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Fitness, Wellness, Injury Rehabilitation and Prevention
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This group will be used to promote fitness and wellness among firefighters to prevent injuries and deal with the rehabilitation of the injuried firefighter.
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Your Fitness, Wellness, Injury Rehabilitation and Prevention Box
Preventive Medicine Column
August 10, 2008
Exercise 101
The Olympics are under way, and all thoughts turn to exercise. Well, at least to watching other people get some!
The health benefits of regular physical activity are legion. Routine exercise is associated with a reduced risk of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, stroke, high blood pressure, and even infection. Mountains of research evidence make it clear that exercise can both add years to life, and life to years. In the Diabetes Prevention Program, habitual, moderate physical activity was part of a simple lifestyle formula that slashed the occurrence of diabetes in high-risk individuals by nearly 60%.
Exercise is important in almost any successful weight loss effort, and even more important in maintaining weight loss for the long haul. In the National Weight Control Registry, our best source of information about long term maintenance of weight loss, everyone is physically active.
But exercise, and the fitness that results from it, protect against many of the adverse effects of obesity independently of effects on weight. This has resulted in one of the more persistent and contentious debates in the obesity field: the relative importance of fitness versus fatness.
Some proponents of the benefits of physical activity have argued that being fit is good for health no matter what one weighs. Fitness, they say, trumps fatness when it comes to health benefits.
The reality, however, is much more congruent with common sense. Most people who exercise routinely enough to be fit are thinner than most people who don’t. In the real world, those people who manage to be thin but not at all fit are rather rare, and often are both thin and unfit because of health problems. Those who manage to be fit without winding up at least relatively thin are even rarer.
Studies at the Harvard School of Public Health have shown that both fitness and fatness matter with regard to key health outcomes. As one would predict, lean and fit is associated with the best outcomes of all; followed by fit but not lean, then lean but not fit, and finally, neither lean nor fit. The first and last of these groups tend to be far more populous than the middle two because fitness and unfatness go together, as do fatness and unfitness.
The powerful benefits of physical activity do not come free of risk. Physical exertion that protects us from heart disease can also be the precipitant of a heart attack. A brief exploration of what happens to the body, and the heart, during exercise resolves this apparent paradox.
Working muscles need extra fuel, and in particular, extra oxygen. To deliver these, respiratory rate and chest excursion both increase, ramping up oxygen delivery to the blood by three-fold or more. Delivery of that oxygen to cells increases with the volume and frequency of heart beats, known as cardiac output. This can increase by more than four-fold.
But the heart itself is a working muscle, and it, too, needs more oxygen when its work increases. The heart can only deliver oxygen to itself when heart muscle is relaxed, the span between heart beats known as diastole. See the problem? As heart rate goes up, the time between beats quickly dwindles. The heart has less and less time to get oxygen to itself just when its oxygen requirements are rising! The poets were more right than they knew in choosing the heart as a symbol of courage, honor, and selfless devotion.
When the coronary arteries that supply the heart are healthy and unobstructed, the heart can get enough oxygen during even extreme exertion. Not so if those arteries are partly occluded by atherosclerotic plaque. Reduced blood flow can lead to a painful deficit of oxygen, known as angina. If the increased force of blood flow causes the plaque to rupture, a heart attack ensues. So while exercise is vital to good health, being healthy is important for a body to tolerate the stresses of exercise. This is why those at risk of heart disease should confer with their doctor before starting any exercise.
In the case of Olympic athletes, the stresses of exercise are extreme and not necessarily optimal for health. Extremes of exertion are an obvious risk for injury, but also suppress the immune system, increasing the risk for infections, and perhaps even cancer over time. The powerful effects of extreme exertion on the body are on display in the varied physiques of the athletes; exercise literally sculpts the bodies of swimmers to all look like swimmers, gymnasts to look like gymnasts, and so on.
The recent trend in physical activity research has been to demonstrate how routine daily activity can confer health benefits. In other words, we don’t need to make the Olympic team for physical activity to be a major factor in our life, and our health. Moderate activity for at least 30 minutes over the course of most days will do the trick.
So enjoy the spectacle of the Olympics from your favorite perch. But honor the spirit of the Games- and get off the couch from time to time.
-fin
Dr. David L. Katz; www.davidkatzmd.com
The Squat
Form:
• Begin by standing with your feet slightly wider then shoulder width apart. Extend the arms out so they are parallel to the ground. As you squat down extend the hips and buttocks towards the wall behind you, without the knees over extending the toes. Maintaining a tight core and a slight inward curve of the lower back. The feet should be firmly planted on the ground with the emphasis of body weight being on the heels. While maintaining good posture retracting the shoulders by squeezing the shoulder blades together. As well as keeping the head in a neutral position. At the end of the movement the thighs should be parallel to the ground. To rise to the standing position drive the heels into the ground focusing on using the glutes.
High Rise Pack
• Once the body weight squat becomes easy, resistance is needed. In the firehouse you can utilize a high rise pack for resistance. Place the high rise pack over your shoulders, equalizing the weight distribution. Perform the squat movement as described above.
High Rise Pack Left/Right Shoulder
• To increase the resistance and trunk stabilization, place the high rise pack over the left shoulder and perform the squat movement as described above for 5 repetitions. Then switch the high rise pack over to the right shoulder and perform 5 more repetitions. Maintaining strong core stabilization so the hips and shoulders stay square to the wall in front of you.
This can also be performed with a rolled hose pack.
Before starting any new exercise program you should check with your medical doctor to make sure the exercise is safe for you to perform. If at anytime you experience any pain or discomfort while performing an exercise you should stop the exercise and not resume untill properly instructed by a training professional.
August 10, 2008
Exercise 101
The Olympics are under way, and all thoughts turn to exercise. Well, at least to watching other people get some!
The health benefits of regular physical activity are legion. Routine exercise is associated with a reduced risk of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, stroke, high blood pressure, and even infection. Mountains of research evidence make it clear that exercise can both add years to life, and life to years. In the Diabetes Prevention Program, habitual, moderate physical activity was part of a simple lifestyle formula that slashed the occurrence of diabetes in high-risk individuals by nearly 60%.
Exercise is important in almost any successful weight loss effort, and even more important in maintaining weight loss for the long haul. In the National Weight Control Registry, our best source of information about long term maintenance of weight loss, everyone is physically active.
But exercise, and the fitness that results from it, protect against many of the adverse effects of obesity independently of effects on weight. This has resulted in one of the more persistent and contentious debates in the obesity field: the relative importance of fitness versus fatness.
Some proponents of the benefits of physical activity have argued that being fit is good for health no matter what one weighs. Fitness, they say, trumps fatness when it comes to health benefits.
The reality, however, is much more congruent with common sense. Most people who exercise routinely enough to be fit are thinner than most people who don’t. In the real world, those people who manage to be thin but not at all fit are rather rare, and often are both thin and unfit because of health problems. Those who manage to be fit without winding up at least relatively thin are even rarer.
Studies at the Harvard School of Public Health have shown that both fitness and fatness matter with regard to key health outcomes. As one would predict, lean and fit is associated with the best outcomes of all; followed by fit but not lean, then lean but not fit, and finally, neither lean nor fit. The first and last of these groups tend to be far more populous than the middle two because fitness and unfatness go together, as do fatness and unfitness.
The powerful benefits of physical activity do not come free of risk. Physical exertion that protects us from heart disease can also be the precipitant of a heart attack. A brief exploration of what happens to the body, and the heart, during exercise resolves this apparent paradox.
Working muscles need extra fuel, and in particular, extra oxygen. To deliver these, respiratory rate and chest excursion both increase, ramping up oxygen delivery to the blood by three-fold or more. Delivery of that oxygen to cells increases with the volume and frequency of heart beats, known as cardiac output. This can increase by more than four-fold.
But the heart itself is a working muscle, and it, too, needs more oxygen when its work increases. The heart can only deliver oxygen to itself when heart muscle is relaxed, the span between heart beats known as diastole. See the problem? As heart rate goes up, the time between beats quickly dwindles. The heart has less and less time to get oxygen to itself just when its oxygen requirements are rising! The poets were more right than they knew in choosing the heart as a symbol of courage, honor, and selfless devotion.
When the coronary arteries that supply the heart are healthy and unobstructed, the heart can get enough oxygen during even extreme exertion. Not so if those arteries are partly occluded by atherosclerotic plaque. Reduced blood flow can lead to a painful deficit of oxygen, known as angina. If the increased force of blood flow causes the plaque to rupture, a heart attack ensues. So while exercise is vital to good health, being healthy is important for a body to tolerate the stresses of exercise. This is why those at risk of heart disease should confer with their doctor before starting any exercise.
In the case of Olympic athletes, the stresses of exercise are extreme and not necessarily optimal for health. Extremes of exertion are an obvious risk for injury, but also suppress the immune system, increasing the risk for infections, and perhaps even cancer over time. The powerful effects of extreme exertion on the body are on display in the varied physiques of the athletes; exercise literally sculpts the bodies of swimmers to all look like swimmers, gymnasts to look like gymnasts, and so on.
The recent trend in physical activity research has been to demonstrate how routine daily activity can confer health benefits. In other words, we don’t need to make the Olympic team for physical activity to be a major factor in our life, and our health. Moderate activity for at least 30 minutes over the course of most days will do the trick.
So enjoy the spectacle of the Olympics from your favorite perch. But honor the spirit of the Games- and get off the couch from time to time.
-fin
Dr. David L. Katz; www.davidkatzmd.com
The Squat
Form:
• Begin by standing with your feet slightly wider then shoulder width apart. Extend the arms out so they are parallel to the ground. As you squat down extend the hips and buttocks towards the wall behind you, without the knees over extending the toes. Maintaining a tight core and a slight inward curve of the lower back. The feet should be firmly planted on the ground with the emphasis of body weight being on the heels. While maintaining good posture retracting the shoulders by squeezing the shoulder blades together. As well as keeping the head in a neutral position. At the end of the movement the thighs should be parallel to the ground. To rise to the standing position drive the heels into the ground focusing on using the glutes.
High Rise Pack
• Once the body weight squat becomes easy, resistance is needed. In the firehouse you can utilize a high rise pack for resistance. Place the high rise pack over your shoulders, equalizing the weight distribution. Perform the squat movement as described above.
High Rise Pack Left/Right Shoulder
• To increase the resistance and trunk stabilization, place the high rise pack over the left shoulder and perform the squat movement as described above for 5 repetitions. Then switch the high rise pack over to the right shoulder and perform 5 more repetitions. Maintaining strong core stabilization so the hips and shoulders stay square to the wall in front of you.
This can also be performed with a rolled hose pack.
Before starting any new exercise program you should check with your medical doctor to make sure the exercise is safe for you to perform. If at anytime you experience any pain or discomfort while performing an exercise you should stop the exercise and not resume untill properly instructed by a training professional.
Discussion Forum
If you are serious about health.....
Started by Erik Hayes Feb 2, 2010.
Mandatory Cardio Fitness Training Policy 2 Replies
Started by Mark Lee. Last reply by Mark Lee Oct 26, 2009.
Kettlebells? 1 Reply
Started by Joe Pantaleo. Last reply by Joe Pantaleo Oct 9, 2009.
Comment Wall
Comment
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Comment by Jason Franklin on February 22, 2010 at 11:23pm
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Yes it is and it supports the immune system. If it does a better job in protecting me from the flu than the flu shot, I am all over it! Every call I go on exposes me to crap I do not want to take home to my family!
Don't get me wrong... nutrition is everything! Our society is killing it’s self through fast food and tv dinners. And I will choose diet and exercise over medicine any day of the week. But not all food additives/supplements are bad, and can help those who are deficient in their diets and support better health.
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Comment by Erik Hayes on February 20, 2010 at 11:19pm
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Wellmune is engineered and is a food additive/supplement.
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Except "real" food is no longer the same. What you buy at the grocery store across America is engineered and full of addidives. Even the fresh food contain less nutrients than they have in the past.
And it's not just the food that we eat and drink that cause disease in our world, Food alone can't cure the world, though I agree that it will make for a longer and better life. Healthy people die from diseases everyday... "Live Strong" needed modern medicine to survive. So I find it hard to follow you Erik.
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Me too. We have no control of stress/ sleep factor while at work, but that isn't the point. The point is we have to control the factors we can. The number one and easiest thing to do is eat real food that you can buy from every grocery store across the United States and eliminate the foods that are causing disease. I mentioned those already. There is not a medicine, drug or supplement that will win over real food. It is not ok to tell people that they will avoid disease if they don't eliminate the original cause. If someone aknowledges this fact is says, "I'll take my chances", that is personal choice and I will never argue with that. I am not going to fudge this stuff.
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And you think that is realistic? I would love to have a stress free life, but I chose the life of a firefighter.
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How about let's just eliminate the things that disrupt immunity. Refined carbohydrates, grains, legumes, dairy and "get as much sleep as you can without getting fired or divorced." Lights Out. All of this supplement stuff, food additives are ridiculous. It's like a Type II Diabetic taking Metformin or Glucophage and eating whatever they want. If you want to fix the problem, eliminate the cause. Eat meat, veggies, fat, limited fruit and enjoy your new found health and energy.
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I can't seem to beable to get the hyperlink to work, so go to www.wellmune.com and lookup their clinical research.
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What a great topic for a group. I'm looking forward to participating in some discussions. Just to throw something into the mix, How about two words Katy; Nicotine and Hyperinsulinemia, See Metabolic syndrome. Just as we talk about exercise benefits for cardiovascular disease, diabetes, High cholesterol, obesity, cancer, infection etc.. Let's educate our folks about chronically elevated insulin levels and how this wreaks havoc on our bodies and causes the same disease processes that exercise prevents. Limit with serious scrutiny sugars, grains, potatoes and corn products and other easily digestible carbohydrates.
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Comment by Katy Luetke on November 13, 2008 at 5:38am
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In the wake of this sad week for firefighters, I can't help but feel bewildered by the attitudes of some firefighters.
Two of our brothers and sisters died this week while completing routine training exercises.
While there is no evidence or even speculation that the recent deaths of FDNY-Probie Jamel Spears, 33 and Volunteer-Cecilia Turnbough, 42, for Dale City Fire-VA were in poor physical shape or that a lack of fitness in some way contributed to their death (nor am I implying that it was a factor) we must understand how taxing our job is on our bodies.
Fortunately more and more research is being done to find out exactly what happens physiologically when firefighters perform both training exercises and engage in actual emergency management and fire response.
Unfortunately, there hasn't been enough transfer of information from the researchers to the subjects. I plan on devoting a great deal of my life to this, starting now.
The first issue that I would like to discuss, because I think it may be one of the easiest to describe in terms that are understood by the non-exercise scientist is Cardiovascular Drift, also known as Cardiac Drift. I will try to keep this as simple, yet as informative as possible.
1) Cardiac Drift starts to occur in subjects that participate in prolonged aerobic exercise or in aerobic exercise in a hot environment. In this case "hot environment" encompasses the conditions surrounding structural and vehicle fire incidents or training as well as wildland firefighting.
2) Cardiac Drift is the heart's last-ditch effort to compensate for all of the physiological changes that surround elevated core temperature, and other conditions of fire fighting. Once the body has sustained 30 minutes of firefighting activities, the heart starts to lose ground and it WILL NOT catch back up until it gets to rest--or the FF's workload AND environmental temperature both decrease drastically.
The Heart's production or cardiac output starts to decline when our body needs it the most.
These physiological changes include but are not limited to:
-- A decrease in stroke volume of the heart, or the amount of blood the heart is able to pump-out in one beat.
-- A decrease in the body's overall blood volume due to profuse and persistent sweating (loss of H2O).
-- Increase in the amount of blood dedicated to the superficial areas of the body, directed there for the purpose of heat loss, cooling.
-- Also, systemic arterial blood pressure decreases, the blood that supplies all of the bodies tissues other than the heart and lungs
-- Finally, Pulmonary arterial pressure decreases, the arteries that supply the lungs with blood from the heart to be oxygenated.
3) The heart then uses its last resort. It increases your Heart Rate-- consistently and drastically until you reach your maximum heart rate, and then stays at your maximum heart rate (subtract your age from 220 beats per minute to find this 220 bpm - Age in years = Max HR) until it gets respite as described earlier.
Don't be too alarmed by this, as it does sound like a recipe for disaster! The human body is amazing and the adaptations it makes in order to facilitate situations and environments like firefighting are phenomenal.
But, one should reflect on the health of their own heart.
For instance, what type of lifestyle do you lead and how does that affect the health of your heart? When was the last time you had your Cholesterol levels checked? And finally in one word- Nicotine?
The narrowing and plaque build up of the arteries is a scary thought for anyone, much less someone who is routinely engaging in fire-fighting activities that provoke the conditions listed above.
In Closing, please be safe and commit to living a heart-healthy lifestyle for both your families and brothers and sisters in the fire service. What better gift could you give your family around the holidays than committing to be healthy and prolong your life with the people you love.
To the families of our recent fallen firefighters, my thoughts and prayers are with you.
~Katy Luetke
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