Functional Fitness Group Offers Workshops for Firefighters
The organization Firefighter Functional Fitness is offering three-day health and wellness workshops for fire departments in Colorado. The events are scheduled ahead of the national Safety Stand Down in June 2026. The training focuses on firefighter-specific fitness protocols designed to improve performance and reduce injuries.
- The 2026 national Safety Stand Down, an event supported by major fire service organizations like the IAFF and NFPA, is themed "Firefighter FITNESS: Fit to Serve, Fit for Life." The week, running from June 14-20, encourages fire departments to suspend non-emergency activities to focus on health and safety education. - Firefighter Functional Fitness was co-founded by Dan Kerrigan and Jim Moss, authors of a best-selling book on the topic. Their training philosophy is built around "The Big 8": core strength, cardiovascular capacity, flexibility, pushing, pulling, lifting, carrying, and dragging. - Strains, sprains, and muscular pain are the most common injuries suffered by firefighters, frequently caused by overexertion from lifting, pushing, and pulling. Functional fitness programs aim to reduce these injuries by training movement patterns that directly mimic fireground tasks. - The training directly translates to tasks required in physical ability tests like the Candidate Physical Ability Test (CPAT). Exercises such as hose drags, weighted carries, and stair climbs are core components of both functional fitness workouts and pre-employment screening evaluations. - The International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) and the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) jointly created the Wellness-Fitness Initiative (WFI). This initiative provides a framework for implementing comprehensive health programs in fire departments, which is reflected in NFPA 1583, the standard on health-related fitness. - Functional fitness workouts often use non-traditional equipment found in a firehouse, such as sledgehammers, tires, and hoses, to simulate job-specific demands. This approach also emphasizes group training to build team cohesion and motivation.
