Since 1997…
Founded by Tom Purvis, RTS, LLC has provided continuing education to Exercise Professionals since it’s inaugural 5 day event in 1997. While the information presented may and certainly should be applied to one’s self, the goal is to come to understand, appreciate, and eventually master the process required to make skilled, strategic exercise decisions appropriate for the current idiosyncratic needs and abilities of any individual client or patient, for whose health and well-being the exercise professional has accepted responsibility, regardless of where he or she may currently lie along the *Functional Continuum®.
“The complete RTS experience and education can only be achieved by attending Mastery taught exclusively by Tom Purvis.”
Exercise Professionals
We define an Exercise Professional as any practitioner who employs exercise as a modality regardless of the demographic with whom he/she works. Personal trainers, group exercise instructors, physical therapists, chiropractors, performance specialists, strength coaches, skill coaches, etc., all employ exercise along a continuum of client/patient abilities, tolerances and goals. Yet there are specific areas and levels of knowledge as well as practical experiences and skill-sets that are clearly not taught in any of the related degrees or certifications.
A Practical Professional’s Focus
RTS offers truly PRACTICAL education for the Exercise Professional, not bound by tradition, and not biased by sciences like physiology that cannot possibly influence exercise design and execution decisions. The focus is on an ever-expanding foundation of principles and information that enables the decision making process, enhancing the Exercise Professional’s skills of investigation, custom exercise design, progression, and exercise delivery specific to the idiosyncratic and changing needs and tolerances of the individual client. While generalized assessments, exercise instructions, and protocols of progression are acceptable standards of education and practice for physical therapy and personal training. At RTS we considered anything that is not Client-Defined™ as subpar for true Exercise Professional! Everything must be modified based upon “Who, Goal, Have, Own, and Tolerate”™!
A true professional’s education is not based upon gathering more support for what he/she already believes. It is not comprised of sound bites that people mistake as “science”. Science is not memorized facts, nor flawed or misapplied research. It is a process of constant questioning and investigation! It’s process requiring openness, not ego! A true professional seeks both textbook and practical knowledge that is only of value as applies to each individual client or patient and his/her responses and outcome therefrom.
Exercise Mechanics
“The term ‘Exercise Mechanics’ was coined by Tom Purvis in the 80’s, and RTS was the first and only course teaching it for decades.”
RTS focuses and excels at the progressive presentation of Exercise Mechanics, an application of engineering and physics to the understanding, implementation, and delivery of exercise. The Master Level of the RTS programs has proven time and time again to exceed the virtually all major university kinesiology, biomechanics, exercise science, or sports medicine classes in terms of the applicable presentation of mechanical principles and their specific application to various individuals on any given repetition on any given day. The integration of orthopedics and motor learning with the physics of resistance application, along with the skills of client/patient communication truly set RTS apart.
Determine Your Own Entry Level
The RTS programs have evolved from a single 5-day course in 1997 to multiple levels of courses including the pinnacle… the 9-day Advanced Hands-on Labs of the Mastery Level to be preceded by the 120 hour online prerequisite lectures (hosted by ExerciseProfessional.com). Are you committed to extremely advanced learning and very specialized study that requires a commitment to traveling? (50%-60% of RTSm students are international including students traveling from the UK, Switzerland, Sweden, Germany, Brazil, Mexico, China, Australia, Spain, Portugal, Canada, Romania, and Malaysia. In fact one Brazilian student learned English solely to attend Mastery!)
If logistics or your level of commitment keep you within a tighter geographical radius, there are RTS Foundations courses in the UK and Canada via RTS, a variety of course levels and seminars through RTS Brazil, as well as an L1 and L2 offered in many other countries throughout Asia, the middle east, Scandinavia, etc., via RTS Global.
Your Expectations Define Your RTS Experience
Ultimately, your experience with RTS, will be determined first and foremost by the attitude and filter with which you attend. Attendees of RTSm have include NBA and NFL strength coaches, university professors, Specialty Certified DPT’s, MD’s, DC’s, high school coaches, “celebrity trainers”, “master trainers”, recently certified personal trainers, Pilates instructors, yoga teachers, etc. Exercise Mechanics and delivery transcends all versions and levels of exercise. Be open and you will walk away with new skills and insights that can help evolve your decision making process… if you so choose.
The Bottom Line
If you’re entirely satisfied with your level of knowledge and skills in application; if you’re completely satisfied with your ability to meet the needs of every single type of client from the exceptionally tolerant athlete to the orthopedically and neurologically compromised 50 year old to the average 80 year old; if you’re happy with the standards of practice in the industry, or if you’re just apathetic, then RTS is not the place for you… yet.
The History of RTS
At this point RTS is the culmination of 50 years of Tom Purvis’ experiences as a lifelong student and inquisitor, decades of both teaching experiences and professional practice, years of equipment design with industry leaders, decades of equipment manufacturing, years of strength profiles** and resistance profile** testing and innovation, as well as both physical achievements and challenges… all of which culminated in thousands of mistakes… a virtual breeding ground for hundreds of original insights into Exercise Mechanics and working with every person regardless of where they current are along the continuum of physical abilities and tolerances.
In 1989 the founder of NASM, Dr. Robert Goldman, recruited Tom to develop the Biomechanics Lectures and Hands-on portions of what was the first Personal Training certification in the US. By 1999 Tom was continuing to increase the depth and details of these presentations, while NASM was eliminating its advanced courses for the more lucrative basic courses.
You could view that decade building NASM as the incubator for the development of the information that was to become “RTS”. For several years Tom had been doing professional continuing education courses for therapists and trainers under the RTS name, so at that point RTS became the sole home and delivery site for his continually advancing explorations and presentations. Over 30 years later RTS continues to evolve and offer one of the most advanced specialty educational programs in the Exercise Professional world.
*Functional Continuum is a registered trademark (®) of Tom Purvis
**Recognized trademarks (™) of Tom Purvis