Brice Long: Building Strong Firefighters

By Brice Long

Fire academies teach recruits how to be firefighters. No matter the jurisdiction, region, or department, men and women sign up to join a fire department, and their recruit school experience will teach them how to do the job. Are some better than others? Of course. Do some recruits learn more effective methods for accomplishing tasks than others? You bet. However, at the end of the day, the fire department is great at teaching members how to do the job at the task level. Stretching lines, throwing ladders, forcing doors–these fundamentals of fireground operations are covered extensively in text, Power Point, ™ and on the drill ground. Basic training teaches firefighters how to fight fires. However, what about how to be firefighters?

Set Them Up for a Career–Not Just Probation

While the flashy parts of the job are the basis for TV shows and movies, proportionally firefighters spend very little time responding to emergencies. The bulk of their shifts, tours, and days off are spent preparing for when the bell rings. Training, eating, sleeping, living with one another, and family life occupy the bulk of their days. Yet, historically, so little time is spent preparing new hires for the job outside of calls.

To produce a well-rounded firefighting force, training must account for all aspects of fire department life: nutrition, sleep, stress management, mental resilience, and physical conditioning. Only through adequate investment in comprehensive firefighter health can academies expect to produce firefighters who will have long, healthful, and happy careers. One key component to this success is building members who are physically fit.

Firefighters have to participate in physical training (PT). The job is demanding; to be successful, one must be able to withstand the physical requirements. This is obvious, and most jurisdictions (hopefully all) incorporate some form of PT into their basic training curriculums. However, many departments are missing a golden opportunity to maximize the physical development of their personnel at the entry level. There will be no other time throughout the members’ career when the organization will have near total influence over their activities as when in the recruit academy.  There are no calls, no vacation days, no shift training, no surprise public education events, or any other number of things (excuses) that pop up in an average tour to interfere with physical training. Recruits are there for whatever hours the academy schedules, and setting a strong foundation that will last an entire career can start on day one. Departments, maximize that opportunity!

Periodization = Maximum Return on Investment

Creating a foundation for fitness is critical to helping firefighters stay injury free so they can have long, healthy careers. To do that, it is important to follow programs that help firefighters develop a base that can be built on over time. This is where periodization and incremental programming for physical conditioning come into play.

In athletics, the concept of periodization has guided strength and conditioning programs at all levels for decades. Simply put, periodization is a systematic and timely plan of escalating intensity to produce a desired training adaptation. For example, if an athlete wants to throw a shot put farther, he or she would begin a program of training specifically designed for that goal. First, the objective is broken into its trainable parts: power, strength, mobility, and so on, and a program that maximizes each of those components relative to the task is designed. Resistance training to develop strength, plyometrics for power, yoga for mobility, and so on–all with throwing that little rock as far as possible in mind. Through incremental and controlled progress in each part, the athlete’s body will adapt to and become better at the goal–in this case, throwing a shot put. It’s a methodology grounded in science and proven across years and years of practice.

Recruit academies can do this, and it will work! First, define the goal: Be good at firefighting. Easy enough. Next, identify the trainable parts of that goal: anaerobic capacity, mobility, aerobic endurance, strength, and power. Third, design a program that trains for positive adaptations in each. Finally, execute.  Every piece of the program should be working toward the goal. Every workout, rest day, and exercise should be directly tied to an adaptation that will make that recruit a better firefighter and ready for a long healthful career.  The 12, 16, 24, or however many weeks recruits are recruits is such valuable time that will not again be replicated in their careers—not a minute must be wasted.

Resistance Training Is Key

Everyone in the fire service (and likely outside of it, too) can agree that strength is required in the job. Gear is heavy, ladders weigh a lot, and moving around unresponsive civilians on emergency medical services runs and fires is no easy task. With that in mind, the physical training program in a recruit academy must incorporate a strength component that will prepare recruits for those challenges. The body must be overloaded in such a way that it adapts appropriately. This is where a lot of basic training programs fall short. No number of pushups, pull-ups, or air squats will prepare a recruit for lifting a 300-pound person from the bathroom floor. Do those exercises have a place in a well-rounded fitness program? Absolutely, but to stop there is doing the recruit academy members a disservice. Enter resistance training.

Resistance training, ideally barbell lifts, provides recruits with a training modality that increases maximum strength, mobility, and body mechanics. It gives strength and conditioning professionals the ability to observe and correct technique in a controlled environment while increasing intensity to evoke adaptations in absolute strength. Recruits will get stronger in a safe way while learning to properly position their bodies to lift and to handle stress under load. These skills will be applied in their jobs every day and will prepare them for long and healthful careers. However, a couple of items must be taken into consideration when implementing a resistance training program.

Resistance training requires proper supervision. Departments need to find internal and external resources that can educate, supervise, coach, and be responsible for developing programming.  Many options are available; with a little research, any size organization can find a solution that provides its members with the proper resources. It’s also imperative that coaches and staff work diligently to remove ego from all parts of resistance training. For maximum effectiveness, programs should be individualized and based solely on members’ abilities and not their perception of those abilities. The most progress will be made through an honest assessment of each recruit and programming based on that. Create an ego-free zone!

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The fire service needs a culture shift, one that guides departments into regarding the mental and physical well-being of members as a top priority. Agencies are getting busier, and the demands of the job are getting heavier by the day. Firefighters must be equipped to rise higher and meet these growing challenges and must be given the proper tools beginning at the most basic level. There must be priorities beyond skills training for new members; smart physical training is chief among them. With the right education, firefighters can learn to thrive. Basic training can empower members to succeed in their careers and continue to do the job they love longer and in good health.  

BIO

BRICE LONG is a director of human performance at O2X and an overseas tactical athlete. He is a former career firefighter from Stafford County, Virginia, and an NSCA certified strength and conditioning specialist. In Stafford, Long’s most recent assignment was in the training division, where he ran strength and conditioning programs for basic training and for firefighters in the field. At O2X, he works alongside a team of United States/United Kingdom special operations veterans; Olympic, professional, and all-American collegiate athletes; and a network of more than 50 human performance experts to provide education and training to help tactical athletes finish their careers as strong as they started.

 

 

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