Physical Therapy vs Personal Training

Before becoming a physical therapist I had the opportunity to be a personal trainer here in Southern Maine for 3 years.

As a trainer, I worked with individuals to improve fitness and quality of life, very similar to what I’m doing now as a physical therapist. There are some important differences between therapists and trainers, ultimately therapists and trainers have two very different jobs to achieve the same goal of improving quality of life.

When to see a trainer

As I mentioned, a trainer seeks to improve fitness and quality of life through exercise and sometimes diet tips. This can significantly help people achieve goals and at times, as I experienced as a trainer, pain goes away just by improving strength fitness. In general, if a person is having pain, especially with exercise, a physical therapist is the best option to eliminate compensation patterns and fix the underlying issues before they become a major problem. If clients are already working with a personal trainer and begin having pain, a physical therapist is a great option to help the client and trainer identify the issue, correct it, and prevent it in the future.

Related: Strengthening for Runners
Top 3 Core Strengthening Moves

When to see a Physical Therapist

Physical therapists are specialists of the human body that help reduce pain and improve mobility and function. This means physical therapy can treat everything from nagging pain that won’t go away, to the inability to perform a reasonable task without pain. Whether you are having pain with exercise or every-day life, physical therapy can help identify the problems and create a treatment plan involving the patient so they can prevent reoccurrence in the future. A good physical therapist’s goals include fast pain relief for the patient and education of patients so they can not only achieve their goals, but remain healthy and functioning pain free for many years.

Related: The Most Important Exercise you Can Do

If you have questions on how physical therapy can help you email me at [email protected] or give us a call to book your free pain consultation.

Mike Bertrand

By Mike Bertrand, DPT

Back in Motion® Physical Therapy – Gorham, Maine

 

Learn More About
Blog | PT Healthy Tips

Wrist Pain

Your content goes here. Edit or remove this text inline or in the module Content settings. You can also style every aspect of this content in the module Design settings and even apply custom CSS to this text in the module Advanced settings.

Related Articles 

Sorry, No Posts Found