cardiovascular fitness firefighter

Are You Firefighter Fit?

By Aaron Zamzow (ZAM) | Jun 27, 2012

A couple weeks ago I published a blog post about “defining Firefighter Fit.” I appreciate the numerous responses and comments about this question (see that blog post here) and today want to follow up and add some more information and questions about this topic. One of the consensus opinions expressed when asked to define “firefighter…

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Firefighter Fitness Upgrade- The Row

By Aaron Zamzow (ZAM) | Jun 19, 2012

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…

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Krill Oil vs. Fish Oil

By Aaron Zamzow (ZAM) | Jun 15, 2012

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…

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Firefighter Fitness Exercise Upgrade- DB Chest Press

By Aaron Zamzow (ZAM) | Jun 3, 2012

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…

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Firefighter Fitness- Hill Training to Increase VO2 Max

By Aaron Zamzow (ZAM) | May 28, 2012

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…

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How Do You Define Firefighter Fit?

By Aaron Zamzow (ZAM) | May 20, 2012

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…

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The Best Nutrition Advice for Firefighters

By Aaron Zamzow (ZAM) | May 10, 2012

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…

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Reducing Heart Disease in Firefighters

By Aaron Zamzow (ZAM) | Apr 22, 2012

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…

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Firefighter fitness- Does P90X Measure Up? The Cons

By Aaron Zamzow (ZAM) | Apr 13, 2012

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…

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