What is the difference between an Exercise Physiologist and a Physiotherapist ?
Both Exercise Physiologists and Physiotherapists are university qualified and allied health professionals.
Both Exercise Physiologists and Physiotherapists are eligible for Medicare rebates as allied health professionals and also for Private Health Fund rebates.
They will both understand anatomy and physiology and how your body works when you use it for activities in your daily life as well as when doing formal exercise.
Physiotherapists are the go-to person when the body is needing assessment of a specific injury, damage, or in the first stages post surgery and protocol needs to be followed for best practice recovery. They can provide treatment with ultrasound, tens machines and other devices as well as hands on treatment.
Exercise Physiologists are also involved with rehabilitation of many biomechemical and musculoskeletal conditions and often liaise with physiotherapists, especially when the acute phase of recovery has been dealt with and the client needs to have long term management of their body through exercise. This is where Exercise Physiologists really excel because they have an extra area of learning that is critical in best practice exercise prescription.
I choose to employ Exercise Physiologists because they have an extensive “foot in the door“ on rehabilitation work which will return a body to a functional state, as described above, AND they also understand metabolic conditions.
Why is this knowledge and expertise in relation to metabolic conditions so important in Green Apple? Because so many people, especially in the older demographic, will have one or more chronic conditions as well as a joint or body trauma (for example have a fall resulting in damage) and their exercise prescription needs a knowledge of metabolic medical conditions like type 2 diabetes, heart disease, cancer, osteoporosis, osteoarthritis and so many other chronic conditions.
We use Exercise Physiologists in our work for doctors (Care plans), NDIS (we are accredited and registered to look after all three levels of NDIS funding ie NDIA referrals, and also Plan Managed clients and Self Managed clients), DVA, WorkCover, MyAgeCare referrals but, most important of all, to provide long term care and support for our members.
So the Green Apple business model is to provide a medical pathway for exercise prescription, employing Exercise Physiologists to deliver individual, tailored exercise programs based on medical and personal need in conjunction with our Mainstream exercise prescription that is provided by experienced and passionate exercise professionals (TAFE trained).
This marriage of mainstream and medical programming plus a fully equipped, comfortable gym area and pool creates a unique environment for non-gym people to succeed in their exercise, their long term body-housekeeping.
Victoria Gill
11/05/2023