specific strengths?

[bradikoff]

Hello, looking for some assistance. I am a relatively new volunteer, and know that increasing my physical strength would be a great benefit. My cardio is already well above average. Does anyone have any suggestions for types of workouts, or specific muscles that get worked most often? I have a good total-body workout, for general well-being, I'm just looking for something a little more oriented to fire fighting.

Thanks in advance for the assistance

Brad

[firecadet911]

Hi Brad!

The Calgary Fire Department has downloadable documents with step-by-step exercises to improve your strength for firefighting tasks. Check out http:\\www.calgaryfire.ca and click on the recruitment link. From there, click on the recruit training link and there will be a bar on your right-hand-side with the documents.

Hope this helps! Take care, stay safe, and good luck!

[scooter_13]

hey brad
as long as you stick to a certain program whatever that might be, working all muscles you will do just fine.ithink the key is the cardio and if you have the cardio you just need the strenght and like i said that comes when you get yourself into a routine.i know that's worked with me.

[FFWannabe]

Hi Brad,

I was working with a coach to improve my strength before doing the CPAT and he set me up with a job related strength building program. I was doing weights twice a week, full body... bench press, seated row, leg press, dead lifts, snatch squats, bicep curls, shoulder press, hip extensions (cable kick backs) and ab work. I also was cycling three days per week, two moderate exersion and one day of intervals; running three days a week, one moderate exersion, one intervals and one threshold run (hard as possible that is sustainable for 20-30 minutes) with a 30 minute cool-down. One more thing I did was a stair workout twice a week, I went up and down one flight of stairs (did not have access to more consecutive flights) for 3.5-4 minutes as hard as I could go, rest for 2 minutes and then repeated to a total of 5 times.

I lost a total of app 17 pounds of fat and gained about 5-6 lbs of muscle in three months (normal muscle mass gain over a year is 5-8 lbs for lifters). It was a great program, worked me hard, but I gained a lot of strength and size! The strength training program was heavy, heavy weights and, low reps, 4-5 sets. I was very successful with this.

Here's a link to another really tough workout. Take a look at the 21 day plan. This woman is amazing, I watched her destroy the world record at the World Combat Challenge in November here in Ottawa. She's a powerhouse!

Fire Jock 21 day plan (http://www.firejock.com)

Take care,
Sue