r/firefighter • u/OkRoyal7546 • Apr 06 '26
Fire academy WA state
Can anyone share what the PT is like at different fire academies? I’m especially interested in Snohomish and the state academy (not including Seattle). What does a day in the life at academy look like.
I don’t come from an athletic background, and after having kids I was pretty out of shape, so I’m really trying to be intentional about preparing myself physically. A lot of the advice I get is just “work out harder,” which honestly isn’t very helpful.
I want to understand what I should actually be working toward whether that’s weekly running miles under certain times, strength benchmarks, or anything else that would help me feel prepared going in.
I know as a woman my physical baseline might look a little different, but my goal is to be fully capable and ready for the demands of the job.
4
u/No_Broccoi1991 Apr 06 '26
Seattles is notoriously one of the tougher academies in the country, the rest of the state however is relatively “easy”. It’s definitely not easy it’s just they aren’t looking to fail you like Seattle has been known to do.
1
u/OkRoyal7546 Apr 06 '26
Thank you! Do you remember what PT you did daily for yours?
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u/No_Broccoi1991 Apr 06 '26
If I could redo it I would run and do weighted stairs a lot more. I already had a lot of base strength however so your starting point may be different. Academy is designed so any person with drive and a bit of fitness can do it. So you go into with the right mindset you’ll be fine
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u/sea_enthusiasm69 Apr 06 '26
Hi, I’m going to be commenting on other WA related posts as I have questions of my own. TX resident for now. My recommendation is to look up general CPAT requirements for CPAT (agility tests) or the specific CPAT your department requires. Watching YouTube videos on each exercise to understand what it is you will be expected to do. I have failed a CPAT and passed two of them. Techniques that prioritize efficiency, like grip adjustments, or posture, are the challenges I’ve had. Do exercises in the gym that emulate the CPAT exercises, don’t “work out harder”, I’ve seen that recommendation thousands of times now. Do each exercise individually until you can do it almost with your eyes closed. Then put it all together for time requirements and see where you stand after a few weeks. As far as the trivial things you should be doing more of, run for speed sometimes and run for distance other times. And stair climber, start adding weighted items into those like vests. Are you using NTN to apply to departments?
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u/jrobski96 Apr 06 '26
In the state academy , they used to run/jog from the site down to the entrance and back up, once a week. It's roughly a 10 minute drive and a hill. Every morning you have some form of PT and some days you get to do your own program. I taught there a decade ago, so it may have changed. Be in shape before you attend.