Isolated muscle training methods do not necessarily transfer to better sports performance, because technique as well as strength contributes to successful performance. Resistance training for dynamic sports must involve ground-based movements that incorporate the coordinated stabilizing and dynamic functions of multiple muscles.

This Personal Trainers Quarterly article examines a client's ability to maintain pelvic and trunk stability during a dynamic fitness screening. Visit NSCA online to read more on corrective exercises, health, and fitness.

Due to the principle of specificity, training should be tailored to the goal of the lifter in terms of the prioritization of strength, hypertrophy, health, and functional outcomes. If the goal is muscular hypertrophy, it may be beneficial to vary the repetition range, and to utilize a variety of loads and loading strategies in the pursuit of maximizing hypertrophy.

This is the third and final article of a series on strength training practices for rowing and will focus on the energy systems development of rowing athletes.

Hydration, footwear, and exercise frequency are only a few of the essentials to safe participation in cardiovascular activity. Make sure to include all six essentials in your program to ensure safe participation.

In the first of a two part series, this article explores the possible benefits for strength and conditioning coach development and discusses how mindful meditation can improve reflective practice and the coach-athlete relationship.

This article shares various options for integrating mental skills training into existing strength and conditioning programs. Such simultaneous, dual-training approaches may better prepare officers for the realities of occupational performance.

This article is part of a continuing series of tactical strength and conditioning (TSAC) research reviews. It is designed to bring awareness to new research findings of relevance to tactical strength and conditioning communities.

The physiological response to breath holding includes bradycardia and peripheral vasoconstriction, which contrasts with that of exercise which includes tachycardia and peripheral vasodilation. This raises the question as to what the physiological response is to breath holding during exercise. During low-intensity exercise, the breath holding response of bradycardia and peripheral vasoconstriction prevails over the exercise response of tachycardia and peripheral vasodilation, but nevertheless the exercise may be sustained. Due to the lack of availability of extrinsic oxygen (O 2 ) from the atmosphere during breath holding, the energy demands can be met by increased reliance on intrinsic O 2 stores (i.e., O 2 that was in the body before the breath hold) via increased O 2 extraction at the muscle compared with exercise while breathing, or increased contributions from anaerobic energy systems. During high intensity exercise of short duration, the exercise response may prevail over the breath holding response due to the increased parasympathetic withdrawal and sympathetic drive of higher intensity exercise. If breath holding during high-intensity exercise was sustained for long enough, the breath holding response may eventually overcome the exercise response, although this may be difficult due to the inverse relationship between exercise intensity and breath hold duration.

This article builds upon two other client assessment tools (breathing and posture, as seen in Personal Training Quarterly Issues 5.3 and 6.1, respectively) and discusses ways to assess client movement.