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The purpose of this article was to conduct a process evaluation of a six-week recruit strength and conditioning programming for rural structural firefighter recruits.
TSAC FacilitatorsProgram designTesting and Evaluation
This is an excerpt from NSCA's Essentials of Sport Science by NSCA -National Strength & Conditioning Association, Duncan N. French & Lorena Torres-Ronda.
From the 2022 NSCA’s Coaches Conference, Paul Comfort discusses micro-dosing strength training in athletes and provides some preliminary research comparing it to a more traditional training approach.
This article discusses the importance of upper body power training for protective security personnel and its potential for an occupational performance marker.
TSAC FacilitatorsProgram designTesting and Evaluation
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.
Position statements are official statements of the NSCA on topics related to strength and conditioning and exercise science. All NSCA Position Statements are published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research® and free to the public.
This article provides essential guidelines for athletes beginning a strength and conditioning program that ensures safety and productivity of the training sessions.