Exercise Physiology

Accredited Exercise physiologists (AEP’s) are university qualified allied health professionals with extensive knowledge of the human body and training in understanding the body’s physical and psychological response to exercise in healthy populations, as well as in the context of injury, pain, chronic disease and disability.

AEP’s use evidence-based movement/exercise interventions & education to improve quality of life and prevent or treat chronic diseases. Their skill and knowledge allow them to help people who may be affected by chronic pain, cancer, auto-immune diseases, cardiovascular diseases, osteoporosis, mental health conditions, post-operative rehabilitation and several others.

We often receive the question how physiotherapists and AEP’s differ. Both are university qualified professions utilising gold standard evidence-based treatments to help you increase your health and quality of life. They both studied subjects such as anatomy, physiology, cardiopulmonary function, nervous system function, and biomechanics.

Within a rehabilitation process you may see both simultaneously at some stage. Often you may see the physiotherapist in the acute and sub-acute injury phase, whereas AEP’s tend to treat the sub-acute and preventative/performance phase to get you faster back to full function, decrease the risk for future injury or maybe even help you achieve goals beyond the initial rehabilitation goals. When the two professions work well together through collaborative goal setting, treatments and good communication you have the chance to achieve a much better outcome.

Our AEP’s can:
• Assess your condition, determine your current functional abilities and develop goals
• Use specifically tailored exercise programs to treat your condition and improve your health
• Decrease your pain and increase your function
• Chronic pain education and treatment
• Help you with lifestyle and behaviour modifications and educate you in anything related to exercise
• Prescribe exercise programs to prevent or manage chronic disease, injury and/or disability
• Improving your mobility and flexibility and prescribe exercise for rehabilitation
• Prescribe exercise programs for weight loss or metabolic conditions
• Prescribe prenatal and postpartum exercise programs
• Provide you with a strength and conditioning program to improve your overall health and fitness or help increase your performance for a specific goal (e.g. long-distance running)

Mackay