Infiltration of Physical Therapy into S&C

[Andy Baker (KSC)]

Mark or anyone else who cares:
Wondering what your opinion was, or if you had an explanation for the rise of physical therapists and physical therapy driven training modalities within the S&C world, and particularly within organizations such as NSCA & NASM. I've always known that NASM was founded by PT's but I am increasingly aware of the presence of physical therapy in NSCA material, which disturbs me since this is who I am certified thru...Im seeing terms like "scapular stabilization", "glute activation", "core strength" being tossed around quite a bit, along with a tendency to go outside of our scope of practice away from S&C and into PT. Is this just a new trend to sell a bunch of inflatable crap to personal trainers?

Mark if you have any opinions/explanations/comments/thoughts about this trend and how and why it came about, I would love to hear them. Thanks

[Mark Rippetoe]

Nice observation, one made repeatedly within the serious S&C community over the past few years. It is why the college and pro strength coaches formed their own organization several years ago, and why I and several other strength coaches whose names you'd know dropped our memberships in the NSCA. At this point, I am about ready to drop my CSCS credential -- one I have held since I was certified with the first group to take the test in 1985, and which makes me one of only 37 people with the potential to have been certified this long -- because I don't see it as particularly applicable to my profession at this point.

I am not that familiar with the NASM, except that they are famous for "assessing the kinetic chain" instead of teaching people how to do the exercises correctly, but I have never seen any of their material other than that. The NSCA publishes the most embarrassing "peer-reviewed journals" I have ever seen. The PTs have in fact taken over, and it has been a very long time since the NSCA was concerned with making anybody strong or conditioned. They have entered into an agreement with Gold's Gym to provide discount rates to Gold's Gym employees who wish to become certified, and that sounds to me just like it sounds to you.

At this point in the history of the strength and conditioning profession there exists a market for a legitimate certification. I hope someone steps forward to fill it soon.

[RWatkins]

At this point in the history of the strength and conditioning profession there exists a market for a legitimate certification. I hope someone steps forward to fill it soon.

Perhaps someone who has a few books under their belt, extensive weightlifting experience, and a good reputation in the lifting community will see the sense of founding their own organization and certification criteria to reflect their high standards?

[Mark Rippetoe]

Thanks dear, but No.

[Andy Baker (KSC)]

I got certified through USA Weightlifting along with NSCA and I found that the USAW certification to be pretty good. The guy that led my two day certification (mike conroy) actually had alot of experience training Oly. Lifters and other athletes (he didn't just talk theory with no experience)...we did a pretty thorough practical with the oly lifts and went through some programming stuff on how best to incorporate olympic lifting with other sorts of athletic training for a range of athletes. It was good stuff and if any of you guys actually want or care about getting certified its not a bad cert to have and the cost is reasonable as well....no textbooks and all that crap either. We went pretty in depth on the second day about using the "two steps forward - one step back" method that Rip talks about in PP, and how to apply it to different levels of athletes, etc.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Mike Conroy is a good coach, and if you have a shot at a course he teaches, take it.

[Andy Baker (KSC)]

Mike Conroy was a great coach and I learned more from the two day course/certifcation with him then I did in all my years of college and NSCA certs combined...The night of the cert he actually took a bunch of us to dinner and we sat around and talked training/lifting/competition etc for quite a while...very passionate about oly lifting and the training of athletes...very willing to share information and lend his experience to other slightly less experienced coaches...great guy, great coach