Tell a friend overseas that you are seeing a Biokineticist and you will probably get a blank look. Biokinetics is a South African profession, and outside southern Africa the title hardly exists. Plenty of South Africans are not sure what it means either.
Exercise as the treatment
The Biokinetics Association of South Africa describes a Biokineticist as a clinical exercise specialist: someone who assesses you individually and then prescribes exercise, either to rehabilitate an injury or illness or to stop one from developing1.
The Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA), which regulates the profession, calls it a "final-phase" therapy2. That phrase needs a little explaining. When you tear a ligament or have a knee operation, the first phase is medical. Someone has to diagnose it, perhaps operate, and get the pain and swelling down. The final phase is everything after that: getting your strength, balance and confidence back until you can do what you used to do. That part is a Biokineticist's work.
Where it came from
Biokinetics grew out of the physical education departments at South African universities, which had been studying exercise and health for decades. It became an official health profession when its registration was announced in the Government Gazette on 9 September 1983. Since 1998 it has fallen under the HPCSA's Professional Board for Physiotherapy, Podiatry and Biokinetics2.
How a Biokineticist trains
There are two routes. One is a four-year professional degree in Biokinetics. The other is a three-year degree in human movement science followed by an honours year in Biokinetics. Both include a supervised clinical internship, and nobody may practise without registering with the HPCSA2.
Cayla Urdang took the second route. She has a BCom in Sports Management and a BA Honours in Biokinetics from the University of Johannesburg, and she has been in private practice since 2016. Her HPCSA registration number is BK 0027510.
How it differs from physiotherapy and personal training
People mix these up all the time.
A physiotherapist usually sees you earlier, when the injury is fresh, and uses hands-on treatment as well as exercise. A Biokineticist comes in later and works through exercise alone2.
A personal trainer helps healthy people get fitter. A Biokineticist is a registered health professional who is trained to work with injuries and medical conditions, has a practice number, and can be claimed for from medical aid.
What a first session looks like
It starts with measuring. Depending on why you have come, a Biokineticist may look at your posture, body composition, blood pressure, heart rate, strength, flexibility, balance and fitness1. The exercise programme is built from those results, and the same tests are repeated later to see whether it is working.
Sessions after that are mostly supervised exercise. The aim is for you to understand your own programme well enough to carry on without help.
Who goes to a Biokineticist
People recovering from an injury or an operation, once the early treatment is done. People living with long-term conditions such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease or arthritis, where exercise is part of the treatment3. Athletes coming back from injury. Women who want to exercise safely during pregnancy and after the birth, which is one of Cayla's particular interests. And people who are not ill at all but want to stay that way.
Cayla also does Discovery Vitality Fitness Assessments.
You do not need a doctor's referral, though referrals are welcome.
This article is general information and not a diagnosis. For advice that fits you, come in for an assessment.
References
- Biokinetics Association of South Africa. biokineticssa.org.za
- Ellapen TJ, Strydom GL, Swanepoel M, Hammill H, Paul Y. Biokinetics: a South African health profession evolving from physical education and sport. In: Sport and Exercise Science. IntechOpen; 2018. intechopen.com
- Pedersen BK, Saltin B. Exercise as medicine: evidence for prescribing exercise as therapy in 26 different chronic diseases. Scand J Med Sci Sports. 2015;25(Suppl 3):1-72. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov