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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.

Developing safe and effective exercise training programs requires the application of abundant training variables and the implementation of appropriate progression for each variable. Importantly, the outcomes of each training program are the product of these variables and their progression, so practitioners are keen to select methodologies and overload strategies that effectively support their target training outcomes. One such training variable is mechanical loading, which describes the forces of gravity, resistance, and muscle contraction and how these forces affect musculoskeletal adaptations. Numerous research articles and texts have been published regarding mechanical loading and its effects on exercise adaptations; however, these findings can be arduous to organize, which requires additional time investment by professionals. Developing a succinct system is critical because practitioners face clients and patients with a wide range of physical skills and challenges, and having an easily referenced loading guide may assist them in designing appropriate strength and conditioning or rehabilitation programs. Thus, the purpose of this review is to define and describe the mechanical loading continuum and its individual components to better assist the practitioner in identifying appropriate exercise modes and progression strategies.

In this session from the 2020 NSCA Coaches Conference, Matt Nein, Coordinator of Sports Performance at Salisbury University, discusses his fluid periodization model for coaches to use to easily adapt to the changing situations on a week-to-week (or even day-to-day) basis, and still optimize training for the athletes.

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.

Falls resulting from trips are a leading cause of injury and can sometimes result in death, especially in the older population. Numerous researchers have studied the biomechanical mechanisms that differentiate fallers from nonfallers and determined whether training can beneficially impact those outcomes. Exercise and task-specific interventions have demonstrated fewer falls after trips but can be costly and often require specialized equipment, making their applicability less practical. Qualified health and fitness practitioners can develop evidence-informed, exercise-based programs focusing on 3 components (balance training, task-specific training, and resistance exercise). Such programs may help to reduce fall risk in older adults based on previously documented studies identifying the biomechanical demands of a successful fall arrest after a trip perturbation. These multicomponent programs should include a safe task-specific training element that does not require specialized equipment.

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Since traditional sport-specific training or exercise programs do not create enough stimulus to improve the function of the respiratory muscles, the rationale to introduce respiratory muscle training (RMT) emerged. RMT is associated with improved endurance performance and pulmonary function, and it reduced respiratory fatigue, perceived exertion, or breathlessness. The purpose of this article is to provide coaches with tools to select the appropriate form of RMT in the context of the athletes’ needs, using appropriate methods, techniques, devices, and testing protocols. The video abstract is presented in Supplemental Digital Content as SDC 1

The NSCA Facility of Distinction program recognizes excellence in private sector sports performance and personal training facilities. Review criteria and apply.