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We have employed a few physiotherapy assistants / technical instructors now who have health and fitness backgrounds and working with them has been a great learning experience for us all. I think all too often we can get carried away looking at the recovery of the injury and forget the CV fitness side of things. The TIs look more at this side and the complementary treatment of us all is working really well. They also have a far greater knowledge of exercise than we do. This now enables us to reassess more frequently in our class situation knowing we have the qualified staff to take the class side of things. It was quite contentious when we first muted the idea with alot of mainly senior II physios worried about their job being taken but we've definitely won them over now and the TIs are now also getting involved in training the physios in exercise class taking. Alison ----- Original Message ----- From: <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Monday, January 21, 2002 2:52 PM Subject: Consult Your Doctor? > Someone wrote: > > <I attended a course for GP's (Doctors)- it was along the lines of Sports > Training. The evening I was looking forward to was all about strength > training........ What did I learn from this: *Most Doctors know next to > nothing about fitness and strength training* > > > *** This is a very common observation by those who work in the field of > serious sport. The glaring paradox is that we are all advised to "consult > your doctor" before beginning any exercise programme. The fact is that very > few doctors, except for those who are themselves serious strength athletes, > know anything of any quality about strength training. The same goes for far > too many physical therapists, chiropractors and, of course, PhDs working in > the field of exercise physiology who devote most of their time to analysing > cardiovascular processes and endurance sport. > > Yet, if you "consult your doctor", you have followed the magic words and you > can safely exercise and, if you as a personal trainer has advised a client to > follow this "golden rule" of exercise prescription, then you have much > greater protection from the law. In reality, the situation, put quite > plainly, is almost a total farce. You may as well visit a garage mechanic in > most cases. > > Why this situation should exist is beyond me - after all, all it takes is a > few days of some scientific and practical input by real experts in the > current medical degree to fill many of the major gaps in the average medical > understanding of strength training. However, the average doctor also > receives almost no input on what physical, occupational and recreational > therapists actually do in their training either, so that they cannot really > integrate their abilities with those working in allied professions. That, I > suppose, is supposed to come with years of experience way after graduation, > which can be a little too late for many patients. > > At my former university I eventually convinced the physiotherapy department > about the merits of at least a "crash course" on applied sports science and > biomechanics in preventative and rehabilitative therapy - and I ended up > teaching such a course to senior students during time set aside for > tutorials, visiting lecturers or lunch hours. I also offered a series of > postgraduate seminars on the same topics, for which continuing education > credits were awarded. The students seemed to enjoy the input and some even > chose to do their senior projects in fields related to strength testing and > rehabilitation. I do not see why medical schools elsewhere could not > implement similar schemes within their curricula. > > Any comments? > > Dr Mel C Siff > Denver, USA > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Supertraining/ >