For a decade, Wes Rosner maintained health and wellness for all aspects of the Disneyland theme park.
“How is your mood today?”
It sounds like the first question a therapist—physical or mental—might ask at the beginning of a session. But generally speaking, a living, breathing therapist doesn’t then hold up signs with emojis expressing “Happy” on one end and “Stressed” on the other, with “Unsure,” “Tired” “Anxious” and others in between.
RVIVE does.
“It incorporates how you feel and how much time you have and what equipment you have with you. It combines mindset and mindfulness. It’s a truly holistic approach,” says Wes Rosner, who graduated from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in 2000 with a master’s in athletic training.
With a resume that includes more than a decade of maintaining health and wellness for all aspects of the Disneyland theme park, Rosner teamed up with Gregg Weaver, a software engineer and former professional beach volleyball athlete, to create their own company, Amped Technologies, in 2018.
Its first product is RVIVE, an app available for both Apple and Android devices. Just like Rosner’s work at Disney, its goal is maintaining wellness—again, physically and mentally—by preventing injuries, helping decrease stiffness and soreness and reducing mental stress or anxiety. Basically, day-to-day living.
“If you’re sitting in traffic or sitting in a chair all day, your lower back might hurt. If you’re really active, your knees might hurt,” he says. “What kind of stress do you have? What kind of mobility work should you be doing? It’s about getting you back to a balanced state.”
Ongoing balancing acts were part of what Rosner did at Disney, starting with years of wellness operations on the company’s entertainment side, digging deep into the company’s workings, right down to costuming and the ergonomics for those driving parade floats.
“When they’d develop a new show or new costume, we’d look at it and say, “Here’s what we saw in the design.’ So they’d add a new strap here and Velcro here,” Rosner explains.
The goal was not just to treat injuries, although that was part of it. The main focus was on preventing them in the first place and keeping the staff healthy overall.
“I oversaw the athletic training staff and supporting staff and we worked on performance medicine, preventative services, reducing worker comp claims and wellness programs,” Rosner explains. “We took care of everything, the shows and performers, resorts, horticulture, food service, support.”
Using what Rosner learned through years of athletic training techniques and programs—including a partnership with the Chinese Olympic Committee for preparation prior to the 2016 and 2018 games—RVIVE starts with a “Wellness Locker” where users select the equipment they already have on hand for daily exercise, stretching or to relieve aches. The choices include items such as heat and cold packs, water immersion, cryotherapy, resistance bands, foam rollers and others.
From there, the app’s home page offers three categories: Mobility, Soreness and Mindfulness. Each has a series of steps designed to help everything from painful areas such as neck, wrist and hamstrings or improving movement and mobility in joints and muscles. For Mindfulness, RVIVE offers sleep stories, soundscapes and meditations for relaxation and relieving anxiety. It asks how much time you have for your session that day and adjusts accordingly.
With its ability to change its approach based on each user’s needs, RVIVE is applicable to multiple careers and businesses, Rosner says. Currently, the app is being used by large entertainment, industrial and health-care entities as well as educational institutes and student sports teams.
“It’s not specific to one location or environment,” Rosner says.
Whatever the work environment or needs of individuals, RVIVE has one main goal, he says.
“It’s all about quality of life.”
