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View our Police Officer Fitness & Performance Initiative flyer here.

View our Firefighter Fitness & Performance Initiative flyer here.

See Unicus in the news for their Firefighter Fitness & Performance Initiative program here.

The federal government has been tracking both the mortality rate and workers compensation claims for America’s firefighters for over the last 30 years. Statistics have shown an increase in the mortality rate during the last decade, and workers comprehension claims have tripled in that same time. Most interestingly, according to the statistics, heart attack is still the #1 cause of mortality, while low back injury tops the list for workers compensation claims!

Millions of dollars are spent each year on equipment designed to protect and help firefighters do their jobs, but not much is done to improve the bodies using this expensive equipment. Some fire departments have spent thousands of dollars on workout equipment, but it lies there unused, or at best, underused. What needs to be done is a mind set change, or rather, a culture change. Firefighters conduct a job that taxes every major energy system in their body during an average call. This puts them in comparison to professional athletes, whose job is to tax the major energy systems of their bodies to perform their job (sport). Therefore, as one of the most important professional “athletes” America has, more care must be given to develop and protect the most crucial piece of equipment firefighters have; their bodies. Unfortunately, this is not being done and the statistics speak volumes. The fire isn’t killing the firemen as much as heart disease. Heart disease is a lifestyle related disease caused by a lack of progressive exercise and poor nutritional choices. Low back injury has also been shown to be prevented by simple muscle development exercises, ones that take only minutes a day to perform. There are several inexpensive solutions to these costly health problems that are truly more beneficial than even the best exercise equipment.

However, one of the main challenges lies in changing the belief that the job gets people in shape. This is like saying let war prepare our soldiers for battle. If you wait for the job to get you in shape, you are going to have a miserable time performing that job. And in the firefighters case, this could end up costing them their life. The stakes are too high to not be as fully prepared as possible; fire suits and hoses not withstanding.

So what can be done now? UNICUS Performance Training has prepared a Firefighter Fitness and Performance Initiative involving the following 3 tiered plan.

1) Complete Fitness Assessments

2) Group Job Enhancement Training (Special Ops Boot Camp)

3) Healthy Back Program

The overall goals of the 3 tiered approach are to improve the quality of job performance of the firefighter, decrease the amount of worker’s comp claims, as well as, decrease the amount of work days lost to injury. Most importantly, UNICUS is dedicated to help decrease the mortality rate of the firefighter by improving the health and fitness of each individual firefighter.