This excerpt explains the importance of optimal nutritional strategies in conjunction with good sleep hygiene and how that can help mitigate damaging effects of deployment and shift work on performance.

This TSAC Report article examines the primary risk factors contributing to shoulder pain in tactical athletes and provides evidence-based rehabilitation strategies. Visit NSCA online to learn more about exercise research for tactical athletes.

This article highlights some of the benefits, components, and training methods involved with time-efficient training.

NSCA Member Spotlight: Lee Brown shares his path into tactical strength and conditioning, firefighter research, and how NSCA engagement has elevated his career.

Fitness testing uses a battery of protocols recognized by the scientific community as both reliable and valid, and it measures important fitness constructs such as aerobic endurance, muscular strength, muscular endurance, power, agility, flexibility, and balance.

Your career can accelerate when you ask, offer, and say yes. For Morgan Smith, that approach led to a postdoctoral fellowship with the Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance at Stanford University. Smith recalls how coaching sparked her interest in the science behind performance. Working across academic and practical settings, she encountered challenges with research feasibility firsthand. Today, she focuses on blending coaching with sport science. At Stanford, she began by building relationships and trust within the athletic department. She describes collaborating with coaches and staff to identify research interests, gaps, and low-burden contributions. Smith also highlights opportunities to support club sports, campus recreation centers, and community programs. These roles can help fund education while building your resume, network, and practical skills. She reinforces the value of education as a time to maximize experience and explore interests. Discover how to gain applied experience early, drive cross-department buy-in, and cultivate relationships that move your career forward. Reach out to Morgan on Instagram: @goldenmo_ and LinkedIn: @morgan-smith-sportsscientist | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs and LinkedIn: @ericmcmahoncscs | Learn more about the Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance at: humanperformancealliance.org. Interested in bridging coaching and sport science? The Certified Performance and Sport Scientist® (CPSS®) credential can help you expand your qualifications, open new career paths, and strengthen organizational collaboration.

There are inherent challenges to designing training programs for firefighters, Mark Abel says in this member-only lecture from the 2014 TSAC Conference. Join Mark as he provides valuable insight into programming for these tactical athletes, including appropriate periodization and training strategies that address these challenges.

The program described in this article is an example of how a department can attempt to address and potentially prevent musculoskeletal injuries in firefighters and similar tactical populations. This process includes the use of movement screens, active workshops, and various modes of feedback.

The research reviewed in this article provides a baseline snapshot of clinically-relevant tools to screen, diagnose, and provide treatment that can improve behavior surrounding sleep, as well as quantity and quality of sleep in occupational firefighters.

The movement pattern utilized when flipping a tire is similar to the movements required during firefighting. Learn not only how to flip a tire, but how to assess functional power output among firefighters through the use of tire flipping.