ISSA Tactical Conditioning flashcards
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32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.
- Occupational task list
- A documented inventory of physically demanding job duties, such as casualty drag, stair climb, and load carriage, that anchors every training block to a real operational requirement.
- Concurrent training interference
- The blunting of strength and power gains when high-volume aerobic work is performed close to heavy resistance work. Separate sessions by at least six hours or different days.
- Undulating periodization
- Varying volume and intensity within each week rather than across long linear blocks. It tolerates missed sessions, which suits shift-working tactical personnel.
- Deload decision rule
- Reduce training volume by roughly 40 to 60 percent for one week when session-RPE load rises for four straight weeks or a monitored performance marker drops more than 15 percent.
- Pre-deployment taper
- A seven to fourteen day reduction in volume of 40 to 60 percent while intensity is maintained, preserving fitness and restoring readiness before selection or deployment.
- Session ordering rule
- Within a single training day sequence power and speed first, then strength, then conditioning. Maximal aerobic work never precedes technical or maximal strength work.
- Epley 1RM estimate
- Estimated one-rep max equals load times one plus repetitions divided by thirty. Reliable for sets of about ten reps or fewer.
- Cooper VO2max estimate
- Estimated aerobic capacity equals 483 divided by 1.5-mile time in minutes, plus 3.5. Used when laboratory testing is unavailable for tactical aerobic assessment.
- Needs analysis components
- Four parts: job and task analysis, physiological profile of those tasks, injury epidemiology of the population, and the individual operator's test results.
- Test-retest standardization
- Same time of day, footwear, surface, and warm-up, with at least 48 hours after a hard session, so score changes reflect training rather than testing conditions.
- Muscular endurance versus strength
- Push-up and pull-up tests measure repeated submaximal effort, not maximal force. They should not be used to set 1RM-based training loads.
- Retest cadence
- Performance tests every six to twelve weeks; non-fatiguing monitoring markers such as body mass, sleep, soreness, and session-RPE weekly or daily.
- Maximal strength prescription
- Three to six sets of one to six reps at 80 to 95 percent of 1RM, with three to five minutes rest between sets to restore phosphagen stores.
- Power prescription
- Three to five sets of one to five reps at 30 to 60 percent of 1RM, resting two to four minutes, keeping each set under about ten seconds.
- Rate of force development
- How quickly force rises at the start of a contraction. Improves with explosive-intent lifting and plyometrics, where intent to move fast drives adaptation.
- Plyometric progression
- Landing drills, then in-place jumps, then short bounds, then depth jumps from 0.4 meters or less, with 60 to 100 contacts per session for intermediate athletes.
- Sprint volume guideline
- Trained tactical athletes perform 150 to 400 meters of high-quality sprinting per session and stop a set when speed drops more than five percent.
- Loaded carry prescription
- Three to five sets of 20 to 40 meters at 20 to 40 percent of body mass with 90 to 120 seconds rest, building strength-endurance for drags and carries.
- Strength maintenance dose
- One or two sessions per week at 80 percent of 1RM or heavier preserves most maximal strength during field exercises or deployment phases.
- Phosphagen system window
- The ATP-creatine phosphate system supplies bursts of roughly zero to ten seconds, covering sprints, drags, and explosive entries.
- Zone 2 aerobic base
- Two to three weekly sessions of 30 to 60 minutes at 60 to 75 percent of maximum heart rate, building stroke volume and capillary density.
- Threshold interval prescription
- Three to five efforts of five to eight minutes at 85 to 90 percent of maximum heart rate with equal rest, improving lactate clearance for sustained work.
- Session-RPE load
- Session rating of perceived exertion on a zero to ten scale multiplied by duration in minutes. Used to track weekly metabolic load and flag sudden spikes.
- Heat acclimation protocol
- Five to ten days of 60 to 90 minutes of daily exercise in heat, which expands plasma volume and lowers core temperature at a given workload.
- Repeat-effort intervals
- Six to ten bouts of 30 to 60 seconds at near-maximal effort with work-to-rest ratios of 1:1 to 1:2, training recovery between operational bursts.
- Acute:chronic workload ratio
- One-week training load divided by the four-week rolling average. Above roughly 1.5 signals elevated injury risk; below 0.8 signals detraining.
- Ten percent volume rule
- Increase weekly training volume or running distance by no more than about ten percent, limiting overuse injury in load-bearing tissues.
- Lower-extremity injury cluster
- Ankle, knee, and lower-leg injuries dominate tactical populations, driven primarily by running volume and load-carriage exposure.
- Asymmetry screening threshold
- A side-to-side difference greater than 10 to 15 percent on single-leg reach or hamstring strength testing warrants targeted unilateral and eccentric work.
- Neuromuscular warm-up
- Dynamic mobility, activation, plyometric, and balance drills performed before every session; consistently associated with reduced lower-extremity injury risk.
- Load monitoring triad
- External load such as distance and carried weight, internal load such as session-RPE and heart rate, and response markers such as sleep, soreness, and mood.
- Return-to-duty progression
- Restore range of motion and strength symmetry, then running, then load carriage, then full occupational tasks, clearing each stage before advancing.