12-week training program
Gledhill Protocol (Halifax) 12-Week Program
Know the test
Who uses this test, and what it costs
Halifax Regional Fire and Emergency tests career and volunteer candidates in-house using the Gledhill Fitness Protocol, at no cost to the candidate at any stage, which makes Halifax one of the cheapest major-department processes in the country. The protocol carries Dr. Norman Gledhill's name, the York University researcher whose work also produced the York Firefighter Applicant Fitness Assessment, and the two tests share most of their stations while differing in the numbers that matter on the day. Career candidates run the full protocol including the shuttle run; volunteer candidates complete every station but skip the shuttle. Departments change tests between intakes, so the posting always governs.
The shuttle run is a gate, not a warm-up
Career testing opens with the Leger 20-metre aerobic shuttle run, the beep test: continuous 20-metre lengths on an audio cadence that starts easy and accelerates each stage, with a built-in warm-up and only the final portion demanding maximum effort. Halifax's published requirement is a VO2 max of 42.5 mL/kg/min, and candidates below that line are removed from the competition before the stations even start. Treat that number seriously and train past it: the beep test rewards three separate things, aerobic power, disciplined early pacing, and clean 180-degree turns, and this program trains each one by name, because a candidate who turns badly gives away half a stage before fitness is even asked about.
The vest and the ankle weights, Halifax's version
After the second station you put on a 14.5 kg vest plus 1.8 kg ankle weights on each leg, about 18 kg of added load approximating turnout gear and an SCBA, and you wear it for everything that follows. Halifax's vest runs a kilogram heavier than the York test's while its ankle weights run half a kilogram lighter per leg, and the training consequence is the same as ever: ankle load multiplies the cost of every step because it swings at the end of the longest lever in your body. Stairs, the cone weave, and quick footwork tax the hip flexors, tibialis, and calves hardest, so this program trains the lower legs directly from week one and introduces ankle weights deliberately in the Build phase.
Stations 1 to 4: climb, search, carry, hoist
Station 1 is a ladder climb: wearing a 9.1 kg SCBA cylinder, climb a 12.2 metre extension ladder, uncouple and re-couple a wall-mounted hose connection, and climb down; it screens comfort at height and manual dexterity. Station 2 is the enclosed-area search: guided into a confined space wearing a blacked-out face piece and locked in, you reach up, count the washers on a bolt by feel, and call out the number; pass or fail, untimed. Station 3 is the hose carry and climb: a 38.5 kg hose bundle over the shoulder, up and down five flights, which Halifax also runs as two and a half floors twice, roughly 15 metres of climbing either way. Station 4 is the rope pull: hoist and lower a 22.5 kg weight hand over hand through about 20 metres, run as one long repetition or as two of 10 metres or three of 6.7 depending on the facility, and the lowering half is where unprepared grips fail.
Stations 5 to 8: advance, lift, rescue, breach
Station 5 is the hose advance: drag a 61.4 kg load 15 metres, simulating a charged line, noticeably lighter than the York version of the same event but timed just as sharply. Station 6 is the ladder lift: remove a 25.5 kg ladder from brackets at 1.93 metres and replace it, untimed, pure controlled strength at shoulder height. Station 7 is the victim drag: 91 kg, 15 metres, weaving cones placed every 3 metres, so agility under load counts as much as pull strength. Station 8 is forced entry: strike a heavily weighted tire with a 4.5 kg sledgehammer on a door-handle-height table until it travels 30.5 centimetres to the wall, timed from the first draw-back to wall contact, and the hammer rebounds, so you grip it through the whole arc.
Timed, pass-fail, and what that means for training
Halifax states that every station is timed except the enclosed-area search and the ladder lift, and that candidates must complete each event successfully, with some scored pass or fail and some on time. It does not publish per-station cut-offs, which is exactly the situation to train for by treating every timed station as a race: loads moved fast rather than merely moved, transitions rehearsed, repeat efforts practiced on short rest so the seventh hard effort of the day looks like the first. The shuttle run's 42.5 line is the one number Halifax does publish, and this program's benchmarks are built to put you comfortably past it with a margin you can prove in your log.
Heights and confined spaces are screened, not assumed
Two stations exist mostly to find out whether height and confinement rattle you: the 12.2 metre ladder climb with a task at the top, and the blacked-out locked search. Neither is trained by strength work; both are trained by exposure. This program schedules short, safe comfort drills: ladder time where you have legal access with someone footing the ladder, controlled breathing practice, and blindfolded search patterns done on the floor of an open room with a partner present, never at height, never in an actual enclosure, and never alone. On test day your hands do the counting while your breathing stays boring.
Halifax's process around the test
Halifax hires on one of the lowest barriers to entry among major Canadian departments: proof of Grade 12 is the only document required at application, recruits are hired as 4th Class Firefighters and trained in-house, and the process runs about six months from application to hire pool with no candidate fees anywhere in it. Application windows are short and scheduled, the 2026 cycle ran January 6 to 20, and there are no lateral transfers, so the Gledhill day is the same for everyone. The physical test sits after aptitude testing, and failing the shuttle gate ends the competition, so the training priority order is engine first, stations close behind.
How this program relates to the York one
The Gledhill protocol and the York assessment are siblings with real differences: York measures VO2 max directly on a treadmill while Halifax measures it in the field with a shuttle run, York's vest is lighter and its ankle weights heavier, and York's hose advance pulls 70 kg to Halifax's 61.4. If you are testing in both processes, run this program for a Halifax date and the York program for a York-family date, and note that the station skills transfer almost completely: the ladder climb, search, hose carry, rope pull, ladder lift, victim drag, and forced entry are the same events with the same loads in both, so nothing you build here is wasted anywhere the Gledhill family appears.
Equipment, honestly
Every session is written for a full gym and carries substitutions for two leaner setups: minimal equipment, meaning a loadable backpack or duffel, a rope or towel, and household objects, and a stairwell-and-vest setup, meaning stairs plus a weighted vest or pack. The Gledhill-specific implements are improvised the way our other programs do it: a duffel built toward the 91 kg mannequin, a tire or loaded sled at roughly 60 kg for the hose advance, a rope over a bar for the hoist and lower, a sledgehammer on a tire where you have one and diagonal chops where you do not, and any flat 20 metres with two markers for the shuttle work. Ankle weights are worth buying for this test; a marked 20-metre course costs nothing.
The 12 weeks
Benchmarks
Test yourself every four weeks so peak week holds no surprises.
- Week 4: Shuttle run and grip baseline. Two numbers on one day, fresh. First: a full Leger 20-metre shuttle run to honest failure on any marked 20 m course, using any standard beep test audio; record the stage and shuttle you reached. Halifax's published career gate is a VO2 max of 42.5 mL/kg/min; conversion tables vary by protocol version, so rather than arguing with a chart, note your stage and plan to add at least a full stage by week 8, which puts the gate behind you with a margin. Rest 15 minutes. Second: a single max-duration towel hang; record the seconds. The rope hoist and lower, the hose carry, and the drags all draw on that account.
- Week 8: Shuttle retest and five-station vest circuit. Test-day structure, compressed. First: the full beep test again, fresh, same course and audio; record stage and shuttle against week 4. Then 30 minutes of rest, layered and moving. Then, in a 14 kg (31 lb) vest, five stations with exactly 3 minutes of standing rest between, every one timed: a five-flight stair climb carrying 30 kg (66 lb) on one shoulder with a swap at the turnaround, ankle weights on for this station only if you own them; 6 rope hoist-and-lowers at your heaviest smooth load; a 15 m drag out and back at 60 kg (132 lb); 20 sledgehammer strikes per side at full intent; and a 15 m backwards drag weaving three cones. Record every time and note which station degraded most: that station owns your Peak phase.
- Week 12: Taper rehearsal. A confidence pass at about 85 percent: a shuttle run taken two stages past comfortable and stopped on purpose, then the five-station circuit in the vest at 85 percent intensity with 3-minute rests. Then close the logistics: confirm your testing date and location with HRFE's recruitment communications, plan the day around the shuttle coming first, and pack simple kit: athletic wear, reliable runners with grip for the turns, water, and food for a multi-hour day. Halifax charges nothing and provides the equipment; what you bring is the engine, the grip, and a log that says both are ready.
Companion training app
Train and track it in Semparo Strength
Reading the plan is one thing; running it is another. Semparo Strength is our training app, and every fitness program we build lives inside it. The full A/B five-by-five strength program, custom interval and rest timers, and readiness, sleep, and nutrition logging are free for everyone. Every 12-week test program we publish, Fire Test Foundation, Fire Test Foundation + Swim, CPAT, OFAI FPAT, WFX-FIT, University of Alberta Evaluation, York Firefighter Fitness Assessment, Red Deer Polytechnic FPAT, CFFM FPFE, Gledhill Protocol (Halifax), F.A.R.E., and VO2 Max Builder, unlocks with the Fitness unlock or Semparo Pro, with workout-by-workout tracking and the readiness ring. It runs in the browser and installs to a phone home screen in two taps.
