Health Insurance for Trainers & National Licensing

[Guest guest]

I have been a physical trainer for the last 7 years in NYC, USA. I

work for a top fitness club and on my own. Due to the fact that I do

not work 'full time' at my primary place of employment, they cut my

health insurance. In fact out of 60 trainers there are more than

half no longer eligiable for health insurance....and this is a health

club. Anyway, in NY state it is quite expensive to get your own

health insurance $290-$675 per month. Does anyone out there know of

any group insurance a physical trainer could join to get a better

rate? Moreover, does anyone has information on national or regional

unions that trainers could join?

[Many of the fitness accreditation organisations offer special insurance

policies - you might care to join one of them if you aren't already a member.

Mel Siff]

Four years ago there was a bill in the Senate that was proposing the

creation of a nationally recognized PT licensing board. From what I

understand the bill was rejected. As we all know there is a ton of

information out there regrarding our field and even more certifing

bodies. For every piece of research I read I can come across a

contradictory one. According to Tom Purvis (RTS) the Mayo clinic did

a study where they looked over thousands of research articles in

exercise science and found that approximately 90% of them were

fatally flawed. If one was to look at some of the 'leaders' of this

field, they seem to be all contridicting each other. Who do we

beleive beside ourselves and the laws of science?

[it would be interesting to know how members of the Mayo Clinic could

find the unpaid time to review multiple thousands of articles in hundreds

of peer-reviewed publications. Since these articles concern many different

aspects of exercise science, such as sports science, sports medicine,

biomechanics,

pharmacology, biochemistry, physiology, anatomy, bioengineering, orthopaedics,

sport psychology, microbiology, physics and kinesiology, this would mean that

numerous experts would have to be called upon to review the different articles.

Bearing in mind that each review takes several days or even weeks if one checks

all

statistics, methodology and references, the time taken for this free research

would

involve huge expenditure of Mayo clinic time and resources which brings in no

money

whatsoever. I would like to see the study which carried out all this work - it

sounds

very much like an urban legend to me. Mel Siff]

I beleive a nationally recognized licensing board would get all this

research and all these 'leaders' together and come to a few

consenses. In addition, it would give our profession more respect

and validity. Presently, I see a lot of trainers arguably putting

thier clients in harms way with thier poor exercise selection, lack

of attentivness, poor grasp of biomechanics and physiology, one

routine fits all approach and lack of the proper motivational

skills. This type of training has the propensity to make our

profession look amateuarish and unprofessional.

If anyone has any ideas on how we can, as a group, push congress and

the senate to pass such a bill it would be greatly appreciated.

Doug Joachim, CPT

NYC USA

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