In high-performance sport settings, multidisciplinary teams operate to provide support for the holistic development of athletic performance qualities, the mitigation of injury risk, and overarching health and well-being of their athletes. Although strength and conditioning is now a well-recognized part of the multidisciplinary team, historically, this profession has been viewed predominantly through a lens of enhancing and optimizing athlete and sporting performance. However, our ability to objectively showcase this sport-specific improvement is more challenging in some sports than others, raising the question of how we objectively quantify our worth and value as both an individual practitioner and profession as a whole. Further to this, although the roles of physical therapists and athletic trainers are typically more aligned to working with injured athletes, there is an emerging scientific evidence base, showcasing the beneficial effects of strength and conditioning training methods (especially strength training) on the reduction of noncontact injuries and in the treatment of chronic medical conditions. Therefore, this brief review offers a narrative, practice-focused opinion addressing some of the ways that strength and conditioning can directly influence sport performance outcomes, but also some of the concurrent challenges that our profession may face, in addition to the impact it may have mitigating injury risk for athlete populations and the benefits toward some chronic medical conditions.
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