About Me

Dr. Rodriguez was born in Brooklyn, New York and lived with his parents until the age of ten. Dr. Rodriguez's parents moved to the small town of Jayuya, Puerto Rico where he lived a great part of life until moving back to the United States in search to complete his doctoral degree and pursue his dreams.

Dr. Rodriguez is a strength and conditioning coach and applied sports scientist who recently worked as Men's Basketball Athletic Performance Fellow for the University of Memphis helping the Tigers win their first AAC Conference Championship in 10 years in March of 2023. Dr. Rodriguez worked as Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach for Northern Kentucky University in charge of sports performance for Women's Volleyball, Men's & Women's Soccer,  Men's & Women's Tennis, Men's & Women's Track & Field, and Cheer. Dr. Rodriguez worked as Strength and Conditioning Coach/Sports Scientist for both East Tennessee State University (ETSU) and Milligan University sports programs while completing his doctoral degree helping Men's & Women's Tennis, Men's & Women's Swimming, and Men's Basketball. Dr. Rodriguez worked as Lead Exercise Physiologist for Cenegenics Elite Health in Puerto Rico, a preventive medicine practice. Dr. Rodriguez received a full scholarship to work as Assistant Swimming and Strength Coach for the Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico which won three Puerto Rican Intercollegiate Athletic League Championships (2 men & 1 female). After two and a half years of being a walk-on athlete that hardly knew how to swim at the age of 19 and qualifying to the semi-finals in the 100 m breaststroke, Dr. Rodriguez was awarded a full scholarship for his continuous dedication and persistence to learn about the sport. 

Dr. Rodriguez Castellano graduated in December of 2022 from ETSU with a PhD in Sports Physiology and Performance. His dissertation project titled: "Assessing the Applicability of the Three-Minute All-Out Swimming Test in Collegiate Swimmers" was part of a retrospective study analyzed as part of an on-going athlete monitoring program called the Sports Performance Enhancement Consortium (SPEC) data was collected of the training process of Milligan University swimmers. Some of the ideas resulting from the findings of the dissertation and other ideas can be found in his blog post titled: "Using the Three Minute All-Out Test to Accurately Demarcate Training Zones". Dr. Rodriguez completed his Master's degree in Exercise Science with a Specialty in Exercise Physiology from the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus. His thesis project titled: "Effects of an Alkalizing Supplement on Power, Anaerobic Capacity and Blood Lactate during Short-Term Maximal Exercise" won a FASEB MARC Travel Award in 2016 to attend and present as an abstract poster during the 2016 Annual Meeting for the American College of Sports Medicine. Dr. Rodriguez wrote a proposal that awarded him an entire donation of the alkaline supplementation to be used during the study. Dr. Rodriguez earned his Bachelors of Science degree in Secondary Physical Education with a double major in Sports Conditioning from the Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico.  Dr. Rodriguez received a full scholarship to work as Assistant Swimming and Strength Coach for the Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico which won three Puerto Rican Intercollegiate Athletic League Championships (2 men & 1 female).

​

Dr. Rodriguez is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) from the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) since 2013. Dr. Rodriguez is a also Certified Level 1 Anthropometrist from the International Society of the Advancement of Kinanthropometry (ISAK - Level 1). During his time as swimming coach, Dr. Rodriguez was certified as a Level 2 Swimming Coach from the American Swimming Coaches Association (ASCA) with additional certifications as a Certified Strokes Specialist. While coursing his doctoral degree, Dr. Rodriguez earned certifications as a Certified Phlebotomy Technician (CPT) from the National Healthcareer Association (NHA) with the purpose of conducting research involving blood profile analysis. Dr. Rodriguez earned a certification as Data Analyst with R that allows him to manipulate and explore data sets while also visualizing it with informative graphs. 

​