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

This excerpt from NSCA's Essentials of Tactical Strength and Conditioning explains the importance of wellness programs for tactical athletes.

Recent advances in research and human performance programs (HPP) has made it possible to learn more about the tactical athlete while creating enhanced methodologies and implementation. This review draws on the past three years of research focusing on strength and conditioning within military communities, exploring the current themes of research and the implications of future studies.

The path to actual integration of mental and physical training for the tactical athlete is paved with growing empiricism. The current challenge is to sustain creative development of functional approaches and demonstrate that integration can deliver potential benefits.

Brice Long, Director of Human Performance Experience at O2X, talks to the NSCA Coaching Program Manager, Eric McMahon, about O2X’s holistic approach for fire, police, military, and federal agencies. Topics under discussion include the value of training as a firefighter, physical tests and assessments in the National Guard, and being diverse in your skill sets as a coach. Find Brice on Instagram: @o2xhumanperformance or Twitter: @o2xhp | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs or Twitter: @ericmcmahoncscs

This article gives a firsthand account of working in a few of the United States Army’s earlier human performance and injury reduction programs as a strength coach and active-duty physical therapist.

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.

Tactical jobs are fast-paced, physically and psychologically intense, and failure can have tragic consequences, making it vital to train tactical athletes to perform better under stress.

The third and final article in this series will introduce the practical and technical elements of heart rate variability (HRV) monitoring in greater depth and detail.

Part 2 of this series on allostatic load theory will focus on how monitoring personnel holistically can contribute to a well-rounded health and performance model supporting the tactical athletes.