This article in PTQ 11.4 shares content on exercise programs for seniors. Visit NSCA online to read articles on fitness news, personal training and more.

In the first of a two part series, this article will briefly highlight the main components of a needs analysis and apply it to the context of soccer.

This article examines training from collegiate lacrosse programs and how this data can be used to develop data-informed recommendations and refine current approaches towards preparing military and tactical personnel for the Army Combat Fitness Test.

Given the growing interest surrounding youth strength and conditioning, the NSCA recently engaged a group of leading experts to author a position statement on long-term athletic development. The document proposes ten key pillars of successful long-term athletic development that practitioners should adhere to in order to enhance performance, promote health and well-being, and minimize the risk of sport- or physical activity-related injury.

Resistance training or strength training has become one of the most popular forms of exercise, because it is the only method capable of improving physical fitness and increasing muscle mass simultaneously. Among the variables of training, the relationship between intensity and volume has been extensively addressed to enhance exercise induced muscular hypertrophy. For many, mechanical stress is seen as a factor of greater relevance and, because high loads promote greater mechanical tension and high intensities are traditionally used to increase muscle mass. However, evidence has shown greater safety and similar results through training based on lower intensities and increased training volume. Thus, this narrative review aimed to search the current literature for evidence on using different training loads to promote muscle hypertrophy. An extensive nonsystematic literature review was conducted in the PubMed, Google Scholar and Scielo databases. It was possible to conclude that the use of high and low intensity promotes similar results in muscle hypertrophy in all groups, leading to the belief that there is greater safety and adherence to the use of lower intensities compared with close effort to concentric failure.

Guy Leahy writes a review of the research relating to the tactical population from presentations and research from the 65th Annual Meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM).

NSCA Tactical Program Managers, Jason Soileau (Military) and Mandy Nice (Public Safety), talk to the NSCA Coaching and Sport Science Program Manager, Eric McMahon, about supporting those in the tactical professions over the course of their careers. Topics under discussion include the U.S. Army Holistic Health and Fitness (H2F) program and developing a new tactical strength and conditioning program tool kit for public safety agencies. Find Jason and Mandy on Facebook: NSCA Tactical Strength and Conditioning SIG | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs or Twitter: @ericmcmahoncscs

This excerpt from NSCA's Essentials of Tactical Strength and Conditioning aims to educate on some fundamentals of energy systems training in tactical personnel.

Tactical jobs are fast-paced, physically and psychologically intense, and failure can have tragic consequences, making it vital to train tactical athletes to perform better under stress.