The main complaint I hear about physical therapists from trainers, is that they try to be trainers.

The main complaint I have about both is that they do not work together enough.

Just like anything in life, healthcare should be about promoting collaboration and balance. There’s more that we have in common than we have separating us, seeing as everyone agrees that they want their client to have the best patient care and experience.

You do not have to look far on social media today to realize that the lines are blurring when it comes to knowing the difference between training and rehab. There are a couple of different schools of thought regarding who you should see for pain, who you should see first, which one leads to greater success, and the abundance of information seemingly coming at us nonstop just adds to the confusion. One rule of thumb I’ve found helpful is if you have pain due to trauma, please seek a healthcare professional related to that area first. After that, I think it is a bit more tricky.

As we grow older, aches and pains are always going to develop, however you do not need to see a doctor for every pain you feel. In fact, please don’t.  If we treated ourselves like we have our children, therapists and the like might not even exist! As a dad, I know that unless there is blood and silence following a fall, it probably does not require a lot of attention. We know this because kids are inherently resilient and built to withstand the bumps of growing up – nothing a hug, a kiss, a bandaid (and likely a cookie) could not fix. The other consideration here is OUR REACTION.  When my daughter falls or trips it is almost as if she looks to me first to ask “is this ok?”.  When I react with a “whoa, quite a tumble – you going to be ok champ?” versus rushing to her side with “oh my God, are you ok!?”, there is no doubt that it will cue up different emotions.  As we get older though, instead of brushing off aches and pains, we give these aches and pains meaning, tending to overreact or analyze every report of pain we feel and our clients share with us. Your back pain from deadlifting is not thought of as “normal” (just like your biceps would be sore from curling too much), but rather a sign you went too hard, might have hurt your disc, or should think about cut out deadlifting altogether because it might not be a good fit for your body.

While I do think there are many professionals out there that can blend BOTH rehab and training very well, they are hard to come by.  One of the many benefits of working in a wonderful place like New York City is that you are more likely to find a GOOD physical therapist and a GOOD trainer.  The trick in New York City becomes getting them to work together. This can be done with a collaborative treatment plan that everyone can be kept in the loop on. I think a lot of the disconnect lies when therapists or trainers refuse to talk to one another.  I know whenever I hear a client is working with a trainer I almost always say “That is terrific, I am sure you are on a great plan, if there is anything I can do to be of guidance including how to incorporate your rehab INTO your workouts please let me know!” 

I have had countless clients share thoughts and feelings with me that did not tell their trainer, and I am sure this also happens in the opposite direction.  How could we ever work together when we are operating on different bits of information?

This is why looking at a person holistically and not just one facet at a time is so important – we are never working with the full picture. The trainer is getting the top left corner, and the therapist is getting the bottom right, so meeting in the middle is the key to success. At Strength in Motion, Avery and myself have complementary skill sets to best serve the people who join our team.  Avery has a background in Crossfit and Olympic training, while mine is in strength and mobility coaching, in addition to both being board certified in Neurology and Orthopedics respectively.  As our client, we’ll evaluate you and decide who would be the better fit to help you on your path to success and living the life you want to live, this is even why we offer free phone consultations before you even make an appointment with us. We care about your success!

What it truly comes down to is: are you willing to let lack of communication get in the way of treating your patient? Even though most trainers haven’t taken the oath, we all still want to do no harm and help our clients – let’s focus on that, not who is right or wrong, and LISTEN to our patients. You never know what you’ll uncover that could set the treatment or conditioning plan in a better direction.

Are you interested in working with a team that understands your needs for physical therapy AND training? Schedule a free 15-minute consultation with us today.