{"id":793,"date":"2011-12-18T04:45:00","date_gmt":"2011-12-18T04:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/firerescuefitness.com\/the-importance-of-a-strong-core-for-firefighters-emts-and-paramedics\/"},"modified":"2011-12-18T04:45:00","modified_gmt":"2011-12-18T04:45:00","slug":"the-importance-of-a-strong-core-for-firefighters-emts-and-paramedics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/firerescuefitness.com\/2011\/12\/the-importance-of-a-strong-core-for-firefighters-emts-and-paramedics\/","title":{"rendered":"The Importance of a Strong Core for Firefighters, EMTs and Paramedics"},"content":{"rendered":"
Each year, tens of thousands of Firefighters, EMTs and Paramedics are injured while fighting fires, responding to incidents, transporting patients and training for the job. While a majority of the injuries are minor, a significant number are debilitating and career-ending.  <\/span>Of these debilitating injuries almost 50% have to do with low back pain and a recent survey by the International Association of Fire Fighters determined that about half of all injury retirements were due to back injuries.  <\/span>The high rate of low back injuries can be attributed to the high-risk activities that we are expected to perform, such as operating charged hoselines, climbing ladders, breaking windows, ventilating structures, performing overhaul and lifting objects greater than 40 lbs.  <\/span>As you know, these tasks are often accomplished while the body\u2019s posture is ergonomically unsound or on unstable ground.<\/div>\n

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I know I\u2019m not telling you something you don\u2019t already know, but I do want to emphasize the fact that over 50% of all injury retirements are due to low back pain.  <\/span>Like you, I love my job and would hate to lose it because of injury.  <\/span>Unlike other professions, we as Firefighters, EMTs and Paramedics don\u2019t always have the luxury or the time to take precautions beforehand to minimize workplace injuries.  <\/span>Let\u2019s face it; we don’t have the luxury of warming up at three in the morning when we go out on a scene.  <\/span><\/div>\n
With that in mind you MUST keep your back and your core strong.  <\/span>Take a look at the video below; here are 4 exercises that you should incorporate into your current fitness program.  <\/span>Don\u2019t have a fitness program, try them anyways\u2026your career may depend on it.  <\/span>(And, stay tuned for the Ultimate Workout Program for Firefighters, EMTs and Paramedics\u2026coming soon)<\/div>\n
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Try to incorporate these 4 exercises (1 or 2 circuits 10 to 20 reps)<\/div>\n
1.  4-count crunch<\/div>\n
2.  Plank<\/div>\n
3.  Bicycle crunch<\/div>\n
4.  Swimmers (opposite arm\/leg raise)<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Each year, tens of thousands of Firefighters, EMTs and Paramedics are injured while fighting fires, responding to incidents, transporting patients and training for the job. While a majority of the injuries are minor, a significant number are debilitating and career-ending.  Of these debilitating injuries almost 50% have to do with low back pain and a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[29,31,26,24,27,32,33],"tags":[30],"class_list":["post-793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ab-strength","category-core","category-firefighter","category-firefighter-core-fitness","category-fitness","category-injury-prevention","category-low-back-injury-prevention","tag-ab-strength"],"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paAEPz-cN","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/firerescuefitness.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/firerescuefitness.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/firerescuefitness.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firerescuefitness.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firerescuefitness.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/firerescuefitness.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/firerescuefitness.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firerescuefitness.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firerescuefitness.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}