The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) standard 1583, Standard on Health-Related Fitness Programs for Fire Department Members, was approved as an American National Standard by the Standards Council in August 2000. The class focus is on the need for fire stations to have health/wellness programs for their crews to improve health and fitness. Implementing a health-related wellness program as outlined in NFPA 1583, however, can be overwhelming for the command staff.
I propose an informational session that will discuss how to implement a wellness and fitness program in your fire station. Data will be shown that explains the cardiovascular blood pressure risk of firefighting along with the benefits in blood pressure levels seen by exercise training in firefighters. The session will discuss details on implementation of 1583. In particular: how to conduct pre- and post-testing, how to design fitness programs, and how to document everything. A portion of the session will be hands-on so that the fitness testing and programming is learned. For small and rural fire companies that do not have adequate funding or resources available to implement such programs. Firefighters, training officers, and command staffs will benefit from detailed instructions and handouts on how to oversee and administer a health and fitness program. It is anticipated that if this information is implemented, improvements in health and fitness levels could be seen.
As part of the seminar, I will also review the recent research in my lab showing the risk of firefighting on blood pressure and proving the benefits of exercise training in firefighters. Topics will include effects of gear weight on blood pressure, effects of pager alarm sounds on blood pressure, and the exercise training program benefits on blood pressure.
Many firefighters have high blood pressure, and the leading cause of death in firefighters is still cardiac related. A study recently reported that half of the firefighters did not know their blood pressure, 39% were considered pre-hypertensive, and 45% were hypertensive.
Therefore, incentives can be key to successful implementation of a fitness program in the firehouse.