Law enforcement and firefighting academy settings display a wide range of age, body weight, fitness levels, and overall performance abilities. Depending on the academy, there may or may not be an entrance physical ability test to qualify an applicant to enter. We believe that the academy physical fitness program should serve in multiple lights: 1) as a preparation program to improve physical fitness for new hire entrance tests for agencies, 2) as a versatile program that meets cadets at the various levels in which they currently are and work on unique attributes, and 3) establish an educational component to teach cadets how to maintain their health and wellness throughout the longevity of their career.

New Hire or Entrance Testing Preparation

Depending on the overall structure of the agencies in your area, many non-agency specific or regional-based academies serve applicants from various locations. Some of the cadets could be sponsored (supported/hired) by agencies to attend these academies, while some cadets may be self-sponsored or self-funding their enrollment into the academy. Regardless of the supporting process, the cadet may or may not have to complete a physical ability test and pass the test (complete under the cut-off score time) to graduate from the academy. If that testing format is in place to graduate, preparations should be made in which the program is designed to improve cadet performance enough to pass that test. If that format is not in place, like many academies, then the next thought process is how we can prepare cadets to then take the physical fitness tests that are associated specifically with local agencies in which those cadets would aspire to apply for.

Instructor notes: If you are serving as a regional or privately-owned academy, my recommendations are to a) conduct a needs assessment on the tasks, performance demands, and overall capabilities required of the job and b) conduct a regional survey on entrance tests being conducted for the new hire process for agencies in your area.

Individualized Modification to Assist Various Fitness Levels

Not everyone in the academy is going to show up with a ton of athletic experience. Not everyone stepping foot into the academy is going to run, skip, jump, bend, lift, throw, pull, or lunge the same way. Not everyone is going to be able to keep up with the fastest or strongest guy in the class. With that said, everyone is different, and everyone is unique. Within an academy, which goes for honestly any group setting, you will have your generalized training program with very group mentality-based prescriptions (programs may also differ based on resources available). When we mean generalized, this means that the program is not tailored based on the capabilities of one individual or customized based on the skills and performance of one set fitness level. This plan should have multiple principles, as following:

• Exercise selection should be based on resources available
• Exercise complexity should be based on the training phase of the academy program
• Exercise complexity should be based on skill/performance level of the majority
• Based on exercise complexity and selection (based on majority), modifications, such as progressions and regressions should also be presented as needed
• Exercise selection should be based on desired training outcome goals and association to job performance goals

The thought process behind these principles will allow the majority of cadets to follow the clear cut program, while modifications will be made so that every single cadets will benefit from the program. If you have the capacity, funding, personnel/instructors, and time to individualize and hand-out personalized prescriptions in which every cadet may perform different tasks and equipment usage… more power to you. In most settings, that is not ideal or realistic. Use what you have and make the most out of it. Also, the group mentality builds up comradery and overall team building characteristics.

Educational Components to Longevity of Health

There is a difference between instruction and education. Instructional programs should have educational components to them. Some of the materials that should be imbedded into an instructional program is such:

• Importance of training
• Correlation between physical training and job performance
• How to incorporate flexibility and mobility
• How to perform foundational movements: lunge, squat, press, row, hinge, carry, drag
• How to strategically incorporate various training methods (cardiovascular, resistance training, plyometrics, etc) into a weekly training plan

These are of course just a few possible components that could be highlighted as outcome goals of any training program. The takeaway from this section is that you shouldn’t just be training to train because that is what is required of us. You should not only be telling people what to do because that’s “what you do in the academy.” No. Physical fitness should be not just a preparation tool by performance metrics, but also a preparation to understanding and applying (and modifying) these principles to longevity of health throughout the duration of their career.