Howdy.
Just dropping y’all a quick line to say thank you. Yesterday I took my final written exam, passed it and became a certified firefighter 2 at the ripe young age of 42. It was a journey that all started several weeks before academy with y’all’s Fire Academy Training Plan. More than the physical preparation I received through your plan, I am grateful for how your training sessions strengthened my mental and emotional endurance. I feel like where the latter two lead, the former will follow.
Thank y’all for being a part of my journey and for the odd experience of bonding with a sandbag.
Cheers.
Fire & Rescue
Just wrapped up Fire Rescue Jaguar. I had 3 fires toward the end of the plan and was very pleased with my performance.
Urban Fire Rescue
Height – 5’-10”
Weight – 175 lbs
Plan Results
Max Front Squat: 230 -> 280+ (I ran out of room on my bar with the weights at home)
Max Bench Press: 200 -> 230
Max Pull Ups @ 25lbs: 7 -> 11
Sandbag Get-Ups at 60lb for 10 min: 84 -> 106
Fire Rescue Sandbag Clean and Step Over at 60lb for 10 min: 52 reps (104 total step overs) -> 64 (128 total step overs)
Feedback from the plan:
Improvement in all areas was very steady throughout the entire plan, except my max bench press weight. I increased to 230 by the Week 4 reassessment, but did not increase again at the end. I was unable to finish the “5 rounds at 85% every 90 seconds“ as intended without modification of breaks or weight, even after staying at the same weight for the remaining weeks.
Overall, I’m still happy with the results! This is the fittest I have been in my life.
I am a Tactical Paramedic in Canada and Provide Direct Medical Support to Tactical Teams. Fitness wise it’s lots of crazy hours, call ins, rucking weight, stair climbs with weight and then being able to perform sometimes complex medical tasks and utilize psychomotor skills following a duration of physical work.
I have been on and completed the MTI FBI HRT and SWAT selection programs and I am doing the SWAT/SRT Ruger for the 2nd time.
The results are great, from a functional fitness point of view. I am almost 48 y/o and have no problem completing these tasks and sometimes completing them seemingly easier than some much younger than me. I have found that doing them outside during the year in all temps has been beneficial. As an example I did the Tac Sepa outside today and it’s pretty cold and snowy but I think this has been to my advantage as this is the same environment and temp that I operate in.
Just wanted to pass on how great I think the programming is.
Thanks for sharing the Fire/Rescue Fitness Assessment Training Plan with me. I did the assessment last week and I really liked it. I felt that the assessment was a very accurate assessment of fire ground work load. I started the workouts yesterday and I was surprised at how well I moved through it. Having struggled through some of your other workouts I was surprised how much recovery time was available in each round. My initial thought is that this workout will be very achievable for any firefighter in my community. I look forward to today’s work.
I’ll keep it brief. I’ve been in the fire service for 22 years. I’ve always focused on fitness and I’ve been training professionals in my field for over a decade. Your LE/ Fire Rescue Advanced Programming Course is, by far, the best job specific fitness training I’ve ever seen. I found your approach to tactical athletic performance to to be practical, realistic and easy to follow. I am very excited to be on the ground floor of this phase in your work and I look forward to implementing what I’ve learned in my own department.
Thanks for sharing the Fire/Rescue Fitness Assessment Training Plan with me. I did the assessment last week and I really liked it. I felt that the assessment was a very accurate assessment of fire ground work load. I started the workouts yesterday and I was surprised at how well I moved through it. Having struggled through some of your other workouts I was surprised how much recovery time was available in each round. My initial thought is that this workout will be very achievable for any firefighter in my community. I look forward to today’s work, I’ll keep it brief. I’ve been in the fire service for 22 years. I’ve always focused on fitness and I’ve been training professionals in my field for over a decade. Your LE/ Fire Rescue Advanced Programming Course is, by far, the best job specific fitness training I’ve ever seen. I found your approach to tactical athletic performance to to be practical, realistic and easy to follow. I am very excited to be on the ground floor of this phase in your work and I look forward to implementing what I’ve learned in my own department.
I just completed Jaguar, the first plan in the Big Cat series. Just wanted to share my results with you and anyone who might be interested in purchasing the packet.
*About 182lbs Bodyweight*
3RM Front Squat: 255 –> 285
3RM Barbel Walking Lunge: 185 –> 225
3RM Push Press: 195 –> 200
10 MIN Sandbag Clean and Step-Over: 64 reps
9 MIN Sandbag Clean and Step-Over: 68 reps
8 MIN Sandbag Clean and Step-Over: 72 reps
Program Comments:
-I was training six days a week on this program. Mon, Wed, Fri, Sat was the Jaguar plan. Tuesdays and Thursdays I had group PT with 5 other officers I work with. Tuesdays were track days, 400m and 800m repeats. Thursdays were some type of upper body, bodyweight circuit.
-The additional PT did not generally interfere with the Jaguar programming, however, that will probably vary with each athlete depending on fitness level. There were a couple days I felt beat up, but overall it wasn’t a problem. Might have been able to see a bigger increase in my 3RM Push Press without the extra upper body work, but a 5lb PR is still a PR. I’ll take it.
-I think you’ve mentioned this in your videos a couple times, but that transition from 60lb sandbag get-ups to 80lbs was a b**ch. The 60lb isn’t too bad, but for some reason the 80 just feels like a small elephant sitting on your shoulders haha.
-There is definitely a hardening effect from this training. Throwing sandbags and doing farmers carries just naturally has that effect. My mid-section feels like a brick wall. It’s great.
I will likely take a de-load week, then start up Leopard. Thanks for all the great stuff Rob!
“I am a career fire officer. Have followed a self modified cross fit regime for 10 years. I just found your site and am re-energized. I am one of the older guys in the department but set the bar very high in the area of our fitness. The exercises you post are great for my occupational athletes. Just wanted to drop a line and tell you I totally believe what you offer will save the life of myself, my guys, & the public we serve.”
I just finished my first training plan with mtntactical. I chose the On Ramp Fire Plan to prepare for our annual Work Capacity Test, followed by our (arduous) Pack Test for Wildland with Jackson Hole Fire/EMS. The On Ramp program was a great resource for me to work through to feel prepared. I placed the Preseason Wildland program in my cart and plan on working through it next. Now that I’m in my late 40’s, I haven’t been able to will myself through like I used to. This is a great resource for me, and I’ve learned I have to stick to a strict training regiment if I want to keep up, let alone, lead..”
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Thanks for all you do. Been a customer now for 2 years or so. In that time I did the Cpat training program, smoked the Cpat and got Pro Firefighter certifications back. I also completed police academy (whereupon at age 44 I was in the fasted run/pt group among mostly 20 year olds). I need a structured plan telling me what to do when to accomplish a specific goal. No hype just hard core. MTI did that. I’ve looked at other programs but end up comparing everything to MTI. Thanks again. Definitely a satisfied customer.