All Clear - A Firefighter Health & Wellness Podcast
All Clear is a podcast that looks at the perils of modern firefighters, especially the physical and mental strains we face. Our goal is to help firefighters ignite The Fire Within and to build the best version of themselves as firefighters. Our conversations are real, sometimes raw but always honest. All Clear is presented by the NC Firefighter Cancer Alliance & First Responders Peer-Support Network.
All Clear - A Firefighter Health & Wellness Podcast
Transforming Firefighter Fitness: Zam's Way - with guest Aaron Zamzow
Can firefighters achieve the same level of fitness as professional athletes? In this episode of All Clear Firefighter Wellness, we sit down with Aaron Zamzow, founder of Fire Rescue Fitness and host of the Better Every Shift podcast, to explore this fascinating notion. Aaron takes us on a journey from his days as a full-time trainer to his career in the fire service, where he developed fitness programs tailored to the unique physical and mental demands of firefighting. His expertise sheds light on how balanced fitness is critical for peak performance and safety in this high-stakes profession.
Managing a structured fitness plan while juggling family and work obligations can be a daunting task. Aaron shares insightful tips on integrating mobility, stretching, and daily activities like walking and foam rolling to maintain overall health. He also stresses the importance of adaptable workout routines that cater to one's schedule and physical condition, emphasizing often-overlooked exercises like mobility work. Learn how ongoing rehabilitation exercises can help manage and prevent injuries, ensuring long-term fitness and well-being for firefighters.
Balancing personal fitness with professional demands is no easy feat, but Aaron's practical advice makes it achievable. We discuss the debate around training in firefighting gear versus regular workout attire and the benefits of integrating minimal workouts that simulate real-life scenarios. The conversation extends to a holistic approach to wellness, encompassing fitness, nutrition, sleep, and mental health. Aaron provides actionable insights into creating a comprehensive resiliency protocol and the power of gratitude practices and journaling. Don't miss out on this invaluable guide to firefighter wellness with Aaron Zamzow.
Here is a listner exclusive free 28 day fitness plan from Zam!
https://firerescuefitness.com/seminar/
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This is All Clear Firefighter Wellness, where we help you light your fire with it. Travis got a very good guest with us today, got Aaron Zamzow, or should we call you Zam, whatever you prefer. How are you doing today, got Aaron Zamzow, or should we call you Zam, whatever you prefer? How are you doing today, sir?
Speaker 2:I'm good, buddy. Thanks for having me Great. We've already had great conversation. I hope we haven't wasted the show on our behind-the-scenes stuff already. No, it's been great already. Happy to be here, I'm sure it'll come out.
Speaker 1:I'm sure a lot of those points will come out and when you talk to brilliant people and you always have good opportunities to expand what you're learning. So tell us about yourself, tell us where you're from, what you're doing and what you're into these days, because I know you are quite a busy man.
Speaker 2:Yeah, where to begin on that? So I have a podcast myself called Better Every Shift and it's hosted on Fire Rescue One and that's been just an amazing journey, as we talked a little bit about how much fun these can be, but they're also lots of work. Hats off to you for doing this and for having me, because I understand how much goes into it. So I've been doing that now for two years. I actually started a company called Fire Rescue Fitness almost 15 years ago and that was to develop programming, functional fitness programs, programs for firefighters, emts and medics and it really that came about because I started joined the fire service about 20 years ago on call, paid up in Minnesota, and I was a full-time trainer at the time and I was working with athletes, pro athletes, general population, doing some coaching and there's a sign that said, hey, join your local fire department.
Speaker 2:So at age I think it was 30. Yeah, I was 30. I went through one of my first fire academies. It was one night a week and four or five hours and you went through firefighter one and firefighter two and I thought I was in good shape. I was 30 years old and I was a trainer and so I was working out and I actually was humbled a lot of times as we were doing drills, climbing, carrying and hoisting things. There's guys that were just beating me and they weren't necessarily gym shape, they were blue collar. I do this every day kind of work shape.
Speaker 2:And from there I started to do a lot of research into okay, if I was, this was an athlete which I think we all are, and that's debatable of course by some but what do I need to do to perform better?
Speaker 2:And that kind of started when I was 30 years old in my first department and then at 36, got an opportunity to go full time with Madison Fire Department. I've been there since gosh going on 15 years and I'm a lieutenant there, fire officer, so I get to ride a big red truck and then talk about it and how to improve on doing that job and then write about fitness and I guess I've written for everybody. I'm on the advisory board for Firehouse Magazine, fire Rescue One, done some stuff with Firefighter International and I will talk about fitness just about anybody and excited to actually start working with the First Responder Center for Excellence. So I'm doing some work with them and just trying to learn as much and transfer that knowledge that I can retain to hopefully help somebody else. Programs like this are awesome to have these conversations. Again, appreciate the opportunity, brother no worries, no worries.
Speaker 1:Anybody that's listened to our podcast for any length of time, they'll learn that we are very diversified in what we try to teach and learn about when it comes to our fire service, and whether it be mental health, cancer reduction, what you eat, how you sleep all that stuff is important and in our pre-conversation before we hit the record button today, we covered a lot of that really effectively, really quickly. But there's some good things that I think that our folks need to know about. But I guess one of the first things is what is the importance of fitness in the fire service? How important is it for a firefighter to be fit? I know we talk about professional level athletes and, to be really honest, that is a reality. When you have to do so many different tasks, it can't just be endurance, it can't just be cardio, it can't just be strength, but you have to be pretty well balanced. But why do you think fitness is so important?
Speaker 2:Well, for two reasons, and the research now shows, fitness is good for the mind just as much as it's good for the muscle, and what I mean by that is your body's hormonal responses when you're moving and when you're working out and after that really play a lot into mood and general health and just disease prevention. And so I think moving in general and exercise is important, just whether you're a firefighter or not or anybody. It's super important. It helps with cognitive function. It helps obviously with muscle mobility. For us in the fire service I think it's a little bit more imperative because, like you said, we don't really know a playing field per se. When I would work with my football players, I wouldn't train my defensive back in football the same way I would my female soccer athlete, because their playing field is different. So what you do is you break their playing field down and say, okay, what motions do we need to work on to help them excel and perform better? Now, there's always some foundational similarities. You can break it down with more detail With the fire ground man, it's all over the place.
Speaker 2:You could be on a roof doing ventilation On my job up in Wisconsin here. That roof might be covered with snow. You could then be going to a pulseless non-breather where you're doing compressions and trying to move a patient through narrow hallways and the next thing you're doing you're trying to extricate a patient of a car accident. So it's a wide range of things that we have to do physically, wide range of things that we have to do physically. And so when you have those variabilities on a day-to-day basis, you have to be able to move efficiently, with strength, with a good core function, or else you get injured. And I think that's the other big thing is one you need fitness for mental clarity, which I don't think we lose track of that when you start to look at oh, I got to be calendar ready, which is BS. You don't need to be calendar ready. You got to be able to move. You got to be able to step up into a truck 82 times. You got to be able to crawl, get down to the ground. You got to be able to drag. You got to be able to push things. You got to be able to pull things. You got to be able to advance hose line push things. You got to be able to pull things. You got to be able to advance hose line. And then you got to be able to do that again, and then on air, and, and then sometimes do it without a lot of sleep.
Speaker 2:So fitness is just so important for so many different things. Now the research shows that people that work out consistently are less likely to get cancer. They're they have a less chance of having, I shouldn't say, ptsd, but they can actually overcome their PTSD issues better with consistent fitness. All the other things obesity, diabetes and just general performance. So there are just a litany of reasons to do it, and I think the important part about it is one you got to stay functional with it, and I always ask everybody this question as far as exercise, if you haven't done exercise and you're just starting to get moving, whether that's walking for 30 minutes a day, great.
Speaker 2:Eventually, though, as a first responder, as a firefighter, you want to be moving for purpose, meaning your workouts need to. I think one of three things they need to improve performance, reduce injuries and prolong career, and if you look at fitness in your workouts in that scope, you're going to be okay, you're going to make progress and you're going to continually make progress through your career. We look on and we were talking about like Instagram. You're like, oh, I want to do that because I see, well, that looks really cool or that person looks really good.
Speaker 2:And I always go back to the question. I'm like, yeah, but can they? They might be able to bench press 700 pounds, but I've never read a line of duty death where 700 pound bench press would have got them out of a situation. So you, you have to hone that in and I think if anybody's taking anything from that ramble is that fitness is important number one for so many reasons. And number two, when you approach fitness as a firefighter, you should have that mindset of is this going to help me move better? Is this going to help me perform better? Is this going to reduce my injuries and is this going to help me get to that end game of retiring healthy and that's it.
Speaker 1:You know, Yep, and that is a key thing is trying to keep yourself qualified during your entire career, because you can disqualify yourself very quickly if you get hurt, depending on what happens. One of the things you did mention in our pre-conversation and one of the things that I know and I'm not a fitness guru is the fact that consistency is one of the keys to success in fitness, and when you're on a shift, say, you're every third day, you're at the station, you have equipment there, you can work out. Well, there's two days in between. How can you carry consistency from what might be the greatest workout program in the world, but if you take two days off in the middle, it's not going to do you a whole lot of good. How?
Speaker 2:do you balance that? Great question? I, you know, as far as like, biggest I, the biggest mistake I think people make with their fitness is that they don't have a plan. We like, hey, every three days I'm going to work out at the station you got to do some more things in between that for numerous reasons but like, but then you go to the station and you know, like, what are you going to do? I'm going to go do chest and try why? Cause that's what so-and-so is doing. Then how does that play into your workout the next day or the day after or the next day?
Speaker 2:And a lot of times I just like to ask questions, like we had said, you know, say it again reduce injuries, improve performance and pull on career. I'll ask people that how does that play into your Monday workout or your shift workout or your at-home workout? And I get some blank stares and I'm like let's start with that. Let's try to figure out some things you can do at home to help you do one of those three things. So, to answer your question, let's say, if you're working out on shift, my biggest thing is start with you can always do cardio. You can always open the door, take the dog for a walk, kiss for a walk. Find a hill where you can walk up and down the hill. The other thing is I'm 50 now and you said you're 39.
Speaker 1:47. Yeah, 39,. I wish I remember that a long time ago.
Speaker 2:What's the first thing that you lose? You lose the fact you can't move very well. Mornings are tough, you're a little stiffer in some mobility. Mornings are tough, you're a little stiffer in some mobility. I see these young kids they can bench, press a house and they can squat a house, but I'm like dude, you can barely touch your toes. You're 30 years old, like another 10 years you're going to really have trouble and that's where you start to feel, where you lose a step and you feel like I can't recover as quickly On the days off, if anything, focus on doing some five to 10 minutes of just some stretching, mobility work, and get your body moving for at least 30 minutes.
Speaker 2:You know, every single day and I, like I've worked with thousands of people over the years and the ones that are successful everybody says you need a rest day, you need to take a day off. Totally. I agree a hundred percent, but I don't think you need to just sit on your butt for that entire day. I think 30 minutes every single day should be devoted to something that is improving your fitness, and so that can be 15, 20 minutes of stretching, some foam rolling, taking the dog for a walk that's a great off day for per se because you're actually helping your body recover and rejuvenate. So what I liked, I have a little 15, 20 minute recovery workout.
Speaker 2:If I didn't get a lot of sleep let's say I worked out on shift I did. I like to do like crew work, crew workout circuits with my some members of my crew. We just set up eight stations. We do them three times each. We time it in about 30 minutes, we do a couple of warm-up exercises to work mobility and then we stretch. At the end it's about 33 minutes actually. So I'll do that at the stations. If we don't get sleep the next day I was supposed to lift, I would just do this recovery workout and there's a little yoga in there, there's some just rehab movements, for we all have these ailments and injuries, and that's what I'll do. And then if I was supposed to do weights, I'll postpone it a day so I get some good rest in there and it's all part of a you know plan. I look at each week and go okay, I have shifts these days, I have travel these days and commitments. So I'll take each week and kind of move workouts around and I think that's what we all need to start looking at is more big picture and then break it down into the week and then the day and really just focus. I prefer to focus on the things that I'm not really good at when I work out at the station. So mobility, stretching, those are things I don't like to do, so I always try to get them in when I'm at the station. So long drawn out. Answer to your question is have a freaking plan and start to figure out.
Speaker 2:You can do pushups, sit up pushups, planks and squats at home without any equipment. Working with guyvers in the fire service. You can take a piece of webby, throw it up over a tree service. You can take a piece of webby, throw it up over a tree, tie two little handles and you can do some rowing movements with it. There's some simple things you can do just to keep yourself moving.
Speaker 2:I think the biggest thing is to stay consistent. Dedicate some time every single day to improving your fitness. When you're older, like us or like me, I got to do it just to maintain, and sometimes it's. I look forward to it because if you're like I'm really tight today, I want to go stretch. Maybe it doesn't have to be 30. I'm up to 30 minutes and I'll even do some deep breathing exercises. I've been trying to do not really meditation because I don't have enough brain cells. I think to do not really meditation because I don't have enough brain cells. I think to do that. But a lot of flexibility stuff and mobility stuff. And the other question I have for people have you had any injuries in the fire service at all?
Speaker 1:I hurt my shoulder several years ago.
Speaker 2:And a lot of people are going. Oh yeah, I have two Knees shoulders back. We all hurt them. When do you stop doing your rehab exercises?
Speaker 1:for I don't think I've stopped yet. I still stretch. In fact it hurts me. A lot of mornings I get up to a little bit of yoga and work out that shoulder and I still do that 10, 15 years later You're one of the smart ones.
Speaker 2:But a lot of us will stop doing it after the shoulder feels good. Yeah, and you're right, you should always. There's always some things you could do. You can do. I call them prehab exercises. So I still try to do my shoulder exercise, even though shoulders feeling good, get those in there. So there's always something you can find. I know a lot of firefighters are challenged with family, but remember those old radio flyers. That's throwing the kids in the wagon and just pull them around for 15, 20 minutes and get the family involved with it. Take your dog for a walk. And all those things do add up to helping with consistency.
Speaker 1:It's funny. We just came back from vacation. My family and I and we took our camper. We went out to a state park here in North Carolina, had a great time, but the thing I enjoyed the most was the fact that my wife and I and my son we were able to go out and walk. It wasn't anything spectacular, we just walked a couple miles and just talking. I know that seems like you're not breaking a sweat, you're not getting sometimes. It's not about that. It's about keeping the motivation going and I have slacked off as I've gotten older and the position I'm in now. I don't have to necessarily qualify like I did, but I'm trying not to let that get in the way of me, trying to be better constantly and that's one of the things staying motivated and you've got to find the push for why you want to do it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you had mentioned family, and when I was working a lot with just general population, a lot of times people would say I can't work out, I got to get Jimmy or Bobby or Susie or whatever and do all these things for them, and I'd always go back and I'd say what example are you setting for them for their own health, when you're sacrificing your own health for your family?
Speaker 2:And then I think we do that for the job too, right, we sacrifice everything for helping others, and I believe, though, that some of us use that as a crutch to avoid looking in the mirror and to avoid really working on our own issues, and, I'll be honest, like I did that for a while, I was like, ah, yeah, I'm running this where I'm doing this and I'm talking about that, and, before I knew it, 15, well, 15 pounds came on, and it was because I was avoiding some things, and I think, with parents, it's really easy to do that, but there are ways you can find to get 10, 15 minutes in. That go a long way, like you said, to stay consistent. So I know there's obligations, but there's also there's solutions and there's different mindset that you can take for that. Like you said, man. Take your kids on a walk and it's surprising how well they start to open up without a phone, there or right, and they start to see something so good for you. That's a great example. It's right there.
Speaker 1:I'll tell you that's a great example right there. I'll tell you one of the things that motivated me and I'm not throwing shade on anybody, because I am by no means the healthiest individual in the world. My son homeschools and we went to a homeschool event a couple years ago and I saw all the other dads there and the majority of them were gamer dads. They were way out of shape. They could barely function when it came to holding a conversation. I'm like I can't be like this. I cannot be like this. So that set a whole bunch of goals, including trying to eat better, trying to be better and things like that, and sometimes we just have to look around us and see what we don't want to be, and that'll be that motivation to get us where we want to be.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly Exactly, and that's important too. It's important to set the example. But then, as your children grow, you want to be able to be that active dad and to be able to experience those things with them and don't look, yes, you look around and say, okay, I don't want to be that example. Experience those things with them and don't look, yes, you look around and say, okay, I don't want to be that example. And I think we can do that in a fire service too, right, like you had mentioned, and we join it to make a difference. And sometimes that can get lost in the shuffle of all the other stresses.
Speaker 2:But Arnold Schwarzenegger has a book out there and he says it best. He says be fit enough to be useful, don't have to be the most fit. But if you're not true, you want to be fit enough to be useful, meaning you don't want to be that person that everybody's worried about or has to work around, right, you want to contribute to it, and I think that is if you are someone listening to this, you're contemplating, working out, let that sink in a little bit and say, look, I just want to get to a point where I'm useful, where, if we're going up on a high rise fire. We're going up four stories. I don't want to be the person that's on floor two when everyone else is ready to go on four floor, and make that as your motivating point and then think about ah yeah, now I can get even a little more fit down the road. But if you're starting with unfit, get to useful first. Yeah, bring something to the table.
Speaker 1:Bring something to the table. Yeah, absolutely so. Now you know we were talking about I have a jacked up shoulder. You mentioned how you're stiff, sometimes waking up. I think that's the reality for all of us. But what are some good resources that you know that we can maybe look to when we start talking about workout safety, because I know people were when CrossFit was the hot and big thing. We had more guys getting hurt doing that than getting hurt actually doing their jobs. Bad backs and knees all grew out of that. But what are some resources, some ideas that you could maybe give folks so that they can learn how to not hurt themselves when they're trying to make those gains?
Speaker 2:Oh, that's a great question. So I have I'll give your listeners I have a free workout for everybody that's listening, that I'll leave free. I have a 28-day workout program that people can use as a guideline. It actually it lays out weekly full weeks. It actually has that prehab workout that I was talking about, that flexibility workout. So Fire Rescue Fitness I have some resources there. We'll give your listeners a free one. My good friends, dan and Kerrigan and Jim Moss, who have Functional Firefighter Fitness for Sale. That's on Amazon. That's a great book and reference for them, for anyone. I just talked to Dan earlier this week and we talked a little bit about functional fitness and training.
Speaker 2:I do believe to seeing a trainer try to hire someone locally just to get the basics down of form and function and I think the biggest thing is that you really need to take you need to take charge of your own fitness. So the athlete, the pro athletes that I would work towards, the best ones, the ones that actually made the most money, the ones that did the best, were the ones that would always go Sam, what are we doing today? And I'd be like, oh, we're going to do plyo training today. And they're like, why? I'm like good question Cause we're doing footwork stuff today. There's a lot of what we call them foot contacts high impact foot contacts on this today so that tomorrow we're doing recovery, then we're going to go back to strength and then power the next day, based on our goals. But they would ask and they would understand how and why we were doing what we're doing, because they could adapt it if I wasn't there or they could start to get better input into it. When you look at fitness programming one of the reasons why like CrossFit and I'll say I think CrossFit can be really good, but I also believe it could be the other side of it Unfortunately it's all under the umbrella of CrossFit right In Madison we have whatever.
Speaker 2:There are two boxes. There's one that's on the east side and one on the west side. The one on the west side. There's great coaches there. I know them personally. They're going to really coach you and critique you and not have you go hey, every single day you got to get a little more weight. It doesn't care if you cheat on five of those reps. Tomorrow you're going to get six with cheating on them. But the other side, the other Tomorrow you're going to get six with cheating on them, but the other side, the other gym, isn't as good. So I think that's one thing that we have to look at First of all is look at the coaching, look at credentials, look at testimonials, but then ultimately come down to understanding what your body is, where your fitness is and where you want to go.
Speaker 2:And when it comes to form, there's really just. I always tell people to start with form. You just got to remember three things. One is head is back, so it's good posture with your head and your chin back. What's your back doing? So protect your back and let it move naturally and then make sure that you stay balanced within your stance and then eventually you can get to single leg movements or you can start doing a lot of the wobbly stuff, but, like, stick with the basic stuff. And the older you get, the more your ego lets you lift just lighter stuff to feel the right way that would be.
Speaker 2:The other thing with form is you really need to check your ego at the door, especially if you're just getting back into it. Don't worry about weights, worry about how it feels, worry about really controlling the movements and staying with good form If you keep that in mind and ego is the last thing you think of. You're going to be okay with that. And then the other thing is look for resources like firefighter functional fitness, fire rescue fitness. There's some other great resources through National Academy of Sports Medicine. Get a coach I think you had mentioned you got a coach or a trainer just to look at how you're moving, and I still have coaches that I see when I do my workouts. Unfortunately, sometimes I put my stuff on YouTube so that I have 100 people commenting on how bad my form is, but that's okay too. I don't mind it because it makes me evaluate it. So all those things are part of the process.
Speaker 1:Yep, like I tell my son all the time, you may be stronger, you may be faster one day, but I am older and much more treacherous, so be careful.
Speaker 2:So same things.
Speaker 1:And some of us have other skills that maybe somebody else doesn't, and we just need to develop what we're good at and that will make us very effective at our job. But one of the big things that I really hear a lot of chatter about not just chatter but talk about now is when you're working out, when you're training, should you do it in gear or should you do it in t-shirt and shorts? What's the best thing to do? And I think there's a huge push right now for training in gear. Working out in gear Do you find that to be a trend that is beneficial? That's a good question. There's a lot there because of the P5s that are in gear. Do you find that to be a trend that is beneficial?
Speaker 2:That's a good question. There's a lot there because of the PFAS that are in gear. Some people are saying our gear is full of these PFAS and that increases our risk of cancer, and to that I can say, yeah that there are PFAS in gear, but we also have to come to the reality that we need the gear right now until there's a better substitute for it. I've had this conversation with somebody who's chewing I've got a big chew at the back of me Yep, hey, man, I don't want to. There's PFAS in my gear and I'm like, really Well, just look in the mirror, what's in your lip? Wow, I've been chewing for years, right? Wow, I've been chewing for years, right, it's still. It's a risk that you obviously overlooked for many years. So now you're going to choose the gear as what you're going to take a stance on. And I was at a conference and I can't remember which one it was, and that just tells you I've been traveling a little too much. There's a researcher that said there are PFAS in your gear, but that's not really the issue. Nope, right, but that's not really the issue, nope, right. The issue is all the things you can control that you're not addressing and we're pointing our finger at one thing, but the reality is we could hydrate better, we could eat better, we can stay consistent with our fitness, we could be more functional with our fitness, we can focus on sleep, we can focus on sleep, we can focus on mental health. And so I think one of the things with the PFAS and the gear, it's a little distracting for people that are looking for an excuse, because I do find it's valuable, because that's how we have to perform in that gear it's heavy, it doesn't breathe very well, it is restrictive and then also, when you throw SCBA in there, it challenges your cardiovascular system because the SCBA can actually restrict, obviously, some airflow, which makes you have to work harder with it.
Speaker 2:So I take two kind of thoughts to this. I like to do minimal workouts. Sometimes, if I haven't been in my gear in a fire, if I haven't been on air, I try to do something every week on air in gear. Minimal time sometimes it's because of shifts, it's every two weeks, but nothing more than 15 to 20 minutes. We'll do some circuits. I'll set up five or six different exercises, put my gear on, move through.
Speaker 2:I like to go on air whenever I can and then, once I'm on air. I like to stay on air. I'm crazy like that but I think the more comfortable you are on air, obviously, the better off you're going to be. You should stay on air through overhaul as well. So I do believe that we need to train in our gear and I don't like necessarily doing pull-ups in gear and deadlifts in gear.
Speaker 2:I like to do more fire ground related things, where you're carrying things upstairs, where you're maybe dragging some hose line, ldh, or you're crawling right. Those are things that we need to be able to do and you could do a plank or some core stuff, because you're putting those positions when you have your SCBA and when you're in gear. So try to just look at more fire ground related movements and simulate them while in gear, and if you can go on air for a little bit, great. But as soon as you're done, strip that gear off and do some stretching and cool down exercises outside of that gear.
Speaker 2:But because we still need to perform in it, it's still got to practice in it and I think it's it still got to practice in it and I think it goes back to every single spore. There's got to be a time to. You have to have an acclimation period, but football they still. They try to minimize how much they're in their pads, but they still are in it at some point because you have to simulate. But you got to practice like you play and so for those that are out there shaking their head going, they have PFAS in them. I'm like I get it, but we can't avoid that and you still are paid or you're expected to be able to move in that gear and perform in that gear. It's our obligation, it's what we promised to our community members and our crew members. Minimize it as much as you can, but still get some in so you can perform and do the duties you're supposed to.
Speaker 1:Yeah, pfas is one of those things. I've had conversations with some of the guys at NC State University over here. They're textile labs. They develop next generation firefighting gear and they test everything and there is such a deep conversation on that and if somebody's crutching on that as to why they should never touch their gear other than a structure fire, they really do need to step back and take a look at it, because if you're wearing a Gore-Tex when you're fishing, guess what? You're getting some PFAS. There's some PFAS Depending where you live. What you may have in. You could be even higher than a firefighter in another part of the country just because of where you grow up or what's in your environment.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, a lot of food for thought on that. I do believe that the industry needs to address it. When I was having a conversation today, I think part of the issue is that these manufacturers lied to you, and I think that's the main thing no, there's no PFAS in your gear. When you got it independently tested, you're like well, wait a minute, this is a lot higher than what you were indicating. And I think there's where the discussion needs to be. Is all right, it's like the cigarettes right, like cigarettes, don't harm you.
Speaker 2:And all of a sudden, someone's like wait a minute, you guys are hiding all this research. Or and to me, that's the part that leaves a really bitter taste in my mouth is that here we are doing all this stuff to sacrifice, to build our communities, and these businesses are like yeah, we're, yeah, you're fine, don't worry about this. Good stuff for you, it's gonna help you and I. I just think. I think I'm not. I don't want to leave anybody off the hook. I think we need to really make some changes in it, but until we get those changes, we still have that obligation. So I just wanted to make sure. Right, you and I.
Speaker 1:We could talk for hours on it, but I think this is where the fire service and then those manufacturing companies really need to step up at this point, and I think it won't be too long before there'll be a lot of things that are going to start to change, because I know science is working hard at it. But, like you say, we depend on the gear. We can't do without it. Work with it.
Speaker 2:Work with it, yep.
Speaker 1:And I know you say you go to a lot of conferences and we don't go to a huge amount, but we do get around. And years ago health and wellness cardiac that was a big issue. Then cancer was the big issue and to my nonprofit that's the big one North Carolina Firefighter Cancer Alliance. We always look at how to reduce exposures and we do the peer support for folks to get a diagnosis and things like that. But guess what? Now it's mental health. That's the big thing. So what do you think is going to be the next big thing? It's sad that we go in cycles like that because all of it is so important. What do you think we see coming up when we start talking about?
Speaker 2:firefighter, wellness. How much time do we have? I'll tell you, I think sleep. Obviously sleep is already starting to come to the forefront. And then my personal, where I'd like to see all this go and I'm trying to push it a little bit, and part of it is my own mistake.
Speaker 2:I used to just be the fitness guy and go to these conferences and they'd say, damn, how do I get in shape? And I'd offer pre-workout programs and nutrition programs, which we're going to offer to the listeners here, thank you. But I'd still see that there's quite a few people that just didn't really benefit from it, and part of it was everybody's at different stages of their lives, and we have external things that I think play into it. But I really believe a lot of times, as I looked into it, people couldn't work out because they were tired or we weren't sleeping very well because of the trauma, the mental trauma, and then that led to poor decisions in nutrition and those poor nutritional decisions really added more inflammation and made our systems worse. And so I think where it's going is you're going to have the sleep and people are going to talk about four shift and different shift schedules, and I think it's great.
Speaker 2:But where I'd like to see it go is let's look at the confluence of all these things together. Right, let's look at eating and moving and sleeping and minding our mental health. Think treating people better. Gratitude can play into that and how, building a salad resistant resiliency protocol, right, where you try to get to bed by 10 o'clock so you can get your seven and nine hours. You drink 80 ounces of water because you understand how that really helps to wash out a lot of the inflammation or the exposures that we have.
Speaker 2:I understand, like, nutritionally, there's a lot of great foods in the firehouse but like those sugar spikes add to inflammation. I'm not saying don't do it anytime, but just understand how that can play into you being crabby at two o'clock if you've had two of them in the morning, right it's. You know, eating foods that can help with inflammation more vegetables, more fruits, more healthy fats. Functionally training, which we focused and talked a lot about but moving and exercising to help you improve performance and reduce those injuries, and that'll lead to prolonging your career as well. Focusing on creating a good kind of sleep habit or sleep awareness. You're not going to be perfect every night, but focusing on it a little more is going to help and those small little details can go a long way. And then, obviously, working on consistency with it and that down the line.
Speaker 2:I think that draws into accountability, right, hey, are we going to get to a point where we need some accountability, more accountability testing or more accountability evaluations? And I firmly believe we need to a little bit. We owe it to the population, we owe it to the community to hold each other to at least a certain standard, so we are useful. I think that's where we're going with it is. You're going to, you're going to hear a lot about sleep and then hopefully, you start to hear about okay, how do I put all these pieces together to be a more resilient person? Because mental health, believe it or not, nutrition plays into it, sleep plays into it.
Speaker 2:Anytime you go to now recovery, like addiction recovery centers, all have fitness as part of a mandatory component of it. So obviously the fitness side of that is very valuable and I think just by continually trying to add a little bit here and a little bit there, people can create the again that protocol which will help them throughout their career. And that's where I'm at. Like, I try to do 30 minutes of exercise a day, I try to get 8,500 steps, I try to drink 80 ounces of water, I try to get to bed and power down, but for me it's 1030, power down at 10, meaning I just try to reduce blue lights. I have these glasses that I've been wearing lately and they help. I need more focus on that. That's an everyday kind of thing, and one another thing is gratitude.
Speaker 2:Man, just one minute a day helps a ton, because you can sit at that kitchen table and you can get caught in the toilet ball, as I like to call it right, where she started doing this, and we got this and this and this today and I get it. But we also get to ride a fire truck. Man, people trust us and people look forward to seeing us, and I was just at I worked Saturday and we were at this fair for, like this neighborhood fair for an hour and a half because kids just kept wanting to ask us questions and adults wanted to talk to us, and that's such a great thing that the community bestows on us and so to be able to provide a service to them where it's a very gratifying thing and it's an honor to be able to do that. And I think I have a.
Speaker 2:I got that outlook because I wasn't always in the fire service man. I did some crappy jobs before, even training, and so now I'm just very grateful for the opportunity to do that, and I'm not always chipper, but it's one of those things that you still do have a choice on how you're going to respond, and the gratitude thing for me was one that I was just like wow, just one little thing. Like there's a journal pops up that says what are you grateful for? Today I'm going to say, hey, I got to talk to Travis here and we had a great time and I was able to be on the All Clear podcast. Hopefully it made a difference to somebody.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and one of the things that I have to remind myself occasionally is that our job is a privilege. Yes, we get paid to do what we do, but at the end of the day, it's a privilege and a responsibility to our community, to ourselves, to our families, and that gratitude is huge. And for me, I've started journaling in the last I don't know probably two or three months, and literally sitting down for five minutes in the morning with a piece of paper and writing out longhand what's on your mind, what are you grateful for, what do you find a challenge. That really helps to organize a lot of that and get it in check. And when you start doing all of those things, everything starts working.
Speaker 1:And the whole point of our podcast we talk about light your fire within. We always say that at the end that's because each of us need to become better firefighters and we're just trying to put all those voices together, like yours and so many more that we talk to, because everybody has something important to bring to the table and we all have to focus on it. And I appreciate you lending us your experience with fitness and overall well-being today. That was huge and I greatly appreciate that.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, thanks for having me. I think it's outside even the fire service just about being better people and making that kind of an impact on society as well. We're very fortunate to work. I think a lot of community members look at us for that right Like we're sometimes that that positive thing for them. I mean they might see us and they know that we're there for them and sometimes that just gives them, like you said, it's just a, it's sometimes it's a feeling of safety and it's a very gratifying thing and it is an honor to be able to do it.
Speaker 2:And one of the things that I think gives me a good perspective too is the fact that I get to talk to wonderful people like yourself, and I've been out to the National Fire Academy and I've seen the wall. Unfortunately, I've had some instances where some members have died and I think they don't get this opportunity ever. They're no longer with us, and so I just feel like it's our honor and we still are able to do it, so let's do it the best we can, and it is hard sometimes, but it's a heck of a lot better than a lot of the other stuff I was able to or that I was doing in the past, appreciate the opportunity to talk a little fitness and life and I hope somebody takes advantage of this program. I'll send you the link. You can put it in your show notes.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:If anybody has any questions or if they think I'm on to something or on something, they can reach out and I'll leave you my email. But they can go to fireescuefitnesscom contact, and that's me. They can also go to the Better Every Shift podcast page, and that's me as well, and I'll try to leave you a link. Sure, If somebody's out there struggling to stay consistent when they need somebody just to email them every once in a while, I love doing that. We had mentioned it before. We're not the best with social media, but I love emailing people. And that's where the ZAM thing came up, because I was always typing my name. I'd be sending people like how's it going today? And then I'd have to type in area, ZAM zone. I'd always mess it up, so I'm like heck with it. So ZAM send and I was able to get more emails out, and that's where that whole thing started.
Speaker 2:Productivity yeah, productivity right. But thanks, man, keep doing what you're doing. This is a great show and I appreciate the opportunity.
Speaker 1:No, no worries, no worries, and allclearpodcastcom. You can go there and you'll be able to find all the notes. So if you go to guests of the show, you'll see Aaron's or Zam's, his whole profile and all his links and all that good stuff. But before I let you go, Zam, I don't know if you've ever listened, but we do have a small tradition here on All Clear. I do have a question for you. You know what you call a sleeping bull.
Speaker 2:What's that? You know what you call a sleeping bull. Don't burn too much. How?
Speaker 1:censored is this? It's pretty censored and I'm not that far off. You call it a bulldozer? Ah, all right.
Speaker 2:You see, that's a great dad joke.
Speaker 1:And dad jokes. They make me smile. Hopefully they make somebody else smile. People come up to us at conferences and they say that's the part of the show. They look forward to my to.
Speaker 2:My uncle used to work at a fire hydrant factory but he quit because he couldn't park anywhere near it. Yeah, you all on the line, Sure go for it.
Speaker 1:These may be reused. These may be reused. Go ahead.
Speaker 2:My dad told me he had to fight fire with fire. He was a great man but a horrible firefighter. Now he wouldn't have been a great wildland firefighter, but he was a great structural firefighter. I got you, I got you, zam.
Speaker 1:Thank you for your time and, like I said, allclearpodcastcom. You can learn more about Zam and all the wonderful things he's doing and, as we always say, be sure to light your fire within. You have been listening to All Clear Firefighter Wellness. All Clear is presented by the North Carolina Firefighter Cancer Alliance. You can find out more about us at allclearpodcastcom. Leave us a message. We'd love to hear from you. If you like what you hear, tell someone. All opinions expressed on the podcast do not always reflect the opinions of the podcast. As always, light your fire within.
