In today’s episode, Dawes and I kicked back with some crispy beverages and reflected on fire academy training.
It’s a hot topic among instructors, and in my opinion, too often, random acts of fitness dominate the physical training sessions.
But here’s the thing...during the 24-1 OSU-OKC academy, I implemented a structured and ability-based program that helped recruits lose body fat, gain skeletal muscle, and improve their 1.5-mile run times (all statistically significantly). And we did all that without running more than twice a week, skipping the usual “death by burpees, air squats, and pushups,” and avoiding a single "smoke session".
While the group didn’t get measurably stronger (tough to do with only 40-pound sandbags), they maintained their countermovement jump height—a key indicator of fatigue, as well as their pushups, and pullups performance.
So… what now?
Random workouts (I call these Random Acts of Fitness) can support general health and fitness, but they probably aren’t driving meaningful performance gains for firefighters. Ask yourself this: When was the last time an NFL team played better during a game due to doing a deck-of-cards workout during the week?
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