High school coaching is a rapidly-growing area of strength and conditioning, and can be an exciting career choice for strength and conditioning professionals who want to have a lifelong positive impact on young people.

This is the NSCA’s Coaching Podcast, where strength and conditioning coaches share their experience, lessons learned, and advice about how to thrive in a highly competitive profession.

The proper age-specific program may improve your teenager’s sports performance and reduce their risk of injuries.

Altering set configurations during a resistance training program can provide a novel training variation that can be used to modify the external and internal training loads that induce specific training outcomes. To design training programs that better target the defined goal(s) of a specific training phase, strength and conditioning professionals need to better understand how different set configurations affect the training adaptations that result from resistance training. Traditional and cluster set structures are commonly implemented by strength and conditioning professionals as part of an athlete’s resistance training program. The purpose of this review is to offer examples of the practical implementation of traditional and cluster sets that can be integrated into a periodized resistance training program.

Deloading is a period of reduced training stress where training demand is intentionally reduced to mitigate physiological and psychological fatigue and promote recovery. A deload is commonly implemented to enhance readiness for subsequent training and occurs between or during training phases. During a deload, training is typically modified by reducing the intensity of effort, training volume, duration, or frequency. Adjustments in exercise selection are based on recovery goals and the specific demands of the athlete’s training. Deloads are commonly preplanned and implemented into the training program every 4–8 weeks based on the structure of the training cycle and recovery needs. Alternatively, deloads are sometimes applied reactively using an autoregulatory approach to accommodate unexpected fatigue or performance decrements. While deloading shares conceptual similarities with tapering and training cessation, it should be differentiated based on its objective, structure, and positionality with the overall training program. The purpose of this article is to describe the current research landscape, propose areas for future research, and to provide broad practical recommendations for implementing deloading within the strength and physique sports training program.

This is the NSCA’s Coaching Podcast, where strength and conditioning coaches share their experience, lessons learned, and advice about how to thrive in a highly competitive profession.

Acclaimed Wisconsin-area high school strength and conditioning coach advises parents to ask these 10 important questions.

Resources for High School Athletic Directors and Administrators who are interested in adding a strength and conditioning position to their school or improving their existing strength and conditioning program. Includes tools for creating a position and evaluating your existing program, as well as information for parents.

The steps on this page will help you select the right certification that fits your career goals.