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| 1 East Haven, Connecticut, firefighters participate in departmentwide training that includes a demonstration of the TRX Suspension Training System. (Photos by P.J. Norwood.) Click here to view image gallery |
BY P.J. NORWOOD AND JAMES NEWMAN
It should not be a surprise to anyone that today’s fire service requires us all to do more with less. It deals with many more issues of public safety than fires. We members are much more diverse in training and knowledge than ever before. Every day, we are presented with new challenges, and we must be ready.
We must be trained, be educated, and have a solid foundation in everything from customer service, emergency medical services, hazmat, and natural disasters to fire attack. In this arena, we excel and lives are saved every day because of the actions of well-trained, educated, and prepared firefighters.
PHYSICAL FITNESS
All this, however, does not make us fully prepared for the demands of our job. We must also be physically able to perform the required tasks. The fire service as a whole lacks in physical fitness. The writing is on the wall. It is obvious where we are headed. In the near future, there will be no place on the fireground for an overweight, out-of-shape firefighter. Many departments already have minimum levels and standards in physical fitness that members must meet. The International Association of Firefighters (IAFF), International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC), National Volunteer Fire Council (NVFC), National Fallen Firefighters Foundation (NFFF), National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), and many other organizations that provide structure, resources, training, education, and standards for the fire service have already defined requirements in this area.
There were 97 line-of-duty firefighter deaths in the United States in 2013. This total includes the Yarnell Hill Fire that killed 19 wildland firefighters and the explosion in West, Texas, that killed nine responding firefighters (as well as an emergency medical technician and several local residents). Despite the large number of traumatic and burn injuries that occurred in those incidents, stress and other medical-related issues, which usually result in heart attacks or other sudden cardiac events, continued to account for the largest number of fatalities. One-third of the deaths resulted from overexertion, stress, and related medical issues. Of the 32 deaths in this category, 29 were classified as sudden cardiac deaths (usually heart attacks), one was caused by a cerebral aneurysm, one was caused by a stroke, and one was a suicide.1
We must be physically and mentally prepared every day and able and ready to perform with a high level of endurance, strength, mobility, and power at a moment’s notice under less-than-ideal conditions. Firefighters across the country focus on their physical fitness to varying degrees. There are many types of fitness models-homegrown models, more elaborate models that require you to attend regular classes or scheduled meet-ups, and DVD-driven. It doesn’t matter which model you buy into and use. The important thing is that you find one that works for you, one you can follow and commit to. The model should challenge you and ensure that you derive the benefits that will enable you to function as a firefighter safely and effectively.
TACTICAL ATHLETES
As a firefighter, you must consider yourself as a tactical athlete. You work long hours, everything you do is unpredictable, and you work in awkward positions at a moment’s notice without time to warm up. You must have the physical ability, stamina, and strength to function on the fireground. Similar to athletes who participate regularly in sports, tactical athletes must be strong, fast, and agile, and they must have the endurance to perform repeatedly. To perform well on the fireground, you must engage in exercises that directly translate to the demands of the job. Beyond the requirements of many sports, tactical athlete firefighters must work on endurance and cardiovascular stamina. You could be the most powerful or fastest athlete in the world, but it won’t matter if you can’t sustain your performance when it’s needed most. The fireground doesn’t have a clock or a buzzer to indicate the call is over or it’s time to send in a substitute. If you tire and you don’t have the stamina when needed, you could jeopardize your life or the life of another firefighter or a civilian. Find a system that will provide a positive result and a minimum of stress. Adequate physical fitness training consists of five major components: endurance, mobility, strength, flexibility, and power. Keep in mind your responsibility to your customers. You must be ready at a moment’s notice.
FUNCTIONAL MOVEMENT SCREEN (FMS)
We have added to our toolboxes a physical fitness screening model that identifies weaknesses and imbalances that need to be addressed before fitness training can begin. This screening gives us the ability to evaluate our bodies so we can train to adapt to our realistic job-specific needs. The screening process is the first tool to place in the toolbox, especially for athletes coming back from injuries. It identifies the tactical athlete’s weaknesses and imbalances so that the firefighter can train to get better and not waste time on nonessential time-consuming exercises.
Developed by Gray Cook and Lee Burton, physical therapists, the FMS is an instrument for rating and ranking movement. It is comprised of seven movement tests that challenge mobility and stability to identify dysfunctional movement patterns and asymmetries/imbalances in individuals and determine if the individuals are at an increased risk for injury when engaging in physical activity. It provides a trainer with a starting point or baseline measurement on which to design a strength-and-conditioning program and create a benchmark for assessing the effectiveness of the program. It also detects any weaknesses that need to be addressed with a conditioning program or a referral for medical intervention-in the case of pain, for example.
Suspension Training
Suspension training is a form of leveraged bodyweight training. Leveraged bodyweight exercises challenge and train the body in a multi-planar fashion, enhance movement, and develop functional strength. Suspension training and its programming principles are unique in that either the user’s hands or feet are generally supported by a single anchor point while the opposite side of the body is in contact with the ground. By changing the angle of the body, the user can load the appropriate amount of body weight to the body’s level of fitness and strength. Suspension training provides the ideal mix of support, instability, and mobility to train strength, endurance, coordination, flexibility, power, and core stability all at once. Most importantly, it can be adapted to meet any level of fitness and has even been adopted as a tool in many physical therapy and rehab settings. A suspension training system is completely portable and can be used in just about any environment. This training can be done anywhere, with limited time and in limited space. There are no extensive machines or racks of weights, and you don’t need to dedicate an hour or more of your valuable time.
A suspension training system invented by a Navy SEAL on deployment in the Gulf War had to meet the criterion that it be portable and deployable anywhere. The objective was to keep his team in combat-ready shape while the members were holed up in safe houses and deployed in the field. With no access to strength-training equipment, he improvised the first suspension trainer out of parachute chord and webbing.
The suspension trainer could be attached and used anywhere an anchor point that could support the person’s body weight is available. It can be attached to tree branches, trucks, fences, apparatus, and vertical and horizontal poles-to name some options.
Dynamic Variable Resistance Training (DVRT) with the Ultimate Sandbag
DVRT refers to training with implements that have an interior load that is not static (sand, water, and so on), where the shifting nature of the implement (the Ultimate Sandbag) challenges stability and enhances functional strength and core integration. The system progressively challenges stability and movement in a multi-planar fashion. Its form of strength training progressively overloads the body and nervous system independently of the load or the amount of weight lifted.
First responders learn how to manage heavy loads at strange angles and in unpredictable environments and locations. Injuries often occur when we attempt to apply force at less-than-ideal body positions and angles. We have been taught to “bend at the knees and lift with the legs”; in rescue situations, that often isn’t possible. The DVRT system teaches us to hinge at the hips and integrate and stabilize the entire body. More importantly, it teaches us how to do so at odd angles and multiple planes of motion, all at the same time-sort of the same random chaos we find at most rescue scenes. In addition, you need the same amount of room to perform these functions as you would to do a push-up.
In FMS, suspension training and DVRT are tools that meet the needs of the firefighter tactical athlete and represent a three-tiered approach/progression to evaluate weaknesses and then strengthen the tactical athlete to be mission ready.
The suspension training is effective for introducing functional movement-based training to those who may be unfit or recovering from or working to rehabilitate injuries. Since it is scalable to the individual’s ability, all athletes, regardless of ability, strength, or gender, can use it. It teaches the tactical athlete how to integrate, use, and control the body in space.
The workouts are full body core intensive. Each movement forces the entire body to stabilize and work together as a single unit. The system trains movements, not muscles. Because each movement/exercise is a full body-integrated exercise, no training is needed for individual muscles or body parts, decreasing the workout/exercise time. Full body recruitment and integration repair any strength leaks or weak links your body might have.
This type of total body strength training places a high metabolic demand on the body. The athletic movement-based manner in which the drills/exercises are performed more closely resembles the cardiac demands firefighters will experience on the fireground. In more traditional strength training/fitness routines, cardiovascular exercise might be done separately, before or after the routine or on a different day.
Athletes/firefighters might run/jog or ride bikes or elliptical machines hoping for a carryover effect or that the exercise will prepare them for the cardiovascular stress of the job. In this system, the cardiovascular system is trained the same way it will be stressed in the firefighting environment-with shifting asymmetrical loads, at odd body angles, and moving in multiple directions and planes of motion all at once. When fighting fires or responding to rescue calls, you never need just strength or just endurance; you need them both simultaneously!
BUILDING A BETTER TOOLBOX
From the first day we enter the fire service, we start compiling a personal toolbox. We add to it every day from education, training, and experiences, both positive and negative. We take the items in our toolbox, adapt them, and use them each day. At the same time, we continue to add to the box. We must begin to add physical fitness to our functional toolboxes.
We spend many hours training in rapid intervention and Mayday procedures, but we need to ask ourselves whether we are physically fit to work at that level. Are we physically prepared to save ourselves, another firefighter, or a citizen? The statistics tell us that, as a fire service, we are not.
Many firefighters are intimidated to begin a physical fitness program; others are looking for immediate results. The training programs mentioned here are models that should not intimidate us. They give us the flexibility to exercise at our own pace and place stress on our bodies that will provide endurance, mobility, strength, flexibility, and power so that we can be ready to respond, save lives, and reduce our chances of injury.
Endnote
1. http://www.nfpa.org/~/media/Files/Research/NFPA%20reports/Fire%20service%20statistics/osfff.pdf.
P.J. NORWOOD is a deputy chief training officer for the East Haven (CT) Fire Department and has served four years with the Connecticut Army National Guard. He has authored Dispatch, Handling the Mayday (Fire Engineering, 2012), coauthored Tactical Perspectives of Ventilation and Mayday DVDs (2011, 2012), and was a key contributor to the Tactical Perspectives DVD Series. He is an FDIC instructor, a Fire Engineering contributor, a Fire Engineering University faculty member, and the host of a Fire Engineering Blog Talk Radio show. He has lectured across the United States and overseas. He is certified to the instructor II, officer III, and paramedic levels.
JAMES NEWMAN is the CEO/owner of Quest Fitness LLC in Guilford, Connecticut. He is certified by ACE (the American Council on Exercise) and has been working in the fitness industry for close to 20 years, helping thousands of people to reach their fitness and performance goals. As a DVRT master instructor with Ultimate Sandbag, he is a continuing education provider, offering CEC workshops in the DVRT system. A Level 2 TRX instructor and TRX CORE member, he has Quest Fitness as a host facility for TRX continuing education. FMS-certified, he also holds certifications in TRX rip training and kettlebells.
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