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.

This article outlines a potential learning course intended for students in undergraduate criminal justice and homeland security majors to improve their physical health literacy and health-related behaviors.

If Mission Critical Teams intend to enhance their capability, they must first embrace a learning organizational culture and develop a belief that organizations are required to continually improve and adapt in the current competitive and complex environment in order to survive and prosper.

This article discusses lactate testing as a cost-effective alternative way to create advanced exercise prescriptions, as well as opening the possibility of being a new biomarker of metabolic health for personal trainers.

Managing workload and optimizing athlete performance while promoting injury-free participation is simplified using the eight tips in this article.

This excerpt from Developing Speed aims to develop athletes’ ability to accelerate quickly through stride modification.

To address and combat neurocognitive decline in tactical personnel, this article will detail the mechanistic underpinnings of, and describe how to apply, attention regulation strategies to facilitate greater skill acquisition, retention, and performance transfer.

The use of exercise interventions to maximize athletes’ performance is a common practice in competitions. This systematic review aimed to compile research that explored the effectiveness of priming strategies to maximize physical performance in track and field. The literature search was conducted from PubMed and Scopus. One hundred eighty-two studies were assessed against the inclusion criteria: (a) minimum 1-year participation/competition experience; (b) randomized controlled trials with pre-post intervention outcomes; and (c) studies involving exercise interventions applied #6 hours before outcome measures were collected. Fifteen studies satisfied the criteria and were categorized according to the exercise interventions used (i.e., resistance training, plyometric/ ballistic training, resisted sprints, and modified warm-ups). Heavy-loaded resistance training (i.e., .85% 1 repetition maximum) and resisted sprints increased subsequent sprint performance. Plyometrics/ballistic training also positively impacted subsequent jumping (i.e., long jump) and throwing performance (i.e., shot put). Modified warm-ups (i.e., high-intensity sprints and heavier throwing implements) also improved subsequent running and throwing performance. Overall, exercise interventions performed at high intensity and low volume augment subsequent physical performance as close to 4 minutes before the event. However, a sufficient recovery interval must be considered for a positive performance response.

The path to actual integration of mental and physical training for the tactical athlete is paved with growing empiricism. The current challenge is to sustain creative development of functional approaches and demonstrate that integration can deliver potential benefits.

The aim of this article is to share with strength and conditioning coaches how red light therapy has evolved from its early beginnings to contemporary times, as well as to address the many benefits for athletes.