As a firefighter, you need both strength and endurance to perform your duties. A program based around compound lifts with plenty of conditioning work will allow you to meet the demands of your job. Strengthen not only your muscles, but your joints and connective tissues as well as improve your cardiovascular conditioning. Consult your physician before beginning any diet or exercise program.
Strength Basics
Compound lifts span more than one joint, and work multiple muscle groups. Exercises such as the squat and deadlift not only work your legs and core, the deadlift also works your upper back. This will keep you more stable when you are carrying hose up the stairs. Exercises such as the bench press, chin-up, row and military press build and maintain upper body strength and allow you to control the hose as well as strengthen the small, supporting muscles of your upper body making you more resistant to injury. Heavy resistance training also increases specific bone mineral density, which will also help you endure the demands of your job.
Training Intensity
You need to train with intensity, but short rest periods. While you need to be strong, you also need to be well conditioned and lean, as you do not want to struggle moving extra body fat up an extension ladder. Keep your training intensity high, but keep your rest periods short. This will help you not only build muscle, but will limit the chances of an increase in the hormone cortisol, which contributes to muscle wasting as well as fat storage.
Training Program
Train your entire body every workout, as that is how you will be using it on the job. Train only three days a week, and allow for at least one rest day in-between each training session to allow yourself plenty of time for recovery. You should not spend a long time in the gym, as your goal is to build strength. Five to eight repetitions per set and three to five sets per exercise are plenty. To ensure shoulder health and balanced development, perform one set of rows or chin-ups for every set of pressing movements.
Conditioning
Conditioning not only helps you recover from training and burn fat, it also helps improve your tolerance for training volume. Do bodyweight conditioning exercises such as push ups and jumping jacks. On your conditioning days, which should be separate from your lifting days, your goal is to help yourself recover, not to wear yourself out, so start slowly.
References
- "Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise"; Biomechanics of the Knee During Closed Kinetic Chain and Open Kinetic Chain Exercises; Rafael F. Escamilla et al.; April 1998
- "Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise"; A Three-dimensional Biomechanical Analysis of Sumo and Conventional Style Deadlifts; July 2000.
- "Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research"; Changes in Bone Mineral Density in Response to 24 Weeks of Resistance Training in College-age Men and Women; Harold C.Almstedt et al., July 2010.
- "Fiziol Cheloveka"; Acute Testosterone and Cortisol Responses to High Power Resistance Exercise. Andrew C. Fry and Charles A. Lohnes; July-August 2010.
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