Last fall Jesse Kruckeberg, training lieutenant for the Colorado Springs Fire Department, contacted me at Carmichael Training Systems to help him develop an integrated training and nutrition program for his recruits along the lines of what we develop for the various pro athletes we train.
When you think about it, his request made sense. Firefighters are essentially pro athletes. They have to be ready to run into burning buildings at any moment while wearing 60 pounds of equipment and sometimes manhandling hoses that weigh up to 120 pounds. And depending on the fire, they could be working nonstop for hours.
Kruckeberg realized that while many firefighters stay in shape by lifting weights and running, very few train like the pro athletes they are. Pros train and drill for their specific sport – a soccer player has a different workout regimen than a basketball player. To that end, I prescribed a firefighting specific program that used standard fire-academy equipment, not weights, and matched the intensity levels experienced in the real world of firefighting.
These exercises included performing lunges and squats while holding bundles of fire hoses; beating a tire with a sledgehammer to teach the recruits how to properly transfer power from their legs to their arms; sprinting up and down four flights of stairs while carrying hoses; plus lots of pull-ups, push-ups and shoulder presses.
The second part of building a better firefighter involved nutrition.
Traditionally, the firehouse is a dietary sinkhole full of high-fat, high-cholesterol cooking. These meals may taste good, but they undermine a firefighter’s ability to do his or her job. Kruckeberg understood this and asked me to help educate his recruits on the value of good nutrition, namely a high-carb, low-fat diet that would keep each person fueled- up to perform their best.
The best analogy I came up with was a linebacker in football. If he starts the game feeling sluggish and bloated from a poor diet, by the fourth quarter, he’s going to slow down and miss tackles. But if a firefighter arrives at a fire feeling equally sluggish, his weakened condition could become deadly.
After a year of working with the CSFD, Kruckeberg and I have been pleased with the results. Thanks to our plan, there are fewer reports of injuries during the 18 weeks of academy training and more recruits are successfully passing the fitness test. In addition, they’re learning how to eat better during that time and take what they’ve learned about nutrition into the firehouse kitchen.
As a resident of Colorado Springs, I can’t thank him enough for asking me to help him turn my hometown fire department into the fittest in the state. I know I sleep better at night because of it.
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