Strength coaches make up the foundation of the NSCA since its beginnings more than four decades ago and continue to drive our purpose and passion. Learn more about obtaining the acclaimed CSCS® certification, gain knowledge through NSCA's peer-reviewed journals, and get inspired by NSCA's coaching podcast. From tools and resources to thousands of top professionals across the globe, you've got the support and the credibility of an association dedicated to your profession.

Rhodri S. Lloyd, lead author of the LTAD Position Statement, provides an abbreviated look at what long-term athletic development is and how strength and conditioning professionals can implement effective training strategies into programming to improve health, well-being, and growth.

Learn what it takes to become a strength and conditioning coach. Explore what strength coaches do, work environments, average salaries, and how to get started.

The NSCA has built a collection of resources to help our community of strength and conditioning professionals and athletes safely return to training and adapt to the new challenges created by the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic.

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.

Mike Israetel discusses where strength training overlaps with hypertrophy training, and how you can get the best of both training methods.

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 NSCA Foundation awarded nearly $195,000 to 15 Grant Recipients in 2026 to support strength and conditioning research, coaching advancement, and equipment

One resistance training variable that may be altered to achieve desired outcomes is the range of motion used in training. Generally, the strength and conditioning field has accepted that using a greater range of motion in strength training exercises results in more substantial muscle hypertrophy outcomes. However, this theory has proved to be inconsistently supported in the literature, and to date, no sufficient explanation exists to explain this phenomenon. This review article seeks to outline a novel approach for potentially describing the disparities seen in range of motion research with respect to hypertrophy outcomes by applying the unique length-tension curve of each muscle being examined. As will be discussed in the review, virtually all the results from range of motion studies in various muscles have corresponded to each muscle’s length-tension curve; muscles that are active on the descending limb of the curve appear to garner greater hypertrophy from using larger ranges of motion. Conversely, muscles that are not active on the descending limb exhibit similar adaptations despite alterations in range of motion. A novel hypothesis for applying this information to resistance training programs will be presented and discussed.

Congratulations to the NSCA's 2026 awardees for their dedication and contributions to the NSCA and the field of strength and conditioning.