Why?

[hotshot151]

Looking at ff LODD deaths, half of them are cardiac related..my question is why is the one thing that kills us the most is the thing we train for the least?

I come from an extremly progressive dept, we train like crazy for fireground operations..yet not many of our people will train or condition themselves..not saying that they are severly obese..but there are quite a few who smoke, and hardly anyone does any kind of cardio conditioning..is this common?

[sandidge2]

yes this is all too common and its sad. my home department is all voulenteer. and we train like crazy but no one wants to take care of their own health.

[lrg500]

Same here. At my dept, there are just a few of us that workout on a daily basis. I guess they have the attitude that "it won't happen to me". You can't even shame them into trying to take care of themselves.

[eparnell]

I agree 100%, I'm 32 years old smoke and I have noticed the fireground tasks that I used to do that I didn't think twice about are starting to whip my ***. So, I have started cardio workouts everyday. Don't want to be one of the LODD's from a heart attack. Oh and I have a smoking quit date too.

[MichaelStefano]

Cardio alone won't cut it

Cardio is great, but firefighting is not performed with shorts and sneakers. Until you realize, firefighting is like "running with weights", you'll not be able to recreate the type of exertion level, you'll experience at your next working fire.

I've been there and done that! After 22 years as a firefighter and strength-endurance conditioning coach, I've developed a program that combines cardio and resistance. Check out my latest Firehouse.Com article for all the details on how to design your perfect program based on Sequenced Timed Sets (my latest STS Method).

This type of training will afford the firefighter the greatest protection!

Hope this helps,
Captain Mike

https://www.firefightersworkout.com

[moos2125]

at my fire department

In my department it is mandatory that everybody including the chief works out for one hour every shift we have check off sheets that we have to sign that we have completed are workout also it is mandatory that we do are physical fitness test every six months last but not least every month everybody gets weighed and body fat percentage measured if you are over on either you get placed on a program if you don’t show any improvement within one month they write you up three of those and you are out the door.