Aaron Cunanan is a doctoral fellow in the Sport Physiology and Performance PhD program at East Tennessee State University. He received his master’s degree in kinesiology and wellness from LSU Shreveport. Aaron served as an assistant coach under Dr. Kyle Pierce at the USA Weightlifting Center for High Performance and Development in Shreveport, La., from 2011 through 2016.

I first met Aaron way back in 2008 when he was a member at IFAST, and I not only had the pleasure to coach him early-on in his weightlifting career, but I also (hopefully) taught him a thing or two as an intern as well.

Needless to say, I feel a little bit like a proud dad with all of my interns, and Aaron is no different with all the amazing stuff he’s worked on and accomplished..

In this show, Aaron and I talk about the differences between sport and exercise science, why wellness questionnaires and training logs are such powerful tools for athlete monitoring, and why he’s such a big believer in being evidence driven versus evidence led.

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Here’s a brief overview of what we covered in this week’s show:

Shameless Plug: The 2018 Physical Preparation Summit (Super-early bird discount ends in a week!)
Show Intro:
- Lake Weekend with Kendall
- NBA Summer League
- Soccer Girls
- IFAST 10-Year Anniversary Party
- MR Monologue: “Get To” vs. “Have To”
Q&A: Keaton Worland talks about monitoring athlete workloads
Aaron Cunanan Interview:
- How he got started in the world of physical preparation.
- His career and educational path up to this point.
- A simple (but not easy) question: What is sports science? And how is it different from exercise science?
- Aaron’s thoughts on getting started with athlete monitoring, even with little – to no – budget.
- Why wellness questionnaires and training logs are such powerful tools.
- The difference between being evidence driven and evidence led.
- How to use data and monitoring to make more informed decisions (and why the annual plan is a critical piece of the puzzle).
- The BIG Question.
- The always stupendous lightning round where we talk about the Physical Prep Summit, two great sports science books he recommends, what he’s up to lifting-wise, and what’s next for Aaron Cunanan.
Show Outro and Call to Action: Don’t forget to sign-up for The Summit ASAP!

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Aaron Cunanan on Sports Science, Athlete Monitoring, and Being Evidence Driven

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