Rant Alert!
There’s something that I need to get off my chest which has been bothering me for a while – so here we go!
As a Trainer who has been in the industry for many years now and a fully qualified Soft Tissue Therapist along with various forms of Functional Movement training, I have treated many clients who have been ‘signed off’ (translation: left in the dark) by physiotherapists with problems that have been far from resolved.
Most clients I see, have just been fobbed off with some basic ‘templated’, one size fits all routine, pulled out of the Physio for Dummies Handbook which was probably given out to the previous 20 patients with the same condition regardless of age, sex, or fitness/strength level, body type etc. I’ve come to this conclusion from repetitively being shown rehab routines by clients who have come to see me lost, with a routine that is either way too hard or too easy for them, therefore rendering the routine either unsafe or just completely redundant and a waste of time (NHS Physios are notorious for this).
Now I’m not tarring all Physios with the same brush, as I have met some extremely talented professionals out there with academic knowledge that would make me look like a dyslexic crack-head, the ones I am referring to are the lazy, overpaid (usually by insurance companies) ones who are just going through the motions with the client and don’t really have their best interests at heart, who also seem to be lacking the willingness to roll up their sleeves and get ‘hands on’ these days, which in my opinion is an integral part of rehab for most clients.
To add insult to injury . . . ;-) . . . most Physiotherapists are usually double, or at best the same cost as a top-end, experienced Personal Trainer with sound rehab knowledge.
I have nothing against Physiotherapists as very often the depth of their academic knowledge is needed for serious problems, however, should you find yourself being left in the dark by your Physio without a proper diagnosis or appropriate treatment plan, then it’s probably best to find someone who’s in the trenches every day and has tried and tested what works and what doesn’t on themselves, and is willing to roll up their sleeves and do what is necessary to get you back to full function.
Grant Mitchell