NEWS

RTS founder gives keynote addresses at the Annual Mayo Clinic Sports Medicine Symposium.

Tom Purvis, RPT, founder of Focus On Fitness® and co-founder of the Resistance Training Specialist® Program presented two keynote addresses at the 13th Annual Mayo Clinic Sports Medicine Symposium.
The symposium was conducted by the Mayo Clinic Department of Continuing
Medical Education and held at the Mayo Civic Center in Rochester, MN.
Attendance was primarily by physicians, physical therapist, and
athletic trainers from across the nation.



Tom's first keynote was entitled "Why the Weight is NOT the Resistance: Principles of Elastic Resistance Training."
Beginning with the general principles of resistance, Tom examined the
misunderstandings surrounding the application of elastomers to exercise
including why "increased stretch" does not necessarily mean an
increased resistance. It concluded with practical applications using
single as well as multiple strands of tubing to create countless
resistance profiles for a variety of exercises.



The second keynote was entitled "Sport-Specific Training: Myths and
Realities of Transitioning from the Gym to the Playing Field." This
lecture covered the closely related subjects of sport-specific training
and "functional training". Examined were historically held traditional
beliefs as well as the popular current trends. These were compared to
and contrasted against current findings in the research with the goal
of dispelling myth and marketing-driven misconceptions in order to
create a biomechanically, neurologically, and physiologically sound
perspective on which one can base the appropriate force prescription
and exercise progression.



This was Tom's second invitation to the Mayo Clinic Sports Medicine Symposium. In 1996 he gave a general presentation on the "Myths and Misconceptions in Weight Training."