In this session from the NSCA’s 2018 Personal Trainers Conference, Director of the Rutgers Center for Health and Human Performance, Shawn Arent, discusses the science and myths surrounding some of today’s most popular diet trends with an effort to help personal trainers understand reasonable, sustainable, and effective dietary strategies with their clients.

Triathlons are unique compared to other sports as athletes are required to master three distinct disciplines: swimming, cycling, and running. This article lays out a training program that focuses on a balance between strength training and sport training to avoid overtraining and overuse injuries and to maximize performance in a multi-sport athlete.

One area that can have great impact on the success of a high school athletic department is the strength and conditioning program. This session from the 2015 NSCA National Conference provides insights from Coach Kevin Vanderbush’s personal experience as the strength and conditioning coach at Ben Davis High School for 31 years. This session covers the most important components of strength and conditioning at the high school level and provides both the rationale behind certain practices as well as practical tips.

Ryan Metzger, Senior Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach for Clemson University, talks to the NSCA Coaching Program Manager, Eric McMahon, about their internship program going virtual amidst the pandemic to provide young strength coaches the education they need to grow despite the lack of in-person training. Topics of discussion also include early sport specialization and burnout, as well as being a role model for female athletes. Find Ryan on Instagram: @clemsonolystrength or @coach_metz | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs or Twitter: @ericmcmahoncscs

This article is part of a continuing series of tactical strength and conditioning (TSAC) research reviews. It is designed to bring awareness to new research findings of relevance to tactical strength and conditioning.

This article focuses on interprofessional collaboration for optimizing athlete return to sport (RTS).

In this session from the NSCA’s 2015 Hockey Clinic, San Jose Sharks Strength and Conditioning Coordinator Mike Potenza discusses how to create a program that can help re-assimilate an injured hockey player’s body back to pre-injury functions and movements, and eventually back to competition. Potenza also covers the structure of an off-ice reconditioning program, the members of the performance team, methods for building a “return to skate program,” and reintegration procedures for the athlete.

The purpose of this article is to help bring awareness of athletic recovery by useful fatigue monitoring and managing tools, such as external and internal load examples.

Research on the benefits of using goals to increase athletic performance has shown that performance generally increases for athletes that use goals consistently. Learn how to move beyond generalities and see how a systematic goal setting approach can be paired with training athletes.

Brianna Battles believes athleticism does not end when motherhood begins. Frustrated by the lack of resources and support for pregnant and postpartum athletes, she founded Everyday Battles to bridge the gap. Now, she empowers everyone from Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) fighters and Olympians to hobbyists to challenge their perceived fragility, navigate body and identity changes, and pursue a lifetime of athleticism. Battles notes how strength and conditioning coaches are uniquely poised to influence communities and train general populations using a top-down coaching philosophy. Conducting needs analyses, she focuses on their athletic history, predispositions, and how they manage breathing, pressure, and tension during movement. By reverse-engineering a proactive return to performance, she helps clients overcome social media glorification and fearmongering to design an athlete-mom life that serves them. Battles discusses tapping into the “athlete brain” that craves routine and buy-in. Her advice? Get curious, practice brave, and embrace entrepreneurship as another form of progressive overload. Connect with Brianna on Instagram: @brianna.battles and @pregnant.postpartum.athlete or by email at: brianna@briannabattles.com | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs and LinkedIn: @ericmcmahoncscs This episode discusses new CASCE field experience requirements that dictate a minimum of two substantially different work experiences. Learn more about CASCE accreditation at NSCA.com/CASCE.