If you’ve been training for any amount of time you know that the typical firefighters workout goes something like this. Ten minutes of a warm up on the treadmill, and an hour workout with the weights, followed by “cardio” either after the workout or more likely on a day off.
If you are to survive the battle with the red devil and the many injuries that can occur as a result, your idea of “training” has to change. Start thinking longevity, and injury prevention instead of hypertrophy.
To survive and ensure your longevity you’re going to have to change and reinvent your training.
Here are the components you must have in your program as a firefighter.
* Mobility/Movement Preparation/Injury Prevention: Isolate, innervate and intergrate muscles and movements.
* Corrective Exercise: I like to use corrective exercise for firefighters because if you talk to any firefighter they’ve suffered some kind of injury on the job. I also like to use postural realignment here.
* SPE (speed, power and elasticity): Yes firefighters need all these.
* Core Training: Firefighter core training is about learning how to stabilize and not about getting a six pac.
* Resistance Training: This is an important component but must be complimented by the other important parts of a program. You need to focus on the job function using the whole kinetic chain.
* Energy Systems Training: The ability to do higher levels of work on the fire ground without fatiguing.
*Regeneration: How many firefighters pencil in recovery and regeneration into their program design? NONE! If you have a training strategy - you also need a recovery and regeneration strategy period. The job too demanding to think it’s going to take care of itself.
Next time I’ll give you a sample workout.
Be Safe
JC
