If you consider the basic movements we do during firefighting, you’ll notice that there is a significant amount of Horizontal forces occurring. I blogged about this back in December.
Most firefighter upper torso training is done sitting or lying, but when do you actually do that on the fire ground…exactly, NEVER!
Alot of firefighters don’t train standing, while pushing, pulling or pressing which causes the trunk to automatically stabilize. Instead they do a lot of their training sitting on machines.
Firefighters demonstrate poor integrated trunk stability, which ultimately leads to injury. I believe the reason is that most firefighters train muscles in isolation rather than in combination upper and lower trunk movements.
Doing so totally eliminates the lower torso and lumbo-pelvic-hip complex from being a part of the movement, which is unnatural, and not the way the body is designed to work.
You can certainly use things like a cable machine or pulley system like Free Motion equipment to train Horizontal forces however, most firehouses and garages don’t have the luxury of a cable or pulley system.
This is one of the reasons you should supplement your training with resistance bands.
For $22.00 you can get a resistance band that allows you to push, pull, and press both the lower and upper body in Horizontal directions which in turn does an outstanding job of integrating the trunk musculature.
So start training horizontal pushing, pulling and pressing and you will develop as a firefighter:
1. Greater total body stabilization
2. Rock solid core muscles
3. Better total body explosiveness and power
4. Better calorie expenditure due to multiple muscle activation
5. Less potential for Injury
6. Improved balance and coordination
7. Multidirectional dynamic flexibility and joint range of motion
8. Hip and pelvic strength and development
9. The ability to kick the red devil’s ass
Bottom line, to become functionally stronger you need to be incorporating
vertical, diagonal, and most importantly HORIZONTAL strength training as a firefighter and bands make it easy.
Here’s a resource for more info on resistance band training and routines.
Be Safe
JC
