Athletic training programs prepare people to prevent and treat sports-related injuries. Students learn to work with doctors to help athletes gain peak performance and health.

You may think that athletes are some of the healthiest people in the world. Constant physical activity must keep them fit, right? Well, although it's true that athletes can be very healthy, their constant physical activity can actually make them subject to painful injuries and chronic conditions. Runners can get shin splints, swimmers can get dislocated shoulders, and basketball players torn knee ligaments. These are just a few injuries that might afflict an athlete.

Athletic trainers not only treat such injuries; they also train athletes to take precautionary measures in order to prevent injuries and chronic problems from occurring. They work under the direction of a licensed physician, along with other healthcare professionals, coaches, and even parents to get to know athletes individually and help them take care of their health.

As a student in this program of study, you study muscles, ligaments, and bones, and learn how these three parts of the body work together during movement. You learn how to identify an injury and recognize the degree of its severity. You also learn how to treat injuries and help an athlete recover from them.

Some athletes have acute or chronic illnesses that might affect their physical activity. Because of this, you would study diseases in general (pathology) as well as the effects of medications and other drugs (pharmacology).

Many schools offer accredited programs in athletic training, where you can earn either a bachelor's or a master's degree. A bachelor's degree usually takes about four years of full-time study after high school, and a master's degree typically between one and three years in addition to that.