John DePasquale began his academic career at North Central College in Naperville, Illinois and obtained his Bachelor's of Science in Exercise Science in 2015. During his Senior Year at North Central, he was awarded Outstanding Major of the Year in Exercise Science, a prestigious award given to Seniors in each major who go above and beyond. After acquiring his degree, he worked for Edward Hospital at their Fitness Center. While employed at the Fitness Center, John passed the certification exam to receive his Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist license from the National Strength and Conditioning Association. With his degree and certification, John was able to work not only with athletes of all ages but also with cancer patients, patients with diabetes, and patients with heart disease and used exercise to help remediate some of their symptoms, improve their functioning, and maintain their strength.
John got into exercise science as a career after multiple members of my family were diagnosed with heart disease and other conditions. While exercise had always been a part of his life, John decided to make it a career when he was exposed to weight training his sophomore year of high school. Immediately hooked, he’s never looked back ever since.
John worked for the Fitness Center as a Trainer and Fitness Specialist from July 2015 until October 2017. During this time, he was also attending Benedictine University full-time at night in their Masters of Science in Clinical Exercise Physiology Program. He interned in multiple settings, the most notable of those being an inpatient internship in stress testing and an outpatient internship in cardiac rehab. While attending Benedictine University, he also participated in his professor's research regarding stress hormones and blood pressure responses during exercise. Additionally, he was a participant, assistant, and leader of dozens of VO2 Max testing protocols.
Currently, John works full-time with Achieve in addition to teaching as adjunct faculty in Benedictine University's Masters of Science in Clinical Exercise Physiology program. His goal is to help educate the newest generations of exercise physiologists to make them outstanding clinicians and critical thinkers. His major goals with Achieve are to increase parent and athlete knowledge of all aspects of fitness training and performance, including sports nutrition, programming for sport, recovery protocols, physiological adaptations to exercise training, and adding lean mass while losing fat mass to enhance performance. Finally, he hopes to use his clinical knowledge of pharmacology and disease processes to help patients and their families better understand conditions such as diabetes mellitus, obesity, and heart disease.
In his free time, John enjoys competing in amateur powerlifting, creating exercise programs for himself, and spending time with his family. He is an avid outdoorsman and has spent many days on rivers fishing, hunting in the woods and fields, and four-wheeling around the United States.