After almost leaving the profession entirely, Ashley Kowalewski landed her role as an Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach at the prestigious Louisiana State University. Listen as she recounts the strength and conditioning coach who inspired her as a high-level athlete at Oklahoma State University, diverting her path away from pursuing a physical therapy career. Explore how her early experience as an NSCA intern and working with adaptive sports under the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee expanded her network and strengthened her coaching. Discover where to tap into access points that can build mentors in your corner and the importance of being relationship-oriented in a field where collaboration is key. Kowalewski also speaks about checking her ego after a difficult career experience and the challenge of starting again at the intern level. Learn her guiding principle of providing over proving and how high-quality leadership can elevate a program’s impact and staff longevity. Connect with Ashley on Instagram at: @ashleykowalewski or by email: ashk@lsu.edu | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs or LinkedIn: @ericmcmahoncscs

Understanding how the body adapts to the overload of aerobic exercise is critical to designing effective exercise training programs, monitoring exercise responses and progress, and assessing training outcomes.

When integrating resistance training, endurance athletes must ensure that the sessions or workouts are sequenced in the context of the overall workload. Giving careful thought to these factors when designing the training plan will increase the chances of success.

Field tests have become popular in applied exercise science and sport performance enhancement programs because of their simplicity and ability to generalize results. However, numerous confounding factors may influence the validity of test data from such evaluations.

This article briefly reviews the importance of the stretch-shortening cycle in power production.

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 article will focus on the management of the physical training process of US Air Force Special Warfare candidates, with relevant information geared toward the specific demands seen within the first phases of a Special Warfare Operator’s development.

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

This PTQ article reviews the research comparing injury rates across major resistance training styles and ranks them from the safest to the riskiest and provides practical recommendations to improve training safety. Visit NSCA online to learn more about bodybuilding and strength training strategies.

This excerpt from NSCA’s Guide to Sport and Exercise Nutrition discusses the research surrounding the timing of hydration and its impact on sport performance for those participating in aerobic endurance exercise.