One of the most critical factors is that the general practitioner should
inform the patient that he/she is not an expert in work/sport physiology
instead of giving irrelevant, misleading or useless advice. That
incidentally goes for many problems the GP is confronted with including back
pain.
Deon.
----- 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/
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