This excerpt from NSCA's Essentials of Tactical Strength and Conditioning aims to educate on some fundamentals of energy systems training in tactical personnel.

Due to the high contact and intensity of football, injuries to the players are inevitable. Strength and conditioning coaches play a vital role in the athlete’s process of return to sport. This article is a detailed outline of the solutions that are involved with transitioning a football player from rehabilitation to strength and conditioning back to the field.

Mental health is changing across sports and human performance. See how strength and conditioning professionals can recognize, respond, refer, and use resources.

Assessing clients is a vital component of the personal training experience. This article gives an overview of breathing mechanics and how to apply proper breathing exercises into a client’s assessment and program.

Annette Zapp, Lieutenant Firefighter in Chicago, talks to the Former NSCA Head Strength and Conditioning Coach, Scott Caulfield, about strength and conditioning in the firefighting niche. Topics under discussion include the perks of being a firefighter who is also a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist® (CSCS®) and Tactical Strength and Conditioning Facilitator® (TSAC-F®), the typical lifestyles and attitudes of firefighters in general, and common issues that they face both physically and mentally. Find Annette on Twitter: @FireSQFitness or Instagram: @FireSQFitness

Proper form and biomechanical execution of the squat has been a long-debated subject in the fitness and sports performance industries. The following article describes a method to help determine an individual’s preferred squatting foot position, setup, and depth based on their unique hip anthropometrics for smarter, safer, and more optimized squatting.

While exercise is safe for most participants, many screening strategies have been implemented to reduce the likelihood of injury, and possibly death, from exercise. This article shares an objective strategy for selecting an appropriate assessment method based on a client’s resistance training status and experience.

Football requires very fast, high-intensity, and high-impact movement patterns with each position requiring various movements and speeds. This article reviews how coaches are currently observing movement, and offers a framework on how to identify and improve movement in each player without over-coaching movement patterns.

This narrative review will focus on the research related to tactical load carriage and on a program recommendation to maximize strength and endurance adaptations in Special Operations Forces (SOF).

During the rehabilitation process, a client may need therapy outside of the personal trainer’s scope of practice. This article discusses safe and effective modalities that personal trainers can use with clients in the post-rehabilitation phase process.