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Police And Fire TestingTo start this off, consider the following I am just this year completing 30 years service with the police department. About fifteen years ago, I developed a physical testing program for police recruits that is still being used by my department. At that time, many of the physical tests being used by police agencies were being challenged in court as not representative of those tasks that might occur in an officer’s daily work environment. Our test was/is designed to test upper body strength and general fitness of police recruits. The lieutenant continues: The testing involves running approximately 660 yards on a combination dirt pathway and grass with a gradual incline. Along the way, prospective recruits must climb over two ten-foot chain link fences, traverse a ten-inch-wide balance beam, negotiate two sets of over-and-under barricades and finally, climb over a six-foot cinder block wall at the end of the course.The course must be completed in four minutes or less. This test has never been challenged and is truly representative of things an officer might encounter during a foot pursuit. If a recruit is generally fit, he/she can complete the course in sufficient time. Most of those who fail do so because of poor upper body strength and are usually carrying extra body fat. Fire Captain Dan Martin suggests the following workout to prepare for the physical agility test Press, either with barbell or dumbbells Squat, high reps Pull from the floor, either the dead lift or high pull Pull-up, high reps Farmer's Walk Other exercises: dips, kettlebell snatch, wrist curl, hill sprints, car push, neck work And adds If preparing for an entry level test, find out if it is a CPAT, which stands for Candidate Physical Ability test. I think it's a rather fair test. The candidate will wear a 50-pound vest for the whole test, but, to get things rolling, the'll wear an additional 25-pound vest while warming up for 3 minutes on a stairstep treadmill (looks like an escalator). Then they will do various job simulations. If I were taking a CPAT, I'd do a lot of sledge hammer work. Pound sand, a log, whatever, to get used to the efforts, and give myself enough time to benefit from the conditioning. Also, I would consider doing Burpees (eight-count push-ups) and maybe Tabata style "thrusters." Strength is important, so is the abilty to sustain. Most candidates fail to understand that conditioning is key. If they have enough time, consider this: Work towards being able to jog 3 miles most every day. Kettlebell circuits are your friend. For example: Thrusters/Snatch/Farmer's Walk Pull-ups save lives. Hill sprints hurt so good. Maybe have a sandbag that you can press at the bottom of the hill, and a kettlebell you can snatch at the top of the hill. All very doable, they have to want it. Here's a firefighter fitness thread. Note: in the selection of weight vests, there is one that you add your own weights to. The pockets are set up to handle two 2.5-pound plates each. That would give you a very durable 40-pound vest with a tremendous shipping savings. In addition, from Bruce In two of the firefighter tests I practiced up here in Washington we had to run up and down 5 flights of stairs with a 50-lb hose on our shoulder in under 78 seconds. One other thing was to drag a 100-lb tire that simulated a charged hose 100 feet in one direction and then turn around and go the other way for 100 feet in approximate 40 seconds. Dragging a sled would be good for that one if you have the rope over your shoulder. For the stair climb I did step ups with twice the weight of the hose; in addition the running up and down the stairs in my house with a 55-lb dumbbell on my shoulder. I counted the stairs and how high they were and added extra reps and height so I would be working harder on the step-ups. These are just additions to the good advice from Dan.
Last edited by Laree. |