This article aims to provide information designed to assist firefighter recruits to achieve a successful Candidate Physical Ability Test (CPAT) performance.

This article explores a return to duty program for the tactical facilitator to implement with injured firefighters.

The purpose of this article was to conduct a process evaluation of a six-week recruit strength and conditioning programming for rural structural firefighter recruits.

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).

This article explains the use of structured functional fitness programs for injury prevention and enhanced job performance in fire service personnel.

Former volunteer firefighter and current high school strength and conditioning coach, Ryan Johnson, talks about establishing school/program emergency response protocols in this session from the NSCA’s 2017 Coaches Conference.

Advice and guidance for firefighter-specific TSAC practitioners and trainers, including steps to building a health and wellness program for firefighters.

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.

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.

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.