The Five Skills that set the Rehab Trainer apart:

  "R...E...H...A...B"!

 The term "rehab" is meant to imply any activity by a professional in the allied health industry (including Personal Trainer) that reduces pain and dysfunction for their client - not simply what happens after an operation, or what happens in a treatment centre by a medically trained professional.

Risk Assessment of the Injury –

Injuries are classified into “high risk” or “low risk” by the PT so theycan decide accurately and confidently which injuries can be trained through (termed “Functional Injuries”) and which ones need to be trained around (termed “Pathological).

The PT will learn 4 Questions and 4 Tests each for the upper limb, the lower limb and the spine that will guide them to make the right decision.

It is essential for the PT to recognize that this is nothing like the complex process of “Diagnostics” that a Physiotherapist will go through to determine what structure is injured, how long it will take to recover, and what strategy is required to fully rehabilitate it.

E...

Evaluation of Movement Patho-mechanics (movement dysfunction) is based on a deeper understanding of:  

a) Poor Positioning – are clients beginning the exercise properly, with optimal body positioning from head to toe, or setting themselves up to hurt?

b) Poor Technique – many compound gym exercises from shoulder and bench press through to squat, as well as running, are looked at in terms of optimal technique. This can of course then be retrained through cueing and progressive loading if their muscle control is sufficient for the job.

c) Poor Biomechanics – few PT courses go to the next level of analysing and retraining the habituated poor movement of individual joints in a kinetic chain, eg how do I know if someone’s scapula is moving well or not in a seated row or bench press? Or what does it look like if someone’s low back is at risk of a disc bulge when they are doing squat? Are you doing squat in such a way as to set yourself up for patello-femoral joint pain later on?  How is your running technique?

H...

Hands-on Loosening Procedures  - new ‘general stretches’ and ‘point stretches’ (trigger pointing) are taught for each body area, and old stretches are revised and corrected if necessary. Many new techniques and positions are introduced that the PT can do for a client.

A...

Activation Drills and Techniques to improve muscle control and stability of joints.

Rehab Trainer here introduces a ground-breaking concept that is applied to each body area: it is extremely PT friendly and allows clients to fast track towards their goal-exercises.

 

In addition, simple activation drills are incorporated into warm-up and warm-down using swiss balls and other existing equipment in the gym, without asking the PT to engage in lower-level Physio exercises that in my opinion just don’t work in a gym environment!

 

B...

Begin Training!

Critical Path Exercise Prescription is the generally underrated skill that entails creating the right “stepping stone” exercise that the client can do without pain, and use to retrain patho-mechanics. Gradually they are progressed towards their ‘goal exercise’, be that running, or shoulder press, or squat, or whatever you want them to be able to do!.

In short. you are NOT going to become a Physio by doing Rehab Trainer - instead you are becoming a new "species" of trainer -  specialised and extremely effective in their unique role in the "Rehab Team"! 

Note that some of the most highly qualified Chek Certified PT’s who have done the course over the last 4 years are saying this course is a must if you want to be a PT who understands their role in the REHAB game!