Happy New Year !

Firefighter Fatigue

Dehydration, poor nutrition, inadequate fitness, physical hard work, and insufficient rest prior to turn out often leads to fatigue. Fatigue leads to exhaustion, and exhaustion leads to impaired judgment and bad descision making which is usually followed by injury or worse... death.

When are we most likely to see fatigue on the fireground? Firefighter fatigue is at its absolute worst during overhaul. Common sense says we need to maintain vigilance for potential problems with firefighters during this time.

Here are some additional things to keep in mind:
-Be mindful of hydration & nutrition strategies during work.
-Use recovery strategies between shifts.
-Add interval training to your workouts which helps you develop the anaerobic capacity needed to resist the inevitable fatigue that is part of this job.

Happy Holidays

Cat and Camel

Q: Is it ok to go straight to the gym when I get off shift?

A: Some exercise shouldn't be done in the first hour after awakening because of the increased hydrostatic pressure in the intervertebral disks during that time. If that's the only time you can train, then do some cat and camel exercises during your warm up as a way to achieve spinal segment motion before starting more aggresive exercises.

The Exercise: The Camel-Cat
How to do it: Get down on all fours. Your hands should be directly below your shoulders, and your knees directly below your hips. To create the hump-of-a-camel position, round your back by pushing it upward. Pause for one count, then push your lower back toward the floor to create the arched position of a cat. That's one repetition. Do 2 sets of 10 repetitions.

Why Horizontal Training is Important to Firefighters

Witness any firefighting activity and what do you see? In almost ALL parts of the job, advancing the line, forcing entry, removing a victim from the occupancy, etc, strength is a major factor, and the majority of force application and absorption in those activities is heavily influenced by horizontal forces.

Rarely is vertical loading seen in actual firefighting activitites yet look at the typical exercises firefighters do in their workouts.

□ Squats-Vertical loading
□ Military press-Vertical loading
□ Lunge-Primarily Vertical loading
□ Pull Up-Vertical loading
□ Leg Press-Truly vertical if you analyze what is happening.
□ Olympic Lifts-Vertical loading

Don't get me wrong, all these are extrememly valuable in a firefighter program. On their own however, they will not produce the optimum enhancement of multiplanular strength and power, capable of transferring to the actual job requirements seen in firefighting.

To optimize strength training for firefighting, you must train the body to effectively neutralize and produce the horizontal and rotational forces encountered every day on the job.