This is an excerpt from NSCA's Essentials of Sport Science by NSCA -National Strength & Conditioning Association, Duncan N. French & Lorena Torres-Ronda.

This article is the first 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 communities.

Because fitness test results are part of performance evaluations, smaller service members have an advantage in terms of attaining promotions, despite evidence that suggests that greater body size, strength, power, and load carrying capacity is correlated with tactical performance.

All fitness components depend on body composition to some extent, and the demands of many sports require that athletes maintain standard levels of body composition.

Military and law enforcement needs analyses are not specifically matched to firefighting, but those training styles are better than basic fitness regimens or no regimen at all. For firefighters who are attracted to other styles of training not specific to firefighting, there are ways to train for all the demands of firefighting without making the firefighter use training modalities that they dislike or are not comfortable using.

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 provides methods used by tactical facilitators, related research articles, and professional interviews to demonstrate how physical conditioning facilitates the transition from practice to duty for service members, including law enforcement and fire and rescue personnel.

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 addresses three main areas of resistance exercise that best prepares tactical personnel for load carriage.

This article is from the perspective of the Battalion Commander, 1st Tank Battalion, in an effort to share with other TSAC-F what did and did not work while implementing the Marine Corps’ Force Fitness program.