ARX & NSCA Back Together Again

On January 6-8 at the Henry B. Gonzales Convention Center in San Antonio, ARX made its first appearance at the National Strength & Conditioning Association’s yearly conference tailored specifically for coaches of athletes.

This one-of-a-kind event brings top coaches from around the world together to learn new skills, discuss relevant research, and build enriching relationships. People come to discover innovative sport science concepts and technology to make their programs more effective.

We first showed off ARX technology to the NSCA crowd in summer and fall of 2021 at two events: the NSCA National and the NSCA Tactical Training.

Not knowing what to expect from this show, we were gratified to find a very niche, very innovative group of people whom we felt would be very receptive towards a better way forward.

And boy do we have a better way forward!

Adaptive Resistance to Win The Crowd

Over the course of the three days we introduced dozens and dozens of coaches and their staff members to the future of exercise. The response was overwhelmingly positive, and it was good to see how little time and imagination it took for the attendees to see how our technology can be used in their athletes’ strength programs.

We highlighted the competitive advantages of fewer injuries, hours per week of freed-up time not spent in a weight room, more accurate quantification to inform programming decisions, and a more effective stimulus to the athletes to make them more explosive and injury-resistant.

Theory to Practice

There were also some excellent talks given over the course of the weekend.

• “Building and Implementing a Linear Speed Program for Middle/High School Athletes,” given by Nick Brattain, CSCS caught our attention for obvious reasons. We know from Part I, Part II, and Part III of our ARX for the 21st-Century Athlete series that making an athlete stronger per se and increasing the athlete’s fast-twitch muscle fiber expression using properly-loaded eccentrics are priorities for speed.
• “Monitoring Training-Induced Stress: Strategies to find the Upper Limit of Work,” given by Bill Amonette, PhD, CSCS was intriguing to us as well. He spoke about the various downstream consequences of excessive work during an athlete’s training. But how are they measuring that? Sets and reps and weight, just like they did decades ago? We have a better understanding of workout volume now, and with ARX we have a better way to measure it as well. Great to see that high-level folks like Dr. Amonette are actively searching for better ways to adjust and perfect their athlete’s workload.
• We also loved “In Season Strength Training for Wrestlers,” given by Ben Durbin, MEd, CSCS. It’s tricky to provide athletes with the strength training stimulus during the season without overwhelming their capacity to recover. With ARX—unlike with weight lifting—it is possible to perform positive-only repetitions for this purpose, potently stimulating further strength increases without tearing the muscle fibers and interfering with recovery. This is a great new strategy made possible through our technology, and we would hope those coaches searching for better, safer ways to train they athletes in-season would agree.
• And finally, we resonated with “Mechanical Perspectives on Injury Prevention,” given by Luke Bradford, CSCS, RSCC. One injury is too many injuries, and as we saw in Part IV of our Athlete Series, safety is no accident. Weight lifting is inherently dangerous—especially as the athlete gets stronger—and we look forward to the day when talks like this are a moot point because the coaches are utilizing our technology. ARX is a type of resistance that can never become excessive, can never act on the user unprovoked, can be ceased instantly, and whose speed and range of motion can never deviate from the desired pre-sets.

Additional Read: The Best Tool For Resistance Exercise

Innovation Is Afoot!

This conference was full of vendors that were refreshingly modern in style. Yes, there were those selling hundred-year-old technology that merely has a new type of paint job, but in general we’d say that the industry is moving—slowly—into the twenty-first century.

More and more, alternatives are the focus of these exhibit halls. Alternatives to old ways of doing things.

Old: blood testing for a handful of lab markers.

New: blood testing for a wide spectrum of lab markers and microbiome testing and neurological testing.

Old: New types of weight lifting equipment that still just uses gravity as resistance.

New: Various types of higher-quality resistance, from slightly-better “variable resistance” like elastic bands and flywheels to the best-possible Adaptive Resistance provided by yours truly.

Old: Supplements that are basically just multivitamins to replace large nutritional groups.

New: Supplements that are tailored to the user and personalized, containing lesser-known elements and compounds that have emerged as effective therapies in the last 10-15 years.

All Work And No Play…

We went the extra mile and even sponsored the bar for the evening social hours! It’s five-o-clock somewhere, and it was great to see people walking around with ARX koozies during Happy Hour. Apparently the NSCA crowd is fully aware of Post-Workout Liver Confusion.

Until Next Year!

All-in-all, this was an excellent show at an excellent venue, with an excellent group of knowledgeable attendees. It was our pleasure to introduce them to our technology, and we look forward to more of the same next year.

Thanks again to all, and we’ll see you again soon!

Additional Read: ARX at the 2022 Resistance Exercise Conference!