☕️ S&C Daily — I Love the Weight Room

October 9, 2026

Notre Dame freshman running back Jonaz Walton maxed out at 600 pounds in the squat going into his junior year of high school. Via The Athletic, he started lifting around second grade, when his father, Will Walton, brought him and his brothers into the weight room. Central High School in Carrollton, Georgia later hired Will as strength coach for its high school and middle school teams.

The path wasn’t straight. Walton was diagnosed with Osgood-Schlatter disease in seventh grade and later broke a growth plate in a junior high scrimmage. He still finished high school with 5,965 rushing yards and 85 touchdowns. “I love the weight room. I’m huge into it,” he said.

Last weekend against North Carolina, he posted career highs of 23 carries and 120 rushing yards, after barely that much work in the first four games combined. He became the first Notre Dame true freshman back to reach 100 yards in a game in 11 years.

Two and a half years after he was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia at 15 months old, Jack Rock is leukemia-free. He’s the son of Nate Rock, Purdue football’s associate director of strength and conditioning. Jack finished treatment in January, rang the bell at Riley Children’s Hospital in March and started preschool this fall. Checkups every three months haven’t shown any sign of it coming back.

Via Purdue Athletics, Nate leaned on questions familiar to anyone in S&C: What is the job? What needs to be done next? While his wife, Amy, comforted Jack, he comforted her. He also handled the calls, appointments, bills and drives to Indianapolis. The experience taught him that being strong sometimes has nothing to do with the weight on a barbell. “Now it’s our turn to help,” Nate said.

In a new Outside story, experts laid out what happens when athletes stop training. The heart and lungs feel it first. After one week, WHOOP staff research scientist Greg Grosicki said there is “really no change in fitness.” By day 12, one study of runners and cyclists found VO2 max can drop 7%. By one month, the heart pumps less blood with each beat and has to beat faster at the same workload. By three months, VO2 max may be down as much as 20%, but it largely plateaus after that.

Muscles change later. After one week, Missouri associate professor Kevin Murach said strength won’t decrease yet. By one month, Grosicki said muscle performance can dip, mainly because the brain coordinates muscle fibers less efficiently, even if muscle size hasn’t changed much. By three months, some loss of muscle size and strength may begin, and by six months fibers can start reverting to an untrained state. Based on longer studies in mice, Murach said muscle appears to keep some memory of training that may help athletes regain strength when they restart.

A new study in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition gave 15 competitive male boxers a placebo, 3 mg/kg of caffeine and 6 mg/kg of caffeine on separate days a week apart. An hour after taking it, both doses improved countermovement jump height and power compared with the placebo, and the lower dose boosted the jump just as much as the higher one.

The higher dose pulled ahead on other tests. Only 6 mg/kg improved ballistic push-up power, and it beat both the placebo and the lower dose on knee extension strength measured on an isokinetic machine. Overall, the authors said the higher dose was not consistently better than the lower one.

Oregon quarterback Dylan Raiola credited strength coach Wilson Love and sports dietitian Jessie Dark for his growth since arriving. He said the work gives him “the confidence to go out there and feel free.”

Texas coach Steve Sarkisian credited the university’s resources for helping his players recover. He shouted out multiple trainers and S&C coach Torre Becton. “It’s about the totality of it all,” he said.

Thunder guard Jared McCain spent a week this offseason with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander after texting him a question about his offseason. He worked with Gilgeous-Alexander’s strength coach and saw his routine, down to what time they woke up.

The Red Wings gave their new win vest to head strength coach Rob Campbell, who recently lost his father.

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