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A Great Post Holiday Metabolic Workout
Happy Holidays- Yes that time of the year where we have a tendency to overindulge and workouts seem to take second place to the holiday rush. To combat the accumulation of holiday pounds I created this Fire Rescue Metabolic Workout.. This workout requires minimal time, maximal effort and will give you an extreme calorie burn (throughout the day). Intermediate/ Advanced athletes should use weights that they can handle for 15 reps (even though you will only be performing 10 reps) while beginners will use body-weight for each exercise. Each rep should be performed with control (safety first) and good form. You must perform 2 circuits of the warm-up. After the warm-up follow the appropriate circuit (beginner or intermediate/ advanced) as quickly as possible. Your goal is to complete the entire circuit as quickly as possible. Remember to record your total time (of the metabolic circuit) so you can measure your fitness progress…
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Essential Components of a Fire Rescue Workout Program
This blog topic is one near and dear to my heart and your career–Workouts for Fire Rescue Athletes. Over the last couple of months I’ve been writing about some of the more popular workouts seen in firehouses across the world. You can read about them here and here or listen to a great radio interview about this topic HERE. I’ve received a ton of feedback about those articles both good and bad. One thing I have not done yet is to answer the highly debated question….”What is the best workout for Firefighters, EMTs and Paramedics (Fire Rescue Athletes)? More importantly what are the components of the best Fire Rescue Athlete Workouts? Without further delay, here is my answer (drum roll please)…. There is no single perfect program for fire rescue athletes. We all know we work in very uncertain situations and circumstances so we have to be ready for almost anything and no single workout program can…
Read More10 Ways to Avoid the Cold and Flu
It’s that time of year again when the common cold and flu begins being passed from one person to the next. Each year the common cold affects the average person two times, and can affect the fire rescue athlete even more. The sneezing, coughing, sore throat, and runny nose leave you wanting to curl up under the bed covers. To avoid this misery, prevention is the best cure. So with over 200 mutating cold-causing viruses floating around, what’s a fire rescue athlete to do to avoid getting sick? While in our profession it can be hard to dodge every germ, there are proactive ways to boost your immune system and help prevent catching a cold or the flu. Take a look at these 10 ways: Wash Hands Frequently. One of the most effective ways to prevent colds and the flu is simply washing your hands properly and frequently. Wash your…
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A Great Fire Station Workout
I get a lot of requests for workouts that can be performed on duty with equipment at the firehouse. Today my crew and I performed this intensive 30 minute interval workout. This workout will get your heart racing, challenge your core and work your muscles. The workout consists of three, 10 minute intervals each with a different focus. The first 10 minutes focuses on anaerobic recovery, the second ten minutes on full body strength and the last ten minutes on fire ground related movements. The only equipment needed for the intervals are a 50 feet bundle of fire hose (2 1/2 inch works best), some stairs if you got them (or a jump rope), a place to do body rows (pull up bar) and an interval timer (there are android phone apps for this). Interval 1. Sprints. This interval requires a little space, you can use the garage bay or parking lot. Set your interval…
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Trick or Treat- Why Sugar is Bad
If your firehouse (or house) is anything like the one I work in its full of leftover Halloween candy and sweets. Now I must admit, I like a good treat now and then but often I have a very difficult time stopping with just one. Why? Sugar. Its everywhere in almost everything and too much of it can cause some serious health issues. Some foods, such as fruits and carrots, naturally contain sugar, but watch out for foods with added sugars, such as baked goods, cereals, crackers, even sauces and many other processed foods (many of which are around the firehouse). A typical American can consume between two to three pounds of sugar every week. As mentioned earlier, sugar is everywhere and is being processed in many foods we eat. These foods are not just sweets. Sugar in large quantities can be found in peanut butter, mayonnaise, bread, ketchup and many…
Read MoreCardio Workouts for Firefighters
Cardiovascular fitness is obviously a very important concern for the fire rescue athlete (firefighters, paramedics and EMTs). Lately I’ve been researching, creating then performing a lot of 10-minute interval overhauls and wanted to share them with you today. You can do one of these separately after a strength workout or combine all three for a good cardiovascular workout. These only take 10-minutes but you sweat (and burn calories) a lot longer than that. Give these a try. 1. The Uphill Grind. This is a great treadmill interval, if your just getting started with a fitness program (click HERE to get the FRF Foundations Program) you want to decrease the speed and incline to a level that is a little more obtainable. Start minutes 0-2 with a warm-up at 3.5mph and 3.5% incline next 30 seconds crank it up to 8.0 mph at 8.0% incline rest 30 seconds (I stand on the side rails of the treadmill) repeat…
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The Best Fire Rescue Workout Program– The Great Debate
I figured with the presidential elections and debates going on I thought it was a good time to debate about something worthwhile (not that the election/ debate is not but after a while they all sound like “blah, blah, blah.”) This topic is one near and dear to your heart and career–Workouts for Fire Rescue Athletes. Over the last couple of months I’ve been writing about some of the more popular workouts seen in firehouses across the world. You can read about them here and here or listen to a great radio interview about this topic HERE. I’ve received a ton of feedback about those articles both good and bad. One thing I have not done yet is to answer the highly debated question….”What is the best workout for Firefighters, EMTs and Paramedics (Fire Rescue Athletes)?. Is it CrossFit? P90X? Ladder 2 Workout? Insanity? Body for Life? Without further delay, here is my…
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Diet Soda in the Firehouse
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 experiment was to drink one 16 ounce diet soda everyday for one month and report my weight, energy level and overall health throughout the month. The results….by the middle of the month I had gained 5 pounds and was drinking over 32 ounces of diet soda a day. My energy was awfully low, I craved and ate sugar all the time and had some bad mood swings. Needless to say after that little experiment I decided to avoid diet sodas as much as possible. It’s not surprising that drinking all the sugar in sodas…
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Firefighter Nutrition- The Glycemic Index
Today’s post is important not only for the Fire Rescue Athlete but for anyone trying to stay strong and lean. I often get nutrition related questions from people about the “best” foods to eat for staying lean. These questions prompted some research and this post. In case you didn’t know, most diet programs revolve around the Glycemic index. This scale has been developed to help you understand how the various carbohydrate rich foods that you eat act upon the body and which will be best to eat for a lean body composition and muscle mass gains. If you were unaware of this fact, then you need to learn about it immediately. And for those of you who already knew that, you still might learn something from this post. Let’s take a closer look at what the Glycemic Index is all about so you can see why this is one thing…
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