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The 5 Biggest Mistakes Firefighters Make Related to their Health [Part 1 of 6]
It’s extremely important for firefighters to have healthy habits if they want to have a low risk for injury or cardiac event, and a high quality of life before and after retirement. But firefighters make some common mistakes when it comes to their health.
Based on my seven years of research, and my experiences doing fitness testing for many different fire departments and counseling hundreds of firefighters about fitness and nutrition, I’ve come up with the 5 biggest mistakes I believe firefighters make related to their health.
What to look for in upcoming articles!
Over the coming weeks I’ll be discussing each of these mistakes; I’ll explain why each one is so detrimental and how to overcome or avoid making the mistake.
The first article…
My first article will discuss peer pressure. This is a very prevalent in the fire service and can have both positive and negative consequences. It’s important to understand how giving in to negative peer pressure can be harmful to firefighters.
Articles 2 and 3
In my second and third articles, I’ll discuss two mistakes firefighters make related to exercise: being inconsistent with their workouts, and being too narrow in their fitness. I’ll explain why working out every-so-often is an important habit to avoid and why firefighters need to possess all the components of fitness to improve job performance and reduce risk of experiencing adverse events on the job.
Articles 4 and 5
Related to nutrition and eating habits, there are two major mistakes that I will discuss in the fourth and fifth articles: eating because it’s there, and eating too much protein. As I do with firefighters time and time again, I will try and convince you that engaging in these two behaviors results in much more harm than good.
While these are common mistakes, they’re also associated with some very real consequences. I encourage you to weigh in and ask me questions in the comments sections as you read through the articles.
Has there ever been an effort by a fire department to have pre-planned meals to fit a firefighters individual macros? Or just a general firefighter macro nutrient needs? Because I think having meals planned out throughout the day before they are even at the station prevents the problem with eating when food is there not eating because they are hungry. It would also prevent them from eating too much protein while making them eat correct fat and carb intake which facilitates good energy level with correct carbs and optimum brain function with the correct amount of omega-3 and fatty acids. Just some food for thought and I was really wondering if any fire department has tried that?