Importance of Active and Passive Recovery for Firefighters

Firefighters are athletes. Taking care of ourselves means not just getting evaluated by our primary care or department physician but truly embracing a healthy lifestyle. Being able understand your body and prepare your body is equally, if not more, important to ensure our personal protective equipment is in check, self-contained breathing apparatus bottles are topped off, and the apparatus is in working order. The rigors and demands of the job place a toll on our physical and mental well-being, and it is vital we prepare our body and mind for the work potentially ahead of us, not just for one shift or call but for an entire career.

Active Recovery

Active recovery is beneficial to the body and may help us recover faster after difficult workouts or strenuous activity. I recommend that this type of recovery be on shift day or the day before or after to allow the body to recuperate from any physical activity performed on off days and to provide your body with some type of active, low-intensity recovery during shift, so your body does not go into complete relaxation mode while on call. Limit active recovery exertion to no more than 75% of your typical workout level. The 75% level is just enough to keep the muscles warm and not enough to induce muscle fatigue.

Before we outline a few methods to perform active recovery, here are some of the benefits it provides.

• Reduction of lactic acid buildup in muscles.

• Elimination of toxins.

• Helps keep muscles flexible.

• Reduction of soreness.

• Increase in blood flow.

• Helps keep an exercise routine.

• Release of endorphins usually associated with regular exercise.

Here are a few methods of active recovery that are simple, yet highly effective:

• Walking

• Swimming

• Cycling

• Stretching

Passive Recovery

Passive recovery is a type of recovery that entails resting for considerable periods of time after strenuous activity. Unlike active recovery, with this type of recovery, your body is allowed total undisturbed rest to repair muscle damage and recuperate.

Proper passive recuperation is necessary for firefighters who are sick, are injured, or need physical and mental relaxation. For firefighters, rest is highly important and needed to perform at an optimal level. Rest has physiological and psychological benefits.

A healthy and optimal life is all about finding the right balance. From a 24-hour shift to 48 hours off in most cases, it is critical to take a day in between every now and then to relax and balance out the body.

By allowing the body to rest and avoid weariness of the muscles, it is allowing the body’s glycogen stores to refill, therefore attributing to the enhancement in muscle recovery. While exercise depletes your body’s energy stores or muscle glycogen, leading to muscular tissue breakdown, adequate rest helps your body correct this problem by restoring muscle glycogen, balancing blood flow, and rebuilding damaged tissue.

 Here are a few methods of passive recovery that are simple, yet highly effective:

•  Sleep

•  Rest

•  Hydration

•  Massage Therapy

•  How to Use Recovery in Your Regimen

Adding active recovery into your training sessions can be done in two methods, and both are greatly beneficial to your recovery. The first is to add it into your current training session as soon as it has been completed, as a cool-down approach. This is where you will allow your body to ease itself out of your workout, allowing your heart rate and breathing to return to their normal states and reducing the amount of lactate in your blood. The lactate in your blood is an organic acid made by tissue and red blood cells in your muscles, which is what causes the muscle burn felt during exercise. This is the same approach as if you were driving your car and approaching a red light. Instead of slamming on the brakes to make the stop, you gently ease on the brakes for a gradual stop at the light. This same method applies to cooling down after a workout with respect to your heart rate and breathing, by going for a light walk or jog or adding in some dynamic and static stretches and yoga poses. The other option for active recovery is to incorporate this as a full active recovery day and implement the methods listed above as active recovery for the day, through swimming, walking, or yoga to name a few.

Both forms of recovery are crucial within your training cycle regimen to allow your body to find its balance repeatedly as you progress in your training. I highly recommend incorporating cool-down recovery, especially after high-intensity workouts and after fireground training sessions, for optimal recovery of the heart and body with at least one recovery day (active and passive) each week for maximum recovery and performance. In the end, listen to your body and what it is telling you. After all, it is the only place we truly have to live.

This article is also posted Importance of Active and Passive Recovery for Firefighters — Africa Fire Mission

Until next time - work hard, stay safe & live inspired.

Yoga and Strength Training for Firefighters

It's great to get a good strength training session in while off duty or with the crew during shift if you have access to weight training equipment at your station. Slinging around some iron with the crew is also a fun way to build a stronger bond, collaborate and have some friendly competitions going set for set. Yet with all this strength training, we still need time to work on some mobility training because after all, we're functional athletes and without being mobile how could we hit our peak performance on the fire ground?

I mentioned in past articles and in my book, "The 5-Tool Firefighter" that yoga is a great for active recovery but in this article I want to list out a few reasons as to why yoga is great for firefighters with respect to strength training.

Benefit 1 - Decompression

From the PPE and SCBA on your back to the various tasks of raising ladders, pulling hose and carrying heavy tools, your joints and tissue are under a tremendous amount of pressure. Let us not forget the amount of mental stress our bodies experience as well due to how we interpret and experience traumas on the job. The soft tissues in your body serve as a buffer so the hard tissues such as your bones could stay rigid and support without grinding against each other (think of having no meniscus in your knee).

After the soft tissue in your body has been put under pressure, unlike a stress ball, this tissue will not return to its natural neutral state without an equally decompressive movement is done to pull the tension out. By working on decompressive movements, you are enabling these connective and supportive tissues to remain a healthy essential party of your body. By not doing so, the tension that has built up in the soft tissue will restrict blood flow that is crucial for healing and nutrient delivery. 

Benefit 2 - Alignment

In yoga there is no barbells, no kettlebells, nothing. It is simply your body. Granted many of us love moving heavy weight around because in this job, we need to be able to move heavy things. However, in yoga many of the forms being done all work around the fundamental alignment and engagement that is essential to strength training and operating on the fire ground especially since they require you to engage your core.

By engaging in the fundamental movements of yoga will help lead to a higher sense of awareness of your body structure and efficiency which could be directly translated to operating on the fire ground and the functional movements required to work on the job.  

Benefit 3 - Sweat Equity

We all walk away from an incident a little beat up at times. Heck, even after a live fire or high intensity training sessions on heavy recue training or extrication training (to many a few) will leave you a little sore. All training contains some residual damage to our muscular system especially when we add extra weight to our bodies. But after a few days, this damage hopefully repairs itself. To speed this process up a little bit and help the damaged tissue heal, we need to add fluids into our bodies.

Think about it like this, the more water we drink , the more we pee it out or sweat it out, the faster the fluid flows through the tissues of our body. 

If you've ever been to a yoga studio you've probably noticed it is relatively hotter during a yoga sessions and for a very good reason. Yoga classes encourage sweating. Why?

The heated environment in the studio helps the soft tissues mobilize therefore allowing your body to go deeper into the poses. Remember, an equal opposing force to the tension will begin to release the tension on the tissue.

If you're feeling sore, tight or as though there's been a lot of tension on your joints and muscles, take 30 minutes to an hour and work on some yoga poses to help the body lose and primed. You want to stay ready to you don't have to get ready.

Until next time, work hard, stay safe & live inspired.

Benefits of the Kettlebell Swing

Most of our time today is spent in front of a device - TV, smartphone, tablet, you name it. Sure, we can be utilizing these devices to better ourselves but in that same respect they are doing us harm, especially with our posture. Smartphones cause our chests to cave in and sitting at a laptop or a tablet on a desk allow our hip flexor muscles to shorten. During all of this, our muscles on the back of our body become overstretched and weak and our muscles on the front side become overworked and tight. This then causes a muscle imbalance in our body causing our physical performance to decrease.

This type of muscle imbalance can also impact our breathing capacity and as firefighters, how we breath and our ability to have maximum lung capacity is highly important to us especially when under moments of stress (ie. SCBA in an IDLH atmosphere). Due to this muscle imbalance our lungs compress causing us to take short, shallow breaths rather than deep, long breaths into our belly. This type of breathing - deep, long breaths into our bellies - is what we were naturally born to do yet over time from how we sit, stand and utilize our bodies has altered our natural breathing technique.

As firefighters, it is incredibly important our posture is strong on BOTH SIDE of our bodies -  the anterior (front) and posterior (back). By correcting any imbalances and strengthening both sides of the body, we are developing ourselves into strong, battle ready firefighters. Strength on both chains allow for a better ability to wear an SCBA and perform our tasks with it on. Pulling hoselines, raising and climbing ground ladders more effectively also benefit from a strong anterior and posterior chain. The days of a big chest and biceps are long gone and the days of a fully developed, well-conditioned firefighter is the name of the game.

Here is ONE exercise and yes I said one, that will help strengthen the anterior and posterior chains, keep your conditioned and more athletic overall. This exercise is the kettlebell swing.

Here's 6 tremendous benefits of the kettlebell swing and why I use this exercise every week in some fashion.

1. Better Posture. The swing strengthens all of the major muscles on the back side of the body due to the various movements of the upper and lower back and hips. The stronger our posterior chain is, the better our shoulders and hips stay in better alignment and helps prevent injury.

2. Conditioning. Although this is a "strength training" exercise, with high number of reps the kettlebell swing can kill two bird with one stone - strength and cardio. Seeing how many reps of the swing could be performed in one minute is an example of both strength and conditioning.

3. Core Strength. I cannot say this enough, core strength is what holds everything else together for top optimal performance. The core muscles job is to protect the spine from outside forces that try to bend it out of shape. Think about trying to lift a victim out of a window, our core muscles are working to not only help us lift the victim but also protect the spine from a heavy force pushing down on to it. By performing kettlebell swings, it teaches the body to remain strong while the spine is in motion moving into ranges that could be dangerous to the body if not performed correctly or a lack of core strength. Start light and start slow.

4. Power. Forcing a door with the iron takes explosive hip extensions for solid strikes from the axe to the halligan. Swings in a sense will mimic those movements by slowing down when bringing the kettlebell back through the legs and quickly bursting with power through the hips when swinging the kettlebell back up.

5. Grip. Simply holding on to the kettlebell handle and keeping it locked into your hands while swinging it will increase grip strength. Again, grip strength plays a role in utilizing all tools on the fire ground, from cutting a vent hole with a saw to forcing doors to performing an extrication. All require a solid grip on a heavy object while in motion.

6. Go ANYWHERE. It's one kettlebell of cast iron or of sand if you're using a Brute Force Kettlebell. Swings can be done at home, in a park, at the gym or even on shift at the firehouse. Takes up little room and little time to perform a few swings.

If you want to strengthen your entire body, develop explosive power and help reduce the risk of injury implement kettlebell swings into your regimen. Start off slow with a light kettlebell and increase the weight as you develop comfortability in the exercise. Don't forget to get creative as you grow and add in alternating or one-handed swings for unilateral training as well.

Here's a quick video on how to perform the proper kettlebell swing: Mastering the Kettlebell Swing | John Wolf - YouTube

Until next time,  work hard, stay safe & live inspired.

Benefits of Stretching

Unlike athletes firefighters and other first responders don't know when "game time" will be. It could be at 7am or it could be at 11pm but in any case we need to ensure we are at our best when the alarm goes off. As we know, we cannot predict when runs will come in and when they won't but preparation of our bodies before and during shift is just as equally as important as preparing our gear, tools and apparatus. Further, being able to wind down after runs is just as important as preparing for the shift and the potential call volume. This will help prepare the mind and body for work.

So where am I going with this?

I'm going with a focus on stretching. That's right. Stretching.

Stretching, even a short routine, added to your daily routine is a great benefit for overall health and wellness and pays off large dividends. It could be used as a pre-workout or a post-workout routine or both. Stretching can help unwind and release tension after a hectic day or even a long duration run as well as assist in increasing energy levels.

Here are some health benefits to stretching that help can keep you on the path for a long shift in the firehouse and overall better health.

1. Improves flexibility and agility which is important for all firefighters
2. Helps keep a decreased resting heart rate. A health heart is vital for all firefighters
3. Increases the circulation of blood and oxygen to the muscles
4. Helps remove waste from tissues such as lactic acid which is built up during intense exercise. Sometimes causing painful, sore muscles.
5. Helps prevent injuries
6. Increases overall mood and well-being.

Stretching at its best could be used a form of exercise for the body and mind. Keep in mind to only stretch as far as your current level of flexibility and over time the range of motion will gradually increase.

6 Stretches to do everyday to help improve flexibility, blood circulating, oxygen levels, relieve stress and tension. Do all 6, three times for 15-30 seconds each.

1. Quadricep stretch

2. Hamstring stretch

3. Calf raise

4. Spinal twist

5. Kneeling hip-flexor

6. Chest opener

Always remember, before beginning any type of exercise program to consult with your primary physician first.

Side note: As per the 2018 NFPA Journal on firefighter injuries, there was an estimated 58K plus injuries estimated in 2018 and also the lowest since the NFPA has been analyzing this data in 1981. In this report it was noted that the major type of injury during fire ground operations were strains and sprains, which accounted for 38% of all injuries while it accounted for 59% of all non-fire ground injuries.

Until next time; work hard, stay safe & live inspired.

Avoid Exhaustion through Healthy Eating

Exhaustion and burn out are common in all jobs. It's inevitable not to feel exhausted or burnt out from time to time and that's OK. Exhaustion can begin long before the end of shift or the end of your day. Again, that too is OK. When thinking about it and looking at the cause, is it because of the workload? Personal issues? Health? Let's look at the latter. 

As they say, "you are what you eat" and that is in fact true. We can work out all we want. We can lift weights, do bodyweight exercises, cardio, train in our PPE and still feel burnt out and exhausted. Why is that? Simply, it's our nutrition. What we eat has a direct relation to our energy levels and our diet plays a large role in how we produce energy to function through our day.

If in doubt, ask yourselves these 2 questions: 

1. Do I have the right amounts of food in my diet?

2. Am I consuming a diet filled with enough nutrients?

By choosing the right nutrients to consumer in our diets will greatly impact how we maintain and keep energized throughout the day.

Nutrient Dense Foods

Focus on consuming lean meats, whole grains, healthy fats, and lots of fruits and vegetables. Two key nutrients known to help the body produce energy are Magnesium (also good for headaches) and vitamin B. These 2 nutrients can be found in foods such as spinach, avocados, and bananas.

Regularly Eating

Eating small meals every 3-4 hours (if possible) will help in fueling our metabolism and keeping you energized and full.

It starts with Breakfast

Having a nutritious breakfast consisting of healthy proteins (eggs, chicken, almonds, lean meats, etc.), complex carbs (longer to breakdown and provides lasting energy levels such as oats and wheat) with some fruits and vegetables will fuel your body and mind to begin your day properly.

Smart Snacking

Snacking is good if it's done wisely. Nutritious snacking should contain lean protein and fiber-rich carbohydrates to provide lasting energy. Have an apple, nuts, seeds, carrots, or low fat Greek yogurt. Snacks are not intended to fill you up, but to simply bridge the gap from one meal to the next while keeping you energized.

Hydrate

When we feel like we need energy, it's easy to pick up and energy drink or coffee. However, most caffeinated drinks are filled with added sugars which could cause a spike in blood sugar levels and add to a mid-late day crash. Further, dehydration plays a role in fatigue and exhaustion. Swap in the sugary drinks for water and eliminate the added sugars and unwanted/needed calories.

Keys to Hydrations

Hydration varies from person to person. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine determined that an adequate daily fluid intake is:

About 15.5 cups (3.7 liters) of fluids for men

About 11.5 cups (2.7 liters) of fluids a day for women

These recommendations cover fluids from water, other beverages and food. About 20 percent of daily fluid intake usually comes from food and the rest from drinks. Remember, proper nutrition throughout the day will assist in daily hydration. Some examples of foods for hydration are watermelon & spinach (almost 100% water by weight)cucumber, broths/soups and herbal teas to name a few.

The next time you're in need of a boost or a quick pick me up consider the options mentioned above on shift or at home. The more nutritious foods we put in our bodies the better we are able to perform.  Stay ready instead of have to get ready. It starts with you. 

Until next time; work hard, stay safe & live inspired.

Dedication and Commitment

In order to be in the fire service, each person needs to have a level of dedication to the job and a level of respect for the job. A few years while training in marital arts I had the opportunity to train with a professional MMA fighter, who at the time was in the UFC. Currently, this fighter who I won't mention is now retired from active competition. During this time, I would only train on the techniques while at school I trained at 3 days a week. That was until I met and trained with this pro fighter who did train with former UFC Middleweight and Welterweight Champion Georges St. Pierre. While training with him, I learned tons of techniques, gain valuable tips and other tidbits of information I could use in competitions and also in other facets of my life especially as a firefighter. Along with the information he shared, he asked me one question. "How would I train if no one was watching?" He went on further to say, because we all want to put on a show when the cameras are on us. After that conversation, those words had me reevaluate my training to see if I had that same level of enthusiasm and dedication as I did when I was training by myself or with other people outside the MMA gym and off the baseball field. To be honest, it wasn't as fulfilling and once our training was over, that question changed my course and enhanced my personal wellbeing and dedication to my crafts. 

Why am I telling this story? Because just as a professional athlete will train with or without an audience, us too as firefighter should train. 

This fighter made mention that no matter where he was training he dedicated himself 100% each time he was in there. It didn't matter if the coaches were around or he was alone, he made sure it was everything he had for that session. Cellphones, selfies and social media were nonexistent to him while he was training and for obviously reasons, the work paid off and never took any of it for granted.

Since those training sessions, I took that advise and used it for myself as a firefighter and would like to share them with you. 

Dedicate yourself to the job in the firehouseand also when out of the firehouse. Utilize as many resources as you could to better yourself as a firefighter. Do not just attend certification courses at a fire academy but also read educational books (which my book shelf is now loaded with), understand the changes in the service and how you could adapt to them. To go even further, attend fire service conferences with or without departmental funding so you could attend seminars, see new advancements and network. Networking pay huge dividends when it comes to advancing yourself and gaining wealth's of knowledge from fire service leaders. Also, read and stay on top of NIOSH reports in order to understand the line of duty deaths and the findings reported after the investigations. Make your body your machine and develop a healthy lifestyle through physical and mental fitness along with proper nutrition for an optimal lifestyle worthy of the functionally fit firefighter. Always ask yourself, would you want YOU rescuing YOU? 

Fire doesn't care of your status, career, part time, per diem or volunteer so why should you train yourself as if it's a job I just need to get through to retirement or a volunteer gig I do as a hobby?

Think about why you started with in the first place. What made you sign up for this?

To be successful and dedicated to the fire service it takes hundreds of thousands of hours of dedication and commitment to the books, in the gym, in the firehouse and on your own time to be a battle ready, battled tested firefighter. The time to prepare isn't when the bell rings because then it's too late. To be battle ready is to always stay battle ready. 

Until next time; work hard, stay safe & live inspired.

About the Author

NICHOLAS J. HIGGINS is a firefighter with 17 years in the fire service in Piscataway, NJ, a NJ State certified level 2 fire instructor, a State of New Jersey Advocate for the National Fallen Firefighter’s Foundation and is the founder/contributor of the Firehouse Tribune website. A martial arts practitioner and former collegiate athlete in baseball, Nick is also a National Exercise & Sports Trainer Association Battle Ropes Instructor, Functional Fitness Instructor and Nutrition Coach.  He holds a B.S. in Accounting from Kean University, and a A.A.S in Liberal Arts - Business from Middlesex County College. Nick has spoken at the 2017 & 2018 Firehouse Expo in Nashville, TN as well as at numerous fire departments within NJ and fire service podcasts.

Too much of anything isn’t a good thing. Why rest & recovery are beneficial to firefighters

​As the old saying goes, "too much of anything isn't a good thing". In the case of firefighting, whether it be running calls, fire service skills training, fitness training for the fire service, reading or anything we do to prepare ourselves mentally and physically for the job warrants down time. Just as important is our physical preparation for the job but so is rest and recovery as equally as important. Each time we walk into the firehouse, step into the apparatus, gear up and answer the call, we are putting are bodies and minds through physical and mental exhaustion that will require rest and recovery.

Our minds need some rest to recover and also to assist with setting the right mindset to take all of these challenge's along with whatever life has in store for us. Our bodies need recovery to rebuild and strengthen our muscles and replenish energy stores in preparation for the next day's works. As we've been told many of times, firefighters are athletes and should treat themselves as such. By considering ourselves athletes, we need to know when training is becoming too much and if overtraining has occurred.

Overtraining occurs when the body has not had enough rest to recover between training session of any kind and finding the right balance between rest and work is highly important especially when the demand of the job is critical for everyone involved.

So how do you know when rest is warranted and overtraining has occurred?

1. Mentally and physically drained and sluggish

2. Muscle and joint soreness or pain

3. Decline in performance

4. Insomnia

5. Headaches

6. Lack or loss of enthusiasm

Now, here are 5 ways to rest, recover and prepare for optimal performance in and out of the firehouse.

1. Active recovery: active recovery activities, such as walking, swimming and yoga depend on the current level of fitness, fitness goals and training intensity when determining how intense these activities should be. Active recovery exertion however, should be limited to no more than 75% of typical workout level — just enough to warm up muscles, but not enough to induce fatigue. Further, active recovery is meant to complete a lower impact workout than your regular intensity. By doing so, it helps to lower heart rate, improves form and releases the endorphins usually associated with regular exercise.

2. Foam roller: rolling increases blood flow to the muscles and decreases recovery time. It could. also improve your range of motion and decrease risk of injury.

3. Stretching: Stretching will assist to increase range of motion and help to improve blood flow to muscles, which stimulates healing. A bonus to stretch is that it’s a great way to relieve stress.

4. Mindful meditation: Meditation, such as quiet relaxation and yoga, will help to decrease anxiety, improve emotional stability and decrease stress.

5. Sleep: This is critical for muscle recovery and overall performance. Most athletes (yes, we are functional athletes) need 7 to 10 hours.

The next time you’re feeling exhausted and overworked, try 1 or a few of these tips to recover and get back on the course stronger and ready to get after it.

Until next time; work hard, stay safe & live inspired.​

About the Author 

​NICHOLAS J. HIGGINS is a firefighter with 17 years in the fire service in Piscataway, NJ, a NJ State certified level 2 fire instructor, a State of New Jersey Advocate for the National Fallen Firefighter’s Foundation and is the founder/contributor of the Firehouse Tribune website. A martial arts practitioner and former collegiate athlete in baseball, Nick is also a National Exercise & Sports Trainer Association Battle Ropes Instructor, Functional Fitness Instructor and Nutrition Coach. He holds a B.S. in Accounting from Kean University, and a A.A.S in Liberal Arts - Business from Middlesex County College. Nick has spoken at the 2017 & 2018 Firehouse Expo in Nashville, TN as well as at numerous fire departments within NJ and fire service podcasts.

Our Christmas Message

As we gather around the table with family and friends this holiday season, let us all remember those who are unable to be home for the holidays. Let us also remember to keep focusing on our goals, to keep training hard and keep staying true to our mission. It’s easy to stray from it all during the holidays but it’s also a time to keep the motivation going as you’re all surrounded by family and friends. 

From all of us here at The Firehouse Tribune, Nick H, Sean, Nick B, Dave & Nick W, have a very Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays! See you all in 2019.  

Until Next Time; Work Hard, Stay Safe & Live Inspired. 

- FHTribune Staff