Vote for the 2016 FRF Fit for Duty Challenge Top 5 Places!

By Aaron Zamzow (ZAM) | Apr 19, 2016

Congratulations too all the 2016 FRF Fit for Duty Challenge participants!   This year over over 100 Firefighters, EMTs and Paramedics entered their results.  There were many, many, great and inspiring results and stories showing how the Fire Rescue Fitness Workouts have helped change lives and careers.  Most importantly, our hope is that these results will help…

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One of the Best Firefighter Exercises- Crawling

By Aaron Zamzow (ZAM) | Apr 13, 2016

You read that heading correctly, crawling is one of the best exercises for firefighters.   I actually think it is in the top 10 (you can find out my other 9 “best” exercises by clicking the link to the “10 Best” image on the right).  Crawling is a great exercise to work core stability, strengthen…

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5 Healthy Food Hacks for Fire Rescue Athletes

By Aaron Zamzow (ZAM) | Apr 11, 2016

Do you want to know how fit fire rescue athletes make nutritious meal choices?  Here are some shortcuts, go-to recipes, cooking suggestions and go-to snacks for making the life of a fire rescue athlete a little healthier. Eating healthy with a demanding job can be difficult.  Add in the fact that the firehouse is usually…

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Firefighter Exercise Upgrade- The Long Bar Row

By Aaron Zamzow (ZAM) | Apr 6, 2016

One of the muscle groups that is easily fatigued on the fire ground is your grip and your glutes. This exercise modifies the traditional one arm row to help improve grip and glute strength.   Why is this important?  Advancing hose line is taxing on your grip and challenges your core and glutes.  The long…

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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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