Eat Big to get strong. It's really not that hard. I decided to add these three foods (with plenty of milk) on top of my normal diet and my strength skyrocketed during my NLP. Went from 205 to 250 and saw my numbers skyrocket. This made the physicality of the fire academy easy. Advancing charged hose line, dragging victims, throwing ladders, running up towers in full structural gear with a 50 pound SCBA, all of it became suboptimal because I committed, with all the bells and whistles, to get my squat to 405. Most strength related issues you people post on here come down to a personal matter of half assery and circumspection. Follow the program, eat more than you want to, and sleep more than you want to.
"But I am lactose intolerant!" "That's a road to stomach cancer!" "I'll be s***ting until the end of time!"
You can rationalize your wrongmindedness all you can, but it only belies that you are not willing to submit yourself to simple wisdom. If you do what the book tells you to you will get strong. Once you are strong then you can develop your other skills.
It's not that hard.
Sorry, Griff. You're much more intelligent than I had assumed.