As a Medical Exercise professional you will work with a wide range of clients when you open your practice. You will clients with neurological disorders (multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's and CVA), cardiovascular conditions (hypertension, myocardial infarcts, coronary bypasses) and musculoskeletal disorders (total hip and knee replacements, disc herniations and meniscal tears). These are just some of the conditions you will work with in your practice.
Clients will also seek your services to correct postural and muscular imbalances and/or to improve strength, endurance or flexibility around a joint. With all clients, complete a thorough medical history interview BEFORE initiating any assessment procedures or exercise programming.
Go to MET101Ebook.com to get your copy.
Medical exercise professionals must effectively manage the “BIG 6”. These six conditions are major contributors to the skyrocketing health care costs we see across the globe. The “BIG 6” include:
The costs of managing these conditions is the primary reason every medical exercise professional should learn to manage these conditions. If you focus on these six conditions you can build a strong practice.
The majority of clients referred to medical exercise training (MET) are there due to “residual functional deficits”. As we have mentioned in previous blog posts, over the last 25 years the reimbursement for rehabilitation services has diminished. As a result physical therapy patients are discharged earlier. We saw trend starting in the early 1990’s. This prompted us to develop the “Medical Exercise Specialist” certification. Insurance reimbursement for physical therapy is now roughly half of what it was in the 90’s. With patients being discharged earlier, we estimate roughly 80% of those discharged from physical therapy have functional deficits and need a safe and effective exercise program to enhance their level of function at work, at home or with sports. FUNCTION is the driving factor for medical exercise training!
The function wheel above identifies the nine key elements of human function. These elements may be...
MET is designed to augment medical services, particularly rehabilitation services. There are 7 programs every MET program must offer. These 7 programs include:
There are certainly other programs you might offer but these 7 are essential. For more MET practice building tips go to www.MET101ebook.com.
Do doctors understand the importance of MET and how to use it?
No, physicians will not understand medical exercise training (MET) but don't let this be a deterrent. Most physicians realize exercise is beneficial for their patients but as far as prescribing specifics with exercise, such as activities, frequency, duration and progression, they wont know how. But they aren't trainerd to know exercise. Physicians are trained to diagnose and treat disease. In learning to treat disease, they perform surgery, write prescriptions; read x-rays; and interpret diagnostic tests...exercise prescription is not part of the standard medical school curriculum.
But their defense - which would you prefer? You go to the emergency room at 2 in the morning with a sick child. Would you want the physician to have the ability to interpret the diagnostic test(s) to determine your child's illness and the best course of treatment or do you want a physician that understands exercise...
In an earlier blog post we discussed the need to proviide more affordable medical exercise training options. Insurance reimbursment is an area many Medical Exercise Specialists are trying to understand. In this video Dr Mike will review the 5 criteria you must meed before you can begin to look at any possibility of reimbursement from the insurance carrier. The criteria are:
If the client meets ALL 5 criteria, then you may begin the process of submitting for reimbursement. In a later article we will discuss the steps needs for reimbursement.
Welcome to the Medical Exercise Training 101 Ebook Tips Series. These are practice development tips from our MET101 Ebook. This first tip reviews "What is Medical Exercise Training....How is it Different from Personal Training, Corrective Exercise and Physical Therapy?"
Medical exercise training and corrective exercise are growing rapidly. It’s important to make sure both concepts are used appropriately. Many clients may report pain and discomfort to their fitness professional. In many instances, the immediate response is to think of an exercise to manage the discomfort. Obviously, the personal trainer, corrective exercise specialist or medical exercise professional cannot diagnose. But there should be some process to determine if the client should seek medical care.
In the corrective execise realm the response may be to put the client through a screening to determine what exercise will manage the discomfort or the accompanying muscular imbalance. We need to start thinking beyond muscular and postural imbalances as the source of client pain and discomfort. In many cases, these non-muscular/postural sources of discomfort are not considered by the corrective exercise specialist or personal trainer.
In the METI – Medical Exercise...
Clients are leaving physical or occupational therapy earlier and with greater limitations such as weakness, lack of endurance, etc. This is not the fault of the physical or occupational therapists, its the changes in insurance reimbursement for rehabilitation. As a result the medical exercise professional is seeing clients with greater ‘residual functional deficits”. These deficits limit client function and are the primary reason for the growth in medical exercise training since 1994 when we offered the first Medical Exercise Specialist workshop and certification.
The job of the Medical Exercise Specialist is shifting toward identifying and developing an exercise program to improve these “residual functional deficits”. These deficits may be in range of motion, strength, endurance, balance, power, etc. The function wheel below identifies the key components of function. Your job as the medical exercise professional is to deal with these deficits.
The...
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