Are you extremely passionate about making people lead healthy lives by motivating them to be physically active? If you are a socialite with a love for fitness and a career in health sciences interests you, then consider pursuing a career in Kinesiology.
Kinesiology is a unique natural therapy that studies the movement of the body through muscle testing for the determination of areas of strengths and weakness of the body. It can also be used to identify the imbalances in the structural, chemical and emotional energies of the body.
Who is a Kinesiologist?
Kinesiology specialists or Kinesiologist specialize in the analysis of the human body movement. They use their expertise in human physiology and their movements to help patients recover their mobility and improvement of their lives through exercise.
They look for various ways of improving the human body’s efficiency and movement at work or play by studying the aspects of human movements. They employ different techniques to identify the body’s problem areas while establishing the body’s priority for healing and evaluation of energy changes that are an implication of a broad range of therapeutic procedures. This is done for the restoration of the body to a state of harmony and balance.
What does a Kinesiologist do?
- Use muscle testing and monitoring procedure to identify the imbalances of the body that is responsible for causing illness and treating it.
- Focus on the flow of energy also called chi and finding out how it affects the neuromuscular region of the body while at work.
- Employ different healing techniques for resolving energy blockages in the body after the determination of the underlying cause for the illness.
- Provide assistance to different conditions like stress, physical injuries, occupational pain, muscular disorders, immobility and motor learning difficulties and helping the patients to cope up with them.
- Management, rehabilitation and prevention of disorders that affect movement.
- Monitoring of patients regularly to ensure that their program meets the desired results.
- Improve the motor learning skills of patients suffering from autism, cerebral palsy and other neurological and motor problems.
- Demonstration of proper muscle movements to avoid and prevention of injuries.
How to become a Kinesiologist
- At the high school level, opt for coursework in chemistry, physics, biology and calculus which is the requirement for kinesiology.
- An associate degree in kinesiology which is of 1-2 years is suited for candidates who want to pursue entry-level work in the fitness industry. These graduates can work as fitness instructors, fitness consultants and personal trainers. With additional training can work as massage therapists and physical therapists.
- A bachelor’s degree in kinesiology is of 4 years of duration that is best suited for candidates that want to work as certified athletic trainers and physical education teachers. They can work in community recreation and clinical settings, more specialized roles than associate degree holders.
- A master’s degree in the kinesiology of 2-3 years helps learners to get hired as strength and training coaches, athletic program administrators and exercise physiologists.
This is the minimum qualification for getting work as an athletic administrator or a coach. - A doctoral degree in kinesiology takes 4 years to complete for candidates interested in research, education and for pursuing specializations. With this degree, Kinesiologists can work as sports psychologists, university professors and kinesiology research scientists and for executive-level sports administration careers.
Specializations in Kinesiology
- Exercise Kinesiologists
- Biomechanics Kinesiologists
- Psychomotor Kinesiologists
- Ergonomic Kinesiologists
Workplaces of Kinesiologists
Various organizations that hire these professionals are:
- Athletic companies
- Sporting equipment companies
- Rehabilitation departments
- Occupational health departments
- Sport, fitness and recreation centers
- Sports organizations and teams
- Hospitals and primary health care facilities
- Colleges and universities
Career Opportunities
Kinesiologists can work as educators, part of a multidisciplinary team and in private practice. Many of these professionals apply their skills to holistic health disciplines of energy healing like Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and chiropractic.
Since kinesiology identifies the interconnection between physical, chemical and energetic bodies, it is hugely used in the treatment of health disorders and complementary health practitioners are finding new ways of using them.
Salary and Job outlook
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLU), the following are the annual salaries with projected job growth from 2019-2029 of different Kinesiologists based on their education level.
- Fitness Instructors with $40,390 pay and 15% growth.
- Coaches and scouts with $34,840 pay and 12% growth.
- Athletic Trainers with $48,440 pay and 16% growth.
- Exercise Physiologists and Kinesiotherapists with $49,170 pay and 11% growth.
- Sports Managers with $73,740 pay and 4% growth.
Kinesiologists employed in salaried position have benefits of sick leaves and paid vacations.
Kinesiologists have specialized training in health science and skills leading to a high demand in the medical field.
– Samiya Firdous
