Discover how hospitality-focused ownership and management can create a gym that attracts and retains members for long-term success. Visit NSCA online to read more on professional development, the fitness industry, and health.

Looking for a job is an art and a skill. Not looking at it that way may cost a strength and conditioning coach a great opportunity. This article provides one experienced coach’s perspective on what is important as a strength and conditioning coach looks to climb the ladder or change positions in the profession.

This excerpt from Developing the Core briefly defines closed- and open-chain exercises and their respective roles in training.

Battling rope exercises can be used as a metabolic training modality following a comprehensive resistance training workout to increase the client’s heart rate and help maximize the metabolic cost of the training session.

The excerpt from Strength Training for Soccer describes the movements necessary for multidirectional speed.

In the push for personal training sales, many gyms will use assessment protocols as a way to prove to clients that they can indeed benefit from personal training. This article examines the merits behind this concept.

Building athletes who are strong, healthy, and resilient requires more than sets and reps, starting with a shift in mindset. Christi Edson, Head of Performance for the Orlando Pride in the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL), shares how she integrates strength and conditioning with sport science to sustain athlete health and performance. She reflects on the field’s evolution from the well-known “Bigger, Faster, Stronger” program to a training culture emphasizing resilience, active recovery, and durability. Drawing from her experience coaching high school athletes to NWSL professionals, Edson highlights the adaptability and creativity coaches need. Those qualities help her to develop athletes who can thrive through a demanding 11-month season. She details how tools like GPS, force plates, and velocity-based training sharpen communication and reshape expectations in the gym. Her story points coaches toward the future of athlete development: collaboration, precise load management, and long-term health as the foundation of strength. Connect with Christi on Instagram: @christiedson and LinkedIn: @christiana-edson | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs and LinkedIn: @ericmcmahoncscs Read the article, “A Creative Mind in the Professional Development of a Strength and Conditioning Coach,” from NSCA Coach, 11(1), February 2024 — referenced in this episode’s return-to-play discussion. NSCA Members enjoy full publication access. 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 cross-department collaboration.

This article discusses lactate testing as a cost-effective alternative way to create advanced exercise prescriptions, as well as opening the possibility of being a new biomarker of metabolic health for personal trainers.

This Kinetic Select from NSCA’s Essentials of Personal Training, Second Edition gives a brief overview of respiratory adaptations, and how aerobic interventions of duration and intensity can be used for specific adaptations for endurance training.