Discovery Canyon High School’s Sam Melendrez explains how experts in his profession are having a profound impact on youth in sports.

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

Explore NSCA professional development groups, access member resources, and contribute educational content to share knowledge and advance your career.

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

Puberty is a critical period for young athletes, characterized by significant physical, psychological, and social changes. During puberty, young athletes experience the adolescent growth spurt at the same time as intensified training regimens, which can affect performance, injury risk, and overall health. Systematic training can improve physiological and performance outcomes, but the increased training volume and changes to the body during adolescence can also heighten the risk of injuries. This article discusses the injury risks associated with adolescent growth and provides comprehensive recommendations to mitigate these risks. Key recommendations include limiting training hours to the athlete’s age, monitoring growth and maturation to adjust training loads and content, and incorporating and modifying consistent strength and conditioning prescriptions. In addition, optimal nutrition, sleep, and interdisciplinary planning among coaches, parents, and stakeholders should be emphasized to support young athletes’ holistic development and well-being during the adolescent growth spurt.

As an international professional community that supports athletic performance and health, we recognize how we are all impacted by the worldwide coronavirus outbreak. This page has been developed to keep you updated on NSCA’s efforts and activities.

Grow as a professional and connect with peers by engaging in one or more NSCA Professional Development Groups. Discover resources, share your knowledge and get your questions answered. To join, please visit each group’s corresponding Facebook group and request to join. You may also update your preferences on your Account page.

Velocity-based training (VBT) is a contemporary method of resistance training that enables accurate and objective prescription of resistance training intensities and volumes. This review provides an applied framework for the theory and application of VBT. Specifically, this review gives detail on how to: use velocity to provide objective feedback, estimate strength, develop load-velocity profiles for accurate load prescription, and how to use statistics to monitor velocity. Furthermore, a discussion on the use of velocity loss thresholds, different methods of VBT prescription, and how VBT can be implemented within traditional programming models and microcycles is provided.

Castle View High School Strength and Conditioning Coach says science is leading to safer training methods being used in high school weight rooms.