Author: firefighteslifestyle@gmail.com July 26, 2016

When it comes to being a firefighter, the job requires you possess multiple skills and physical aspects in order for you to successfully complete your job in the line of duty. There are lots of programs (guidelines to follow, accompanying workouts) and workouts (a single bout of random exercise) that are available at our fingertips that make claims that they are the best or fastest ways to reach some particular goals.

While the headlines may be catchy and the workouts seem intense there might not be much beyond that and you’ll be left searching for ways to improve in other areas even though you’ve gotten abs in 21 days.

Good programs follow a periodization model designed to hit peaks at particular times and prevent the follower from hitting plateaus in their training. Athletes have the advantage of working with a schedule and knowing when they will need to be at their best.

The athletes that have been preparing for the 2016 Olympic games may have laid out their plans to peak for this particular moment up to 4 years ago, hitting milestones and qualifying competitions along the way. Our goals are not as clear cut and we may have to be at our best on a moments notice.

Being at your best means being capable of giving your best at that time which will be different for everyone.

The needs of the firefighter are much different than the Olympic athlete that has been devoting all their efforts to one particular skill or event. Ours is such that we will have to combine power, strength, and endurance in order to accomplish our duties.

One type of periodization model is a linear model. This is one of the most simple programs to follow and is very popular for beginners in strength training due to its simplicity and the quick results the user will see once they become accustomed to the exercises.

The 5×5 model is probably the best-known example of a linear periodization. A small number of exercises are selected, most commonly squat, deadlift, bench press, overhead press and bent over row. The user will typically start at a submaximal weight and perform 5 sets of 5 reps of alternating exercises usually 3-4 times a week. Each week the user is supposed to add additional weight to the bar in order to get stronger. Over the course of the first few weeks the participant’s body figures out the most efficient way to move this weight and there are strength gains galore.

Now the problem with this model is that your strength will only allow you to go so far adding 5 pounds per week. If this was the case we would all be squatting, benching and deadlifting record numbers in just a short period of time (adding 600lbs to your deadlift would take about 2 years, not bad if you had 4 years to prepare) but this is not realistic.

An undulating periodization is one where we will be able to train multiple aspects of our fitness during a cycle and the variation comes not with the use of hundreds of different of exercises but using the same exercises and performing them at different intensities.

Lets use the movements from the 5×5 program at an example. Suppose you are going to pair the bench press and bent row for a classic push/pull combo and work deadlift on a particular day. As we mentioned the more we perform the exercise the more efficient our body is of them and this is good for our progress.

Day 1 we may perform these three movements with a rep scheme of 5. After a day of rest we come to Day 2 of the program and perform the same exercises but with a rep scheme of 20 and Day 3 the rep scheme will be 12.

Obviously, we are not expected to use the same load at 20 reps that we did at 5 so we must adjust, the intensity changes and we are training a different energy system without re-teaching the movement. The trickiest part here is finding the appropriate load for each of the rep schemes. We all have our favorite energy systems to train, some like to train for pure strength, others chase a “pump”, while some guys want to push themselves to exhaustion.

There is nothing wrong with any of those but we can help ourselves in those endeavors if we train our weaknesses as well. Knute Rockne the legendary Notre Dame football coach is famous for saying “Train your weaknesses until they become your strong points.” An excellent approach when it comes to improving yourself not only in training but in all of our dealing in general.

Example Program (adjust as needed):

 

Day 1:

1. Bench Press – 5 sets x 5 reps
2. Bent Over Row – 5 sets x 5 reps
3. Deadlift – 5 sets x 5 reps

Day 2:

1. Deadlift – 2 sets x 20 reps
2. Bent Over Row – 2 sets x 20 reps
3. Bench Press – 2 sets x 20 reps

Day 3 :

1. Overhead Press – 3 sets x 12 reps
2. Squat – 3 sets x 12 reps
3. Bent Over Row – 3 sets x 12 reps

Day 4:

1. Squat – 5 sets x 5 reps
2. Deadlift – 5 sets 5 reps
3. Overhead Press – 5 sets x 5 reps

This is just an example of what you may expect from an undulating model, less variation in exercise and more variation in load and intensity, allowing you to train multiple components of fitness at once.

Good Luck and have FUN!