This excerpt from the Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning outlines what training typically looks like in the preparatory period, or off-season.

In this session from 2019 Coaches Conference, Paul Laursen, co-author of the book “Science and Application of High-Intensity Interval Training: Solutions to the Programming Puzzle,” explains the physiological targets of high-intensity interval training and how to design and manipulate variables for a variety of applications.

This Personal Training Quarterly article presents time-efficient fitness strategies to maintain physical and mental health during early parenthood. Visit NSCA online to read more on nutrition, health science, and fitness news.

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.

There is growing evidence that polarized endurance training is a promising method for optimizing a tactical athlete’s cardiovascular system, preparing for physical performance tests, allowing for a more full recovery during deployment, and allowing for safer return to duty after injury or deployment.

This NSCA Coach article examines strength and conditioning strategies for collegiate distance runners to build performance for outdoor competition. Visit NSCA online to read about sport science.

This article addresses three main areas of resistance exercise that best prepares tactical personnel for load carriage.

NSCA Coach 11.3 is an exercise research article providing strength coaches, considerations to design effective sports performance programs for collegiate soccer.

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.

This article will present a sample program that was implemented successfully by a group of older women in competition, and discuss the general exercise principles utilized to increase BMD in postmenopausal women.