Physical Training for the Female Wildland Firefighter w/ Sofia Huston [015]
At 18, Sofia Huston showed up to her first fire season with no athletic background. She was last up every hike and couldn't do a single pull-up on the PT test. A few years later she had spent four seasons on a hotshot crew and was hammering out 15 pull-ups. Now she coaches hundreds of wildland firefighters, and she's the newest coach at Rugged Athlete.
Sofia gave the most popular presentation at our Human Performance Summit. In this episode we dig into it: how self-talk shapes your performance, why women in fire are so often underfueled (and why you can be underfueling even when your weight isn't dropping), and why good training for the job doesn't look exactly like the job. We also cover building fitness versus expressing it, why front squats will make you a better hiker, and how to get comfortable in the weight room if it intimidates you.
Sofia is leading our new women's 12-week off-season group training program, running Nov 2 – Jan 24. Registration closes October 31. The next cohort starts February 1.
LINKS
Join Sofia's Winter Cohort: https://www.trainerize.me/checkout/ruggedathlete/Austin.Womack?planGUID=95fc2c8c1f2c4f40a44d92c83b364185&mode=checkout
Free presentation, Physical Training for the Female Wildland Firefighter: https://www.ruggedathletetraining.com/female-pt-wildland-firefighters
Follow Sofia: https://www.instagram.com/sofiahuston.etc
Training for the Uphill Athlete by Steve House, Scott Johnston & Kilian Jornet
The Ultimate Hybrid Athlete by Alex Viada: https://www.victorybelt.com/ultimate-hybrid-athlete
SPONSOR
Our sponsor for today's episode is READYBAR. Save at https://getreadybar.com with code RUGGED20
Hear the founder's story: How a NASA Food Scientist Built READYBAR w/ Ryan Dowdy [012]: https://open.spotify.com/episode/32GP3p1F53aoXBB9qUcFd7
CHAPTERS
00:00 Intro: meet Sofia, our newest coach
03:40 Sponsor: Ready Bar
05:53 Why Sofia presented on the female firefighter
09:06 Her first seasons, and the women who weren't there
10:35 Zero athletic background to coach
14:47 Making a hotshot crew: from dead last to 15 pull-ups
17:12 Reps are practice: consistency over everything
18:19 Self-talk, body image and performance
23:17 Baseball, failure and the mental game
25:08 Low energy availability and losing your cycle
29:31 "How am I underfueling if I'm not losing weight?"
32:29 Programming philosophy: train every quality concurrently
38:31 Why you don't need to hike every day
42:44 Intimidated by the weight room? Progressions that work
45:40 "Will lifting make me bulky?" Strength and bone density
47:10 Getting a hotshot ready for the rappel pack-out
49:13 Strength during fire season: building vs. expressing fitness
50:18 Who the women's group program is for
55:28 Your off-season crew, and how small the fire world is
58:54 How to sign up and find Sofia
The views shared on this podcast are those of the host and guests and do not represent any agency, department or employer.
