Carson Willich

Responsibilities

Some of my main responsibilities during this internship were to help assist Orien Vance with personal training sessions, shadow over physical therapy sessions, and understand how personal training and physical therapy go hand in hand, help find interns for the upcoming semesters, help with the forcedeck setup, which are dual force plate systems that help analyze balance, strength, and overall movement. I also help clean around the facility and set up equipment, and lastly, I hang out with the chiropractors sometimes to understand body parts and the muscles on a deeper level.

Accomplishments

I would say the greatest accomplishment I made was helping set up the force plate system and helping a specific client cure back pain that he had been experiencing for quite a while.

Learning experience

The greatest lesson I learned was learning how to lead different people and certainly different age groups. In personal training, you have clients of all different age groups, so having the ability to learn how each age group is and understanding that everyone's body is different was really important and beneficial for me.

What advice would you give?

My advice is to find an internship with a wide variety of different learning opportunities. I say that because at United Movement Ames, this place is a personal training, pilates, chiropractic and personal training place all in one. Having that gives me the ability to learn in multiple different areas and improve my overall learning.