Strength and Conditioning Book

They say better late than ever, in this case it took few years, but eventually the project is now completed and the book will be out on the 17th of December.
It all started with a chat at a conference few years ago with my colleagues and friends Rob Newton and Ken Nosaka discussing the need of a comprehensive textbook on strength and conditioning providing information on the biological bases as well as practical applications.
This book is finally a reality thanks to the help and support of many colleagues who agreed to contribute to this project providing excellent chapters and creating a unique resource which we hope will be well received by anyone interested in Strength and Conditioning.

This book provides the latest scientific and practical information in the field of strength and conditioning. The text is presented in four sections, the first of which covers the biological aspects of the subject, laying the foundation for a better understanding of the second on the biological responses to strength and conditioning programs. Section three deals with the most effective monitoring strategies for evaluating a training program and establishing guidelines for writing a successful strength and conditioning program. The final section examines the role of strength and conditioning as a rehabilitation tool and as applied to those with disabilities.
The book is already available on Amazon and other online booksellers in hardcover and paperback editions.
A big thanks to our production team at Wiley-Blackwell and all the colleagues contributing to the chapters.

Details of the chapters are available here:
Foreword (Sir Clive Woodward).
Preface.
1.1 Skeletal Muscle Physiology (Valmor Tricoli).
1.2 Neuromuscular Physiology (Alberto Rainoldi and Marco Gazzoni).
1.3 Bone Physiology (Jörn Rittweger).
1.4 Tendon Physiology (Nicola Maffulli, Umile Giuseppe Longo, Filippo Spiezia and Vincenzo Denaro).
1.5 Bioenergetics of Exercise (R.J. Maughan).
1.6 Respiratory and Cardiovascular Physiology (Jeremiah J. Peiffer and Chris R. Abbiss).
1.7 Genetic and Signal Transduction Aspects of Strength Training (Henning Wackerhage, Arimantas Lionikas, Stuart Gray and Aivaras Ratkevicius).
1.8 Strength and Conditioning Biomechanics (Robert U. Newton).
2.1 Neural Adaptations to Resistance Exercise (Per Aagaard).
2.2 Structural and Molecular Adaptations to Training (Jesper L. Andersen).
2.3 Adaptive Processes in Human Bone and Tendon (Constantinos N. Maganaris, Jörn Rittweger and Marco V. Narici).
2.4 Biomechanical Markers and Resistance Training (Christian Cook and Blair Crewther).
2.5 Cardiovascular Adaptations to Strength and Conditioning (Andy Jones and Fred DiMenna).
2.6 Exercise-induced Muscle Damage and Delayed-onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS) (Kazunori Nosaka).
2.7 Alternative Modalities of Strength and Conditioning: Electrical Stimulation and Vibration (Nicola A. Maffiuletti and Marco Cardinale).
2.8 The Stretch–Shortening Cycle (SSC) (Anthony Blazevich).
2.9 Repeated-sprint Ability (RSA) (David Bishop and Olivier Girard).
2.10 The Overtraining Syndrome (OTS) (Romain Meeusen and Kevin De Pauw).
3.1 Principles of Athlete Testing (Robert U. Newton and Marco Cardinale).
3.2 Speed and Agility Assessment (Warren Young and Jeremy Sheppard).
3.3 Testing Anaerobic Capacity and Repeated-sprint Ability (David Bishop and Matt Spencer).
3.4 Cardiovascular Assessment and Aerobic Training Prescription (Andy Jones and Fred DiMenna).
3.5 Biochemical Monitoring in Strength and Conditioning (Michael R. McGuigan and Stuart J. Cormack).
3.6 Body Composition: Laboratory and Field Methods of Assessment (Arthur Stewart and Tim Ackland).
3.7 Total Athlete Management (TAM) and Performance Diagnosis (Robert U. Newton and Marco Cardinale).
4.1 Resistance Training Modes: A Practical Perspective (Michael H. Stone and Margaret E. Stone).
4.2 Training Agility and Change-of-direction Speed (CODS) (Jeremy Sheppard and Warren Young).
4.3 Nutrition for Strength Training (Christopher S. Shaw and Kevin D. Tipton).
4.4 Flexibility (William A. Sands).
4.5 Sensorimotor Training (Urs Granacher, Thomas Muehlbauer, Wolfgang Taube, Albert Gollhofer and Markus Gruber).
5.1 Strength and Conditioning as a Rehabilitation Tool (Andreas Schlumberger).
5.2 Strength Training for Children and Adolescents (Avery D. Faigenbaum).
5.3 Strength and Conditioning Considerations for the Paralympic Athlete (Mark Jarvis, Matthew Cook and Paul Davies).

Analyzing your health by phone?

Just read an interesting article on a new voice recognition software able to detect how you are feeling. The emotional decoding software has been developed in Israel and sounds interesting.

The technology, developed by eXaudios Technologies, is already being used to transform the world of tele sales (sadly…), and future applications could include diagnosis of conditions such as autism and Parkinson’s, as well as their severity.

I believe there is mileage in looking at applications of voice and face recognition to understand fatigue/staleness and stress in athletic populations as well as in coaching staff. Previous work by Greeley et al. has suggested the possibility of detecting fatigue with voice recognition. Work by Ruiz et al. (1990) already suggested the possibility of voice analysis to detect psychological or physical state of an individual.

All I can say is that this technology is part of a speculative grant application to look at a multidisciplinary approach to understand and quantify stress and fatigue in various populations. Let’s hope it gets funded so you may see the results in few years time!

In the meantime, the video from Exaudios technologies is here.