Question #1:
Physical Therapists are the same as Personal Trainers
FALSE!
Personal Trainers have a wonderful role in the ability to stay active in today’s day and age. In order to become qualified to certify as a personal trainer through the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM), you only need a GED or high school degree. You also need to become CPR certified (understandably) as well as train to use an AED (also understandable). CPR (Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation) and AED (Automated External Defibrillator) training are essential to ensure if cardiac arrest occurs, for instance from a heart attack, that there is appropriate response taken by the professional personal trainer immediately. This includes calling 911.
The NASM offers certificates that can be obtained for a fee in as little as 4 weeks time. This certification is essential to learn the basics and fundamentals of exercise, and to provide guidance and motivation for folks who are looking to get into quality exercise programs. This is essential to get everyone’s butt’s moving!
Physical Therapists on the other hand require much more stringent educational requirements. You must have a bachelor’s degree to enter a physical therapy graduate program, and then it is a minimum of 2 years and an average of 3 years of study. Some schools offer a bridge program for those lucky few who know their freshman year of college that they would like to study physical therapy. This can be done in as little as 6 years total for undergraduate and graduate school. Upon graduation, physical therapists are hard pressed to find a program that does not offer a Doctorate. And those who graduated before the common Doctorate in Physical Therapy often are encouraged to obtain their doctorate in a transitional format as practicing PTs. Those who graduated before 2016 in physical therapy may have completed just a masters in physical therapy, thus holding just a PT lettering after their name. Those with a doctorate will have the letters PT, DPT after their name.
Question #2:
Exercising and being active are the same as doing Physical Therapy
FALSE!
If I had a penny for every time I heard this over my career, well, I wouldn’t be very rich but I would have a lot of pennies. But NO, exercising and doing a lot of activities like walking is NOT the same as doing formal physical therapy. Physical Therapy is not just a random spattering of exercises (or at least it should not be). Physical therapists will fine tune your program to your exact needs, exact deficits, and exact pain producing movements. They will also potentially incorporate manual therapy techniques and modalities to address swelling, pain, and dysfunction. The world of physical therapy is also not limited to the outpatient orthopedics setting. There are pelvic health therapists who address incontinence and sexual dysfunction, wound care therapists who handle large, slow healing wounds, pediatric therapists who handle congenital issues and developmental deficits, lymphedema therapists to handle large limb swelling from genetic issues to results of surgery or cancer treatments – and that is just to name a FEW specialties.
I can guarantee the exercise program you will put yourself through will look very different than the physical therapy program a PT or DPT will issue. Exercise is treated as prescription (think your medicine) and dosed with specific frequency, intensity, and duration to improve the issues you are dealing with. Physical therapy after surgery is also essential to ensure proper return of function and objective goals. I promise you that it is EXTREMELY RARE that someone after a surgery did well without formal prescribed or recommended physical therapy. The total knee who avoided outpatient rehab is a myth or stretching the truth.
Question #3:
I will have to do a lot of exercise I don’t like (and don’t need) and will have to spend a lot of money to get ripped off with Physical Therapy.
FALSE!!!!
If this is your opinion of physical therapy and your past experience, I beg of you to try another location or another physical therapist. I have done this profession for enough years that if I have a patient who HATES exercise and has serious financial concerns, I will modify for their benefit. I have been known to issue home exercises programs on day 1 and agree to see a patient again only as requested or needed. (This is excluding post operative patients who have specific goals and milestones after surgery – this subset is NOT who I am talking about).
The best, most invested, and kind hearted physical therapists will work with you, your goals, and your desires. If you have encountered the opposite, or had a therapist force you to do things that were unnecessary or painful and did not explain why or the benefits, and did not overall listen to you, I PROMISE YOU there are bigger physical therapy fishes in the sea. There are many out there to better fit you, and sometimes its just personality clashes. People are people and we are all unique. I encourage you to try, try again.
Heal today, transform tomorrow. Unlock your potential to heal, learn and grow. – Dr. Barb Wally, LLC
Note: These blog articles are not in exchange for a one on one Physical Therapy visit. Please contact me if you are interested in receiving a Physical Therapy visit!
*This content is original and copyright Dr Barb Wally, LLC*
Telehealth Physical Therapy 