Rugged Athlete

Rugged Athlete Wildland Firefighter Strength and Conditioning | 1:1 Coaching | PT Plans | App

05/14/2026

It’s interesting for me to see what military human performance is prioritizing, and then to compare that to the state of wildland firefighter human performance.

I think wearables being implemented in wildland fire at scale has potential to make a big impact on the profession. Especially with tracking commutative sleep across a fire season and with tracking physical readiness degradation across 14 day fire assignments.

I know the USFS recently conducted a 2 year long study on fatigue management where they used Whoop straps to collect data. I’m excited to see what the results of hat study can show us.

I also really like the military’s push with cognitive performance. I think this is an initiative that the wildland fire profession absolutely needs to adopt at some point in the future.

I’ve been fortunate to work alongside psychologists who specialize in cognitive performance and it is such a game changer. Especially in a field like wildfire.

Do y’all think we will see things like wearables and cognitive performance prioritized at scale in wildfire? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!

05/13/2026

Pack test season is here!

05/12/2026

In the latest episode of the Rugged Athlete Podcast Austin and Justin answer viewer questions including:

What advice do you have for firefighters going into their first season?

What nutrition tips do you have for at fire camp and on the fireline?

How do you train for uphill hiking if you live somewhere where there are no hills?

Do you do female specific training/research? How do you incorporate it into your training plans?

Do you program anything specifically for bone health and bone density?

If you like these Q&A style episodes let us know, and if you want your questions answered be on the look out for our next question drop on our IG stories 💪🏻

05/07/2026

The 2026 Wildland Firefighter Human Performance is LIVE in the Rugged Athlete App!

Here is a short clip from Adam Gray’s presentation on building a high fitness culture with your crew/station/district/state.

This one is full of practical strategies and helpful insight specifically for those firefighters in junior and senior overhead positions.

The X’s and O’s with training are always the fun and sexy topics, but conversations around culture and rasing the bar is what we need more of.

There is still time to sign up and catch the presentations before the Summit ends on Friday.

Comment “summit” and I’ll send you the free registration link 💪🏻

05/07/2026

The 2026 Wildland Firefighter Human Performance is LIVE in the Rugged Athlete App!

Here is a short clip from Justin DeMoss’s presentation on the importance of aerobic capacity.

A lot of exercise terms like “capillary density” and even “aerobic capacity” can be easily misunderstood because of all the sciency, physiology jargon that goes with them, but Justin does a great job of explaining and teaching these concepts in ways that are easy to digest and apply.

Make sure you bust out your notebook when you’re watching this one!

There is still time to sign up and catch the presentations before the Summit ends on Friday.

Comment “summit” and I’ll send you the free registration link 💪🏻

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