The generality of strength suggests that a "strong" individual will typically exhibit higher values of strength across a wide range of strength tasks for a given muscle relative to their weaker counterpart. This concept is often extended to adaptation, suggesting that increasing strength on a given movement or strength task with a given muscle should reflect an increase in other movements or tasks using that same muscle. The concept of a generality of strength adaptation appears less supported in the literature.Objective: To elaborate on recommendations for strength assessment, providing a focus on the "generality of strength" and the "generality of strength adaptation." Design & Methods:We reviewed the literature on a generality of strength. In addition, we examined the resistance training literature to provide evidence and discussion on a generality of strength adaptation. Results/Conclusions:The generality of strength adaptation, even across strength skills using the same muscle on related movements seems quite low. Although some studies show a weak generality of strength adaptation and others show no generality of strength adaptation, it appears that increases in strength diminish as the strength assessment becomes farther removed from the actual training stimulus.(Journal of Trainology 2019;8:5-8)

While numerous guidelines for the prescription of physical activity are released each year, the quality and practicability of these guidelines is unknown. We assessed the quality of 95 guidance documents published since 2000 that included recommendations about physical activity for the promotion of general health and prevention of cardiometabolic disease. We used three tools: AGREE II, the National Academy of Medicine’s (NAM) Standards for Trustworthy Clinical Practice Guidelines, and the FITT score (Frequency, Intensity, Time and Type). Average AGREE II domain scores ranged from 38% - 84%, and the portion of criteria fulfilled per NAM domain ranged from 7% – 39%. The average FITT score for all recommendations was 2.48 out of 4. While guidelines improved according to both AGREE II and the NAM standards over time, their practicability as assessed by FITT score did not improve. Guidelines produced by governmental agencies or other non-profits, using the GRADE approach, or fulfilling a higher number of NAM criteria tended to be higher-quality. Organizations producing physical activity guidelines can improve their quality by establishing and reporting processes for public representation, external review, and conflict of interest management. Future recommendations about physical activity should be more specific and include strategies to improve implementation. Registration Number: PROSPERO CRD42019126364 Novelty bullets: • Most physical activity recommendations are not sufficiently specific to be practically implemented. • The overall quality of guidelines has improved over time, but the specificity of recommendations has not. • Improved public representation, external review, and COI disclosure and management processes would improve guideline quality.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via the original article.

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