Physiotherapist vs. Personal Trainer?
Physiotherapy and physical therapy are the same as far as I can tell. Your experience as a personal trainer should greatly enhance your base skill set which should correlate well with a physical therapy education.
Physical therapy is a health care profession, a little beyond the expertise of a personal trainer. However, the two disciplines have a lot in common and should integrate well. Both require a love for maximizing quality of life for the client.
PT works on balance issues, orthopedic/musculoskeletal injuries and requires evaluating strength, flexibility and ROM. These are much the same as addressed in Personal Training.
Combining these two doctrines you should be able to identify a niche where you can become the “expert” and serve a small, focused audience who require you specialized brand of service. I believe you are making a wise decision and wish you the very best.
I can only echo Pearson even though I believe that a physical therapist’s scope goes way beyond what a personal trainer does.
There was only one caution that I have: make sure you have everything cleared well with liability insurance. When you have a client relatioinship as a personal trainer and only have the corresponding insurance: where is your scope of practice and what can you be held liable for when you also act as a physical therapist? I really don’t have an answer to that but my gut feel tells me that you need to investigate this issue very carefully.
I wish you best of luck!
In my opinion the two combined professions will make you a well-rounded professional. Fitness, wellness and health are a continuum, and combining the concentration on rehabilitative care of physical therapy with the preventive bent of personal training and you should not only be very marketable, but also able to address the needs of a wide-variety of clients.
LaRue, CSCS
www.lecfitness.com
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