PRESS CENTER
Contact Information
For interview requests or speaker inquiries, reach out via email at rethinkyourfitness@gmail.com with information about your podcast/media outlet or the scope of your event. Our PR Coordinator is happy to provide more information.
Mary Burruss, Co-Creator of Rethink LLC & Re-Think Fitness™
On deadline? Text 1+703-728-6308.
Mission Statement
Rethink LLC is a company dedicated to getting people into the mindset and habit of sustainable fitness to create a healthier population that can remain active for life.
Al Conde and Mary Burruss, Co-Founders of Re-Think Fitness
Re-Think Fitness (a subsidiary of Rethink LLC) was incorporated in February of 2020 after Co-Creators Al Conde and Mary Burruss noted how effective the combination of their two areas of expertise (traditional yoga and physical therapy-based personal training) is in getting people out of pain, correcting their movement dysfunctions. The broader mission of the company is to teach people sustainable fitness, a long-term approach to fitness that promotes easeful mobility and activity for an individual’s entire life.
Based in Richmond, Virginia, Re-Think Fitness has 3 employees and works with clients as far away as Colorado. The company is looking to expand client opportunities across the country and start training fitness professionals in its unique approach to fitness in 2021.
Meet the Team
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Adolfo "Al" Conde: Co-Creator
“Staying pain free and active for life is our natural state of being.”
- Al Conde, Co-Creator of Re-Think Fitness
Al Conde is a physical therapy-based fitness advocate and consultant with 32 years in the fitness industry primarily as one of NYC’s most sought-after high-end personal trainers who believes that fitness strategies should shift from a sports performance mindset to one that is sustainable and keeps people active, mobile and pain-free for life.
He is the Co-Creator along with Yogini, Mary Burruss, of Re-Think Fitness, a fitness consulting business that is dedicated to shifting the fitness/wellness conversation.
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Mary Burruss: Co-Creator
“When people practice Sustainable fitness they elevate and protect their quality of life for their whole life.”
- Mary Burruss, Co-Creator of Re-Think Fitness.
Mary Burruss believes that the human body is designed to move freely and easily for a person’s whole life and has dedicated a large part of her professional career to helping others to experience that through writing and teaching.
A recipient of a Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Muse Award for creativity, she studied Yoga and Eastern medicine in India and Tibet and acted as a close advisor to Dr. Dilip Sarkar for his book, Yoga Therapy, Ayurveda and Western Medicine: A Healthy Convergence before co-creating Re-Think Fitness, a unique consulting group that designs personalized pain mitigation plans and sustainable fitness programs for active individuals with her business partner, physical therapy-based personal trainer, Al Conde. She’s also the host of Self-Care Activist for WRWKFM.
Origin Story
In spring of 2019, Sara Massie-Grattan who thought her days competing in equestrian events were over. She was flat on her back with two herniated discs and extremely painful sciatica. People were telling her that living with this pain would be my new normal and that she would have to give up her passion, horse-back riding. Desperate to feel better and get back to her active lifestyle, she reached out to a Facebook friend, Yogini Mary Burruss, who had just posted a testimonial from a yoga student. “Can you help with sciatica,” she wrote. Burruss responded with a, “Yes.”
After the two met a few days later, Burruss was concerned. “The only comfortable position Sara could find was lying on her back with her feet up,” she said. “I knew yoga could help her but it is a slow medicine. She needed immediate relief.” That’s when she reached out to Al Conde. Conde, a sought after, high-end physical therapy-based personal trainer in NYC had recently moved back to Richmond with his family. He and Burruss had geeked out on corrective fitness many times and she suspected that by combining their collective talents they could help Massie-Grattan.
Conde accepted the challenge and they began a grueling 6 day per week pain-mitigation program with what would be their first client. They made sure to communicate with all of Massie-Grattan’s health providers to coordinate and customize her sessions. It was a huge gamble that totally paid off! “Mary and Al created an intensive recovery plan for me and by October I was competing again,” said Massie Grattan. “I am stronger and healthier than I have ever been!”
Massie-Grattan made such miraculous progress that friends and family noticed. Soon Burruss and Conde had several clients. They decided to make it official in February of 2020 by incorporating their partnership which they christened, Rethink LLC. “We named the business Re-Think Fitness because the main message we want to share with the world is that real homeostatic fitness is very different than the widely accepted sports performance-based concept,” says Burruss. “We have a mission to change that concept so that people know how to do their fitness in a way that keeps their bodies moving easily for their entire lives instead of having the body breakdown that results with sports performance-based fitness.”
The next step for Re-Think Fitness is to create a training program to help more people. “We can only work with a few people at a time because we provide super individualized service,” says Conde. “The Re-Think Fitness model can help more people if more people are trained in it.” The first student is already signed up and Conde and Burruss expect to have a full fledged licensing program running by fall of 2022. Their goal is to have trained Re-Think Fitness professionals all over the world so they can spread the message of Re-Thinking your fitness to stay active for life.
“I took a walk yesterday and for the first time I can remember I felt confident. I was able to run my errands without fear of falling and felt like a regular person. Thank you for giving me my life back!”
— Rebecca C.
What People Are Saying…
“The breathing practices have made a difference in my endurance while [rock] climbing. I can also feel the increasing power in my core and how my body is coordinating better.”
— George G.
“I had back pain, trouble sleeping and bad posture. My pain threshold ranged from a 0 to a 5 and kept me from being as productive as I wanted to be. Mary and Al approached the problems and solutions from very different points of view, yet the results were complementary and successful. Using tools I learned from the Re-Think Fitness team, I can now release back tension in a matter of minutes. I have better posture and greater flexibility. ”
“Al and Mary are fun and engaging to work with. Both are very knowledgeable about the body, mind, and how the two interact. My questions were always answered with clear and detailed responses that taught me more about how the body works. Whether meeting in person or virtually, Mary and Al created workouts and practices for me that challenged and strengthened me. Now I feel stronger and better equipped to lead a healthy, pain-free life. By learning more about my body and how it coordinates at a young age, I can continue these practices as I age to prevent muscular aging and degeneration in a negative way. Re-think Fitness has given me awareness of my body and this insight helps drive a healthy fitness practice.”
— Ellie Grattan
“I never would have believed when we started that I would feel so good. It was especially wonderful to work with people who are so enthusiastic and adept at their trade. I didn't know my body could do some of the things it's doing now!”
— Judy A.
“I did notice and so did one of my partners I was hitting the ball in the center of the face and finishing my swing with a little more pop and distance with my drives. It felt good.”
— Nick C.
“Mary and Al have changed the way I use my body so I can remain pain free without drugs or surgery. I am stronger and healthier than I have ever been and am learning to use my body correctly. My entire family is now working with Mary and Al and is reaping the rewards.”
“Working with the ReThink team has changed my life. I had been managing through lower back pain and targeted muscle tightness for years after a major injury using physical therapy, dry needling, and massages. Al and Mary have helped me to finally return to a pain free life. They quickly assessed what was causing the issues and created an individualized plan to work through it. The difference with the ReThink team is they didn’t just treat the symptoms (the pain and muscle tightness), but they worked to fix the underlying issues. They have helped to strengthen weaker muscles that had to be compensated for, recalibrate how my body moves, and which muscles are used for specific movements. They have also given me the tools and a yoga practice to proactively maintain a strong and healthy body as well as work through any future issues that arise.”
— William Massie
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