Fitness for UK emergency services
Train for the job. Around the life you actually have.
Free tools and personal coaching for fire, police, ambulance and prison staff who need to pass a test, perform better or stop the slow fade — without pretending shifts, broken sleep and family life do not exist.
No sign-up for the pacing tools. No card. Get a useful answer first.
Built for the people who do the job
Fire
Police
Ambulance
Prison
The free training room
Find out what's stopping you.
Each tool gives you an answer you can act on today. Start with the Shift Work Check for general fitness around the rota; use the bleep tools when a test is the target.
The Shift Work Check
Seventeen questions on how the rota is actually affecting you, then the one thing worth fixing first — the plan, recovery, eating, staying in one piece or sticking with it — and a seven-day reset built around it.
Find what to fix first →Bleep test readiness check
For when a test is the target. Works out whether your biggest limiter is your engine, your shuttle conditioning, your turns, your pacing or your head, then gives you a first week built around it.
Get your starting point →Pace ladder and bleep player
Put in the pace you can comfortably run and see where your rest at the line disappears. Then hear your target level at its real cadence, in km/h or mph.
Hear your target pace →Treadmill pacer
Holds every level for its real duration and warns you before each speed change, so you are not fiddling with the belt mid-effort. Pace familiarity, not a substitute for shuttles.
Set up the treadmill →These tools cover the 15 m police test — level 5.4 for standard entry, and the same standard for serving officers at their annual. The 20 m fire service test is a different protocol with different shuttle counts, so it is not converted here.
No test, no rush
One useful thing a week.
Training around shifts, sleep after nights, staying in one piece, and the odd bit of nonsense from the station. Written for people doing the job, not for people whose job is being fit.
No spam, no daily nagging. Unsubscribe in one click and I will not chase you.
The problem is rarely effort. It is a plan that falls apart on contact with your rota.
Why Blue Light Coach exists
I know what the slow fade looks like.
I am Keith: a serving firefighter, previously a high-security prison officer, a dad of four and a coach for more than 20 years. I have done the nights, the overtime, the broken sleep and the station-kitchen decisions at three in the morning.
Nobody wakes up unfit. It goes a night shift at a time, and the plan that was going to fix it lasted until the first bit of overtime.
You do not need a plan designed for someone whose job is being fit. You need one that assumes life will interrupt it — and still tells you what to do next.
When the free tools are not enough
A plan that changes when the week changes.
The free tools show you where to start. Coaching is for the point where you need the sessions, decisions and accountability built around your own shifts, test date, injuries and home life.
- Your rota keeps breaking generic programmes.
- You have a test or operational target with a real deadline.
- You need someone to adjust the plan when life goes sideways.
- You want direct feedback rather than another PDF to ignore.
I keep numbers small. Tell me what is going on and I will come back to you honestly about whether coaching, a one-off plan or one of the free resources is the right next step — including if I think you do not need me.
Keith has been nothing but understanding, supportive and flexible. I started with him following an ankle injury while preparing for my JRFT.Alexandra — police applicant
Tell me what keeps getting in the way.
No sales call script. I read this myself and reply with the most sensible next step.