Wouldn't it be nice if getting, and staying, in good physical
shape was as easy as taking a daily pill? One that would keep
you physically fit throughout your firefighting career?
Unfortunately, there is no magic pill, but we at FETN want to
provide you with some valuable information to equip you to develop
a personalized routine and to make good, healthy choices.
What Should I be Doing?
All firefighter fitness programs should include some type of
weight training, activities for cardiovascular (aerobic) fitness,
and flexibility conditioning.
At a minimum, firefighters should be participating in:
Weight training twice a week for both
the upper and lower body
An aerobic workout of 20-45 minutes at least
three times a week
Stretching or other flexibility activities
several times a week
Most of us don't have enough hours in our days for all the things
we want to do and so we often end up making fitness a low priority
-- which most of the time means we just don't do it. We have to
schedule it or it won't happen. Grab a partner, be accountable
to each other and schedule the time to do it!
Design a Program that Works for You
To tailor a fitness program to your needs as a firefighter, take
a look at what you do at work. What tasks leave you the most exhausted?
Are there jobs you avoid because you don't feel confident about
your strengths, or areas where you feel you're not up to par?
If the problem is not a lack of skills or training, working on
the basic physical strengths behind the tasks may help dramatically.
Choose exercises that will work the affected muscle groups in
ways similar to the task. For example, if you find your shoulders
get overly tired when you're pulling a ceiling, overhead pulldowns
may help strengthen the appropriate muscles.
If you have no particular areas of weakness but just want to
keep generally fit for the job, you should still tie your workouts
to the job's demands. Urban firefighters, for example, may need
to focus more on weight training, particularly for the upper body,
while those involved in wildland fire may want to emphasize aerobic
conditioning, and will probably intensify that training as the
fire season approaches.
Strength Training
Don't neglect warm-ups. Your muscles will work more efficiently
and safely when they are warm. On weight-training days, start
by doing some type of aerobic exercise for five minutes. Then,
take five to ten minutes to stretch briefly. Make sure to include
all of the major muscle groups. Don't neglect your back. Only
then are you ready to do your weight routine. Once you've finished,
take twenty minutes for your "cool-down" stretches.
Even old-fashioned exercises like push-ups, pull-ups, and sit-ups
can help, if they're done regularly and conscientiously. Try increasing
the difficulty of push-ups by putting your feet on a couple of
phone books or a footstool. Pull-ups will be more effective if
you add a flexed-arm hang or "negative pull-ups" to
the end of each set. (For negative pull-ups, stand on a chair
to get your chin above the bar, then let yourself down slowly,
using only your arms.) And sit-ups can be done in a variety of
forms, or on an incline, to vary their intensity and work slightly
different abdominal muscles.
Cardiovascular/Aerobic Training
For cardiovascular fitness, you have many more options to choose
from. If you work out indoors, your gym probably offers a range
of stair-stepper machines, treadmills, stationary bicycles, and
rowing machines. It may also have an indoor track, a swimming
pool, and group sessions for spinning and many other different
forms of aerobics. Where the climate is friendly for outdoor activities,
the possibilities are even greater: running, rollerblading, bicycling,
swimming, rowing, skiing, and ice skating are just a few. Finding
a friend to take part in these with you will make them even more
enjoyable and keep you motivated.
Whatever activities you choose, make sure you're working out
at the right level. Your basic guide to how hard your cardiovascular
system is working is your pulse. Subtract your age from 220 to
obtain your theoretical maximum heart rate, and then adjust your
aerobic workouts so that you get to 70-80% of your maximum within
the first few minutes, and stay there throughout the workout.
Again, sessions should be from 20 to 45 minutes in length, plus
time for stretching before and after.
Changing Your Fitness Program
When your workout gets boring or becomes too easy, you should
change it. Many experts say that your body adapts to any given
exercise after about three weeks, and you will make greater gains
if you change it at that point: even just switching from barbells
to dumbbells, or to a different machine, can help.
Another important reason to change your fitness program is age.
As we get older, we often find our bodies start to lose some of
their resilience; it may also simply be that years of minor injuries
and stresses accumulate to where we just plain can't do what we
used to do. It's important to continue working out as you get
into your 40's, 50's and beyond, and adjust your workouts appropriately.
Longer warm-ups become essential.
Be patient with your fitness training as you get older. Don't
expect the gains to come as quickly as they did when you were
25, or to be able to get back in shape as quickly as you did then.
Also remember to allow yourself a more generous recovery time
after each workout.
The human body is an incredible machine. Even if you're putting
it through the rough routine of hauling hoses into burning buildings,
carrying people on stretchers down steep stairways, jumping out
of airplanes, or hiking out of forests with hundred-pound packs,
it can adapt to these and many other tasks. Proper care and feeding,
including a good lifelong fitness program, are the least you can
do for it.
Watch for our upcoming "Shorts" series to gain
more valuable information on diet, exercise, wellness and physical
fitness.
Source: This article was adapted from material
that originally appeared in the December 2001 issue of Firework
and then 2001 Women in the Fire Service, Inc. Credit to fitness
advisors Lisa Van Buskirk and Linnea Anderson.
