Certified Special Population Specialists® (CSPS®) are fitness professionals who, using an individualized approach, assess, motivate, educate, and train special population clients, including those with chronic and temporary health conditions. Become a certified personal trainer, then pursue this advanced personal trainer certification. CSPS® individuals train clients with medical conditions such as metabolic disease, autoimmune disorders, cancer and cardiac arrest, and address the needs of prenatal and postpartum personal training clients.

What does it take to become an award-winning Director of Strength and Conditioning in the National Football League (NFL)? Justin Lovett reveals the “we over me” mentality that guides his role with the Los Angeles Rams. Lovett reflects on receiving the 2024 NSCA Professional Strength and Conditioning Coach of the Year Award after being an NSCA Member for over 20 years. He draws parallels between working with high school and NFL athletes — where the desired training responses are the same and ability levels vary — making versatility key. Lovett also stresses the importance of finding clean and effective training methods to accommodate wear and tear in football athletes. He compares the Rams’ hiring philosophy to gathering “infinity stones,” emphasizing character attributes, culture alignment, and staff chemistry. Lovett and NSCA Coaching and Sport Science Program Manager Eric McMahon discuss progressing into leadership and the rise of performance director roles, as well as how to seek out career and networking opportunities. Connect with Justin on Instagram: @strcoachlovett, Twitter/X: @justin_lovett, or LinkedIn: Justin Lovett | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs or LinkedIn: @ericmcmahoncscs

What does LTAD mean and how can parents get more involved with their child’s athletic development? Rick Howard provides an overview of youth development, important concepts to understand, ways to impact physical development, signs of overtraining, and further resources that are a great refresher for coaches and can be passed onto parents.

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 purpose of this article is to investigate a few important considerations for the ice hockey goaltender: common injuries, specific physical characteristics and conditioning, and the mental game.

In this session from the 2016 NSCA Coaches Conference, the Sports Science and Performance Manager for the Seattle Sounders Major League Soccer (MLS) team, David Tenney, discusses the “high performance model” in the American elite sports environment. Tenney delves into how this model impacts hierarchy and daily decision making, as well as the obstructions that many organizations face, how this model can help to drive decision making and optimize training strategies, and the different strategies that can help make this happen.

Guy Leahy writes a review of the research relating to the tactical population from presentations and research from the 65th Annual Meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM).

This column from TSAC Report 76, examines the performance benefits of supplementing creatine monohydrate for tactical athletes. Visit NSCA online to learn about nutrition, and performance fitness.

The purpose of this article is to provide personal trainers an overview of training clients for their first Spartan Sprint event.