calculated aggregate rather than a single exam. Per-quiz timers and full item specifications were not verified, so confirm details with ACSM.
The course awards 15 CECs. That is an educational credit amount and does not by itself describe any EIM renewal requirement. A current EIM-specific expiration period and renewal total were not verified, so confirm renewal terms with ACSM before relying on them.