An appropriately designed program with elements of safe resistance training that focuses on the upper back and external shoulder rotators and open agility technique training may improve agility on the pickleball court, decrease the injury risk of older pickleball players, and increase the self-confidence of these individuals on the court and in daily life.

Weightlifting movements and their derivatives can be programmed effectively by considering their force–velocity characteristics and physiological underpinnings to meet the specific training goals of resistance training phases in accordance with the typical application of periodized training programs.

The National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) is proud to announce the recipients of the organization’s 2024 Career and Service Awards. Given annually, the distinguished Career Awards honor individuals who have made significant contributions to the strength and conditioning community throughout their careers.

This Personal Training Quarterly article presents alternative ways of teaching the squat technique. Visit NSCA online to read more on exercise science, health, and fitness.

Concurrent training (CT), which combines resistance exercise and energy systems conditioning, is the default approach to preparation in high-intensity intermittent (“stop and go”) team sports. This review provides an overview of CT, emphasizing its complexities and challenges in managing fatigue and optimizing performance. These complexities are specifically compounded by the variability in game demands across the season, where the presence of intensified and nonintensified competition periods necessitates a flexible and adaptive training approach. In this context, there are essential training variables to consider, including intensity, volume, session order, and recovery intervals between sessions. In addition, nontraining variables such as travel, sleep, and nutrition play a role in the fatigue experienced while training and competing. These variables interact to influence acute performance and training adaptations and can be strategically adjusted by strength and conditioning practitioners. The aim of this review is to provide a comprehensive understanding of fatigue management for practitioners in team sports, emphasizing the complexities and challenges of CT and offering simplified practical recommendations for adjusting training variables within any given microcycle.

This article provides a first-hand perspective of different approaches strength and conditioning coaches can take when they need to produce a highly competitive athlete, but their financial resources are limited.

NSCA Coach 11.4 shares how strength training of the posterior chain in athletes can reduce injury risk and aid rehabilitation. Visit us online to read more about exercise research.

This article from Personal Training Quarterly looks at training plans based on menstrual health to help personal trainers better support female clients. Visit NSCA online to read more on athletic performance, health, and fitness.

This article briefly describes how individuals can have the same training program, but have large fluctuations in the adaptation responses due to genetic and life style factors.