If you don't want to teach, graduating with an English degree leaves two options -- flipping burgers or using that creative education to figure out what to do with the rest of your life. For Jay Cardiello '99, fast food was never an option. Instead he used his athletic background and a life-changing injury to forge his own path and eventually to create his own fitness business.
Cardiello grew up in Cedar Grove, N.J., just outside of New York City -- and attended the University of Arkansas to run track and field. But his life took a turn when he slipped while running and bent the bottom half of his spine. After two spinal fusion surgeries -- neck and lower back -- he took a year off school.
"The original plan was to go to law school. When I got injured, everything in my life changed at that point -- I had 13 surgeries," he says. "I had to totally reevaluate my life, but getting injured was probably the best thing that ever happened to me."
Before he transferred to William and Mary, Cardiello became a volunteer coach at Montclair University. With this experience under his belt, he contacted Dan Stimson, director of track and field at the College, who invited him to be a student coach. Cardiello coached several national qualifiers, including the College's first female U.S. national triple jump qualifier. It was a busy time of life. "I was taking 14 to 18 credits plus working a full-time job without any pay," says Cardiello.
While at the College he befriended Michael Cook '99, who went on to play quarterback for the Cleveland Browns. "We worked out a few times and it prompted me to think, 'Hey, I should make training sports professionals a career,'" says Cardiello. He started sending out his resume and landed a job with New Jersey Red Dogs of the Arena Football League as head strength and conditioning coach after graduation.
Although an English major, Cardiello had years of experience in physical conditioning. "I competed in athletics since age 9, but one of the best hands-on training experiences was getting injured," he says. "I learned my anatomy and physiology lessons in the training room while getting my own body back in shape."
As he says, he also learned quickly that "coaches' lives are very short-lived in this industry." But he took the go-getter attitude he acquired at William and Mary and made things happen. He spent several seasons working various strength-training jobs with the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers, again with the Red Dogs and then in 2001 went to the XFL as a strength trainer. He also worked with the Cincinnati Reds and did a stint as a physical therapy aide during the team's off-season.
One season he worked with athletes who were preparing for the NFL combine, and it was here that he created some of the fitness techniques that he continues to use today. He had a limited amount of space for the players to warm up in and so he created a 4x4 method he calls Cardio Core 4x4.
During one of these sessions, Cardiello ran into former cruiserweight world champion Al "Ice" Cole, who was trying to get into the heavyweight division. Cardiello would end up becoming his training coach until 2004. That same year he met heavyweight champion Jameel "Big Time" McCline, who wanted help with his footwork, so Cardiello became his head strength coach for his world championship title fight against Chris Byrd. He continues to work with McCline as his strength and conditioning coach.
It's an intense process that involves many hours a day and isn't your typical 9 to 5 job. "I cook all his meals for him and live with him for a month," says Cardiello. After McCline lost in 2005 one point short of the title, Cardiello took time off and moved to New York City, where he went to work for Clay, a high-end spa/sports club with celebrity clientele. It was at Clay that Cardiello trained rapper 50 Cent. He traveled with 50 Cent on a promotional tour, prepared him for his 2007 world tour as well as for the 2008 film Righteous Kill. He took 50 Cent from 234 to 199 pounds and from 18.9 to 4 percent body fat in a little over a month. They trained six to seven hours a day, six days a week.
But Cardiello says his favorite client wasn't famous at all. "The greatest celebrity I have worked with was a 6-year-old kid whose mother called me to teach him how to ride a bike," he says. Cardiello loves working with children and giving back to the community. "I do a lot of work with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, such as Athletes in Action, where we take 250 kids and train them on what a professional football player would do in a day."
"My main goal," he says -- "inspire the uninspired."
Today, exercise enthusiasts can catch his 15-, 20- and 30-minute workout programs using the Cardio Core method on YouTube or on his Web site, cardiellofitness.com. He is in the process of organizing fitness boot camps on the East Coast and West Coast and also has plans to release a DVD series and maybe even a book in the near future as part of his company, Cardiello Fitness LLC.
"The only thing I want to do is help people meet their goals," he says. "I tell people not to compare themselves to celebrities. Write down what you want and go for it."
Jay Cardiello has done just that.
Just Off DoG Street profiles William and Mary graduates who are pursuing work most might consider to be unique -- that is, just off the beaten path.
