Every January, the gyms fill up and millions of people make the same promise they made last year. They know what they should do. The problem is that knowing and doing are separated by a gap almost nobody teaches you how to cross.

This week on the Bulls Rise Podcast, Dr. Chris Perry welcomes the first faculty guest of Season 2 and the newest member of the UB ENS family: Dr. Danielle King, registered dietitian nutritionist and Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Exercise & Nutrition Sciences. Danielle teaches the mechanisms of health behavior change and nutrition counseling, still practices through telehealth, and built her dissertation on the Diabetes Prevention Program. Her episode is an operating manual for how humans actually change.

In this conversation, you'll hear:

🧠 Why it's so hard to do what we know we should, and why admitting that is step one
🚫 The "righting reflex" and the birthday cake that makes it twice as bad
📋 The HAPA two-plan method: plan the goal, plan for the barrier
🥦 Why frozen and canned produce is just as good (and the 60% sodium rinse trick)
💛 "It's not always your fault": the food environment and the case for grace
🔁 Don't wait for Monday: the restart that sticks
📊 The 15-year study showing 7 to 10% weight loss keeps paying off
🎓 The assignment that puts every student in the patient's chair
🧪 Seed oils, GLP-1s, and her take on the new dietary guidelines

🎙️ Bulls Rise is the official podcast of the University at Buffalo's Department of Exercise & Nutrition Sciences, hosted by Dr. Chris Perry, Clinical Assistant Professor and Executive Performance Coach.

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🔗 CONNECT WITH BULLS RISE:
🎓 UB ENS: @UBuffaloENS
📸 Dr. Perry: @drcperry001

🔗 RESOURCES:
🌐 Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics: Nutrition Fact Checks

🎧 LISTEN ON ALL PLATFORMS:

🔔 Subscribe for new episodes featuring researchers, clinicians, coaches, educators, and students shaping the future of exercise science, sports medicine, and human performance.

#BullsRise #BehaviorChange #RegisteredDietitian #NutritionCounseling #UBENS #UniversityAtBuffalo #HealthCoaching #WeightLoss #UBuffalo

It's 4:47 in the morning. A 19-year-old gets up in the dark after four hours of sleep, walks across campus, and lifts. The bar speed's off, and someone says: "You gotta want it more, man." But that athlete doesn't have a wanting problem. They have a four-hour sleep problem — and we've been misdiagnosing it as a character flaw for 40 years.

Welcome to Bulls Rise, Season 2. Dr. Chris Perry is back in the chair to open the season with a three-part flagship series: Sleep Is the Edge. This is Part 1: The Problem.

Drawing on the work of leading sleep scientist Dr. Michael Grandner and the training Dr. Perry received under Dr. Sean Youngstedt, this data-driven episode lays out the full scope of the athlete sleep crisis — and why it matters for everyone, not just athletes.

In this episode:

⏰ Why 66% of athletes say lack of time — not physical demands — is the hardest part
📊 Only 1 in 5 athletes sleep enough — worse than non-athletes
🏈 Why sleepiness predicts concussions better than concussion history
💪 The 7-part performance tax: power, speed, endurance, accuracy, force, testosterone, recovery
🧠 The chronotype finding that reveals why some athletes aren't lazy — they're lonely
⚠️ Poor sleep and the tripling of suicide risk
🏦 The deposit-and-withdrawal analogy that reframes recovery

📌 This episode discusses mental health and suicide. If you're struggling, please reach out to a coach, counselor, teammate, parent, or a crisis line. In the US and Canada, you can call or text 988. Asking for help is never weakness.

🎙️ Bulls Rise is the official podcast of the University at Buffalo's Department of Exercise & Nutrition Sciences, hosted by Dr. Chris Perry — Clinical Assistant Professor and Executive Performance Coach.

📚 Science credited to Dr. Michael Grandner, Sleep and Health Research Program, University of Arizona College of Medicine.

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🔗 CONNECT WITH BULLS RISE:
📸 Instagram: @UBuffaloENS
🎓 UB ENS: @UBuffaloENS
🧠 Bulls Thrive: @Bulls_Thrive
📸 Dr. Perry: @drcperry001

🔔 Subscribe — Part 2 (the playbook) and Part 3 (circadian rhythms and travel) are coming soon.

#BullsRise #SleepIsTheEdge #SleepScience #AthleteRecovery #SportsScience #UBENS #UniversityAtBuffalo #Performance #MentalHealth #UBuffalo

A senior stood up in front of his entire team one last time. He didn't talk about stats. He didn't talk about wins. He asked one question that left the room silent: "What brings you joy?"

This week on Bulls Rise, we sat down with Taji Johnson — a mental performance specialist in UB Athletics, a former Division I wide receiver at Boston College, a UB transfer who started every game his final season, and a New York Jets rookie mini-camp invitee. He walked away from the playing dream and turned that exact passion toward helping the next generation of athletes build confidence from the inside out. And in 31 days, he becomes a licensed mental health therapist.

Here's what he shared: 👇

💛 The senior speech that silenced a locker room — and why his proudest moment had nothing to do with football

🧠 Why losing the NFL dream didn't shake his identity — and the mindset that made the transition seamless

🏋️ The injury vs. strength analogy: the clearest explanation of mental performance vs. therapy you'll ever hear

🎯 The 20/60/20 rule for reaching any room you're trying to lead

🎬 Why your brain can't tell the difference between vivid visualization and reality

⚓ Drop the anchor: the ACE framework and the mental tools every athlete needs

🏃 "Don't run from it" — why escaping hard feelings makes them stronger

🔑 Why consistency across every environment is what's missing — and what recruiters really ask

✝️ His faith: "They don't want to hear me. They want to hear God through me."

Taji's whole message circles one powerful idea: you are more than the one thing you do. Root your identity in how you show up — your values, your character, how you make people feel — and no lost game, no closed door, no ended chapter can take it from you.

When asked how he wants to be remembered, he said it best:

Can you stay committed to what you said you were going to do long after the mood you said it in has left? I want to be a yes for someone — regardless of the mood I was in when I said it.

🎙️ Full episode now available on all platforms. Link in bio.

🔁 Save this and send it to an athlete who needs to hear that they're more than their sport.

"I don't eat carrots because they have carbs." A registered dietitian has heard every nutrition myth for 26 years, and this week, she sets the record straight.

This week on Bulls Rise, Coach P sits down with Melissa Genovese, registered dietitian, nutrition undergraduate course coordinator at UB Exercise & Nutrition Sciences, and the professor who teaches more than 800 students a semester. A lifelong vegetarian who grew up in a garden in Dryden, New York, and a former RD at Erie County Medical Center, Melissa brings a refreshing, no-nonsense, myth-busting perspective on nutrition.

She dismantles the carb panic, offers a striking critique of the new federal food pyramid (its picture contradicts its own rules), clarifies the raw milk trend, and settles the vegetarian muscle-building debate with real complementary-protein science. Her deeper message is liberating: it's not cookie cutter. Health comes from the cumulative pattern of your choices over a lifetime, not from obsessing over any single rule.

And in true Bulls Rise fashion, her own story is one of rising through fear, a terrified introvert who hated public speaking, said yes to one lecture, and found her life's calling. Her advice: if you're scared, over prepare.

When asked what it means to rise, Melissa pointed to community: reach out, because there's always someone down the hall, but you have to ask.

🎙️ Bulls Rise is the official podcast of the University at Buffalo Department of Exercise & Nutrition Sciences. Hosted by Dr. Chris Perry, PhD, CSCS.

#BullsRise #Nutrition #RegisteredDietitian #NutritionMyths #Vegetarian #ExerciseScience #UBENS #UniversityAtBuffalo

In the most special edition of the Bulls Rise Podcast yet, Dr. Chris Perry sits down with the men who run UB Men's Basketball: Head Coach George Halcovage III, who helped lead Villanova to two national championships before becoming the 15th head coach in UB history , Director of Sports Performance Jon Mangel, Athletic Trainer Austin Herman, and Dr. Luke Pryor, exercise physiologist and performance consultant from UB's Department of Exercise & Nutrition Sciences.

One program. One standard. One conversation about what becomes possible when a Division I basketball program and an exercise science department go all in together.

In this conversation, you'll hear:

📊 "If you're not assessing, you're guessing" — why sports science is no longer optional at the D1 level

🤘 ALL IN GRIT — the nine-letter culture code broken down letter by letter

😈 "Make me the villain" — how Coach G uses data to push players without pushing them away

🔄 How the transfer portal compressed four years of development into one summer

💪 Myth-busting careers: athletic training, strength & conditioning, and the 12-month coaching job

🧠 Acute to chronic workload, energy systems, and what "available" really means

👨‍👦 The family culture that defines this program

🎵 The lightning round: documentary titles, season words, and walkout songs

🎙️ Bulls Rise is the official podcast of the University at Buffalo's Department of Exercise & Nutrition Sciences, hosted by Dr. Chris Perry — Clinical Assistant Professor and Executive Performance Coach.

🔗 CONNECT WITH BULLS RISE:

📸 Instagram: @UBuffaloENS

🔔 Subscribe for new episodes featuring researchers, clinicians, coaches, educators, and students shaping the future of exercise science, sports medicine, and human performance.

#BullsRise #AllInGrit #UBHoops #CollegeBasketball #SportsScience #StrengthAndConditioning #AthleticTraining #ExerciseScience #UBENS #UniversityAtBuffalo #HornsUp #MACBasketball

00:00 — Cold Open: One Morning Inside the UB Basketball Facility

02:00 — Welcome & Meet the Staff: Coach G, Jon Mangel, Austin Herman, Dr. Pryor

04:00 — Jon Mangel's Origin: The Weight Room With Dad and Big Brother

06:00 — Austin Herman's Origin: Three-Sport Athlete Meets Sports Medicine

08:00 — Coach G's Origin: Injuries at Babson and the Mentor Who Changed Everything

11:00 — From Villanova Camp Worker to Two National Championships

13:30 — Dr. Pryor's Origin: The Utah Jazz Fan Who Became the Scientist

16:00 — The Three Energy Systems of Basketball

18:00 — Coach G on the Partnership: "Not Every Place Can Do This"

21:00 — How Testing Data Shapes Strength & Conditioning Programming

23:30 — Acute to Chronic Workload: Training Hard Enough to Be Ready

26:00 — The Art and the Science: Numbers Supplement, Never Replace

27:30 — "Make Me the Villain": Using Data to Coach the Mind

30:00 — "If You're Not Assessing, You're Guessing"

32:30 — The Transfer Portal Reality: Building Players in One Year

35:00 — ALL IN GRIT: The Full Letter-by-Letter Breakdown

41:00 — The George Raveling Tribute: Growth Mindset for Life

43:00 — Carrying the Culture Into the Weight Room and Training Room

45:30 — "Attitude. Next Play." — Handling Failure in Real Time

48:00 — What a Ready Athlete Looks Like: On Time, Hydrated, Available

50:30 — Dr. Pryor's Consistency Pyramid and the Tokyo Olympics Story

53:30 — Lightning Round: Career Documentary Titles

56:00 — One Word for This Season: Together. Championship. Relentless. Electric.

57:30 — Myth-Busting: Taping Ankles, Inflicting Pain, and Summers Off

01:00:00 — How to Handle a Loss: Grace, Class, and Staying Neutral

01:02:00 — Walkout Songs: Black Eyed Peas, The Who, the Bulls Intro, and Stone Cold

01:04:30 — How the Bulls Rise: Family First, Through Thick and Thin

01:08:00 — "Hey Daddy, Did We Lose?" — Coco and the Miami of Ohio Story

01:11:00 — Dr. Pryor: "You Don't Bring Your Kids Around Unless You Feel Safe"

01:13:00 — Closing: Show Up, Work Hard, Stay Together, Be Electric

Heat kills more Americans than any other weather event — and most of those deaths never get recorded as heat at all.

This week on Bulls Rise, Coach P welcomes Dr. Fabiano Amorim, an exercise and thermal physiologist, associate professor, and department chair at the University of New Mexico. Fabiano studies heat where it actually does its damage: on construction sites at 2:30 in the morning, in the sugarcane fields of Brazil, across 18-hour workdays on five hours of sleep. His question is deceptively simple — what is heat actually doing to the human body when nobody is looking?

The answers are alarming. Heat is the deadliest weather event in the country, its true toll hidden behind cardiovascular miscoding. In the fields, workers sweat up to ten percent of their body weight a day, driving a silent kidney disease epidemic. But Fabiano also flips the script: used correctly, heat is one of the most underrated tools in exercise science — a hormetic stressor that supports recovery and even helps maintain muscle. Because physiology only makes sense in context. Heat is a killer and a medicine.

He also models real scientific humility, openly sharing the idea he once dismissed that became his life's work, and offers some of the best advice a student will hear all year: there's a horse passing, and it's not coming back. Get out of your comfort zone and enjoy the ride.

When asked what it means to rise, Fabiano kept it grounded: think about the journey, reevaluate, refocus on what matters, and spend less time on what doesn't.

🎙️ Bulls Rise is the official podcast of the University at Buffalo Department of Exercise & Nutrition Sciences. Hosted by Dr. Chris Perry, PhD, CSCS.

#BullsRise #HeatStress #ThermalPhysiology #OccupationalHealth #ExerciseScience #SaunaTherapy #UBENS #UniversityAtBuffalo

She's been asked to write a meal plan thousands of times. Here's why she almost always says no.

This week on Bulls Rise, Coach P sits down with Tiffany Rutecki — registered dietitian, certified nutritionist, and clinical director of UB's Clinical Nutrition Master's Program. With more than a decade as a clinical dietitian and years of training future RDs, Tiffany brings one of the most grounded, no-nonsense perspectives on nutrition the show has ever featured.

Her central message: it doesn't have to be that hard. Tiffany dismantles the meal plan myth, explains why small changes beat perfect diets every single time, calls out the over-processed health food industry, and walks through the high-protein advice that could actually be dangerous for certain people. She also makes the case that motivational interviewing, finding your why, and the add-not-restrict philosophy are just as essential as any clinical credential.

And she talks about the Italian family table, stuffed shells from her grandfather, and why food is love before it's ever just fuel.

When asked what it means to rise, Tiffany kept it simple: it's temporary, it's going to get better, and she's grateful for the challenges that keep her going.

🎙️ Bulls Rise is the official podcast of the University at Buffalo Department of Exercise & Nutrition Sciences. Hosted by Dr. Chris Perry, PhD, CSCS.

#BullsRise #Nutrition #RegisteredDietitian #ClinicalNutrition #ExerciseScience #UBENS #UniversityAtBuffalo

Before Title IX, 90% of girls' sports teams were coached by women. Today it's 45%. The law that expanded girls' sports somehow cut the number of women coaching them in half.

This week on Bulls Rise, our student edition, Coach P sits down with Cassandra Vaccaro, a USA Hockey Level 4 coach with bronze-level goaltending certification, a Zamboni driver for the Buffalo Sabres, and a full-time UB exercise science student heading into the graduate program. She started coaching at 19, she's frequently the only woman behind the bench, and she's on a mission to change that.

Cass shares the staggering Title IX statistic, what it's like to be the first female coach most of her players have ever had, and why simply being visible changes what young girls believe is possible. She explains why early specialization may be the biggest detriment to youth athletes, shares the kid-friendly coaching cue that instantly fixed a young goalie, and walks through the serendipitous Canadian rink moment that combined her loves of coaching and research. She also offers honest, encouraging advice for any student feeling lost on their path.

When asked what it means to rise, Cass said it best: be confident, forget the preconceived notions, know what you know, and don't be afraid to be wrong, because now you learn for next time.

🎙️ Bulls Rise is the official podcast of the University at Buffalo Department of Exercise & Nutrition Sciences. Hosted by Dr. Chris Perry, PhD, CSCS.

#BullsRise #WomenInSports #Hockey #TitleIX #ExerciseScience #UBENS #UniversityAtBuffalo

Picture two coaches. One yells instructions all practice. The other asks questions and lets his athletes figure it out. One builds better players under pressure — and it's not the one you'd expect.

This week on Bulls Rise, Coach P sits down with Mike Hodgins — a World Rugby Master Trainer who works at the national governing body level for both USA Rugby and World Rugby, and who teaches the coaching minor at UB. With more than 25 years in the game, Mike brings one of the most refined and counterintuitive coaching philosophies the show has featured.

Mike challenges nearly everything people assume about coaching. He explains why over-coaching is the number one mistake, why it's never really about the X's and O's, and why the best coaching happens when the coach doesn't have to coach. He breaks down the four pillars of coach development, why games beat drills, the aggregate of marginal gains, and the mentor who believed in him before he believed in himself. And he makes the case — repeatedly — that these coaching skills apply to every profession, not just sports.

When asked what it means to rise, Mike kept it simple: just keep going. Every single time he's taken a shot, he's gotten back up.

🎙️ Bulls Rise is the official podcast of the University at Buffalo Department of Exercise & Nutrition Sciences. Hosted by Dr. Chris Perry, PhD, CSCS.

#BullsRise #Coaching #Rugby #CoachingPhilosophy #ExerciseScience #UBENS #UniversityAtBuffalo

You already know what you should do. So why is it so hard to actually do it?

This week on Bulls Rise, Coach P sits down with Heather Bieber, Director of UB's undergraduate Exercise Science program and a behavior change expert whose career has revolved around one question: why do people struggle so much to change, even when they know what to do?

Heather's path was never a straight line. from an aerobics class at 13, to personal training at a high-end Boston gym, to public health at Emory, to wellness coaching at Universal Studios, to running a program at UB. In this episode, she dismantles the myth that behavior change is about willpower, exposes the truth behind perfect-eating social media content, and explains why there's no one right way to exercise. She shares the rheumatoid arthritis client who taught her more than any textbook, breaks down why small steps beat total overhauls, and reveals why coaching is mostly psychology and barely about the program.

When asked what it means to rise, Heather kept it simple: stay humble, be okay being vulnerable, dust yourself off, and get back on the horse.

🎙️ Bulls Rise is the official podcast of the University at Buffalo Department of Exercise & Nutrition Sciences. Hosted by Dr. Chris Perry, PhD, CSCS.

#BullsRise #BehaviorChange #HealthCoaching #ExerciseScience #UBENS #UniversityAtBuffalo