Dietary fat has both long-term and short-term effects on an athlete and athletic performance. “Fat loading” as a strategy to improve athletic performance remains unproven.

The importance of physical fitness is never greater than when lives are at stake. Specifically, professionals in law enforcement, fire/rescue, and the military need fitness and tactical athleticism to efficiently respond to calls and complete missions regardless of the obstacles, mixed terrain, interference, and dangerous environmental conditions involved

Congratulations to the NSCA's 2025 awardees for their dedication and contributions to the NSCA and the field of strength and conditioning.

Colorado Springs, CO – MAJ Donald Bigham and Mark Stephenson named the 2017 TSAC-Facilitator and TSAC-Practitioners of the Year at NSCA’s TSAC Annual Training April 3-6, 2017 in Orlando, FL.

Research on the benefits of using goals to increase athletic performance has shown that performance generally increases for athletes that use goals consistently. Learn how to move beyond generalities and see how a systematic goal setting approach can be paired with training athletes.

In order to develop athletes who can move optimally in multiple planes of motion, training should include elements that can challenge them in multiple planes while providing various resistance and proprioceptive challenges.

Coaching careers have chapters. Whether moving from one position to the next, or one area of the profession to another, veteran strength and conditioning coach, Matt Krause, understands this journey well. Krause was the 2018 NSCA Professional Strength and Conditioning Coach of the Year with an over 20-year career working in Major League Baseball. He shares his path from professional sports to today, working as the Health and Performance Manager in the Pasco County Sheriff’s Department, with NSCA Coaching and Sport Science Program Manager, Eric McMahon. This episode includes insights for developing effective strength and conditioning programs across sport and law enforcement. The value of engaging with and learning from multiple areas of the profession is paramount throughout this episode, highlighting the value of leadership and versatility in an expanding profession. Connect with Matt on Instagram at @mck_inc or by email at info.pbsccs@gmail.com | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs or Twitter: @ericmcmahoncscs Follow-up on this conversation and learn more about strength and conditioning initiatives at the Florida’s Institute for Research, Security, and Tactics (F1RST) and in the Professional Baseball Strength and Conditioning Coaches Society (PBSCCS).

Knowledge of metabolic rate can help athletes as well as health-conscious people improve their exercise performance or obtain the fat-to-lean-mass ratio optimal for their personal situations. Two examples of how this works follow.

It is apparent that speed plays a vital role in successful baseball performance. Because of the short distances involved in the game, players rarely, if ever, achieve maximum speed and in actuality, it is acceleration that plays a much greater role in baseball.