“You need upper-body strength,” says Jessica Welker, a sergeant with the San Jose Police Department who has worked as a physical-fitness trainer at the police academy for most of her 19-year career. Many police departments require recruits to pass a physical-agility test that often includes scaling a six-foot chain-link fence and a six-foot solid wall, tasks that tend to be particularly difficult for women. A survey from the National Center for Women & Policing found that law-enforcement agencies without an agility test have 45 percent more sworn women officers. “If you’re a woman,” Welker says, “you probably won’t get over a chain-link fence on your first try.”

Give yourself six months to develop upper-body musculature by doing regular push-ups, situps, biceps curls and triceps dips using a chair. Next, find a fence to practice on. “Don’t overthink it,” Welker says. Give yourself a running start of five yards. Maintain your momentum as you plant the foot that naturally goes up as high as you can on the fence. Push off your planted foot and grab the top with both hands. Swing your other foot up and hook your heel over the top. Using your hooked leg and your arms, pull yourself up so that you’re straddling the fence. Swing your other leg over and dismount gently — a hard jump can tear knee ligaments.

Prepare for ripped clothing. “We’ve definitely had officers tear their pants,” says Welker, who once slit a pair jumping a fence in response to a security alarm. If you’re heavy, it will be harder to throw yourself up and over a fence. “Losing weight helps,” Welker says.

Your mind has been trained to think of a fence as a barrier. Part of going over the top of one requires a psychological shift. “You have to believe you can make it over,” says Welker, a trainer for the women-only boot camps her department offers to help them pass the agility test. It’s not uncommon for trainees to run up to the fence and just stop. To build the confidence to go over, you must think of yourself as a creature that cannot be contained so easily. Becoming an agile fence-hopper requires a willingness to keep trying, even if you look a little foolish in the process. “Don’t be afraid,” Welker says.