Physically unfit to fit: You can do it!
Like many of you, I am sick and tired of reading opinion after opinion on the “obesity epidemic” the fire service is facing. I am tired of reading and hearing what the “skinny people” think. The time to take some ownership in our health and well-being is overdue. In my opinion, now is the time for your fellow “out of shapers” to get real with you.
Every month the statistics on heart-related problems in the fire service and the line-of-duty death (LODD) reports list “cardiac compromise” as a cause. Every time I read those statistics, I feel two things: anger and motivation.
I am angry that another member of my firefighter family died from something preventable. During a conversation with a good friend of mine, we concluded that many firefighters could describe the features of the newest thermal imaging camera but not the features of the treadmill or damper setting on the row machine.
I am angry at being the butt of jokes and editorials in the fire service. When was mediocrity permitted in our profession? We hold classes on truck operations, engine operations, search and rescue, and even hazmat, but our profession has only started to incorporate fitness classes into some fire schools and training weekends.
Please do not picture me as the angry fat man who is just spouting off because his feelings got hurt. I said before that I feel anger, which drives my motivation. I admit I am motivated for selfish reasons. I want to see my kids graduate and, God willing, my grandkids. I almost lost that opportunity five years ago this July.
I will not digress on the circumstances leading up to what the doctors label a “cardiac event.” At 30 years old, hearing that I was now going to be on the same heart meds as my parents did not sit well with me. What did I do with all the anger and motivation? Well, as the saying goes, “You can get busy living or get busy dying.” I decided that since I spent the first 30 years of my life dying, I would try this living thing.
The first thing I decided to do was run a 5k. Why a 5k? I honestly have no idea! I remember seeing the flyer for FDIC and the Courage and Valor 5k. I called my dad and chatted with him about this whole healthy living thing. Though he supported my decision, I could hear in the tone of my dad’s voice that he thought I was crazy. I am the oldest of his three children, the one who is into organized sports, but running was definitely not one of them. His only advice was, “Check with Dan (the cardiologist) and make sure it’s OK.”
I invested as much time as I could to get ready for this 5k. Best of all, 85 percent of the information about running 5ks or running in general is free, and I am kind of a cheap guy!
In my running, or as I call it “wogging” (a hybrid of running and walking), I noticed some of my firefighter buddies were getting into CrossFit. They were getting the program and workouts from www.crossfit.com. I set out to find everything I could about this type of workout. My first exposure to CrossFit was watching a video for Fire Service Health and Wellness Week in which members of a fire department were doing kettle bell swings and tire jumps. I thought, “Hell, that looks easy enough. I can swing a kettle bell like that or a dumb bell.” At the time, I did not own a kettle bell. The “tire jump,” as I found out later, is called “box jump.” It looked easy enough: Find a place with some height, jump on it, jump off. It was simple, easy, and something I could do outside or in the fire station. Easy it was not.
My first attempt at the workout (25 box jumps, 25 kettle bell swings, and 25 air squats three rounds timed) took it out of me. I was huffing and puffing. I was the poster child for high flow O2 and perhaps albuterol. It was rough. However, as I sat there gasping for breath, I thought, “This is stuff we do on the fireground.”
The box jumps were like walking flights of stairs. The swings were like those of forcible entry or chopping a vent hole with an ax. The air squats involved the motion of taking a cot to the ground and back with no weight. I felt like a real jerk. Here I was saying I was a firefighter, but I failed at these everyday tasks, using zero weight and in zero fire conditions. I was angry, and I was motivated to become better.
My next “adventure” into the world of CrossFit was at a class with some members of CrossFit Lincoln, Nebraska, and my dear friends Chris and Brian. Those guys kicked my tail, but I saw some improvement from the first time I had tried to do any type of workout. I decided that some gain was better than going backward or no gain at all. I kept going to the gym and continued to see improvement.
On a fateful day in April, we set out on a 12-hour ride called the drive to FDIC. Even though we left at the crack of dawn, the talk in the car was electric. Each of us was deciding what class we would take along with what hands-on training session. I was pumped. I had an ear-to-ear grin for a week before and after FDIC. I was admittedly more excited for the chance to run the 5k and do the 9/11 stair climb than anything else. The goal I had set for myself almost a year prior was coming true. I was at FDIC in Indianapolis, and I was going to run a 5k and do a stair climb. The guys in my department thought I was nuts, but that was just more motivation!
As I ran the 5k (or rather wogged it), I thought about how far I had come, how much I hated being 35 and on medications after one pharmacist asked, “Are they for your dad or grandpa?” Wanting to reply, “My dad and grandpa are dead,” I instead said, “They are mine; have a good day.” I wanted to do what my brothers did for me for all the people who said I could never finish a 5k or who were not running because of fear, health worse than mine, or whatever reason.
A group of friends, who became a group of brothers, whom I did not know before FDIC finished before me and came back on the course to make sure I finished. I loved them and hated them for that. I hated them because I was a bit embarrassed and felt as if I was a bother to them. I loved them for showing me that they would be by my side through this and would do whatever it took, tough love if need be, to help me be the best.
The next day, I completed the 9/11 memorial stair climb, the equivalent of 110 flights of stairs, honoring the 343 members of the Fire Department of New York who were murdered on September 11, 2001. That was the most emotional and physically taxing day of my life. Yet, I toughed it out, surrounded by my family of firefighters, giving each other fist bumps and words of encouragement. I did not make any records on either the 5k or the stair climb, but I finished!
What I am trying to tell you is that we are not alone. Forget those voices in the fire service saying, “It will never happen.” Erase the word “can’t” from your mind. I know it is a hard road, but as a brother of mine reminds me almost weekly, “Rome was not built in a day. Just be better today than you were yesterday.”
Sonny O’Connor
Firefighter/EMT
Kearney (NB) Volunteer Fire Department
Distributor nozzle has many uses
Itotally agree with Bobby Halton’s “Don’t Throw Out Your Skinny Ties” (Editor’s Opinion, October 2012). Cellar nozzles are useful tools of the trade that are often forgotten about or, sadly, not even known to some firefighters. We may need to change the word “cellar” to “distributor” nozzle.
Many years ago, I was taught about the value of the Bresnan distributor nozzle. We found that it was not confined to basement (cellar) fires. We also used it in attic fires and, in today’s world, with false ceilings. You could use another old-fashioned tool called a “pike pole” to take out a ceiling panel, but stick the distributor nozzle up through the hole. Of course, you might get a bit wet, but that’s part of the job. In addition, if you could not gain access to a room, you might look at breaking into the room through a wall. These seemingly seldom used/talked-about tools were good “in their day” and are still of great value today. By the way, I still have a skinny tie or two along with my bow ties.
William Markgraf
Chief (Ret.)
Columbia (MO) Fire Department
