Vocational Day

Day 3 - Thursday, May 31st, I believe....

Former participants of the GSE programs have warned us how fast paced our visit will be. It hasn't even been a week yet and I'm already struggling to keep my dates straight!

Today was our first vocational day. I wasn't quite sure what to expect for a vocational day to be honest. For me, my vocation requires leading a one hour long work out class, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect for a day at the gym here in Germany. But I definitely learned a lot in that time!

First, I had a tour of the facility. Over all, no different from any facility you would find in the U.S. Of course, as in any gym, the equipment varies from location to location, but for the most part it was the same - the same functions and muscle training movements. There were, however, three new ones I hadn't seen.

1) A muscle vibrating machine - Stand on the machine and turn it on. The platform you stand on will begin to vibrate. As it does so, the person will naturally engage his or her muscles to stabilize themselves, therefore, using the muscle more than normal. Think along the lines of 'Shock Thereapy' in a physical therapy situation - the vibrations cause the muscles to contract therefore having the same effect as working. With this machine then, the muscles contract and are used just by standing on the machine, then you add the work, such as squats, which adds another level of working the muscle and a stability challenge.

2) A Ski Machine - much like our Elliptical Machine but instead of the pedals moving in a forward and back running motion they move side to side - like skating, rollerblading, or ski-ing. This was the most popular machine in the gym, which makes sense given the popularity of the sport in Germany. Perhaps these machines are popular in Colorado.

3) The Kordi - The Cordi is similar to our Wii Fit Balance games. You test your level and then go thru 10 games or challenges that work on balance and stability.

After a tour I participated in a few group fitness classes - Step, Core and Glutes, and Pilates. The formats and execution of these classes are exactly like at home, but I did pick up a few new exercises to use in classes.

The real eye opening experiences came in the shadowing of the trainers. What I quickly learned was that Personal Training does not exactly exist, at least in this area. 1) It would be very expensive but 2) Most people are very active in the culture on their own. To pay some one to watch you work out or give you work outs to perform seems strange, especially at a high cost. Most importantly though is the fact that most people at the facility working with a 'trainer' are working with what we would consider Physical Therepists. These people have had an injury and are now working to gain back motion, stability and muscle. Similar to the U.S., a Doctor's Referal is needed to see a Therapist, but the big difference is that this referal is usually for a year - not a few weeks. Also, a referral can be given to participate in Group Classes. Most interestingly, a referral for these classes will be prescribed BEFORE medication is prescribed.
With this information, of course, came the discussion of Health Care Reform in the United States as compared to here in Germany. But right now I do not have time to describe that!

The second thing that is very, very different is what I would call the Scope of Practice for Trainers here and myself as a Persona Trainer and Fitness Instructor. The Trainers here over see the work outs in the gym, but their clients are primarily on their own doing the work out given to them, so the Trainer (what we would call Physical Therapist) can have 3,4,5 clients at one time. The Trainer then, can take the client back to a masage room, give a mesage, crack a back, and see the client again in a week. At home, these are very, very different professions. Also, the schooling for a Trainer is often 3 years, where as at home, for Physical Therapy a minimum of a Masters Degree is required.

Very eye opening experience!