The fire department recommends crossfit

[Amazing]

So I'm scheduled to take the firefight CPAT test here in Denver in November or so (5 months from now). The recruiter has been pushing crossfit saying that a lot of firefighters have found that it has helped them the most in terms of training for the job. I really didn't want to sift through the 500+ page thread about crossfit in order to get more information about crossfit.

Is anyone here familiar with the firefighter testing at all that might be able to give me some advice?

I am 5'9" at about 175~177 pounds or so. I've gained about ten pounds over the past couple months.

I just barely started Advanced Novice last Monday. Here is what I am lifting:

Squat 3 x 5 280 pounds
Press 125 pounds (been attempting 5 reps, but can only get to three.)
Deadlift 280 pounds at 5 reps, but I have to drop the weight after each rep.
Bench 3 x 5 at 170 pounds after working my way back up from a drop in weight from 180 pounds.

If you are unfamiliar with the CPAT, please check out some videos on youtube. Only thing I'm really concerned about is that throughout thee whole test, the candidate must wear a 50 pound weighted vest. I think I'm pretty strong for my weight, but I don't really train for endurance which is entailed in training for the job of a firefighter. Though it seems like most of the main lifts are very relevant.

Is there anything else I can do to prepare for the test?

[afatgoat]

Nothing personal, but those numbers at that height and weight don't stand out compared to the caliber of competitiveness that will be applying on the job. Get your pushups up, if you're not hitting 70+ you're doing it wrong. Practice your pulls, all of them. Practice your barbel, lat, close grip rows. Not sure what it's like in Denver but in places like Vancouver it isn't uncommon to get 200-300 people applying on 1 position. You don't need to meet the standard, you need to crush it, if you plan on being competitive. If you havn't had a job that involves being a pack mule, go buy a weighted vest and find the steepest hill that you can climb in 2 hours and do it twice a week. Go do prowler sprints with it. Go do prowler sprints regardless. Lots of them. Until you puke. Several times a week.
I personally believe TM offers a good mix of short burst intensity and volume that leads to conditioning, relevant to the cpat.
We've had several people over the years make the jump from bush to structural with varying degrees of wait time. A few national level athletes have made it in less than 2 interviews. Others, have waited up to 2.5 years for positions. These are people with extensive bushfire backgrounds, ground up to middle management fire training, on top of the s1000. What makes you a better candidate ? Define yourself with your cpat, it's not a job handed out on a silver platter. Most importantly, don't get discouraged, keep applying. Good luck. Train hard.

[william jackson]

Crossfit is not the best choice, but you could do worse. Strength training with some short, intense conditioning at the end would probably be better. Get a weight vest.

[Amazing]

Nothing personal, but those numbers at that height and weight don't stand out compared to the caliber of competitiveness that will be applying on the job. Get your pushups up, if you're not hitting 70+ you're doing it wrong. Practice your pulls, all of them. Practice your barbel, lat, close grip rows. Not sure what it's like in Denver but in places like Vancouver it isn't uncommon to get 200-300 people applying on 1 position. You don't need to meet the standard, you need to crush it, if you plan on being competitive. If you havn't had a job that involves being a pack mule, go buy a weighted vest and find the steepest hill that you can climb in 2 hours and do it twice a week. Go do prowler sprints with it. Go do prowler sprints regardless. Lots of them. Until you puke. Several times a week.
I personally believe TM offers a good mix of short burst intensity and volume that leads to conditioning, relevant to the cpat.
We've had several people over the years make the jump from bush to structural with varying degrees of wait time. A few national level athletes have made it in less than 2 interviews. Others, have waited up to 2.5 years for positions. These are people with extensive bushfire backgrounds, ground up to middle management fire training, on top of the s1000. What makes you a better candidate ? Define yourself with your cpat, it's not a job handed out on a silver platter. Most importantly, don't get discouraged, keep applying. Good luck. Train hard.

I understand what you're saying and I appreciate the feedback, but I DO have 5 months to prepare.

Our recruiter was saying that last time, the registration filled up within ten minutes with a 2,000 person limit. They only hire 200 people every two years. But this time it's different as they're offering tutoring courses for the written exam and the CPAT. I went to both and am now guaranteed a testing spot come November, but our recruiter never told us that lol.

[Amazing]

Crossfit is not the best choice, but you could do worse. Strength training with some short, intense conditioning at the end would probably be better. Get a weight vest.

This is what I don't like about this forum sometimes. Some people just tend to give a one line response that doesn't really help.

OK - why would this better than crossfit? What could be worse than crossfit besides being sedentary? Why is crossfit not the best choice? A lot of people that became firefighters have said good things about it. In fact there are firefighters that do personal training in crossfit part time!

[DRice311]

CrossFit is very popular among military, first-responders, law enforcement, etc. I don't think it is a bad choice at all, however I'd recommend you not just blindly follow mainsite. I say this because one of the big criticisms of CrossFit is it's lack of progression/intelligently put together programming. Instead, follow a good strength program that allows for some supplemental conditioning (like 5/3/1), and add in 2-3 days of CrossFit Metcons that are a little more intelligently designed and leaving out idiotic movements that have a high propensity for injury (i.e. kipping pullups, high rep box jumps for speed . . .etc.). You could do this a number of ways, for example - have a 4 day split (Press/Squat/Bench/Deadlift) and follow the mainlift with a corresponding 'upper/lower' focused metcon (this is what my brother does), or do a 2 day strength split with metcons on your 'off' days.

I used to do 1 day of CrossFit 1x/week for my conditioning and I enjoyed it. The best place to ask this question would not be here - try the CrossFit message board.

EDIT: I don't know much about Karl's method, but Harry brings up a good point. As an early intermediate/novice - I'd reccomend you either do what he says above - or go with the 4 day stregth split/2 day conditioning I mentioned above, and use a smart assistance template to get in some good volume to help continue to progress. I was early intermediate when I started 5/3/1, and this is basically what I did - and I have had some pretty good success with it.

Now that I think more about it - greyskull might actually be a better fit for the stage you are at, rather than 5/3/1

[gzt]

Here's the problem with "doing CrossFit": what the hell does that mean? And then yet our recommendations could be said to look like CrossFit, so aren't we being mendacious? Well, no, CrossFit looks like our recommendations and looks like useful training. CrossFit also looks like a lot of other things. It's a very big and loose collection of disparate stuff, held together only in their insistence on calling a "gym" a "box", doing kipping pullups, being eleeeeet, and disregarding any evidence that any of their favorite exercises have an injury potential. In addition, it's "branded" and costs $150/month. They've also collected a lot of useful and a lot of stupid ideas in one place, which can be useful if you can sort through them.

Since you have specific goals, following "CrossFit" that is not tailored to your goals is not going to be optimal. Here are some suggestions:
1. don't do high rep box jumps, sumo deadlift high pulls, kipping pullups, GHD situps, or high rep low weight deadlifts. Getting injured is counterproductive and, shockingly, you can have a good workout without doing any of these. So workouts should not program these.
2. In fact, there's nothing wrong with having a good portion of your conditioning be prowler pushes or hill sprints. CFers don't like this because it's not "constantly varied", but they can shove it.
3. Others gave specific suggestions to your discipline. Follow those in crafting what you do. In the end, it's not that hard: you lift and you do some conditioning. That's CrossFit, but it's also all productive "strength and conditioning". The difference is that S&C is tailored to your goals, CF is a brand name centered around kipping pullups and identity politics.

[Amazing]

If you guys are using crossfit and the WOD synonymously then I would have to agree 100%. A lot of what they were recommending as far as workouts were strength training and cleans and snatches.

[somedude]

CrossFit is very popular among military, first-responders, law enforcement, etc. I don't think it is a bad choice at all, however I'd recommend you not just blindly follow mainsite. I say this because one of the big criticisms of CrossFit is it's lack of progression/intelligently put together programming. Instead, follow a good strength program that allows for some supplemental conditioning (like 5/3/1), and add in 2-3 days of CrossFit Metcons that are a little more intelligently designed and leaving out idiotic movements that have a high propensity for injury (i.e. kipping pullups, high rep box jumps for speed . . .etc.).

I'm in the military an I'm going to +1 this.

Most of my peers do crossfit, not CrossFit™. They take what was good about CrossFit™ and ditch what was bad about it. Basically, they tend to avoid the complex/injury prone exercises, focus on strength by limiting cheating, and program for progression so that they don't plateau as early.

The general format (every organization has it's own twist) is to develop your own strength program (I do 5/3/1) and combine it with group conditioning. Conditioning can consist of two days circuit training (i.e., crossfit), one dedicated to upper body and the other dedicated to lower body, with other days dedicated to middle distance running (3-5 miles), interval training, and weight load marching.

Occasionally the above training will be done in body armour, which adds intensity to running/circuit/interval training. I don't like doing all the time as it limits range of motion but it's good to cycle for a couple of weeks here and there and has a practical application since we need to work while wearing it when in the field. Getting a weighted vest would be a good option for the OP since it'll prepare him to work while wearing bunker gear.

SealFit has a good beginners program. I've never personally done it but friends of mine have recommended it. It contains a 5 week beginners program that's designed to gradually increase your work capacity, followed by an 8 week SealFit program that's designed to build upon the beginners program.

[Peoria]

This is what I don't like about this forum sometimes. Some people just tend to give a one line response that doesn't really help.

OK - why would this better than crossfit? What could be worse than crossfit besides being sedentary? Why is crossfit not the best choice? A lot of people that became firefighters have said good things about it. In fact there are firefighters that do personal training in crossfit part time!

This is rich coming from the guy who couldn't be bothered to scan the extensive "what's wrong with crossfit" thread to find out what's wrong with crossfit. Here's the answer: You'll stand a very high chance of getting weaker and injured doing all that metcon-with-barbells nonsense. You're already too skinny and weak, and your solution is to add a bunch of intense cardio?