Author Archives: Tom Purvis

Learn the language…

It seems most trainers seeking education want to jump straight into the performance of exercises. The problem typically are that: They don’t have a tolerance for detail. They don’t know the language that represents the details. They don’t know the principles that represent the details of decision making. Therefore, they can’t even discuss or dissect […]

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Exercise Education…

It’s sad but true, but after educating trainers and therapists both domestically and internationally since 1989 it has become obvious that the Exercise Professional’s education absolutely must start with myth-busting and deprogramming. The barriers to learning are just too overwhelming when one is defending unfounded and poorly supported beliefs held to under the guise of […]

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I’m not pretending to be smart…

Regarding my closed chain work and exposé: I’m not pretending to be smart. The truths I’ve uncovered are not my creations. It’s simply that I no longer blindly accept the traditionally accepted “truths”. University professors typically just pass on what they’ve learned without questioning it. “Good students” typically make good grades by diligently learning currently […]

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Doing Math…

Doing math doesn’t qualify you to be an accountant, statistician, or a professor of mathematics… nor does it mean you even get the correct answers. Likewise, exercising doesn’t mean you are qualified to determine what and how anyone else should do perform or even attempt an exercise. It doesn’t mean you do it correctly, safely, […]

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Numbers….

If you’re asking for numbers (frequency, sets, reps, etc.) you don’t understand the principles that they are supposed to represent. The textbooks and “research” are generalizations that do not consider beginners, progression, degree of effort per final rep, learning the skill of the exercise, etc. People ask “can you work ‘core’ every day?” They obviously […]

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truth…

The list of requirements for truth… whether it be finding truth, speaking truth, acknowledging truth, accepting truth, etc., …do not include having to LIKE that which is true!

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Dismissal…

You can’t legitimately dismiss something until you know virtually everything about it! In this context I am referring specifically to an exercise, a machine, a methodology, or assumed responses to any of these. Typically we dismiss something because our ego demands it when we don’t understand, are intimidated, or because we are blindly following the […]

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“film”…

I catch myself using “film” as a verb, and saying “footage” (which would represent a section or amount of film used). Things haven’t been shot on film in two decades. When I started hosting infomercials in ‘95 they would shoot on film to create a higher level of visual quality. But they couldn’t play back […]

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“the gold standard”…

Every certification for which I ever worked or consulted, eventually or initially asked me to in essence “dumb it down” while they promoted that they were either “the gold standard”, “state of art”, and/or “leading the industry”. Hypocrisy at its finest!

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