Beyond the schooling and degree, and beyond the ability for a PT to diagnose a condition in a client, is there a larger difference that I am not seeing between the two. I know those seem big, but I have seen PTs that are inefficient, and I have met personal trainers who understand anatomy, structure and function (as well as functional training, strengthening and conditioning).
The major difference is that a physical therapist understands not just anatomy and biomechanical relationships, but the disease process as well. This disease process leads to a functional limiation such as the inability to tolerate sitting because of back pain, to be unable to walk due to poor propriception, being unable to run because of plantar fascitis. There are many components of PT that do overlap with personal training…primarily in strengthening and conditioning…but this is a very SMALL part of what a PT does. We must be able to assess a problem, decide what is causing it, decide WHAT treatment to apply to it and continue to assess one’s progress toward an established goal.
To give you an example:
A patient with shoulder pain is referred to PT by his doctor…this is what a PT would do that a trainer would NOT be able to do:
1. take a medical history of the problem
2. assess range of motion, glenohumeral mobility, manual muscle tests, special provacative tests
3. assign a PT diagnosis (such as rotator cuff deficiency)
4. decide what treatments to apply: joint mobilization, stretching, strengthening, etc.
5. apply those treatments and continue to assess the patient’s progress (personal trainers can do strengthening, but do not have the skills to perform the majority of treatments such as range of motion, joint mobilization, modalities, etc).
6. assess attainment of goals
7. discharge the patient
Once a patient has attained the desired goals, then a patient may continue to perform resistive training with a personal trainer…once the major limitations of the "disease" have been addressed. The strengthening is the "easy" part of what a PT does.
Hope this clears it up
December 9th, 2009 at 12:58 pm
A physical therapist is trained more to reinstate a body to a previous state of well being medically and we’re talking bone structure, muscle tone, organ health mental health and lots more, where a personal trainer is trained to help you obtain a healthy body as YOU want it. It is quite a grey area but the actual divide is vast and does depend on the quality of education.
References :
RGN
December 9th, 2009 at 1:10 pm
The major difference is that a physical therapist understands not just anatomy and biomechanical relationships, but the disease process as well. This disease process leads to a functional limiation such as the inability to tolerate sitting because of back pain, to be unable to walk due to poor propriception, being unable to run because of plantar fascitis. There are many components of PT that do overlap with personal training…primarily in strengthening and conditioning…but this is a very SMALL part of what a PT does. We must be able to assess a problem, decide what is causing it, decide WHAT treatment to apply to it and continue to assess one’s progress toward an established goal.
To give you an example:
A patient with shoulder pain is referred to PT by his doctor…this is what a PT would do that a trainer would NOT be able to do:
1. take a medical history of the problem
2. assess range of motion, glenohumeral mobility, manual muscle tests, special provacative tests
3. assign a PT diagnosis (such as rotator cuff deficiency)
4. decide what treatments to apply: joint mobilization, stretching, strengthening, etc.
5. apply those treatments and continue to assess the patient’s progress (personal trainers can do strengthening, but do not have the skills to perform the majority of treatments such as range of motion, joint mobilization, modalities, etc).
6. assess attainment of goals
7. discharge the patient
Once a patient has attained the desired goals, then a patient may continue to perform resistive training with a personal trainer…once the major limitations of the "disease" have been addressed. The strengthening is the "easy" part of what a PT does.
Hope this clears it up
References :
PT