Diets moderately higher in protein and slightly lower in carbohydrate may be beneficial when it comes to weight loss and improving body composition, as well as for sport performance.

The purpose of this article is to provide fitness professionals with best practices on creating a program that uses red light therapy to aid in weight loss and weight management.

The following article provides a list of tests that could comprise a fitness assessment to measure overall fitness and health prior to, during, and after an academy training program.

This article discusses training strategies for law enforcement officers, including strength training, fitness scaling, and readiness programs that improve performance and career-long operational effectiveness. Visit NSCA online to read more on strength training and law enforcement officer fitness

Elite sport often gets more attention, but youth training gives strength and conditioning coaches an earlier chance to build athletes’ competence and confidence. Kelli Brightwell specializes in youth development and brings more than a decade of sports training experience, including four years at Michael Johnson Performance. Brightwell defines peak height velocity as the period during which height increases fastest. She then explains why its timing can differ among teammates of the same age. So what should strength coaches test, and what do the results mean? The answer changes with each athlete’s maturity and training experience. Brightwell addresses the growth-spurt “awkward phase,” when familiar movement patterns can break down as an athlete adjusts to a changing body. She also considers how sport sampling can expand children’s range of physical skills and help them discover what they enjoy. Learn how maturation can affect movement, testing, and programming — and why young athletes need foundations before specialization.

Take a deep dive into force plate research and trends with “Force Plate Coach”, Dr. John McMahon from the University of Salford in England. In this episode, John discusses his path from Royal Marine Commando into strength and conditioning and biomechanics teaching and research. Listen in as John connects with NSCA Coaching and Sport Science Program Manager, Eric McMahon, on the past, present, and future of force plates in sport and the ways we can improve our testing and evaluation of athletes. This episode mentions the following paper from NSCA’s Strength and Conditioning Journal: McMahon, JJ, Suchomel, TJ; Lake, JP, and Comfort, P. Understanding the Key Phases of the Countermovement Jump Force-Time Curve, Strength and Conditioning Journal 40(4): 96-106, 2018 Find John on Instagram: @forceplatecoach, on Twitter: @ForcePlateCoach, and on YouTube: @ForcePlateCoach| Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs or Twitter: @ericmcmahoncscs

This article details an example assessment battery that could be used to measure the relative health and fitness of community service officers (CSO) within the context of similar populations.

This excerpt from NSCA’s Guide to Sport and Exercise Nutrition briefly analyzes some of the research behind creatine and its application to sport performance.

The VO2max test is the most effective measurement of the body’s ability to deliver and use oxygen for producing energy that can be used by the muscles. VO2max (i.e., maximum aerobic power) simply stands for the maximal volume of oxygen that can be used.

The purpose of this article is to present normative data that has been previously collected for the 75PR, use the data to create informed training practices, and support the need for further research of this particular topic in law enforcement.