Optimise Rehab Dr. Merv Travers: Strength and Conditioning for Physiotherapists

Strength & Conditioning for Physiotherapists

Who can attend

This course is open to physiotherapists, manual therapists, sports physiotherapists, exercise and movement therapists, chiropractors, podiatrists, occupational therapists, and other allied health professionals interested in integrating evidence-based strength and conditioning principles into clinical rehabilitation and performance practice.

What you will learn

This two-day course provides physiotherapists with the scientific and practical foundations to confidently prescribe and coach strength and conditioning (S&C) programs in a gym-based environment.

Grounded in the most recent evidence and WHO physical-activity guidelines, participants will learn how to manipulate training variables—intensity, volume, frequency, and rest—to drive specific physiological adaptations across different populations, from athletes to older adults.

The course blends theory, clinical reasoning, and practical application, ensuring that over half of the total contact time is spent in the gym developing hands-on skills such as:

• Designing safe and effective gym-based rehabilitation programs.
• Calibrating exercise intensity relative to individual capacity.
• Building progressive loading strategies for strength, power, hypertrophy, and endurance.
• Applying minimal effective dose and maintenance dosing to sustain progress.
• Integrating strength work in injury prevention and return-to-sport contexts.

You’ll explore key evidence from current systematic reviews, WHO guidelines, and applied exercise physiology to develop competence and confidence in prescribing, instructing, and evaluating resistance-training programs.

Learning outcomes

After completing this course, participants will be able to:

1. Critically appraise scientific literature and clinical guidelines on strength and conditioning and translate this knowledge into physiotherapy practice.
2. Design and justify complex, individualised strength-training programs for diverse populations (athletes, older adults, and clinical populations) using evidence-based parameters of intensity, load, and recovery.
3. Integrate S&C principles into clinical reasoning for rehabilitation and injury prevention across musculoskeletal and neurological contexts.
4. Evaluate training effectiveness using valid assessment tools and outcome measures to monitor progress and modify programs.
5. Reflect on professional practice by linking physiological mechanisms, behavioural factors, and patient feedback to treatment outcomes.
6. Communicate and defend exercise prescriptions and programming choices to peers, interdisciplinary teams, and patients using a sound scientific rationale.
7. Assess safety and ethical considerations in gym-based rehabilitation for special populations, including those with cardiovascular, metabolic, or musculoskeletal conditions.

Key course features

• Over 50 % of course time dedicated to gym-based practice.
• Step-by-step skill development from safe technique to intensity mastery.
• Integration of WHO 2020 guidelines for physical activity and strength training.
• Evidence-based discussion on training variables: load, volume, rest, and frequency.
• Application of minimal effective dose and maintenance dosing principles.
• Practical sessions on squats, deadlifts, posterior-chain work, running re-entry, and older-adult strength training.
• Delivered by Dr Mervyn Travers PhD, international educator and clinician-scientist in rehabilitation and applied exercise science.