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Firefighter Fitness Upgrade- The Row
Last week I had such a great response to the exercise upgrade post (Alternate Arm DB Chest Press) I decided to make it a weekly post. This week I’ll show you ways to change the row exercise to integrate more core and balance work. Firefighters, emts and paramedics are constantly required to lift loads in very awkward positions. In order to prepare for these scenarios fire rescue athletes must focus their workouts on training not only on and in stable positions but unstable as well. Here is a great row exercise upgrade to engage more stabilizing and core muscles. Please note that this exercise requires a lot of core strength and shoulder stability, lower your weights until you feel comfortable with the exercise. For more exercise upgrade ideas continue to check back to www.firerescuefitness.com For a great FREE workout program that incorporates exercise upgrades for Fire Rescue Athletes JOIN the FireRescue Athlete Nation and…
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Krill Oil vs. Fish Oil
KNOW ANYONE ON CHOLESTEROL LOWERING MEDICATIONS? Most firefighters know about the correclation between heart disease and on-duty deanths (if not read about it here). Often times firefighters and other individuals taking prescription medications can become depleted of important nutrients in the body. In the case of Statin medications (Lipitor, Crestor, Zocor, Pravachol, etc) which help to lower LDL levels in the body, can also deplete the body of an important element called Co-Enzyme Q-10. A deficiency in Co-Q 10 can lead to heart failure because it’s an enzyme that provides energy to the heart. Other studies have shown that a body deficient on Co-Q-10 can lead to the inflammation of your tendons and ligaments, a decrease in collagen and elastin, as well as a weakening of other muscle tissues throughout the body. Co-Enzyme Q-10 can be found in supplement form and anywhere between 200-1000mg is recommended. Ask your doctor if this…
Read MoreFirefighter Fitness Exercise Upgrade- DB Chest Press
Fire Rescue Athletes as asked to work in various unstable environments. Firefighters, Paramedics and EMTs are often times lifting and moving heavy loads in very awkward positions. In order to prepare for these scenarios fire rescue athletes must focus their workouts on training not only on and in stable positions but unstable as well. Here is a great exercise upgrade to engage more stabilizing and core muscles. Please note that this exercise requires a lot of core strength and shoulder stability, lower your weights until you feel comfortable with the exercise. Need a great program that incorporates these “Exercise Upgrades” Click Here. Want to get stronger, leaner and fit for duty? Click Here.
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Firefighter Fitness- Hill Training to Increase VO2 Max
VO2max is a measure of the maximum rate at which an athlete’s body is able to consume oxygen when performing a specific activity, adjusted for body weight. This is a very important for the fire rescue athlete, a higher VO2 max means that the firefighter can do more work with less oxygen. This comes in extremely helpful when doing fire operations (on air) of course. VO2 max can be calculated many ways, the easiest is to use a treadmill or track (read more about calculating VO2 max by clicking here.) From a fire rescue fitness program perspective, the program should not only focus on sstrength and flexibility but also on increasing VO2 max. This brings me to today’s topic. Last year I personally focused on training for the Ironman, which is a very endurance based event, even though I completed the event (you can read about my journey here) I still felt…
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How Do You Define Firefighter Fit?
Are You Firefighter Fit? Most people, when asked this question, will normally think about how much weight they can lift or if the are overweight or not. I argue that being “firefighter fit (fire rescue fit) is much more than that. You may be able to lift heavy weights but that doesn’t necessarily mean that you are that strong. When talking about Firefighter fitness you are only as strong as your “weakest” part. You see true strength comes in the form of functional fitness, fitness that can be applied and used in fireground situations, not just in a gym. When you carry the saw from the truck to the scene or lift a patient into the ambulance you use many muscle groups which have to work together to achieve the job at hand. The Fire Rescue athletes’ body must work as one unit, integrating all the muscles together. Weight training in its conventional form…
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The Best Nutrition Advice for Firefighters
Today I wanted to piggy-back on my post about inflammation and heart disease (keep the comments and emails coming). I know that in health and fitness sometimes the best results are obtained from the simplest advice. So here goes, in my opinion the absolute best thing you can do to lose weight, get healthy, or live a life full of energy is to eat by this ONE RULE: “Only eat whole foods with ONE ingredient.” That’s it. The reason why one ingredient whole foods are the best for you is that they contain zero processing and zero artificial ingredients that have been linked to increasing inflammation. One of these common ingredients is high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). HFCS is a man-made sweetener that is 20 times sweeter than sucrose (table sugar). It is mainly found in soft drinks and fruit juices. Americans as of 2001 were ingesting on averaging 63 pounds of HFCS per…
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Reducing Heart Disease in Firefighters
Its been very well documented that the leading cause of firefighter-on-duty deaths is related to heart disease. Therefore any information regarding decreasing the chances of heart disease are very valuable to the firefighting community. I’ve recently been researching the correlation between cholesterol and heart disease and have found some interesting correlations. The long-established dietary recommendations of yesterday have created epidemics of obesity and diabetes, the consequences of which dwarf any historical plague in terms of mortality, human suffering and dire economic consequences. Despite the fact that 25% of the population takes expensive statin medications and despite the fact we have reduced the fat content of our diets, more Americans will die this year of heart disease than ever before. Statistics from the American Heart Association show that 75 million Americans currently suffer from heart disease, 20 million have diabetes and 57 million have pre-diabetes. These disorders are affecting younger and…
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Firefighter fitness- Does P90X Measure Up? The Cons
A few days ago I posted on the pros of the P90X fitness program for firefighter fitness. I recieved some great emails (please keep them coming) from firefighters that have used P90X, some with success some without. The purpose of these posts is to not tell you wether P90X is the “best” program for firefighter fitness (shortly, I will post on this) but to give you the pros and cons so you can make an educated decision if its right for you. So, now that you know some of the pros, let’s look at the cons of P90X. –Time Investment: The schedule requires at least 60 minutes a day for 6-7 days each week. Weight and abdominal workouts are 75 minutes combined. The yoga workout lasts 92 minutes. –Teaching Technique- The videos show people performing the exercises but doesn’t spend a lot of time actually teaching the proper form. This is especially a problem…
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Firefighter Fitness– Does P90X Measure Up?
It’s often said that any movement is better than no movement at all. I personally have to agree with that statement, I think its imperative that everyone (especially FireRescue Athletes) are active. The big question milling about in the Fire Rescue field is what is the most effective type of activity for firefighters? Ideally, we should be performing movements that support, enable, and enhance our physical skills and add to the quality of life. Our exercises should make us stronger, faster, and more capable of accomplishing just about any physical feat a “job” throws at us. One of the more popular programs floating around firehouses these days is P90X. P90X is the extensive fitness program from Beach Body fitness created by Tony Horton that claims it can get you “ripped in 90 days….guaranteed.” Does it work? Maybe, but as Firefighters, EMTs and Paramedics we need to be more than just “ripped”…
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