Introductions and Purpose

My name is Andrew Stuart and in the grand scheme of the profession of Strength and Conditioning I am a novice.  With that in mind I wanted to start a blog about the different strength and conditioning aspects I research, investigate, and perform.  Also, I am currently training to qualify for Collegiate National Weightlifting Championships in April of 2012.
So a little back story about me:  I have been strongly pushed in strength and conditioning throughout my entire life.  From youth age baseball, soccer, and basketball all the way up to collegiate football and now competitive Olympic weightlifting.  My life has been very active and very geared towards athletics and strength and conditioning.  Following my football career ending I went in search of trying to get in the best shape of my life. I also, got awoken to a new profession that I began to fall in love with being a Strength and Conditioning Coach.  I worked for the last year of my college career as a Strength and Conditioning Intern at The University of Mississippi.  I began to learn the "other" side of the conundrum.  It is a business or at least that is what I learned from a one strength coach.  My eyes became open to new ideas, my mind became filled with different aspects of strength and conditioning.
Then it hit me.  What is Strength Training really? Is it muscle activation and unnecessary long warm ups, or is it warming up the body to prepare it for what it is about to do in a work out?  Is it bodybuilding exercises that isolate and make you look good on Saturday n your uniform? Or, is it Pulls to build power, Squats to build leg strength, and Overhead Presses to build shoulder strength, or Bench Presses to get ready for the NFL Combine?
I went to a new strength staff after Christmas of 2010, and learned a whole new aspect to Strength and Conditioning something that was truly based off of fact, smart based research, and of all things proven to work.  That new staff was the Olympic staff at The University of Mississippi.  From that point on I began to start a new sport Olympic Weightlifting.  I trained under Coaches John Simmons, Brian Wiseman, and Randell Dorvan.  After graduating in May of 2011, I became certified by the United States Weightlifting Association. I also got a job as a teacher and coach at Desoto Central Middle School in Southaven, MS. I competed in two Olympic Weightlifting meets placing second and first.  Currently I have just finished an Internship with the University of Memphis Football program, and have started a job as a reconditioning specialist with Napoli Physical Therapy.  I am also in the process to receive my NSCA-CSCS certification.
ABOVE ANYTHING ELSE MY MAIN GOAL IS TO LEARN AND GROW AS WELL AS QUALIFY FOR COLLEGIATE NATIONALS!