We Do the Heavy Lifting

Our guest today, Dr. David Nieman, is a Professor of Health and Exercise Science and the Director of the Human Performance Lab at Appalachian State University. He has vast expertise in exercise immunology, and gives great insight on how to exercise during the current COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Nieman also dives into how exercise can improve immune function, as well as situations in which exercise can actually have harmful effects. In the conversation today, he uses plenty of support from his research and makes it easy to understand with fun analogies. 

Watch or listen to learn how exercise can improve your immune system!

Also, hit this link for Dr. Nieman’s recent paper on exercise and the body’s defense system: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2095254618301005

And if you want ACSM’s recommendations on exercising during the COVID-19 pandemic follow the following link: bit.ly/ACSM_virus

Our guest, Dr. John Thornton brings his experience from athletics to delve behind the scenes of protocols and procedures when sporting events stop. He uses examples from thunderstorms, gas leaks, 9/11, H1N1, and others to relate to the current Coronavirus pandemic. Additionally, Dr. Thornton predicts adjustments in the planning of sporting events in the future.

In today’s podcast, Dr. Natasha Brison shares her expertise in sports-related legal issues as well as brand management and protection, and she dives into the importance of a personal brand. She goes further by describing how to maintain and manage a brand in today’s world - particularly for students and student athletes who need to be future conscious of what they put on social media. In addition, she touches on how coaches and schools can help educate the importance of branding for athletes.

Our guest, Dr. Ryan Pittsinger, brings experience from all over the country studying counseling and sports psychology to focus on working with collegiate athletes to improve their quality of life and athletic performance. 

In today’s podcast, Dr. Pittsinger shares his field expertise over mental health topics that are more frequent among students. Topics include performance stress and anxiety created by expectations from the athlete, coaches, and peers; balancing school and sport; and the pressures student-athletes face from social media. Dr. Pittsinger also dives into how student populations as a whole can relieve mental stress, and even provides strategies for parents to help their kids facing student-athlete pressures.

Our guest on the podcast today is Ana Artiles - Assistant Professor in Aerospace Engineering. She has copious amounts of research experience at MIT, Cornell, TAMU, and International Space University, where she has explored human performance and deconditioning in altered gravity environments. Additionally, Ana spent 5 years with Ariane 5 Launch team and has had 30 successful launches.

Watch or listen to hear Ana talk more about her research, experience, as well as the future of space travel!

Extra special guest, Col Mike Fossum, is a veteran of 3 space flights, more than 194 days in space, and more than 48 hours in 7 spacewalks, and is now serving in an administrative role as COO and VP of TAMU Galveston. As the first Aggie in space, Col Fossum shares his experiences in space with fitness and exercise, and also shares what it’s like to move in a space suit!

Today we have Monty Gibson - Strength and Conditioning Coach for the Cleveland Browns! A Master Strength and Conditioning Coach by the CSCCa, Monty Gibson has nearly 30 years of coaching experience, with 18 of those years spent on the Texas A&M strength and conditioning staff. Gibson is entering his second season in the NFL as the Browns' assistant strength and conditioning coach!

Here we have our fourth Video Podcast from our new series featuring a special guest, New York Times Sports and Fitness bestseller Christie Aschwanden! Back from podcast #80 and #159 of the 2014 Huffines Discussion, we have with us award-winning science and sports journalist Ms. Christie Aschwanden! Aschwanden's most recent book, Good to Go: What the Athlete in All of Us Can Learn from the Strange Science of Recovery, is a New York Times bestseller that seeks to answer how modern recovery products and services actually help the body recover and achieve peak performance. 

Our third Video Podcast from our new series features special guest Tanna Burge! Tanna Burge has been at Texas A&M University as the Assistant Athletic Director for Sports Performance since 2015. Burge brings in a large amount of experience in the field and currently oversees strength and conditioning for all Aggie sports except football. In this podcast, Burge shares with us what happens in a sports performance team, challenges that student-athletes face, and challenges she faces as well!

Today we have our second Video Podcast from our new series with our special guest Kristi Dosh! Lawyer turned sports journalist, Dosh, the "SportsBizMiss," became the first and only female sports business reporter for ESPN who also transformed her career through blogging and social media to become a nationally-recognized expert in the business of sports. Her book, Saturday Millionaires: How Winning Football Builds Winning Colleges examines how the financial side of college athletics works and how football drives revenues for an athletics program. Dosh currently writes for Forbes, Entrepreneur, and Popsugar and speaks to audiences on topics of female leadership, personal branding, and business development.