How do we build muscle?
How do we lose fat without losing strength?
How does nutrition before sleep affect recovery?
How do we fuel performance without overcomplicating it?
How do we use exercise and nutrition to help people perform better, feel better, and live healthier lives?
I’ve spent the last 25 years focused on these questions. I’m an Endowed and Distinguished Professor at Florida State University and the Executive Director of the Institute of Sports Sciences and Medicine. But my real mission is bigger than publishing papers.
My passion is to help people understand how the science applies to real life. That means cutting through hype, explaining nuance, and giving people practical strategies they can actually use.
About Me
I’ve spent most of my life asking one simple question from a lot of different angles: how can we help people perform, feel, and live better?
That question started for me long before I was a professor or researcher. I grew up as an athlete, played NCAA collegiate ice hockey, coached, competed in endurance sports, finished two 70.3 Ironman triathlons, and have always loved training, competing, and figuring out what actually works.
Today, I study those same questions scientifically.
Academically, I’m a scientist, distinguished and endowed professor, and director of the Institute of Sports Sciences & Medicine at Florida State University. My work sits at the intersection of exercise physiology, performance nutrition, metabolism, recovery, body composition, supplements, and practical behavior change. Along with my students and collaborators, I’ve published nearly 200 research papers focused on helping people understand how exercise, nutrition, and recovery can improve health and performance.
But I’ve never viewed this work as only academic.
The questions we study in the lab are the same questions athletes, coaches, busy professionals, parents, and health-minded people ask every day. How do we build muscle? How do we lose fat without losing strength? How does nutrition before sleep affect recovery? What role should supplements actually play? How do we fuel performance without making it confusing, extreme, or unrealistic?
My goal is to turn complex exercise and nutrition science into practical strategies people can use to perform better, feel better, and live healthier lives — at work, at home, and everywhere in between.
I bring that perspective not only as a scientist, but as a husband, dad, athlete, coach, and someone who understands what a busy life actually looks like. I know what it means to prioritize health while also prioritizing family, work, travel, deadlines, and real responsibilities. Playing with my kids is one of my biggest priorities, and I want them to grow up seeing movement, training, and exercise as a normal part of life — not something extreme, complicated, or reserved only for athletes. I still train, I still compete, and I still coach clients, so the strategies I teach are not just ideas from the lab. They are practical approaches that have to work in real life.
Professionally, I’ve worked with athletes, students, researchers, coaches, brands, and everyday high performers who want clear answers without the hype. My research has focused on topics like protein timing, pre-sleep nutrition, resistance training, fat metabolism, supplements, body composition, and recovery. I’ve also had the opportunity to give keynote talks and invited presentations at major academic and professional conferences, where I translate the latest science for researchers, practitioners, coaches, and health professionals.
Beyond the university, I’ve shared this work through podcasts, media, books, courses, brand collaborations, and public-facing conversations designed to make science easier to understand and apply. I’ve appeared on shows including Perform with Dr. Andy Galpin, The David Chang Show, The Primal Podcast, Thomas DeLauer, Iron Culture, and others — always with the same goal: cut through the noise and give people clear, level-headed science they can actually use.
I also believe science education should be accessible beyond the classroom. Since 2014, my widely available course and book through The Great Courses, Changing Body Composition Through Diet and Exercise, has helped people better understand how training, nutrition, and lifestyle habits influence muscle, fat, metabolism, and health. I’m currently working on new Courses that will continue that mission by making the science of exercise and nutrition more understandable, practical, and useful in everyday life. Stay tuned for more on that topic!
I care deeply about teaching students how to read research, helping busy adults build better habits, working with athletes and coaches who want to push performance forward, and advising companies that want to build products and messages grounded in evidence.
At the core, I’m a scientist who still trains, competes, coaches, teaches, parents, and lives this work.
My mission is to turn complex exercise and nutrition science into practical strategies people can use to perform better, feel better, and live healthier lives — at work, at home, and everywhere in between.