This excerpt from the Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning outlines what training typically looks like in the preparatory period, or off-season.

Elite sport often gets more attention, but youth training gives strength and conditioning coaches an earlier chance to build athletes’ competence and confidence. Kelli Brightwell specializes in youth development and brings more than a decade of sports training experience, including four years at Michael Johnson Performance. Brightwell defines peak height velocity as the period during which height increases fastest. She then explains why its timing can differ among teammates of the same age. So what should strength coaches test, and what do the results mean? The answer changes with each athlete’s maturity and training experience. Brightwell addresses the growth-spurt “awkward phase,” when familiar movement patterns can break down as an athlete adjusts to a changing body. She also considers how sport sampling can expand children’s range of physical skills and help them discover what they enjoy. Learn how maturation can affect movement, testing, and programming — and why young athletes need foundations before specialization.

This article explores the possible causes of low back pain, as well as three potential strategies that a personal trainer may use to work with someone dealing with low back pain.

This article introduces a potential solution for programming in the large group fitness setting with a wide variety of fitness levels.

Planning and designing training programs for a new group of athletes (e.g., a new recruiting class or a new coaching job) can be problematic without a base level understanding of the athletes’ current skill levels. This article describes one system that can be used to determine an athlete's self-confidence on different exercises.

This article discusses how high-intensity interval training may be an effective metabolic training method for soldiers trying to maintain physical preparedness during deployment.

This excerpt from the Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning, 4th Edition gives a quick glimpse into some of the implements used in strongman training.

Tactical facilitators need to understand the movement patterns that first responders encounter because they can have a profound effect on underlying biomechanics and may contribute to excessive tissue loads.

This NSCA Coach article focuses on the in-season resistance training and mobility exercises designed for the 100-m sprint track and field high school athlete.

This article examines using the sled as a dynamic correspondence exercise for increasing on-ice acceleration.