In this session from the 2015 NSCA National Conference, Nelson Ayotte—the Strength and Conditioning Coach for the St. Louis Blues National Hockey League (NHL) team—explains how to design and implement a specific energy systems program at the elite level. Ayotte demonstrates the characteristics of each of the three energy systems and their trainability, and explores how to understand the energy demands of a sport by analysis of its characteristics, competition intensity, and duration of efforts and recovery periods.

This article explains the use of structured functional fitness programs for injury prevention and enhanced job performance in fire service personnel.

A sound year-round aerobic endurance training program should be divided into sport seasons with specific goals and objectives designed to improve performance gradually and progressively.

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.

This article will explain the interference effect and provide a rationale for why low-intensity steady-state (LISS) cardiovascular training may be a useful tool for those interested in improving their body composition.

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

It is well known that moderate exercise during pregnancy benefits maternal and fetal well-being. The benefits of more vigorous exercise for pregnant women are less clear. The boundaries of safe exercise during pregnancy remain a matter for continued research, which is important to the growing number of female athletes who plan on becoming pregnant. The purpose of this article is to discuss the existing research related to the physiological concerns of the pregnant endurance athlete specifically. Because endurance training includes prolonged and repetitive exercise bouts at varying intensities, topics will include the effect of high-intensity exercise on uterine blood flow and thermoregulation, metabolic, and musculoskeletal changes in pregnancy.

Oxygen uptake (or consumption) is a measure of a person’s ability to take in oxygen and deliver it to the working tissues, and the ability of working tissues to use oxygen. During low-intensity exercise with a constant power output, oxygen uptake increases for the first few minutes until a steady state of uptake is reached.