Do athletic trainers train athletes? Heck yes! Is that all they do? Heck no! Although my teachers would frown on this statement, here goes; basically we are a combo of an EMT, PT, and personal trainer in one.
To become an athletic trainer (ATC), you must have either four years of your bachelors in athletic training, or four years in a health science and then generally two years of your masters. You also need a certain amount of clinical hours (a lot); both with a team (on field) and in a rehabilitation setting. Once that is complete you must take the board of certification exam to become a certified and licensed athletic trainer in your state. Our job description is: from the Bureau of Labor;
"Athletic trainers help prevent and treat injuries for people of all ages. Their patients and clients include everyone from professional athletes to industrial workers. Recognized by the American Medical Association as allied health professionals, athletic trainers specialize in the prevention, diagnosis, assessment, treatment, and rehabilitation of muscle and bone injuries and illnesses. Athletic trainers, as one of the first healthcare providers on the scene when injuries occur, must be able to recognize, evaluate, and assess injuries and provide immediate care when needed. Athletic trainers should not be confused with fitness trainers or personal trainers, who are not healthcare workers, but rather train people to become physically fit."
That's the text book definition for you, but if you are a football fan just think of the medical personnel that runs out on the field when an athlete goes down, that is an athletic trainer doing what we do best, emergency care and assessing the injury at hand. Or when you see an athlete with tape or bracing they saw an athletic trainer before there competition. Now when do athletic training duties and personal training duties converge? Well it starts in school with our rehabilitation classes. We are taught different modalities for treatment like electrical stimulation, therapeutic ultrasound, laser therapy and much more. We also go into specific exercises for rehab from an injury. These exercises specifically are targeted toward expediting the healing process of an injury and preventing another from occurring, or reoccurring. However to truly fix an athlete or an individuals problem it requires more than just a few weeks/months of therapy. Some athletic trainers out there are catching the drift and either taking a personal training certification or just progressing the athletes naturally into more challenging exercises that will help correct improper form, bad habits and muscular weaknesses and imbalances.
Here at FLO one of our main focuses is keeping the athlete sound biomechanically and helping them become the best they can be in their sport. Being both an athletic trainer and personal trainer I feel stronger in both fields and a better all around health care professional. Also at FLO, a big emphasis of ours is the mental toughness of our athletes. Being an athletic trainer you spend all of your time rehabing athletes and watching their practice and games, this gives you an edge as a personal trainer; spending countless hours watching the athlete perform, you can evaluate them as a whole; physical strength, movement analysis and even see where their mental toughness lies.
Two are better than one! Spend time making yourself better, pull from your resources and apply it to making your clients healthier and make yourself more marketable!
-The ATCs from FLO
To become an athletic trainer (ATC), you must have either four years of your bachelors in athletic training, or four years in a health science and then generally two years of your masters. You also need a certain amount of clinical hours (a lot); both with a team (on field) and in a rehabilitation setting. Once that is complete you must take the board of certification exam to become a certified and licensed athletic trainer in your state. Our job description is: from the Bureau of Labor;
"Athletic trainers help prevent and treat injuries for people of all ages. Their patients and clients include everyone from professional athletes to industrial workers. Recognized by the American Medical Association as allied health professionals, athletic trainers specialize in the prevention, diagnosis, assessment, treatment, and rehabilitation of muscle and bone injuries and illnesses. Athletic trainers, as one of the first healthcare providers on the scene when injuries occur, must be able to recognize, evaluate, and assess injuries and provide immediate care when needed. Athletic trainers should not be confused with fitness trainers or personal trainers, who are not healthcare workers, but rather train people to become physically fit."
That's the text book definition for you, but if you are a football fan just think of the medical personnel that runs out on the field when an athlete goes down, that is an athletic trainer doing what we do best, emergency care and assessing the injury at hand. Or when you see an athlete with tape or bracing they saw an athletic trainer before there competition. Now when do athletic training duties and personal training duties converge? Well it starts in school with our rehabilitation classes. We are taught different modalities for treatment like electrical stimulation, therapeutic ultrasound, laser therapy and much more. We also go into specific exercises for rehab from an injury. These exercises specifically are targeted toward expediting the healing process of an injury and preventing another from occurring, or reoccurring. However to truly fix an athlete or an individuals problem it requires more than just a few weeks/months of therapy. Some athletic trainers out there are catching the drift and either taking a personal training certification or just progressing the athletes naturally into more challenging exercises that will help correct improper form, bad habits and muscular weaknesses and imbalances.
Here at FLO one of our main focuses is keeping the athlete sound biomechanically and helping them become the best they can be in their sport. Being both an athletic trainer and personal trainer I feel stronger in both fields and a better all around health care professional. Also at FLO, a big emphasis of ours is the mental toughness of our athletes. Being an athletic trainer you spend all of your time rehabing athletes and watching their practice and games, this gives you an edge as a personal trainer; spending countless hours watching the athlete perform, you can evaluate them as a whole; physical strength, movement analysis and even see where their mental toughness lies.
Two are better than one! Spend time making yourself better, pull from your resources and apply it to making your clients healthier and make yourself more marketable!
-The ATCs from FLO
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