What changes in strength and conditioning for these professions? Not much. Other than volume. New phase starts January 5th.
Key Takeaway
In earlier articles I went in to the training capacities that should be trained for the Tactical/First Responder:
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Strength
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Aerobic Capacity
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Aerobic Power
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Lactic Capacity
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Lactic Power
Regardless of the specific jobs in these fields, all of components above need to be trained. What changes is essentially how much and how often.
Same Capacities, Different Volume
Police
I would argue patrol cops need have a balanced and calm temperament, but also have the physical capacities of an MMA fighter and linebacker. Patrol cops need to be able to run, fight, and use fine motor skills while under fatigue.
If we look at our SWAT teams, the main question is going to be the environment. All teams wear heavy gear and run around clearing rooms and the like. But omagine you’re Border Patrol and you’re navigating mountainous terrain at elevation…is that the same job as LAPD hopping out of a van and hitting a building?
The difference here is really a question of volume. Does the urban SWAT cop need to be able to be concerned about moving several kilometers while under load? Probably not. It still might benefit the team to do some ruck movements, but overall they still probably don’t need to be as worried about moving longer distances, which lets those SWAT officers get a bit more biased with their training and maybe get a bit more jacked in the weight room.
Firefighters
Firefighters need to be able to do everything a patrol cop does, and be able to move while under 70-100lbs of gear. I am not going to pretend to know the nuances of firefighting, but if you’re working off an oxygen tank I would also imagine aerobic capacity is something you should be concerned about.
If you’re a wildland fire fighter or “smokejumper” I think this is where you should see your volume increasing in your aerobic conditioning. You still need all the capacities, but this is where the training needs to bias higher volume.
SOF/Infantry
Obviously our military folks will need to be able to cover ground, often in unforgiving terrain. I don’t care what you do you’re a soldier first and you should at least have some capacity to carry things. You still need the capacities described above, but you’ll need to bias long duration work at least once a week.
How We Accomplish it In our Programming
In our We Go Home Human Performance Training Team we program for all of these professions. I still believe for the “day to day” training we can create a template that will serve all of them. The way I am able to do that is a I often provide up to 5 options in a given condition session for the trainee.
This lets our urban SWAT officer bias a strongman or strongwoman circuit for a conditioning session while at the same time our wildland firefighter can go for a loaded movement in unforgiving terrain.
In our next phase, BUILD, starting January 5th, we are certainly going to be concentrating our efforts on strength, muscle building, power, and aerobic capacity. This will help ALL of these professions, but we provide the flexibility for the reasons above.
Closing
These professions are insane when you think about it. What we ask these people to do most of the population wouldn’t be able to handle. Thankfully, all of them hold somewhat of a similar profile from the strength and conditioning standpoint…be good at everything all the time.
This is why sensible, repeatable, and challenging programming is necessary for long term adaptations and a healthy 20+ year career. The question here is just which capacity you need to bias in your training. If you need help, feel free to comment.
