Good afternoon, welcome back to Hooligans and Halligans. We
hope you all are doing well.
Every year firefighters die from cardiac related
emergencies. Most of these deaths occur during or shortly after a fire or
training event. Heart Attack/Heart
Disease is and has been the number one killer of firefighters since LODD’s
started being recorded.
We all know a lot of this is due to the stress we are
exposed to. The rush of adrenaline, going form 0 to 90 in only seconds and
performing at full throttle in extreme conditions with no rest for extended
periods of time. All of this is done while wearing an extra 65-100 pound of
gear and equipment.
To add to this not every firefighter is in the best of
health or shape. Although round is a shape it is a bad one for firefighters to
be in. It is common among firefighters to not have good eating or fitness
habits. Another issue leading to bad
health among firefighters is alcohol and tobacco use.
Now I am not a health and fitness coach and I am not in the
shape I want to be in… yet. I am working on that. I have only been working my
present job for 6 months. Before working for the fire department I worked for
my local EMS agency. It was a really busy agency and we ate a lot of fast food,
was not required to do fitness so I rarely ever did and it was a really
stressful place to work. I was placed on medication for High Blood Pressure
about 7 months ago, just right before leaving EMS. Since I have been at the fire department I
have lost a little weight, been able to stop taking my blood pressure
medication and am getting in shape. I contribute this to being required to do
fitness each shift. It goes further than that though.
Like I said, our department policy states that each shift we
do an hour of some sort of PT. We have weights, tread mills, exercise bikes,
etc. It was the same mundane workouts using the same muscle groups and
movements. I didn’t feel like I was getting anywhere. However that has changed
within the last month. Our department came into some money through a donation
and was able to afford to send 2 firefighters to become cross fit instructors
and purchase a large amount of cross fit equipment.
Cross fit incorporates 10 aspects of fitness into one
exercise. If you are not familiar with it you can research it at
www.crossfit.com. Cross fit has made fitness
fun. Not only is it helping us get into shape but also, it is building morale
and camaraderie while allowing us to have a little healthy competition. The
short burst of work at high intensity make you push yourself and your brother
firefighters are there to push and motivate you as well. Along with cross fit
workouts there are also some diets that are recommended to follow. These
include eating lean cuts of meat, a lot of vegetables, some fruit, nuts and
seeds. This allows you to cut out fast foods, processed foods, high sugary
foods, etc. All the stuff that taste good but is bad for you haha. You can
research paleo (caveman) diet, zone diet, and primal diet for more info on these.
They can be hard to follow and my suggestion is to ease into he one that is best
for you.
Cross fit workouts also use a lot of the movement we are
required to do on the fire ground. I believe if we train for fitness using the
parts of our body like we do on the fire scene, which is every single part we
were made with, then we can reduce injury. Also maintaining a healthy level of
diet and fitness will allow us to act faster, safer, better. Allow us to make
better, clearer decisions, and be a better firefighter all the way around. We
can work smarter not harder when we are fit for duty.
Whatever your department does or don’t do for fitness I
would suggest you look into cross fit and give it a try. It will make fitness
fun I promise. I also see cross fit becoming the main fitness program for the
fire service as many fire departments have and are adopting it as their primary
PT. A few places you can check out for more info and workouts are:
There are also a few pages on
www.facebook.com including first in, last
out, health and fitness. The Internet is endless so research it, apply it, and
change your life for the better.
The main goal at the end of the day is for EVERYBODY TO GO
HOME!!!!
Brothers and sisters, be safe!
