“The goal of what we’re trying to do is make a difference in someone’s life,” says Gary Schofield in this session from the 2015 NSCA National Conference. Coach Schofield explains areas where you can make a difference for your athletes, including movement efficiency, recovery and regeneration, autoregulation, velocity-based training, and conditioning with purpose.

This article uses relevant research and literature to provide suggestions for optimal recovery in tactical operators.

The ability to manage the adaptive response, handle accumulated fatigue, and capitalize on the aftereffects established from training is central to the training process.

Factors such as the types of exercises used, the number of muscle groups trained per session, the structure of the program, and the client’s training status and overall fitness level dictate training frequency.

This article from NSCA Coach explores how beet juice and nitrate supplements can enhance athletic performance. Learn more about nutrition and exercise physiology online at NSCA.com.

The purpose of this article is to help provide recommendations of overall recovery modalities for tactical athletes.

This article reviews the use of heart rate as a way to program cardiovascular exercise.

In this session from the 2015 NSCA National Conference, Nelson Ayotte—the Strength and Conditioning Coach for the St. Louis Blues National Hockey League (NHL) team—explains how to design and implement a specific energy systems program at the elite level. Ayotte demonstrates the characteristics of each of the three energy systems and their trainability, and explores how to understand the energy demands of a sport by analysis of its characteristics, competition intensity, and duration of efforts and recovery periods.

An emerging body of research has explored the potential ergogenic effects of noninvasive interset recovery strategies involving the application of cold substances to the extremities distal to exercising muscles (e.g., palms of the hands or the soles of the feet). It was suggested that such strategies may acutely enhance resistance training (RT) performance by augmenting excitation and motor unit recruitment of the working muscles through enhanced stimulation of the central nervous system, resulting in greater force production and the ability to perform more repetitions to fatigue. Moreover, peripheral stimuli such as distal cooling may acutely reduce the sensation of distress during RT, allowing individuals to tolerate more exercise and achieve higher training volumes. Although there is some evidence that interset distal cooling confers an ergogenic benefit during RT, certain methodological considerations, a paucity of longitudinal research, and contrasting findings call into question its effectiveness. Thus, the purpose of this review is to assess the current evidence regarding the effects of interset palm and sole cooling on RT performance outcomes.

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.