Best advice I've heard about doctors comes from a Starting Strength podcast..."treat your doctor like a consultant." He gives advice, you consider it, and then you make up your own mind.
It happens, man. There isn't much you can do, assuming you've done your best to inform them (including the risks of not training). If they decide to keep training, that's up to them. Let them do their own research and make the choice to train or not. If you push back too hard, you run the risk of damaging your relationship with the client.
On the bright side, you'll eventually run into a few great doctors that will be your best clients and best referrers. They're few and far between so hang on to them when you find 'em.
Best advice I've heard about doctors comes from a Starting Strength podcast..."treat your doctor like a consultant." He gives advice, you consider it, and then you make up your own mind.
Thank you everyone for your answers. Appreciate your time and insights. Definitely some good take-aways in there.
I thought I’d try for an answer coming from a doctor.
In I believe 2015, I myself came to Paul Horn in Los Angeles because I’d read that squats could potentially be of benefit to knee medial meniscal tears. After a year of suffering with this problem (which arose from running), I bit the bullet and had surgery which provided around 80% improvement. It was a godsend but it was an incomplete solution because I still couldn’t jump up on a surfboard despite months of time post-op and a course of PT.
When I proposed this solution to my surgeon he gave me the same response all of you have apparently received. Under NO circumstances should you be doing squats or you’ll destroy the good results you’ve received so far. But I still went to Paul.
He said, and I’m of course paraphrasing: John, I can’t give you any guarantees and I’m going to make you sign something that says you can’t sue me no matter what happens to you. I’m not a doctor but I can definitely tell you that this is how we rehab powerlifters and Olympic lifters when they get the same injury.
In other words, he was frank, honest and instilled me with confidence. It was all in the delivery.
I never looked back and after a month or so of training, I noticed that I had zero pain in my knee and that it was back to baseline. For a moment, I actually had to look for my scar to remember which knee it was. I went back to surfing again.
I think if you’re honest about your empirical experience and of the experience of your colleagues and you don’t make any outlandish promises, you have a good shot at converting a nonbeliever. If that doesn’t work then just shine it on. As I’m sure Mark will agree, it just wasn’t meant to be.
Update on the state of the profession:
My brother was in the ER recently for a urological-related issue. He's fine, thankfully. Upon his discharge, the ER physician was going over the findings and also told him that they had called in a prescription for an antibiotic to have just in case. Quite casually, the physician told my brother that one of the "black box" symptoms of this particular formulation is tendon rupture.
Physician: "I just have to tell you about it. You know."
My brother: "What do you mean 'tendon rupture'?"
Physician: "You know, tendon, like Achilles's tendon."
My brother: "Oh."
When I heard this, I immediately remembered Rips warnings. Had to be Cipro. Sure enough, when I read his paperwork, there is was. I told my brother, "listen, that stuff about the antibiotic is no joke, it's a known issue. If you take it, be very, very careful."
I mean, I'm glad he said something; but, the off the cuff nature of the advice was decidedly off putting.
Doctors (but especially dentists) need to be trusted about as much as when you take your car to a new mechanic.
Younger doctors are often worse; they have experienced much more indoctrination and less independence than the previous generation.
Even if they have managed not to be brainwashed, they are forced to genuflect to the system; to do, say and think just as they are told....or lose their "doctor" status.
In addition to that, half of them had to rely on diversity quotas to be granted "doctor" status.
My doctor is an osteopath (D.O.), and he's always said that lifting is definitely good for my physical and mental health. He's a younger guy (late 30s).
Good doctors are out there; I had to leave another practice and find my current one, but it was worth the effort.
I can add to the small sample size. I've had a much better experience with younger doctors. Good listeners. Not dismissive and condescending. What's that quote? Science advances one funeral at a time.
I was on a doctors forum recently and the issue of weight training (in this particular discussion weight training for teens) came up. A lot of the usual stupidity was put forward but I would estimate 50% of responses were that it should be strongly encouraged. I would guess a similar question put to a group of physicians 20 years ago would have almost produced an almost universally negative response.