Debates about strength training as a means of improving health and augmenting sport performances remain to this day a topic of popular conversation and scientific inquiry. How much muscle is too much muscle? Is augmenting strength to achieve maximum athletic performance through the use of performance-enhancing drugs safe and healthy? These are the types of questions that drive conversations online and throughout the pages of popular health-and-fitness magazines, documentaries, videos, and academic research journals.
In the second half of the twentieth century, college athletic departments around the country placed an emphasis on strength conditioning programs to gain advantage. In Strength Coaching in America, the authors examine the historical, social, and scientific factors that led to the development of strength coaching within sports. They argue that the primary responsibility of this new profession was to improve an athlete's strength, power, and agility so that the athlete could achieve maximum performance...
