In addition to standard health, fitness, or sport assessment guidelines, several guidelines exist for the fire service. Since each agency is different in its preferences, capabilities, and philosophies, applying a standard recommendation may not be possible. This article introduces basic decision-making considerations for fire service assessment batteries.
This article serves as a guide for current and future strength and conditioning professionals who oversee program design for fire academy recruits. This includes a summarized needs analysis and a sample training program that considers the unique challenges of the fire academy.
There is no argument that periodization is successful, and that different models can be applied with success in different fashions. The question of how shift work really affects a periodized program—more specifically firefighter shift work—is less clear.
Military and law enforcement needs analyses are not specifically matched to firefighting, but those training styles are better than basic fitness regimens or no regimen at all. For firefighters who are attracted to other styles of training not specific to firefighting, there are ways to train for all the demands of firefighting without making the firefighter use training modalities that they dislike or are not comfortable using.
In this session from the 2015 NSCA TSAC Annual Training, Katie Sell discusses current research on how perceived fitness in firefighters may be related to injury prevalence (on-duty and in training) and provide recommendations on how tactical facilitators can decrease adverse repercussions of inaccurately perceived fitness levels (e.g., injury, overtraining, and job-related preparation).
April 26, 2021by Matthew Sokoloski, CSCS, TSAC-F, Dr Brandon Rhett Rigby, PhD, CSPS, NSCA-CPT, Isaac Rowland, CSCS, Ryan Gordon, CSCS, and Christopher Ryan Bachik, CSCS, TSAC-F
The purpose of this article is to discuss the health and occupational implications of firefighters not currently meeting the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) aerobic capacity recommendations.