Passion

After nearly 10 years of working with firefighters around the country, I have decided to start this forum for my fellow firefighters. My passion for reducing on and off the job injuries WHILE increasing performance in the culture of firefighting has allowed myself and a few others to develop a world class program at EXOS (Formerly Athletes' Performance). We have had the privilege of helping fire departments across the country in educating their brothers and sisters on sustainable strategies to get healthy and stay healthy. Our goal is to allow all members the ability to enjoy a long career and a great, healthy retirement. On the far end of the spectrum is our ability to educate others on ways to improve cardiovascular fitness, with the goal of preventing line of duty deaths due to cardiac arrest. We have used proven systems at EXOS for over 15 years to train some of the top athletes in the world and now it is time to spread all of this knowledge into the fire service having a true global impact. We are not in this for ourselves, rather we are in this because we so strongly believe in this system and will not rest until we have educated all those whom will listen. We believe every fire department should have the opportunity to have the resources that are afforded to professional athletes, guiding the culture of fitness in the fire service to a new and exciting direction. We are firefighters, We are EXOS.

For more information on what EXOS is and who we work with visit athletesperformance.com

Who am I?

My name is Ben Dubin and I am a Firefighter/Paramedic with Colorado Springs Fire Department. I have been with the department for a little of 2.5 years and am currently assigned to Station 6 on the A shift. Prior to coming out to CSFD, I worked for Tempe Fire Department as a Civilian Paramedic, supporting Tempe Fire's mission and responding to 911 calls in M276.
My strength and conditioning background started as a young athlete, playing baseball in Arizona. My senior year I was fortunate to train as an athlete with Athletes' Performance located in Tempe, AZ. That began my introduction to a performance based lifestyle that has stuck with me to today. The system that I learned over 15 years ago is a system that I am passionate about and one that I truly believe can have a major impact on health and wellness in the culture of the fire service. After playing baseball for a few years in college I finished my degree at Arizona State University earning a B.S. in Exercise Science. Soon after graduating, I began working as a Performance Specialist for Athletes' Performance (part one of my dream job). I have worked with professional athletes from all sports and have learned a wealth of information for my very talented co-workers. While I was there I developed a passion for the fire service and began testing for various departments. Throughout my testing, I developed strong relationships with several firefighters, allowing me to better understand the culture I was attempting to get into. During this time I saw a trend of firefighters getting hurt and ever more tragic, killed in the line of duty due to medical related issues. I thought to myself, "there has to be something more we can be doing to support these men and women". The Firefighter Performance Mentorship was created! With the help of John Metzger (Captain/Paramedic, Sun City Fire Department), we began to bridge the gap between the world of strength and conditioning with the culture of the fire service. We have been fortunate to work with hundreds of firefighters and several different departments over the years.
In February of 2013 I received an email from a department I had recently tested with. I was being offered a position as a Firefighter Recruit with CSFD (part two of the dream job). 2.5 years later, here we are today. My passion for both being a Firefighter and a Performance Specialist are as strong as ever. My passion for educating all first responders on the EXOS system to create sustainable solutions is as strong as ever. This is meant to be an open space where anyone can communicate what they are doing with their respective department as well as see how EXOS has changed so many Firefighters lives. Brothers and Sisters, we are all in this together. Our goal should be no injuries and absolutely NO line of duty deaths due to a preventable cause. We are a family and I am tired of seeing my family members get hurt and killed.