Clinical Exercise Specialist Jobs
Clinical Exercise Specialists work with special populations such as severely injured athletes, extremely obese, or elderly. The training protocols are designed to be lower impact than the sport specific training jobs mentioned above. The main reason that each of these three populations visits a clinical exercise specialist differs. An injured athlete will visit a CES when they have already been helped by both an athletic trainer and a physical therapist and they are looking to work on increasing mobility and strength to prevent the same injury from occurring again. A clinically obese person (BMI over 35) comes to a CES because he has been told be his doctor that he will die if he doesn’t get help soon. Elderly visit a CES when they have a problem that is not severe enough for a Physical Therapist but they need to become active or else the problem will worsen.
A CES also conducts group exercise sessions that involve aerobic exercise, stretching, and muscle conditioning. Because cardiovascular conditioning classes often involve movement to music, outside of class trainers must choose and mix the music and design the exercise sequence around it. Pilates and yoga are two increasingly popular conditioning methods taught in exercise classes, and because of this many Clinical Exercise Specialists acquire training in one or both.
Compensation:
Hospital rehab facility – hourly $18-$35 + some benefits
Private organization – hourly $20-$40 + benefits (higher pay is possible)
Contractor – hourly $30-$75 – no benefits
Note that salaries vary dependent upon years of practice, education level, geographic region and the size of the community.
Resources:
The American Council on Exercise – http://www.acefitness.org/
The American College of Sports Medicine – http://www.acsm.org/