Tony Poggiali, of Adrenaline Sports & Fitness in Liberty Township, Ohio, likes to take the best of all worlds and put them together to give his athletes everything they need.
In June 2006, Tony established Adrenaline Sports & Fitness, or ASF with the intent of designing, developing and implementing programming that would improve the skills of athleticism. His mission statement reflects just that: To design and implement safe, effective and fun programs to develop and enhance athletic skills for all ages.
To create ASF, Tony meshed together ideas and concepts from the disciplines of exercise science, coaching and performance enhancement and formed them around his own experience as an athlete. Tony feels this personal connection is what adds extra value to his training and coaching.
20 years of training adults, the last 7 years which have been primarily with athletes, along with a bachelor’s degree from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio and a CSCS certification has given him the base for a strong training philosophy. “My training philosophy has been influenced by several sources over the twenty years that I have been in the industry. Since I started out as a powerlifter and sprinter and then a bodybuilder, I still use concepts that I anecdotally found to work,” Tony said. “I have also borrowed principles and programming from jiu jitsu and the martial arts. My mentors are familiar names: JC Santana, Mike Boyle, Mark Verstegen, Martin Rooney, the NSCA, Elite FTS and, of course, Lee Taft,” Tony added, hoping he did not miss anyone.
Tony has sought education and training from a variety of sources and takes the best of many styles, techniques and philosophies to create his own hybrid approach.
“I believe that my strongest feature as a business owner and coach is the variety of resources that I have accumulated over the years that our athletes benefit from. Our tools include sleds, tires, sledgehammers, bands, medicine balls, kettlebells, ropes, gripping devices, inner tubes, fire hoses, and so on.”
Tony also realizes the importance of running a facility on a budget so he makes his equipment when possible, and has been fortunate to have some donations.
If you visited ASF on a typical day this is what you would see: 1) warm-up/ movement prep – 15-18 minutes; 2) skill focus of the day – 20-30 minutes; 3) strength/power development – 15-18 minutes. 4) Then a cool down. “This is just a template and guides the process but is not always what I will do. I would rather have a system that can be tweaked than to blindly put together workouts.”
But the most important thing you will see at ASF is how lives are changing. “It may be about speed and agility when they first call or walk in, but the power of transforming a shy, awkward 10-year-old into a confident, proud 11-year-old is very powerful, and nurtures the relationships. That is my currency. The money will follow if the passion is first and foremost. Most coaches/trainers do not get into this field to make money, but realize their position as an agent of change.”
In addition to being a catalyst, Tony is also proud of the bodybuilding titles he earned from 1992 to 2005. Having an ASF alumnus like former Yankee, Paul O’Neill also holds a special place on his proudest moments list.
Keeping with his synergy philosophy, Tony also has “second job” as a musician, where he construct songs from old, forgotten records, baby toys, electronic equipment and miscellaneous sounds and blend them into instrumental hip hop beats and rhythms.
Tony has been married to Suzanne for ten years, and they have an 18-month-old daughter named Heather.
