This article is intended to assist tactical facilitators in the construction of a well-designed tactical return to duty program to help combat against the musculoskeletal injury burden that exists within tactical professions.

Understand why the strength and conditioning basics work, how they work, and how they elicit the desired performance outcomes. In this session from the 2016 TSAC Annual Training, Brandon Stone identifies buzzwords like mental toughness, work capacity, and regeneration, as well as how those are integrated into training the program at the 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne).

The tactical strength and conditioning field is evolving each year. Because of the experience of those in the field, as well as the growing body of research, we are gaining a better understanding of what it actually means to work within the tactical field.

With the need to be ready under any circumstances from operational missions to physical training, understanding how the adrenal gland functions is important for any tactical athlete. The adrenal gland mediates performance and can have a negative effect on the body’s physiology when exhausted. It is vital to understand the interventions needed to obviate the negative effects and enhance the positive aspects of such physiological function. This session from the 2015 TSAC Annual Training sheds light on this important physiological system that impacts both physical health and functional performance.

This excerpt explains the importance of optimal nutritional strategies in conjunction with good sleep hygiene and how that can help mitigate damaging effects of deployment and shift work on performance.

Tactical facilitators are especially well-positioned to integrate mental skills training that may develop more complete tactical athletes who are prepared for dangerous environments. This article offers recommendations for mental skills training based on reported views from a tactical population.

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.

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.

It is important for tactical athletes to be aware of their fluid intake and hydration status when training for or performing job duties. This article explains several ways this can be accomplished.

The exercises and progressions provided in this article can be used as a basic guideline for rehabilitation of common shoulder injuries, as well as a way to strengthen areas that are commonly affected by injury.