CrossFit for the Fire Service

By: Erich Roden

Does firefighting sound like a constantly varied, high-intensity and functional movement¹? I thought so too, so I took up CrossFit – which subscribes to varied intensity with functional movements - in April of this year. I have been hearing about CrossFit, the cultfollowing that ensues after you join its gyms – or ‘boxes’ if you prefer the vernacular – and that people often puke after workouts. I had to give it a shot because I was already in shape: I ran, biked, lifted weights, and ate “well;” and I wanted to up my level of fitness. What I came to realize after one workout, however, was that I was not ‘fit.’ Rather, I was so unfit that I almost didn’t come back for a second workout. Being in shape, or simply well is not being fit, period. As I later learned in a recent CrossFit course: I was “failing at the margins of my experience¹.” What does that mean? Well, if you only bike, run or lift weights at specific distances or reps, you will only do well up to those specific distances or reps. In other words, you’re selling yourself short based upon what you think you can do. Nonetheless, I’m a determined guy and an over-achiever, so I was going to give a CrossFit workout another shot. Thankfully, what I didn’t know at the time was that I was on a rite of passage that every CrossFitter goes through: If you come back, you never leave…and I’m still coming back every chance I get.

参考与消防什么?188金博网网址多少Everything! What does CrossFit have to do with everything you do off-duty? Everything! Ever get gassed while pulling ceiling, performing long stretches, or pulling a victim out? Remember the times when you had to do everything you could to control your breathing after climbing five flights so you could hear what the boss was saying as you were getting ready to go in and get some? Or having less in the tank after running down a long block to get to the fire building because you were third-due? I do. And I hopefully never will again. I can’t because it’s all preventable. And CrossFit is the best preventive measure to keep these scenarios from happening.