Colorado Springs, CO – The National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) is proud to announce a new partnership with the National Basketball Strength and Conditioning Association (NBSCA). The agreement establishes a mutually beneficial relationship between the two associations that will support each organization’s mission to improve athletic performance and fitness.

Get NSCA's Essentials of Personal Training, Third Edition — a trusted resource for students, personal trainers, fitness professionals, and NSCA-CPT® exam prep.

The path to the top is not always linear. For Jill Costanza, it included returning to school and stops in collegiate and military performance before becoming Director of Sport Science and Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach with the National Football League (NFL) Detroit Lions. Costanza describes today’s sport science landscape as a “Wild West,” where definitions differ by perspective. Her focus centers on assessing the athlete and program effectiveness against the demands of the game to identify holistic interventions. She outlines how intentional systems, a clear communication funnel, and data visualizations help athletes and stakeholders understand the “why,” build buy-in, and tap into competitiveness. Addressing common misconceptions, Costanza clarifies that elite athletes can still have foundational qualities that need rewiring. She emphasizes movement quality, proprioception, and breathing while adapting for individual needs and neurological fatigue. Learn how to build sport science systems, turn insights into action, and keep progressing on your professional path. Reach out to Jill by email at: jill.costanza@lions.nfl.net | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs and LinkedIn: @ericmcmahoncscs Join the NSCA Football Special Interest Group (SIG) and explore 24 other specialized communities designed to support your development on the Special Interest Groups page.

Passion, while imperative to training, must be paired with energy, enthusiasm, intention, and knowledge to truly make a difference and create your “sonic boom.” Being an effective strength and conditioning coach is a lifestyle, not a job, and with continued passion, you can affect many lives positively.

Battling rope exercises can be used as a metabolic training modality following a comprehensive resistance training workout to increase the client’s heart rate and help maximize the metabolic cost of the training session.

Because a client’s functional abilities will change in each of the tissue healing phases, the fitness professional must understand the time it takes to heal and the science behind each phase in order to prescribe safe exercises for clients in those phases.

The purpose of this article is to discuss relationships between current fitness testing within the United States Army and its effect on overall tactical readiness.

This excerpt from Developing Speed aims to develop athletes’ ability to accelerate quickly through stride modification.

An internship is a good way for the exercise science student to start getting some valuable experience in the field of strength and conditioning. The purpose of this article is to present an integrated approach to becoming an effective intern in the collegiate setting.