The purpose of this paper is to conduct a critical appraisal of peer-reviewed articles on the effects of load carriage on cognitive function among military personnel.

As performance staffs grow and develop, professional athletes today have a broad array of services and expertise available to them in the locker room and around competition. This episode features the Vice President of Health and Performance for the National Basketball Association (NBA) Phoenix Suns, Brady Howe. Howe tells Eric McMahon, the NSCA Coaching and Sport Science Program Manager, how humble beginnings as an NBA Developmental League athletic trainer contributed to his current performance-first mindset for leading a multifaceted health and performance department. Topics include often misunderstood developmental factors for training elite athletes and advice for how to serve your athletes at the highest level. Connect with Brady on Instagram: @bhowe6 or Twitter: @brady_howe | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs or Twitter: @ericmcmahoncscs You can learn more about NBA strength and conditioning from the National Basketball Strength and Conditioning Association (NBSCA), an Official Sport Partner of the NSCA.

The purpose of this article is to discuss the theory behind the French Contrast Method (FCM), current evidence demonstrating its effectiveness, as well as proper implementation and execution for athletic populations.

Integrating unbalanced load training into a strength or hypertrophy phase, or any workout program, can add a tremendous amount of demand on the lateral aspects of the core to help the athlete develop a strong core. Using unbalanced load training may help produce increases in athleticism, balance, and motor coordination without sacrificing strength or explosiveness.

As activity levels decrease, and swelling and inflammation set in, maintaining a diet that promotes healing is essential to keeping weight under control and speeding up recovery.

This article is the eighth in 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 communities. On this occasion, the focus is on new research presented at the 2016 NSCA National Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana, July 7 – 8, 2016.

Tim Suchomel, Assistant Professor of Exercise Science and the Program Director for the Sport Physiology and Performance Coaching graduate program at Carroll University, discusses the literature surrounding the force-velocity curve, identifies potential periodization and programming strategies to improve these characteristics in athletes, and provides example programs to show how to implement different resistance training methods.

Develop a better understanding of the brain’s role on exercise and recovery for the tactical athlete, and learn how to identify and implement heart rate variability (HRV) markers for prescribing recovery strategies. Presented by Mark Stephenson, Director of the Human Performance Program at a special operations unit for the Department of Defense, at the NSCA’s 2016 TSAC Annual Training.

Learn about the unique culture that comprises tactical performance, to include the unit-specific subcultures within it, and how to adopt both intuitive and research-based methods to more strategically impact military personnel. In this session from the NSCA’s 2016 TSAC Annual Training, Nate Palin explains effective and ineffective approaches to influencing the physical training within a tactical setting.

Learn about Loren Landow’s philosophy-based system of multidirectional training and explore how to best integrate multidirectional training to straight-line speed performance through a full progression of bilateral and unilateral exercises. In this session from the NSCA’s 2017 National Conference, Landow addresses the factors that influence agility with special attention to the feet and hips