Episode #11: Integrating Physical Therapy and Strength Training (Part 1): On becoming a specialist in physical therapy for powerlifting
If you’re a rehab clinician who wants to combine physical therapy and strength training or looking to become a barbell coach or powerlifting coach but you don’t know where to start or fear is holding you back, we want to share our journey with you.
We were once in your shoes. We were the new grad physical therapists who also happened to train with barbells in the gym. We knew there was a better way than the traditional model of physical therapy to get people better, but it wasn’t taught to us in school, and we didn’t want to be stuck in the mill-model/franchise physical therapy practice setting.
Our story begins with being uncomfortable with the status-quo
If you’re a student physical therapist or practicing clinician:
→ Who is feeling burnt out, doesn’t agree with over-billing and over-booking cookie cutter treatments guided by insurance
→ But is scared to do something different because you need to pay bills and student loans
If you’re a Personal Trainer or Strength Coach who:
→ Has a CSCS, NASM, ACSM, or other certification
→ But isn’t confident because you clients aren’t getting results and you struggle with apply the stuff you studied to pass the exam
→ Feel overworked and underpaid working at a commercial gym or aren’t charging your clients enough
If you’re an Athlete who:
→Has experienced the value of barbell strength training and wants to help people with it but feels that you can’t until you have a certification
We want to share our story to let you know that you just need to start!
In this episode of the PRS Podcast, Clinical Coaches Dr. Rori Alter, PT and Dr. Alyssa Haveson, PT share their tips for beginning the journey of the next phase of your career.
You have to just start.
You’re never going to have all of the answers from your formal education or training.
You need to gain experience by just doing.
Get comfortable with being uncomfortable.
Dive into this episode for more details!
Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC, SSC: [00:00:25] In this episode, we'll talk about our story, how we both came to be Clinical Coaches working with barbell athletes and powerlifters and integrating barbells into the rehab process, and utilizing these principles with non-barbell athletes as well. And we wanted to share our stories because we both came about getting to the point in our careers where we are in very different ways. So we'll tell our stories to share how we became coaches and clinicians and integrated them. And I think that this is a podcast for anyone who is graduating from PT school or just graduated from PT school and working at a mill model clinic and might not be happy. This is for the personal trainer or the strength coach who doesn't know where to go with their career. Or how to advance their career. Or even the athlete who has never coached anyone but loves this so much and wants to help people do what they're doing, get under the barbell, and start strength training to better their lives, or enjoy something else in the gym than just exercising.
Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC, SSC: [00:02:00] So we want to share our story to let you know how we started and how we got to where we are. It's a marathon, not a sprint; you can be anyone and go anywhere with what you want to do with barbell training and rehabilitation, so, before we go into how we got to the point in our careers where we're at. I just want to share the athlete's journey from the first time you touched the barbell to the time you became a competitive powerlifter. Or when you hit those giant milestones, whether it be the 405 squat, the 550 deadlifts, or the 315 bench press. And the journey to becoming a Clinical Coach. So that first client you train, that first clinic you work to start your own business and work with high-level lifters and rehabilitating them after massive injury back to the platform and competing at a high level again. These journeys are parallel. You always have to start somewhere with the basics, and you have to just start, and it's the time, experience, and learning process that gets you to where you want to be in the future.
Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC, SSC: [00:03:17] These three journeys are quite parallel. This is why our story in this episode is for the athlete, the coach, the person who wants to become the coach or the clinician who wants to take their career in a direction that might challenge the status quo. And that's kind of where both of our stories begin. We were uncomfortable where we were. We were uncomfortable with the status quo. And I think that change always comes by first challenging and becoming uncomfortable. So along this journey for both of us, there were many, many points where we were extremely uncomfortable, and that had to push us into the next zone of discomfort to get to the point where we were more advanced than we were previously. So it's like that stress recovery adaptation cycle in barbell training. So we can apply that to the learning process and the career development process, as well as just the training process. So Alyssa, can you tell me a little about how you began your career in both the strength and conditioning and barbell training and physical therapy or rehabilitation realm? So how did that start for you?
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Get in touch with the show!
Web: https://www.progressiverehabandstrength.com
Email: podcast@progressiverehabandstrength.com
Rori IG: @rorimegan_prs
Alyssa IG: @alyssahope_prs