Aaron Zamzow (ZAM)

Firefighter Fitness- How to Burn More Calories…

By Aaron Zamzow (ZAM) | Mar 28, 2016

How to Make Your Body Burn More Calories. Here is the low down on weight gain/loss. Metabolic Rate is the rate at which the body burns up calories. A body that consumes 2500 calories a day, and burns 2500 calories a day will stay at the same weight. A body consuming 2500 calories daily but…

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Is counting calories important for Firefighter weight loss?

By Aaron Zamzow (ZAM) | Mar 19, 2016

I get this question asked a lot: “Is counting calories important for firefighter weight loss?” Answer: While it sounds like a logical answer, counting calories is often too complex, time consuming, and full of errors.  So, in today’s post I wanted to give you a better way to to figure portion and calorie control. Weight management…

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The Ultimate Firefighter Workout Program…

By Aaron Zamzow (ZAM) | Mar 17, 2016

I created the Ultimate Fire Rescue Athlete Workout because I was discouraged by all of the programs on the market claiming to be geared toward firefighters. In most of these cases programs were written by trainers and not by firefighters.  Its taken over 12 years, thousands of hours of research and hundreds of training sessions…

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Firehouse Nutrition- Why Diet Soda is Bad…

By Aaron Zamzow (ZAM) | Mar 13, 2016

Drink Diet Soda? There’s been a lot of discussion around the firehouse lately about the “dangers” of drinking soda and diet soda. The topic was started after I revealed my personal “diet soda” experiment.  Three years ago I wanted to know if diet soda was bad for you or just getting a bad rap.  My…

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Firefighter Workout Tip- Warm-Up to Reduce Injuries…

By Aaron Zamzow (ZAM) | Mar 10, 2016

Flexibility is often the most overlooked component of a an effective firefighter workout program.  Incorporating flexibility exercises in your workout program has shown to help firefighter performance and reduce injuries by: Increasing physical efficiency and performance Increasing neuromuscular coordination Decreasing risk of severity of injury Decreasing risk of lower back pain Decreasing delayed onset muscle soreness…

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Firefighter Interval Overhaul Workout Option…

By Aaron Zamzow (ZAM) | Feb 27, 2016

Now, as you probably know from reading my previous blog posts that I think that interval training is very applicable to what we do on the fire ground.  A unique component that I’ve added to my workouts is a 10-minute Interval Overhaul.  These interval Overhauls are a combination of exercises that challenges the total body,…

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One of the Ten Best Firefighter Exercises- Farmers Carry

By Aaron Zamzow (ZAM) | Feb 24, 2016

We as fire rescue athletes are generally moving in unbalanced positions. Whether its climbing a ladder, pulling hose, or ventilating, we are usually in an unbalanced, split stance. Therefore one area of focus should be the deep balancing muscles of the core. These muscles play an important role in holding and stiffening the pelvis to…

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Fire Rescue Fitness Birthday Challenge Workout

By Aaron Zamzow (ZAM) | Feb 20, 2016

I like challenge or out-come based (OCB’s) workouts because:  #1 They are tough, #2 They are a great way to measure your level of fitness.  The last 4 years (including this one) I have completed this special “Birthday” workout to help me measure my fitness and determine where I need improvement.   This particular workout…

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"Pull" for Better Firefighter Fitness

By Aaron Zamzow (ZAM) | Feb 20, 2016

The muscles of the back are used for almost every motion on the fire and rescue ground– pulling hose, moving patients, climbing ladders and stairs (grabbing the hand rails) to name a few.  Here is an exercise you need to add to your Fire Rescue Workout to insure you are strengthening theses valuable muscles. I honestly…

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