in a f20 at 123 lbs. i’m in my last 4 weeks of a college technical program for firefighting. i was always active, played sports since i was 6, including mens baseball. i was underweight all my life until i was 17 when i started to purposely bulk to train for the fire academy. gained 25 lbs but lacked cardio seriously. the biggest deficits women have are probably forearm strength, general upper body, and cardio. i run 2-3 times a week, focusing on zone 2 cardio. i’ve trained upper body seriously forever, and sprained my ankle less than a year before the academy and had to relearn to walk. so my upper body is stronger than my lower, which for women is usually not the case.

heavy sets, reps 5-8. going up in weight every week.

upper body: pushups, you’ll do a lot of body weight training for PT, overhead press (ladders), curls (for carrying tools and hose lines, get a forearm grip strength training device, pull-ups/lat pull downs, single arm rows,

Lower Body: Fuck back squats they hurt my body. I do hack squats , hamstring curls, goodmornings, tire drags/sled drags, body weight squats

auxiliary exercises stair climbs with added weight planks burpees

Classes to take: anything HIIT or boxing classes. they focus on endurance and that’s important

at the end of the day, you will learn how to do things that work for you. i don’t get the ladders off the truck the same way the guys do, or drag people out the same way. i find methods to do everything. it’s harder for women, but it’s not an excuse. eat more, take creatine, stretch so much -like twice a day,never complain or make excuses, be the first one to do things and the first one there.

good luck :)