Training doctors and working with clients' doctors
A few posts ago someone was nervous about training a doctor and a bunch of us started yapping about it. But I thought it was more important than that so here we are.
If you're nervous about training a doctor, I hear you. My first physician client was an ER doctor and while taking his BP I said how intimidating it was. He said, "dont worry, you are absolutely doing this better than I could. I havent manually taken someone's BP since med school." It made me feel so much better.
Heres the important thing: doctors definitely know more about the human body than you do. But they definitely do not know more about *exercise* than you do. Any practicing doctor today is at least 8 years out of when they would have gotten fitness info, and any fitness info they got then was a few lines in the middle of 100 hour study weeks. Fitness changes rapidly and they're operating on, at best, cursory knowledge that's at least ten years behind.
This is why your clients come in with things like "my doctor told me never to squat or lunge again" and "my doctor said to rest my tweaked back for 8 weeks with no exercise" and "my doctor said I can deadlift but absolutely NEVER Romanian deadlift" (that one made me laugh out loud. You can pick something up but you can NEVER put it down 💀).
So for training doctors, you won't have to explain anatomy to them. But you will have to explain exercise physiology and kinesiology to them. It's a great thing! You'll help them give better advice to their patients so they won't say dumb shit like the above. Trust that they know a ton about livers but nothing about the rotator cuff.
And how do you handle it when a client comes in with insane dr advice? I always do three things:
offer to be in contact with their doctor. Collaborative care is always a good thing (though most docs are impossible to reach). You can contradict what a doctor has suggested, but it will be better received by your client if you offer to talk, rather than just stating your (perceived less educated) opinion.
Give your client better questions to ask their doctor. People often say "can I work out after neck surgery?" And their doctor will say "no" but if they ask "can I do seated lower body work or gentle treadmill work?" The answer is often yes. When you know what is safe for your client to do but they need to hear it from their doctor, write the questions that will get the nuanced answer you need.
Use the right language. Sometimes I'll say, "Hmm. Ok. That advice doesnt match with current exercise protocol for x/y/z reasons. The science shows [x], which is why I think [y] exercise is appropriate. We can try it or we can skip it. What would you like to do?" Demonstrating your knowledge on the topic and then making it your client's choice is a great way to move on.
And if you don't have knowledge on the topic? Then dont wing it. Choose another exercise and then grab a book (please not an AI summary) and find the answer for next time.
Doctors are amazing at what they do, but what they do isn't exercise! So be confident in your own training and knowledge and ALWAYS keep educating yourself. You'll become known as a trainer who can be trusted by medical professionals rather than feared.
Experienced trainers, would welcome extra thoughts on this!