Give Trainers a Role in Rehab
By: Ulrik Larsen
Setting clear boundaries
It is paramount that trainers clearly understand the limits of their role and professional abilities. Their credibility and their clients’ wellbeing depend on it.
This is crucial to my belief in the upskilling of trainers. Personal trainers need to know confidently which injuries to refer on (call them ‘high risk profile’ if you’d like), namely those that should be primarily managed by a physio or other allied health professionals. The rest can be termed ‘low risk profile’ injuries, and while often needing some referral and allied health support, would be primarily managed by the trainer through optimal state.
My views are pretty clear on this unless a personal trainer has achieved certain higher levels of Chek certification, or done other postgraduate courses that qualify them to do so (and these need to be scrutinized very carefully), they should not be dabbling at all in ‘diagnostics’ or tonic/postural muscle activation for injured body parts.
Any seasoned clinician will appreciate the depth of knowledge and experience that a physiotherapist must acquire to be successful in diagnosing a labral tear or re-educating a dysfunctional transverse abdominis muscle. So these skills should remain the sole domain of the physiotherapist (as well as the litany of treatment modalities useful in promoting healing around a pathological structure).
Threats
For trainers, the problem of injury is not just about improving their own education and their clients’ standard of service; it runs a lot deeper.
In the short term, the biggest concern is the alarmingly high rate of fallout trainers from the industry. In the Australian context, two leading industry professionals have confirmed for me the same drop-out figure of about 60% within the first 18 months of qualification. Remarkably, this is occurring at a time when demand for personal trainers is hugely outstripping supply, and even relatively inexperienced trainers can make a good living from the job. We need research into why these drop-out rates, but there is every possibility that a few too many injured clients not showing up for training gradually takes its toll.
In the medium term, litigation is on the increase. It is not hard to see how a personal trainer who is careless or unaware can suddenly find themselves having to consult a lawyer for defense against an injured client. Yet there is no doubt that much training work still focuses on pushing through ‘the pain barrier’ to get results. Few trainers would be able to mount a credible defense using that approach these days. Moreover, the wider health profession will never contemplate making formal referrals or treating as partners an industry that cannot defend its basic professional competence against legal challenge.
In the long term, the worst case scenario is that the very viability of the personal training industry may be at stake. Gyms and trainers are riding a great wave of public approval and enthusiasm in Australia at the moment, as people chase lifestyle and health improvements. But a spate if high-profile injuries could very quickly shift the public mood. A backlash would inevitably cause a drop-off in client numbers for personal trainers and leave a wonderful industry struggling to recover from mass skepticism.