This is an excerpt from NSCA's Essentials of Sport Science by NSCA -National Strength & Conditioning Association, Duncan N. French & Lorena Torres-Ronda.

Little information is available for personal trainers in regards to differentiating the requirements and responsibilities of working as an employee or an independent contractor. Personal trainers and gym owners would benefit from understanding professional guidelines, details, and general knowledge of these two options.

Field tests have become popular in applied exercise science and sport performance enhancement programs because of their simplicity and ability to generalize results. However, numerous confounding factors may influence the validity of test data from such evaluations.

One challenge is to critically examine your own successes and failures to find a way to attribute the outcomes to something you can control and can change for the future. This could be as small as how you deal with a single person, or it could be a more in-depth examination of how you provide feedback to athletes and how you work with your own staff.

Tactical jobs are fast-paced, physically and psychologically intense, and failure can have tragic consequences, making it vital to train tactical athletes to perform better under stress.

This article provides essential guidelines for athletes beginning a strength and conditioning program that ensures safety and productivity of the training sessions.

Most law enforcement officers are physically taxed, mentally exhausted, and emotionally overwhelmed. As such, a complexity exists with a requirement to match the need for physical fitness in a demographic that lives their lives in a potential state of general exhaustion.

With the need to be ready under any circumstances from operational missions to physical training, understanding how the adrenal gland functions is important for any tactical athlete. The adrenal gland mediates performance and can have a negative effect on the body’s physiology when exhausted. It is vital to understand the interventions needed to obviate the negative effects and enhance the positive aspects of such physiological function. This session from the 2015 TSAC Annual Training sheds light on this important physiological system that impacts both physical health and functional performance.

Tendinopathy is a pathological condition that occurs when a tendon is repeatedly injured and degenerately breaks down. Specific exercise programming may help prevent tendinitis from occurring.

From the Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning, this book excerpt explains the various stages of tissue healing in the rehabilitation process.