Sport, Exercise & Rehabilitation Special Interest Group

The Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation Special Interest Group (SIG) exists to facilitate networking and communication among osteopathic practitioners with an interest in this area of practice. The SIG promotes knowledge exchange and best practice, supports inclusivity and equitable health outcomes, provides educational events, and fosters strategic relationships with other stakeholders in sport, exercise, and rehabilitation.

Exercise-based rehabilitation sits at the intersection of preventive medicine and clinical practice. The economic and health burden of chronic disease in New Zealand underlines the urgency of this work.

Chronic inflammation is a contributing factor to chronic disease, depression, and poor mental health. Key physiological markers — including VO2 max and skeletal muscle index — are predictors of all-cause mortality, areas where osteopathic exercise rehabilitation can make a meaningful contribution.

Rehabilitation aims to restore full function and reduce the risk of re-injury. Osteopathic rehabilitation supports patients across activities of daily living, exercise, and sport. The Expert Reference Group for Osteopathy (ERG) has recommended that ACC create rehabilitation outcome measures, and is currently utilising the ACC Cost of Treatment Review process to improve rehabilitation outcomes — an area in which this SIG is actively engaged.

Proposed education initiatives include the development of guidelines and educational pathways by the SIG, partnerships with tertiary providers such as ARA, and utilisation of existing sport and exercise rehabilitation courses from universities and polytechnics. New face-to-face courses aligned with New Zealand's needs are under development, with online education available for Australian members.

ONZ offers two pathways to advanced practice recognition in exercise-based rehabilitation:

Tertiary Pathway — for practitioners completing an accredited tertiary-level qualification leading to the Advanced Exercise-Based Rehabilitation Osteopath title.

Vocational Pathway — for experienced practitioners seeking recognition of existing clinical expertise through the Advanced Clinical Practice Recognition process, leading to the specialist title.