Cardio Workouts for Firefighters

Cardiovascular fitness is obviously a very important concern for the fire rescue athlete (firefighters, paramedics and EMTs).  Lately I've been researching, creating then performing a lot of 10-minute interval overhauls and wanted to share them with you today.  You can do one of these separately after a strength workout or combine all three for a good cardiovascular workout.  These only take 10-minutes but you sweat (and burn calories) a lot longer than that.  Give these a try.

1.  The Uphill Grind.  This is a great treadmill interval, if your just getting started with a fitness program (click HERE to get the FRF 28-day Quickstart Program) you want to decrease the speed and incline to a level that is a little more obtainable.

Start minutes 0-2 with a warm-up at 3.5mph and 3.5% incline
next 30 seconds crank it up to 8.0 mph at 8.0% incline
rest 30 seconds (I stand on the side rails of the treadmill)
repeat 7 more times for a total of 10 minutes

**My goal is to be able to perform this interval with a weighted vest on....eventually.

2. Bottle Shock.  This purpose of this interval is to help you control you breathing, like you were on air.  You need to find area in your gym or firehouse where you can sprint for 10 yards.  Once you've covered the distance, pause just long enough to inhale and exhale once through you nose.  Sprint back and pause, this time inhaling and exhaling twice through your nose.  Continue with the drill- breathing normally as you sprint and adding an additional nose inhalation and exhalation when you pause--until you can no longer breathe through your nose.  At that point, rest 30 seconds then start over.  Continue the exercise for 10 minutes total.  You will be surprised how much more effort it takes to focus on your breathing.

3. The Cardio Pyramid.  You can substitute any exercise you like as long as it gets your heart going.  Personally, I like to do the first pyramid with jump rope, the second with mountain climbers and the third with stairs.  Here is how it works, do as many reps as you can in 10 seconds then rest for an equal amount of time.  Next do as many reps as you can in 20 seconds then rest 20 seconds.  Then do 30 seconds of rest followed by 30 seconds of rest.  Now work your way back down the pyramid with 20 seconds then 10.  Once you finish the final 10 seconds rest, add another 30 seconds of rest and repeat again with the same exercise or a different one.  You will perform a total of 3 pyramids (10, 10, 20, 20, 30, 30, 20, 20, 10, 10) with 30 seconds in between them for a total of 10 minutes.  ENJOY this one.

Give these a try, please leave some comments about how you LOVE or HATE these intervals.

Stay Safe and Healthy,
A. Zamzow

The Best Fire Rescue Workout Program-- The Great Debate

I figured with the presidential elections and debates going on I thought it was a good time to debate about something worthwhile (not that the election/ debate is not but after a while they all sound like "blah, blah, blah.") This topic is one near and dear to your heart and career--Workouts for Fire Rescue Athletes. Over the last couple of months I've been writing about some of the more popular workouts seen in firehouses across the world. You can read about them here and here or listen to a great radio interview about this topic HERE. 

I've received a ton of feedback about those articles both good and bad. One thing I have not done yet is to answer the highly debated question...."What is the best workout for Firefighters, EMTs and Paramedics (Fire Rescue Athletes)?. Is it CrossFit? P90X? Ladder 2 Workout? Insanity? Body for Life?

Without further delay, here is my answer (drum roll please)....

THEY ALL ARE....or at least can be.

I know this is a generic answer. 

Bottom line is that there is no single perfect program for fire rescue athletes. We work in very uncertain situations and circumstances so we have to be ready for almost  anything and no single workout program can prepare you for that (stay tuned for one that will). There are however some things that need to be thought of when evaluating a fire rescue based workout. 

1.   The program must be planned using sound periodization and science. The program must be planned using sound periodization and science. Training should follow a developmental approach or progression. This means there should be a hierarchy of training. First it is essential for the fire rescue athlete to develop a training base that should increase the body’s functional capacity. Once this is accomplished, the intensity of the exercise is increased to emphasize strength and muscular development. In more general terms, we can also say we develop stability, then strength, and finally power. Regardless of what the training program looks like, it cannot violate this developmental approach. This is one variable that CrossFit does not do, people are getting injured from performing too many presses or pulls or jumps without having a sound base.

2.    The program MUST place a large amount of focus on Core Strength and Balance. During the course of their career, almost 50% of all fire rescue athletes will hurt their back while on duty. Low back pain is the number one reason firefighters retire early. In order for a program to be effective, it must utilize exercises that focus on the developing the glutes, shoulder girdle, hamstrings, hips and abs. Notice that I didn't say anything about a "six pack" of abs. That is one of the cons of P90X, the program is more concerned about beach muscle than core strength.

3.    The program needs to focus on cardiovascular conditioning and recovery.  When you think of cardiovascular conditioning most people think of running or biking, which in most cases emphasizes aerobic conditioning.  Fire Rescue athletes need to have a good level of aerobic fitness but cannot overlook the value of challenging the anaerobic systems.  If you've ever humped a "charged" hose line up some stairs or dragged a victim or axed a roof open you realized the importance of anaerobic fitness.  An effective Fire Rescue fitness program will set a good cardiovascular base then challenge the cardiovascular system with intervals.  Intervals are one of the best way to simulate the high level of fitness required on the fire ground.  

4.  Check back soon.  I can't give you all the reasons in one post, I have to keep you in suspense.   My next post will have a couple more elements that a good Fire Rescue Workout should contain.  In the meantime check out my FREE 28-day Quickstart Workout Program (which contains all the essential elements of a good Fire Rescue Workout).  

PS- You can now get a PRINTED copy of the FRF 28-day Quickstart Program and/or a Kindle version  through Amazon.com (The Ladder 2 Workout).   I had to change the title and did add some additional content to the program but please note you can get that program FREE by joining the Fire Rescue Fitness Nation Here

Diet Soda in the Firehouse

Drink Diet Soda?

There’s been a lot of discussion around the firehouse lately about the “dangers” of drinking soda and diet soda. The topic was started after I revealed my personal “diet soda” experiment.  Three years ago I wanted to know if diet soda was bad for you or just getting a bad rap.  My experiment was to drink one 16 ounce diet soda everyday for one month and report my weight, energy level and overall health throughout the month.  The results....by the middle of the month I had gained 5 pounds and was drinking over 32 ounces of diet soda a day.  My energy was awfully low, I craved and ate sugar all the time and had some bad mood swings.  Needless to say after that little experiment I decided to avoid diet sodas as much as possible. 

It's not surprising that drinking all the sugar in sodas would cause weight gain, but what is surprising is that even diet soda will pack on the pounds.  In fact, researchers from the University of Texas Health Science Center monitored 475 adults for 10 years, and found that those who drank diet soda had a 70 percent increase in waist circumference over the 10-year study, compared with those who didn't drink any soda. It also found that those who drank more than two diet sodas per day saw a 500 percent waist expansion!  

Why does Diet Soda lead to fat gain

The main reason diet sodas are leading to weight gain--the artificial sweeteners.  These sweeteners have been linked to an increase in sugary food cravings.  These cravings lead you to seek out higher calorie, sweet, unhealthy snacks to fill the sugary void.   In my personal experiment I felt like I couldn’t eat enough to stay satisfied, I even had late night cravings that led to midnight trips to the store for sugary foods (not kidding). 

What Should You Drink Instead?
The best advice is to avoid diet (and regular) sodas and switch to drinking water, green tea, or black coffee.  This will prevent exposure to artificial sweeteners which may alter your body’s ability to recognize high-calorie, sweetened foods, which could lead to weight gain.  By switching to water or other beverages, you will be keeping yourself hydrated (which is very important to the fire rescue athlete) and potentially boost your metabolism to burn more fat.
This is just one of the many reasons why diet soda is bad for you. 

 I challenge you to stop drinking it and feel the difference for yourself.

Stay Safe and Healthy,

       A.      Zamzow

Firefighter Nutrition- The Glycemic Index

Today's post is important not only for the Fire Rescue Athlete but for anyone trying to stay strong and lean.  I often get nutrition related questions from people about the "best" foods to eat for staying lean.  These questions prompted some research and this post.

In case you didn't know, most diet programs revolve around the Glycemic index.

This scale has been developed to help you understand how the various carbohydrate rich foods that you eat act upon the body and which will be best to eat for a lean body composition and muscle mass gains.

If you were unaware of this fact, then you need to learn about it immediately. And for those of you who already knew that, you still might learn something from this post.

Let’s take a closer look at what the Glycemic Index is all about so you can see why this is one thing that you’ll want to be paying close attention to.

The Glycemic Index--How It Works And Why You Should Pay Attention To It

First let’s address how the glycemic index works. The glycemic index is rating scale that is based off 100% pure glucose, which is given the rating of 100. All other foods are then compared to how glucose affects the blood sugar levels after consumption and rated accordingly.

Those that produce a slower digestion response in the body thus producing a lower degree of blood sugar spike are given a value of less than 100, while those that produce a faster blood glucose spike are given a value greater than 100.

In addition to knowing the glucose index rating for the food, it’s also helpful to take into account the glycemic load of a particular food as this one also takes into account how much food you’re eating as well.

It’s important to pay attention to these two factors because the speed in which the carbohydrates become available to the body cells after release into the blood stream is going to influence factors such as muscle building as well as fat loss.

Eating the wrong foods at the wrong times and you may not be seeing the results you were hoping for.

The Glycemic Index And Its Effects On Building Muscle and Weight Loss

So what do you need to know with regards to how the glycemic index impacts your muscle building diet plan?

What you need to keep in mind is that immediately after the workout, you’re going to want to boost blood glucose levels as high as possible, as this is what will drive the glucose into the muscle cells.

As a result, you’ll experience faster recovery and faster rates of lean muscle growth.

Later on in the day however, when you are out of the post-workout period, it will be important that you are focusing on keeping your blood sugar levels as controlled as possible as this is what will decrease your chance of storing excess body fat and weight. The end result is that you will be leaner and less likely to gain fat.

Using The Glycemic Index To Plan Your Meals

So now that you know what the glycemic index is, how can you use this to time your meals? The main thing to remember is that you should be focusing on having your simple carbohydrates (sugars) that are high in the glycemic index scale immediately after a workout. This is when the blood glucose spike will be helpful and will yield better overall results for you.

At other times of the day the focus should be on only those foods that are low on the glycemic index scale. These will be the ones that are going to have minimal impact on blood sugar levels and help to reduce the blood sugar response you get.

Here is a sample reference chart for you to use to guide your choices:

Low GI (55 or less) – most fruits and vegetables, legumes, nuts, fructose

Medium GI (55-69) – whole wheat products, basmati rice, sweet potato, sucrose, baked potatoes

High GI (70 and above) – white bread, most white rice, corn flakes, glucose, maltose, maltodextrins

To find the GI number for any food check out www.glycemicindex.com

For guidelines on eating lean in the firehouse (or any house) join the Fire Rescue Fitness Nation and get the SOPs to Eating Lean in the Firehouse and the FRF 28-day Quickstart Workout Program.

Stay Safe and Healthy,

A. Zamzow