Medical Exercise Professionals…..Are You Playing the Finite Game?

Medical exercise professionals are we truly professionals or certification hoarders? Now we see a proliferation of medical exercise/medical fitness certifications and many are simply read a book and take an exam. Taught many times by instructors with partial backgrounds in healthcare and no direct management experience with some of the conditions reviewed in their courses. Are we playing the finite game or the infinite game?

When we started the Medical Exercise Specialist workshop and certification in 1994, we weren’t looking to offer another certification but ultimately a new profession. We recognized the future of medical exercise training and the need for Medical Exercise Specialists. The changes to insurance reimbursement and the aging of North America, it was pretty easy to see. We were correct.

You don’t build a profession on certifications; you build it by developing a specific body of knowledge and skill that is unique to that profession and becomes the standard for all members of the profession. The skills and knowledge become the foundation of the all services provided by the professionals. This foundation leads to the outcomes the professionals obtains for clients. The outcomes clients obtain, because of the skills and knowledge, build credibility and recognition. Not via pseudo accreditations which most fitness professionals have no understanding of.

Let’s play the infinite game and move past “accreditation and certifications” as the goal. Let’s focus on skills, knowledge, and the application of those to produce outcomes our clients and medical professionals will recognize and seek. Medical professionals and the public know nothing of fitness certifications or accreditations. They only know outcomes. The infinite game offers so much more…and medical exercise professionals can do far better than the certification game we are currently playing.

We need an accreditation process which reviews medical exercise training skills and knowledge and their appropriate application and not simply the number of students you have tested. Let’s get WOKE!! We have so much opportunity right now rather than playing this game.

All the best!