How Pflugerville Fire Department Scaled Its Fitness Program to Meet the Needs of 225+ Firefighters

Introduction

Vanessa Frost inherited a solid foundation when she began leading the fitness program at Pflugerville Fire Department. The department had committed firefighters and a platform that worked well enough when serving 75 personnel. But as the department expanded to over 225 firefighters, what worked for a small group soon became unworkable.

“We were using another platform before,” Frost said. “Our biggest drive to change was to get what only TeamBuildr offers: freeform programming. This enabled us to host multiple programs at once, whereas in our previous application, everything was rigidly tied to a single workout calendar.”

Fire departments need enterprise-grade functionality at municipal prices, professional presentation that builds credibility, and flexibility for decentralized operations. TeamBuildr provided this potent combination, allowing Frost to deliver personalized programming while maintaining responsive support.

Through careful implementation, Pflugerville Fire Department moved from a constrained, single-program approach to a choice-driven model serving firefighters of all fitness levels.

Challenges

Fire service fitness presents unique challenges. Firefighters work long shifts in multiple stations, sometimes have to be on call all night, and train with whatever equipment is available. Unlike college teams with centralized facilities, fire departments accommodate decentralized operations where equipment varies dramatically.

Municipal budgets compound operational challenges. Software vendors often price around collegiate or DOD contracts, but fire departments usually have tighter budgetary constraints.

“I went to our previous vendor and was asking them for a price to expand,” Frost said. “They quoted me $10,000 for a hundred people for a year, and I couldn’t spend that on one piece of software.”

Fire departments operate differently than collegiate programs. Training is scheduled around shifts and emergency responses, and coaching often happens remotely. And unlike for a college sports team, every day is game day and the lives of both personnel and the constituents they serve are on the line.  

That’s why it’s crucial that this fire department ensures physical preparedness. Having a system like TeamBuildr enables Frost and her colleagues to design, deliver, and monitor training programs for all the firefighters they support. 

Solution

TeamBuildr provided a cost-effective system that addressed this client’s constraints. Traditional platforms assume a single unified program. As fire stations have varying equipment, Frost can’t rigidly prescribe exercises that require dedicated equipment (like kettlebells, dumbbells, etc.). The tag system within TeamBuildr enables firefighters to choose variations of squats, deadlifts, and other movements, based on the gear they have available at home or at the firehouse. 

“If I put a front squat in a workout but a station doesn’t have a barbell, our firefighters can do a different variation instead – they have several options based on the same need,” Frost said.

Educational content typically lives scattered across platforms. A centralized resource library changes education from ad-hoc link sharing to systematic knowledge building.

“The other thing that I love about TeamBuildr is that it has a resources hub,” Frost said. “Maybe one program is based around one specific thing – like improving aerobic capacity. I can pull in some nutrition or educational tidbits from our existing resources file for firefighters to use.”

For personnel who haven’t trained consistently, detailed logging creates cognitive load that becomes one more reason not to work out more frequently. TeamBuildr removes this obstacle. 

“I provide some of our personnel with generic guidance like, ‘Do 30 minutes of conditioning per day,’” Frost said. “They can pick whatever activity they want using the Habits feature in TeamBuildr, which has been really helpful.” 

Managing fitness for hundreds of personnel means Frost fielding constant questions through texts, emails, calls, and hallway conversations. Consolidating program-specific communication on a single, centralized platform creates clarity.

“TeamBuildr enables me to answer firefighters’ questions much more easily than when they used to ask them via text and email,” Frost said.

Results

TeamBuildr empowered Pflugerville Fire Department to deliver personalized fitness programming at scale, serving firefighters at all stages of their careers – from rookies to veterans with years of experience. Frost serves these different populations through a single system, without anyone feeling like they’re being handed a one-size-fits-all solution that doesn’t meet their individual needs.

“With TeamBuildr, I deliver each firefighter a program with supporting resources,” Frost said. “I also provide protocols that are differentiated for people who used to compete in sports and want to get back to performing at a high level.” 

The easy-to-use TeamBuildr interface has driven spontaneous engagement. When firefighters start tracking without prompting, it signals that the tool doesn’t get in their way. 

“I’ve seen more firefighters enter workout notes into the journal feature in TeamBuildr than I did in our previous software,” Frost said. “It comes more naturally to them because it’s more intuitive and offers a better user experience.”

The program library in TeamBuildr provides structured choice within a curated system. Firefighters maintain autonomy while working within a framework designed to meet departmental fitness and health standards.

“Firefighters see their options in one place in TeamBuildr,” Frost said. “They also appreciate that whenever an exercise is pulled up, the accompanying video lives in the same place.”

TeamBuildr’s reasonable pricing allowed this client to maintain a technology-supported program without consuming half their annual budget, leaving resources for equipment, education, and facility improvements.

“Do I think TeamBuildr is worth the money? Absolutely,” Frost said. “There’s no way I could get a system like this past my chain of command if it cost more or wasn’t widely used.” 

Two coaches supporting 225 firefighters requires systems that enable coaching at scale. Collaborative features multiply what two people can accomplish, allowing them to work in parallel without duplicating effort.

“I have one assistant coach, and with TeamBuildr, we both independently work on things and pull from each other’s work,” Frost said. 

Screen-share calls with people who understand both the software and this fire department’s unique needs compress what would ordinarily be hours of trial and error into minutes of targeted guidance.

“Whenever I have a question, there is a person at TeamBuildr who I can ask,” Frost said.  “Having regularly scheduled calls to work me through new features instead of me having to cobble together information from YouTube videos saves me a lot of time.” 

When firefighters see their department’s logo and colors in the app, they receive a subtle message: this is your program, built for you, reflecting the organization’s investment in your development.

“I like that TeamBuildr looks like our own system,” Frost said. “The fact that I have added our department logo and colors might seem like a small thing, but it helps make the solution ours.”

Professionals who facilitate fire service fitness face a participation challenge: there’s no compulsory PT like in the military and no scholarship depending on consistent workouts like in college athletics. Firefighters show up because they choose to, which means the first battle is simply getting them through the door.

“Many fire departments are trying to get people to train,” Frost said. “TeamBuildr makes that easier for everyone – whether it’s someone who already works out regularly or a firefighter who is getting back into fitness.”