What Does an Exercise Specialist Do?

We looked at the average exercise specialist annual salary and compared it with the average of an athletic trainer. Generally speaking, athletic trainers receive $5,359 higher pay than exercise specialists per year.

While the salaries between these two careers can be different, they do share some of the same responsibilities. Employees in both exercise specialists and athletic trainers positions are skilled in patients, rehabilitation, and patient care.

These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. An exercise specialist responsibility is more likely to require skills like "customer service," "physical therapy," "blood pressure," and "acsm." Whereas a athletic trainer requires skills like "student athletes," "athletic injuries," "athletic events," and "osha." Just by understanding these different skills you can see how different these careers are.

On average, athletic trainers reach similar levels of education than exercise specialists. Athletic trainers are 4.2% more likely to earn a Master's Degree and 0.1% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.

Now we're going to look at the coordinator cardiopulmonary services profession. On average, coordinators cardiopulmonary services earn a $8,450 higher salary than exercise specialists a year.

In addition to the difference in salary, there are some other key differences that are worth noting. For example, exercise specialist responsibilities are more likely to require skills like "patients," "rehabilitation," "patient care," and "customer service." Meanwhile, a coordinator cardiopulmonary services might be skilled in areas such as "bls," "respiratory care," "acls," and "critical care." These differences highlight just how different the day-to-day in each role looks.

When it comes to the differences in education between the two professions, coordinators cardiopulmonary services tend to reach lower levels of education than exercise specialists. In fact, they're 7.1% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.1% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

The cardiac rehabilitation program director profession generally makes a higher amount of money when compared to the average salary of exercise specialists. The difference in salaries is cardiac rehabilitation program directors making $11,833 higher than exercise specialists.

Using exercise specialists and cardiac rehabilitation program directors resumes, we found that both professions have similar skills such as "rehabilitation," "patient care," and "blood pressure," but the other skills required are very different.

There are many key differences between these two careers as shown by resumes from each profession. Some of those differences include the skills required to complete responsibilities within each role. As an example of this, an exercise specialist is likely to be skilled in "patients," "customer service," "physical therapy," and "cpr," while a typical cardiac rehabilitation program director is skilled in "clinical assessments," "iii," "physiology," and "discharge planning."

Cardiac rehabilitation program directors are known to earn higher educational levels when compared to exercise specialists. Additionally, they're 28.3% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 1.0% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

The fourth career we look at typically earns higher pay than exercise specialists. On average, certified athletic trainers earn a difference of $5,515 higher per year.

While both exercise specialists and certified athletic trainers complete day-to-day tasks using similar skills like patients, rehabilitation, and patient care, the two careers also vary in other skills.

Even though a few skill sets overlap, there are some differences that are important to note. For one, an exercise specialist might have more use for skills like "customer service," "physical therapy," "blood pressure," and "cardiac rehabilitation." Meanwhile, some certified athletic trainers might include skills like "athletic events," "resuscitation," "osha," and "athletic training room" on their resume.

In general, certified athletic trainers reach higher levels of education when compared to exercise specialists resumes. Certified athletic trainers are 5.4% more likely to earn their Master's Degree and 0.4% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.