No two days are the same for Will Gilmore as part of a team that oversees over 800 athletes across 200 sports at the Red Bull Athlete Performance Center. From surfers to skydivers, the facility provides an elite high-performance ecosystem for traditionally individual sport athletes. Gilmore highlights the need for remote programming and monitoring to support a constantly shifting roster. Together as a team, they navigate uncharted territory in action sports conditioning, guided by physiological demands and underlying energy systems. Gilmore and NSCA Coaching and Sport Science Program Manager Eric McMahon discuss the shift in sport science from ample to actionable data to find, change, and measure what matters most. Gilmore reflects on his “career periodization” and having free time for friends and family while working corporate hours — a stark contrast with his background in Major League Baseball (MLB). The pair also emphasize proactive networking and education for future career opportunities. Connect with Will on Instagram: @will_gilmore_ or LinkedIn: @will-gilmore | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs or LinkedIn: @ericmcmahoncscs Want to get involved with the NSCA? Find peers who share your passion for a specific sport or topic in Special Interest Groups (SIGs), or apply now for Volunteer Leadership Opportunities!

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.

Concurrent training (CT), which combines resistance exercise and energy systems conditioning, is the default approach to preparation in high-intensity intermittent (“stop and go”) team sports. This review provides an overview of CT, emphasizing its complexities and challenges in managing fatigue and optimizing performance. These complexities are specifically compounded by the variability in game demands across the season, where the presence of intensified and nonintensified competition periods necessitates a flexible and adaptive training approach. In this context, there are essential training variables to consider, including intensity, volume, session order, and recovery intervals between sessions. In addition, nontraining variables such as travel, sleep, and nutrition play a role in the fatigue experienced while training and competing. These variables interact to influence acute performance and training adaptations and can be strategically adjusted by strength and conditioning practitioners. The aim of this review is to provide a comprehensive understanding of fatigue management for practitioners in team sports, emphasizing the complexities and challenges of CT and offering simplified practical recommendations for adjusting training variables within any given microcycle.

This article in NSCA Coach shares a research-driven framework for dryland training in competitive swimming. Visit us online to learn more on sport performance and exercise science.

This article explores the critical role of nutrient timing in optimizing energy levels, supporting recovery, and enhancing overall physiological responses.

This article provides considerations for preparing firefighters for the physical and psychological demands of their job, including pre-operational work specific training during their rest times.

This article features the recharge skate—an in-season hockey conditioning drill, designed by the authors, to maintain hockey-specific energy system fitness throughout the competitive season.

The purpose of this article is to help bring awareness of athletic recovery by useful fatigue monitoring and managing tools, such as external and internal load examples.

The purpose of this article is to discuss the health and occupational implications of firefighters not currently meeting the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) aerobic capacity recommendations.

Athletes have sought out intermittent fasting as a strategy to optimize performance. However, it is important to critically evaluate the research available in order to establish specific recommendations and determine if intermittent fasting is safe or effective.