Assess Your Fitness Level

Firefighters are expected to remain in good physical condition, even after going through the initial candidate fitness tests. Though firefighters are not formally evaluated on their physical fitness beyond that initial candidate test, having some sort of informal assessment can be useful for some fire captains and crews to give firefighters an opportunity to evaluate the fitness regimen they currently use and determine if they need to change tactics to address any weaknesses in their overall fitness.

A recent article on firefighternation.com gave some ideas on fitness tests that can be administered informally to firefighters to assess and evaluate their fitness level and the areas where improvement could be made. The assessment is not meant to be a formal evaluation to be used as part of a performance review but is just meant as a tool to measure fire-ground fitness on an individual basis and give insight into the type of fitness training that each firefighter might need to focus upon going forward.

The details of the assessment can be found here. But here are the basics of the assessment: Scoring 14 or 15 points puts a firefighter on an elite level; 10-13 points is considered a good level of fitness for the fireground, while anything 9 or fewer leaves room for improvement. There are five tests for various fitness characteristics, each with a maximum of 3 points to be earned.

Here are the five assessments and their expected execution levels:

The wall squat, which tests functional mobility in the knees, hips and ankles. The goal is to achieve a full squat in control without falling over or touching the wall which you are facing.

The standing broad jump, which many of us did in middle and high school during our physical-education classes, is one of the purest measures of overall power in your body. The goal here is to jump 8 feet or more from the starting line to where your toes first hit.

The deadlift-curl to press is a weight exercise designed to measure muscle strength and endurance. You are supposed to use dumbbells that combine to weigh about 30 percent of your body weight to do this test, with the goal to do 20 or more repetitions in 60 seconds.

The plank. Oh yes, the plank is designed to test the strength of your core, which goes beyond just your abdominals. The goal here is to hold the plank position for at least three minutes.

The 1.5-mile run, of course, tests overall aerobic endurance. This can be executed either on a track or on a treadmill with no incline. The goal is to cover the distance in 10 minutes, 30 seconds or fewer.