Predator or Prey?

By:  Christopher Brennan

Why should it matter if you think like a Warrior?  There are plenty of ways to view our trade but I really believe that the Warrior Mindset will have a much greater impact on reducing preventable line of duty injuries and fatalities; ultimately that is my goal.  A reasonable question for someone to ask is, “Why do you think that, Chris?”  I hope to give you an answer.

I feel that there are two key mindsets that we see all living creatures come back to when they are placed in life and limb threatening situations.  They react as predators, 100% present in the moment with laser like focus on success, or they react as prey, blissful unaware of what is occurring until it reaches out an kills them.  So, let me ask you, are you a predator, or are you prey? 

I don’t think this analogy is a stretch.  The reality is that under the most threatening of scenarios your Sympathetic Nervous System will drive you to act like prey: you may irrationally fight or flee, you may freeze, you may submit.  What does a dog do when it feels like it has been bested?  It rolls on its back and sticks its belly in the air.  That is a sign of submission.  It is an acceptance that the other animal has won.  What does the predator do though, even when it is on the loosing end of the engagement?  It will continually fight to find a way to win, or it disengages in a way that will allow it to come in again to bring down its prey.  Lt. Col. Dave Grossman writes of “Wolves, Sheep, and Sheep Dogs” to illustrate the differences between criminals, the normal person, and the Warriors who stand between the sheep and the wolves.  That is a great way of recognizing the relationship that exists, but when it comes to the underlying reaction to stress, the Predator mindset is present in both the Wolf and the Sheepdog.  The difference is that that Sheepdog chooses to become a predator of the wolf’s. 

That is the Warrior mindset.  It is the choice to become like a predator to kill a predator.  It is the choice to accept the possibility of death or injury, not because you have been subjected to it, but because you want to protect others.  The Warrior mindset then becomes the motivator for the thoughts, actions, and belief systems that guide you as you prepare for the battle.

Are you the soldier on the left, or the Warrior on the right?   

Which one looks like prey?

So, take some time this week and think about how you view yourself.  Self-awareness is a critical skill in developing our 4^th Dimensional Firefighting model, where our understanding of self becomes and asset in preparing to thrive on the fireground.  What role do you choose to play?  I’m serious about this one, give it some deep thought.  Figure out in what life circumstances do you act like a self directed Warrior out to protect society and when do you act like one of the lazy masses.  When do you put your belly in the air?  Once you can honestly know those skills, situations, and moments in life that make you want to submit, to quit, then you can begin training to beat them.

Fire Service Warrior Fitness

By: Christopher Brennan

 Firefighters are industrial athletes.  Our athletic ability directly relates to their success or failure at accomplishing our job.  Fire Service Warriors recognize this fact without question and strive to reach their maximal potential.  This is not a revelation, but a statement of fact that I feel must be acknowledged before any discussion of improving our Fitness can move forward.  If you dispute my thesis, then I would suggest you examine the NFPA and USFA data on firefighter Line of Duty Deaths and Injuries and focus on the incidents of cardiac compromise and musculoskeletal injuries that occur every year.

It should be obvious by 2011 that being physically fit is a prerequisite and mandatory maintenance skill for a firefighter who seeks to maximize his or her capacity to perform on the fireground as well as ensure the longevity of their career.  My observation is that despite the obviousness of this requirement far too many of our members have a blatant disregard for their fitness (and at times even wellness).  I could spend a decade researching and writing about “Why” this is so, but I’m not going to.  I believe in Occam’s Razor (the simplest solution to a hypothesis is the most likely): Firefighters are human beings and human beings have an deep rooted ability to accept the status quo if the alternative requires hard work.  In other words without an internal drive to excellence or an external motivator (like corporate culture or public ridicule) most people will expend the minimal amount of effort to get by.  This is not a value judgment; it is a statement of fact.  Without acknowledging that we all have within us the ability to avoid that which is difficult I think we are deceiving ourselves.  Given that I am not going to spend any time on “Why” people avoid hard physical work I can jump into what I think is the important question.  How do Fire Service Warriors maximize their physical capacity?  

The simplistic answer is that we develop our physical capacity through exercise.  What is exercise though?  If we look to the dictionary there are several definitions presented, but the most on target is that exercise is, “bodily exertion for the sake of developing and maintaining physical fitness.”[1]  So, what then is physical fitness?  Well, the same dictionary source just cited has no definition for physical fitness.  The President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports defines physical fitness as, “A set of attributes that people have or achieve relating to their ability to perform physical activity.”[2]  By that definition I have a measure of fitness if I am in fact alive.  I can be morbidly obese, paralyzed, or suffer from a host of other limitations, but because my heart is beating (a physical activity) I have some level of physical fitness.  Does that strike you as a precise definition of being “physically fit”?

I think that the most precise definition I have found to date is that of the CrossFit™ community.  According to Greg Glassman, founder of CrossFit, fitness is, “increased work capacity across broad time and modal domains.”[3]  I think that as Fire Service Warriors this definition makes a lot of sense.  We are expected to perform all of the ten physical skills that the founders of Dynamx medicine balls spelled out (and are a cornerstone of the CrossFit method): cardio respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, speed, power, accuracy, agility, balance, and coordination.  We have to be able to apply these skills under time sensitive, high stress, potentially life threatening situations.  These are the modal capacities in question.  Additionally we have to be able to perform these skills for an undefined period of time; we do not know how long the emergency will last.  All of this brings me to the core point of this post.

How do we achieve a level of physical capacity that will improve our ability to thrive on the modern fireground?  Simple answer: through effective and challenging physical training that continually causes our bodies and our minds to adapt to ever increasing stresses.  Is that going to be easy?  No.  Can we achieve it?  You bet we will.

Right here at fireservicewarrior.com we are going to begin posting a fitness program that I call Fire Service Warrior Fitness, or as I post it on twitter FSWFitness.

What is FSWFitness?

FSWFitness is a programming model that is based on the foundations of the CrossFit methods I learned through using CrossFit and when I became a CrossFit Level 1 Trainer coupled with strength training programs I have found useful, and a dose of firefighting “sport specific” tasks.  I write the programming and then do it as my programming BEFORE it will be posted on the website.  This allows me to make sure the programming is realistic yet challenging.

It must be said that this program is not affiliated with CrossFit.  We use their open source methods and exercises as a reference and resource and full credit is given to Coach Glassman and the CorssFit Team.

 FSWFitness starts with the belief that when you are on duty you have a responsibility to advance your fitness but ultimately that you have to be READY to go if the bell rings.  That means you should not be working out to a maximal capacity on duty.  In our program your duty days are dedicated to a good warm-up, working on skills that will advance your fitness, and mobility work.  One thing that firefighters tend to neglect is a solid stretching/flexibility/mobility component to their workouts.  The facts are indisputable: Flexibility reduces injury potential, speeds recovery, and increases the longevity of the athlete to perform his or her sport.  It is during your off duty time that you will work on making larger increases in your Strength, Stamina, and Work Capacity.  Our program is based on those firefighters who work a 24-hour shift followed by 48-hours off.  We offer up suggestions to modify the program for other shift options.  When we post our work outs we will do so three days worth of programming at a time and identify which work outs are scheduled for which days.

Ultimately FSWFitness is our attempt to share with you as a resource what the Fire Service Warrior Team is doing to improve OUR fitness and capacity.  This program may not be right for your goals.  You could get hurt doing this improperly (or properly if you are being stupid).  Caveat Emptor – Let the Buyer beware.  We offer no warranty and assume no liability if you hurt yourself through attempting to use our program. 

When Do We Start?

Beginning June 1^st, 2011 we will be posting our program here on the website.  You can expect to find three days worth of programming posted each day along with suggestions for reference material to learn certain skills and suggestions to modify the schedule based on various shift schedules.  We cannot custom tailor the program to every conceivable work schedule out there, so we assume that you will always keep in mind your DUTY TO ACT and restrain yourself from being too intense on duty.

Can I Jump Right In?

The FSWFitness program is designed for an individual who has a solid understanding of functional movements, experience with power lifting and Olympic weightlifting styles, and a capacity to perform bodyweight exercises.  In general we would recommend that you have six months of experience with doing workouts from Crossfit.com, SEALFit.com, or a similar program, under the guidance of a coach.  That being said, if you are intelligent in your implementation of our programming model, learn the movements before attempting to perform them under load, and ramp up your physical fitness prior to engaging in higher intensity bouts of training you can do so. You are a full grown adult and responsible for your choices and actions.

Be a student of your own body and your own fitness and make sure you are doing things properly.  Well executed technique should be your primary objective.

Why Don’t You Tell Me How Much Weight To Lift?

Strength is a very individual capacity.  In designing this program we make no assumptions about your current experience with strength training or your capacity to move heavy loads.  If you have a background in lifting you will incorporate this programming model in with the knowledge of what your 5, 3, and 1 repetition maximum (5RM, 3RM, 1RM) lifts are.  If you do not have a lifting background and don’t already have this data recorded then we recommend that you start off by spending six months following a novice lifting program like Mark Rippetoe’s Starting Strength Basic Barbell Training (with Lon Kilgore).  You can visit Coach Rip’s http://startingstrength.com/index.php for some good info on his program and order his books.  Power lifting and Olympic lifting demand good form and technique if you are going to progress and not injure yourself.  A couple of good sources for Olympic lifting are Coach Mike Burgener ‘s http://www.mikesgym.org/index.php and Coach Greg Everett’s http://www.cathletics.com/.  There are a tremendous number of resources out there to learn these skills.  We are not your coach, we are simply offering up for your use the program that we use for our fitness.

Can I Mix FSWFitness Work Outs In With Other Programming?

You are a full grown adult with free will; you can do anything you want.  Educate yourself, know your goals, and make the choice for yourself.  I am not your mother.

There Is A Lot of Volume On The First “Off Day”, Why?

Firefighting challenges our capacity across all of the previously mentioned ten general physical skills.  Additionally we often have to perform for periods of time up to 40 minutes without a significant rest or rehabilitation period.  Our model is designed to push harder on your first day off shift to improve the capacity to function in that 40 minute window that NFPA 1500 allows for before formal rehab.  During the Strength component of the day you should rest as needed between lifts.  You are performing sets across (you add weight to the bar each time) and looking to “find” your 5 or 3 rep max.  You last rep of your last set should be “almost” impossible to complete.  Take a no more than a ten minute rest between the first and second components (this is based on the self-rehabilitation criteria published by NFPA) during which you hydrate.

We schedule it when we do to allow the maximal recovery time before you return to duty.  That being said if you could not execute our hardest day two or three times in a day you need to ask yourself, “Would I be able to fight two or three fires in a day?”  Our model provides a true “rest” day once every six days, however two additional days you are working at sub-maximal capacity.  Your on-duty days are essentially active rest days that focus on warming up and mobility.  There really is no such thing as “over training” there is just being under rested.  If you are not making progress then you likely need more sleep, more food, or both.

How Much Sleep Should I Get?

As much as possible.  People slept nine or more hours a night even as recently as the early 1900’s.  With the invention and proliferation of the electric light we have conquered the night and screwed ourselves up ever sense.  At a minimum try and sleep seven to eight hours a night.  Your body needs the sleep to recover from both the stress of training and the effects of day to day stress.  I write pretty extensively about sleep deprivation and sleep debt in The Combat Position: Achieving Firefighter Readiness.  Sleep deprivation increases your risks of heart disease and cancer, the same two conditions that are killing hundreds of firefighters a year.  Lights Out, by T.S. Wiley is a reference for those who want to understand the way sleep has changed.

You Say I’m Supposed To Do “Mobility” Every Day, What Do I Do?

We have already mentioned that increased flexibility improves performance, recovery, and longevity.  As such we write into the program 10 to 15 minutes of mobility/flexibility/stretching work after every work out.  This is vital to improving your physical resiliency and should be of benefit in reducing your injury risk both on and off duty.  I recommend you visit http://www.mobilitywod.com and follow along from Day 1 of their programming.  It is comprehensive and instructive.  That being said any stretching routine that works to improve your overall flexibility, head-to-toe, will be of benefit.  Yoga is a particularly effective means of improving flexibility.  Find a system that works for you.

What Should I Eat?

The old adage “You are what you eat,” is absolutely accurate.  If you eat foods that are pro-inflammatory, increase insulin response, or lead to metabolic derangement then you are going to see negative outcomes.  Nutrition is the foundation of health and performance.  I use a Paleolithic (Paleo) Diet that tries to mimic the way 2 million years of human evolution adapted homo-sapiens to fuel themselves.  The basic prescription is to eat REAL FOOD.  If you cannot eat all the ingredients in your meal in their natural state you are not eating real food.  This means avoiding all grains, most legumes, and most dairy.  Think about a loaf of bread, you cannot eat the flour that is the majority component without mixing it with five or six other things to make it palatable.  If you simply shoveled a cup of flour in your mouth you are going to vomit.  That’s because your body sees this as poison.

I am not a nutritionist but I have done my research and have seen the changes in my performance from making the switch to eating Meat and Vegetables, some Fruit, moderate consumption of Nuts and Seeds, and avoiding processed Sugars roughly 80% of the time.  The other 20% of the time I will gladly have pizza, ice cream, alcohol, Cadbury Cream Eggs, and all sorts of delicious yet not particularly healthy options.  I agree with what Coach Mark Divine says over at his SEALFit.com site, “Life is too short to be perfect.”

I would recommend you do your research.  Go read Robb Wolf’s The Paleo Solution, and check out his website http://robbwolf.com/.  Visit Loren Cordain’s http://thepaleodiet.com/ and his books The Paleo Diet and The Paleo Diet for Athletes.   Find Gary Taube’s book Good Calories Bad Calories and you will get a very good sense of what you should be eating.  My rule is that if didn’t have a soul and you can’t eat it right off the vine/tree/plant be very aware of what you are using to fuel yourself; for example potatoes, yams, and the like are edible carbohydrates that you need to “prepare” by peeling and cooking to eat so even these should be consumed in moderation.  You will be burning a lot of energy, eat what you need to perform.

Oh, and drink plenty of water.

What Should I Expect This Program To Do For Me?

You should expect this program to improve your fireground performance, reduce your risk of injury (reduce people, not eliminate), and improve your ability to enjoy your retirement by maintaining a level of fitness that will help you avoid dying young.  That being said this program is not designed to make you a competitive weightlifter, runner, rower, swimmer, gymnast or anything else.  We have a sport as Fire Service Warriors and that is Fire Fighting.  This program should help you advance your fitness and your fireground performance. 

How Do I Know It’s Working?

I keep a very detailed log of my sleep, fitness, and diet.  I record the number of hours I sleep a night, what I am doing for fitness training each day, and what I am eating and when.  I do not weigh and measure my food, usually, and I never worry about calories.  What I do track is food quality and use that to measure my 80/20 rule compliance with eating good meals.  You can only measure your progress if you are keeping track of the data: how much weight did you move, how fast did you complete the work out, how many times a day did you eat clean?  You can post your results in the comments of each day’s work out at well and share them with us.  Part of being a Fire Service Warrior is being accountable to one another.

So, that is the biggest new project we are pushing out.  There are other programs in the works that we will be deploying over the course of the summer but I really believe that it is only though improving our fitness across the board that we can make any measurable change in Firefighter Injuries and Line of Duty Deaths.  Oh, and I don’t honestly care if you decide to follow this program or not.  All I can do is put the best information out there I can and encourage you to be better than you are today.  If you have a technique or skill you think we should add to the program send me an email thefireservicewarrior@gmail.com and we will try it out.  For each of you who think that you are in “good enough” physical shape I would say this: ask yourself if your family would be able to stand over your coffin at your wake and say, “Well, there is no way he could have been in better shape.”   If they can’t, then you aren’t there yet.

Let us know how the programming is working for you once we roll it out.  Cheers.

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[1] http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/exercise accessed 05/17/2011

[2] http://www.fitness.gov/digest_mar2000.htm accessed 5/17/2011

[3] http://library.crossfit.com/premium/video/CFJ_Glassman_VolumeUnderCurve1_ipod.mov?e=1305657344&h=3b2f420dacf5439ac8a556ba101caf51 accessed 5/17/11

A New Face at the Fire Service Warrior

I have mentioned that the Fire Service Warrior website is going to be moving in some new directions.  We are going to be expanding the content that we deliver.  One of the ways that is going to happen is through the addition of some new voices speaking about their use of the Fire Service Warrior Concept.  The first of our new contributors will be Brian Brush.

Some of you probably rememeber the video I posted a few weeks ago titled, "A Message to the Recruits."  If not, you should watch it before we move forward.

Brian is a Company Officer and Instructor from the beautiful state of Colorado.  Brian is a Lieutenant in the Denver Metropolitan area for a department that serves 110 square miles, and nearly 300,000 residents. The district operates 15 stations with 340 uniformed members and responds to an average of 24,000 calls for service annually. In his 9^th year with this department he has served time in Engine, Truck and the Department’s Rescue Company as both a firefighter and Lieutenant.  

Brian is going to be writing for us with his interpretation of what it takes to be a Fire Service Warrior.  Brian brings a lot to the table and I think his voice will be a very useful one to have contributing to the conversation.  Starting on Thursday May 26th.  With the addition of Brian to the team we will be regularly sharing content four days a week.

Another thing you might have noticed was that I pulled down the advertisements from the right side of the blog.  We did not see any financial gain from those, and I felt they became clutter that took away from the message.  Ultimately I produce this content with the intention of stimulating thought, discussion and hopefully reducing firefighter injuries and line of duty deaths through encouraging a single pointed focus on being Fire Service Warriors.

Now, I want to invite YOU to contribute to the discussion as well!  Please use the comments section to share your thoughts with us.  I would prefer that folks sign their name to their comments, but that's your choice.  That being said anonymous comments that are vitriolic stand a chance of being deleted.

Over the course of the next two weeks we are going to be rolling out additional content and looking for your feedback.  Keep checking the website and please keep referring folks to what we are doing here.  Cheers.

These Aren't the Droids You are Looking For....

So you might think, based upon my post from Friday April  You Don't Know, What You Don't Know that I was prescient.  Two days before the US Navy SEALs engage in a daring, high-risk, mission to capture (or kill) Usama Bin Laden I am posting about how they have back up plans for every possible failure (like a helicopter crashing say) and using them as an example of great mission planning.  We will chalk that up to coincidence.  The fact of the matter is my hat is off to those men who pulled that mission off. 

I have gotten some static from folks who take umbrage with my drawing parallels between the fire service and an elite unit such as the SEALs.  I've been told that our job isn't that hard.  I've been told that it is unreasonable to hold firefighters to the same standards of fitness and professional education that SEALs are held to.  I've been told that I just have a boy-crush on such capable performers.

I suppose the fact of the matter is I do look up to anyone who chooses to commit fully to a mission as arduous, dangerous, and demanding as the members of the military Special Operations Community do.  I've had the honor of knowing several current and former members of the: SEALs, Army Special Forces, Force Recon Marines, Navy and Air Force EOD, as well as men who served in the types of Tier 1 units who are assigned missions like the one which happened on Sunday.  Over the course of several years I had the honor of supporting exercises that men from those communities participated in, I have taught with them, and shared an adult beverage with them.  The thing that always struck me is that they are men who are consummate professionals, humble and quick to point out how they are simply part of a team.

I understand why people want to say that I am just being melodramatic when I draw parallels between what firefighters do and what members of such elite units do.  They know they couldn't live up to that standard.

The facts are out there:

• Firefighters expend metabolic energy at the same level as Navy SEALS and professional boxers. (See Chapter 2 in The Combat Position for all the details)
• Firefighters operate in an environment where the UNKNOWN is an ever present threat.
• Firefighters operate in zero visibility environments, with limited knowledge, under circumstances that engage our sympathetic nervous system, and must PERFORM in a thoughtful manner there.

I'll be 100% honest; I think we are far more lucky in the fire service than we are good, most of the time.  How many firefighters do you know personally who are lugging around the weight of two human beings?  How many firefighters do you know who will say, "Training is a waste of time, we know what to do."  How many firefighters do you know who would much rather focus on their side job then they would focus on our trade?  How many firefighters do you know who make it a part of their life to intensely prepare for the physical demands of the fireground and engage in physical fitness like a professional athlete? 

We are all human and we all have days where our commitment wavers or the pressure of our lives starts to take over, but that is what Brotherhood is all about.  If I lose focus on being prepared, on being Combat Ready, then I hope that my Brothers and Sisters will kick me in the ass to get back in the gym or back on the training ground.

If we are going to quit paying lip service to the reducing fire ground injuries and firefighter fatalities then we need to start making sure we are prepared to THRIVE on the fire ground.  We need to get out there and practice what to do when things go wrong.

• What is plan B when fire conditions are worsening and you cannot reach command on the radio?
• What will you do if you are searching a bedroom on the floor above the fire and return to the hallway and your partner isn't there?
• What will you when you arrive on scene for the automatic alarm at the high rise and fire is pushing out of two windows on the 13th floor?

If any of these questions stump you then you are not preparing to thrive.  The time has come for us to quit pretending that our job can be made safe, that we can achieve a day where "Everyone Goes Home" (unless "Home" is a reunification with the divine creation... there I said it), and that anyone who is not committed to excelling in the most threatening environment we operate in is putting their life and the lives of the people on their crew (not to mention the neighbors we protect) in greater danger of being killed or injured.

The time has come for each and everyone of us to own our responsibility to be the best we can be.  Everyday is a training day.  Everyday is an opportunity to work on improving your physical capacity.  Everyday is another day to take a step forward.  It doesn't matter if you are in your first year in the fire service, your tenth year in the fire service, or in your thirtieth year in the fire service you can choose today to make the day that you become better than your previous self.

You don't know, what you don't know

I'm in the middle of a heavy research cycle.  I go through phases where I just let information flood in and then ruminate on it for weeks to years before the light bulb over my head turns on and I say, "Got it... here is how it all ties together."  This week though a couple of things landed in my lap all at the same time.  First, there was an excellent video, featuing Kathryn Schulz about the very human act of being wrong.



Then I started reading Deep Survival by Laurence Gonzales.  I am still working on it but I was struck but a key point: We rarely interact with the world the way it is really occurring but with our perception of the world.

Our ability to "know" what is going on revolves around our expected mental picture of what is happening around us.  We simplify exceeding complex systems to a level where we can frame them for our understanding... EVEN IF WE ARE WRONG.  A fact that Gonzales comes back to over and over again is that those who find themselves in trouble (life and limb threatening events) often did not anticipate that they could find themselves in that kind of trouble.  They assumed everything would be okay, or worse they planned for a minor problem and in having a contingency plan for that minor issue they assumed they could handle ANY problem.  I have seen very little planning in the fire service for CATASTROPHIC failures.

Frank Brannigan said it for years, "Every sailor in the U.S. Navy is trained to abandon ship," how many of us are training on making a tactical retreat from a building?  How many of us are training our folks where mid-fire attack they air horns start sounding and they have to get out Now?

I've drawn parallels to our trade and that of members of elite military units before.  One of the things that makes the small unit tactics of the US Navy SEALs so effective is that their mission planning drives into dozens of "what if" scenarios for every possible contingency and failure point.  They examine their options if they find themselves in contact with the enemy during insertion, if they find themselves in contact when extracting, if they lose radio contact with their support elements, if they become separated during a movement or when in contact with the enemy and dozens of other small and large failures.  What this does is set up a mental model that ENCOURAGES mental AGILITY.

So, does your mission planning take into consideration all the possible failure points, or just enough minor ones to give you a false sense of confidence?  Do you use SOME those hundreds of hours you spend in the fire house working out with your partner, your company, and your battalion what to do when things go wrong?  It's an old military maxim that no plan survives first contact with the enemy; we need to figure out before we ever get on the Engine or Truck plans B, C, and D if we want to give our personnel the mental agility to adjust for a rapidly deteriorating situation.

Video Blog Episode 13

Episode 13 of our Video Blog is all about Visualization.  Visualization is a powerful tool, especially when used along with meditation.  Watch the Video all the way through the first time, then use it as part of a guided meditation to work on programing positive mental actions if you find yourself in a MAYDAY situation.

Using Meditation as a Game Changer,

Monday's video was about the importance of meditation.  Today I'm going to explore some meditation techniques, provide some resources, and talk about using your meditation as a game changer to improve your fireground performance.  For the Fire Service Warrior we learn to meditate so that we can learn to control the primal survival centers of the brain and to quiet the ego. 

The Ego can be a powerful motivator but it is also a powerful distraction.  The Ego is that piece of your psyche that says "I want."  Sometimes we get confused and think it says "I will," or "I can," it does not.  The Ego motivates as well as distracts because of WANT, because of DESIRE, because it COVETS.  It will find the easiest way to satisfy it's drives because in addition to being a desirous creature it is also a lazy creature.  How many people have you met in life who have said, "I want to exercise more,"?  It's a common refrain heard around New Year's each year.  How many of those same people establish a habit of excellence and achieve that goal?  Very few.  Why?  Their Ego came in and said, "Come on, we don't have time for this," or "You ran yesterday there is no reason for you to workout today; you are doing better than you did before," or "Well, you are feeling a little achy and tired you should take the rest of the week off."  The problem really is that the Ego Desires things (particularly comfort and luxury) but it does not Aspire to anything.  Aspiring to become something or to achieve something is a far more powerful motivator that desiring something.  I think that's because when we aspire we see the Virtue and Value in or goal and recognize it will improve us.  When we desire something it is the next "bright shiny object" and when something comes along that the Ego covets more than the current desire we toss aside the old object for the new. 

In order to be able to thrive on the fireground we have to quiet the Ego.  If the Ego is about comfort and luxury then it is out of place on the battleground of a working fire.  You will have to willingly and with clear focus do things that engage your Sympathetic Nervous System.  You will work to the extremes of physical effort.  You will likely confront situations that tax your emotional resilience.

Learning to Meditate teaches us to quiet the Ego; it teaches us to be 100% present in the moment.  Think about the modern fireground.  With the changing nature of fire behavior and it's effects on building construction we have mere seconds to recognize changing conditions before they have developed to the point we cannot control.  The inside of a structure fire DEMANDS 100% attention to be given to the firefight if we hope to maintain Situational Awareness, the ability to make relevant and timely decisions, and maintain company integrity.  Learning to Meditate can help us train our minds to achieve this goal.  Once we become adept at learning to quiet the Ego we can then use the skills of Visualization, Mental Rehearsal, and positive Self-Talk to program our responses for challenges that we anticipate.

Here is how I learned to Meditate.
I find a quiet spot, someplace where there are no distractions (the phone is turned off, the TV and Computer aren't factors, no one is going to come in and ask me to do anything).

I sit down or lie down in a comfortable position.

I close my eyes and begin to breathe slowly and deeply.  I use my diaphragm to breathe: my belly fills with air rather than my chest.  This allows a deeper more controlled breathing.  The belly should expand and "fill" on the in breath and completely collapse to expel the old air on the out breath.

I allow my body to relax; starting at my feet and working my way up to my shoulders I will contract the muscles of my body and then on an exhalation release the muscle.  This helps is releasing tension and quieting the aches and pains of the day.

I then begin to count my breaths.  Start with a four count breathing.  Inhale for a count of four, pause for a count of four, exhale for a count of four, pause for a count of four.  By counting your breaths you accomplish two things: 1 - you give the mind something to do (the old "boil water trick") and 2 - you practice Tactical Breathing that can aid in restarting your cognitive processing if you find your SNS gaining primacy.  It becomes a true reminder that you must find a calm sense to accomplish your mission.

At times a thought will pop into my mind, "What will I make for dinner," or "Oh, I need to finish that project," I simply think "Noted, I will deal with that later."  The key is to become aware of the distracting thoughts, acknowledge it, and then move on.  I found when I started learning to meditate I was constantly overwhelmed by extraneous thoughts, now I notice that if I start to have a distracting thought it actually disturbs my breathing.  So I refocus on the deep, rhythmic breathing and I can clear the distraction.

I usually set a timer on my phone for the amount of time I want to mediate.  Occasionally I will use a guided meditation to work on my visualization or relaxation skills.  Other things that can be helpful:

• Turn on some kind of soft instrumental music.
• Use a candle as a point of focus if you are unable or uncomfortable sitting with your eyes closed.
• Set aside the same time every day to practice meditation.

Set a goal for yourself that you will spend 21 days working on your meditation.   It is generally acknowledged it takes 21 days of repetition of a skill set to ingrain or change a habit.

I have mediated for nearly 20 years now.  I have changed my meditative practice to now include post work-out meditation (so I develop the ability to find tranquility when I am physically wrung out), mediation and mantra usage during workouts to reduce the noise of my body wanting to stop, and I continue to use mediation during times of quiet reflection to work on mental rehearsal and programing positive actions.

If you can find a workshop or class I think that is an excellent starting point.  Whether you take a class or not I would check out the local library to see about finding a book, or some guided meditation CDs.  I download the Meditation Society of Australia's podcast through iTunes to use quite often.  Their podcasts include a lecture and guided meditation.

Some other resources are:
http://www.how-to-meditate.org/
http://www.themeditationpodcast.com/
http://www.meditationcenter.com/
I don't use these resources but I offer them as suggestions.  Like anything use the wonders of Google to find a resource that works for you.

For the more advanced practitioner I would recommend looking into the articles that are available on www.SEALFit.com. If you sign up for their newsletter you get access to a great lecture on the "Unbeatable Mind".  It's good stuff. 

Good luck in your practice.  We will get into visualizations and then mental rehearsals in coming videos and articles.  Cheers.

Video Blog Episode 12

Here is Episode 12 of the video blog.



Remember that meditation is a skill that can be learned.  I highly recommend finding a workshop or teacher to learn from if you have never practiced meditation before.  For those of you with some exposure to the practice a guided meditation CD/Podcast/Video is an effective way to work on the skill.

This is NOT an April Fools Post.

I want to take up the topic of exploring the ideas I brought up in my article Four Dimensional Firefighting.  We are forging a Fire Service Warrior culture through this website, and I hope through those people who read, study, and apply the work I did in The Combat Position: Achieving Firefighter Readiness.  I am going to be 100% honest with my readers and say that these posts are about trying to learn how to articulate a very personal process that has been part of my life since I was right out of high school.  Nearly two decades later I feel like I have a deep enough understanding to begin expressing it.  I'm not sure exactly how to teach you how to practice these skills, but I hope we will discover that together along the way.

Ultimately the objective of looking at Four Dimensional Firefighting is to improve the capacity of the individual Fire Service Warrior to operate on the fire ground.  It is about embracing our duty as a spiritual quest as much as anything else.  I've looked at Western Culture and Eastern Culture for a long time.  I've read hundreds of philosophical essays and I've read tens of thousands of pages on both Fire Department Strategy and Tactics and Military Strategy and Tactics.  What I have found is this: those cultures (regardless of their hemisphere of origin) that have embraced the spiritual elements of success in combat speak about doctrine and guidelines; cultures that ignore the spiritual talk about technology and procedures.

Procedures are rote skills that we expect our people to accomplish.  Task A must be completed using steps 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8.  Guidelines on the other had are more general descriptors of what End State we want to reach and allow the individual Warrior to accomplish it has he or she sees fit.

Let's use the donning of an SCBA as an example.  When we take new candidates into our recruit academies we give them a Skill Sheet, a Procedure, to follow.  Step 1, turn the cylinder valve on; Step 2, grasp the back plate of the SCBA and lift; Step 3, allow the SCBA to slide over your arms and into position on your back.  The Procedure is important to Teach a Skill that we want to Measure the students ability to achieve.  With the guideline however we give the Warrior an End State we want achieved. "In 30 seconds be fully encapsulated and ready to go 'on air' to enter the fire building."  We don't have to say How to accomplish the task.

I have been trying to figure out WHY despite the decline in structure fire responses our Line Of Duty Death and perhaps more significantly our Fireground Injury rates are not declining.  I realized that key problem the other day looking at an inflatable shelter system covered in signs saying "Command", "Safety", "Rehab", and "Accountability".  We have totally lost the Spiritual side of the American Fire Service.  We invest in technology; we invest in signs, vests, and accountability systems.  We fail to invest in the Warrior though who will go into harms way.  Far too many departments will gladly drop hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy the newest, prettiest: Engine, SCBA, Turnout Gear, etc.  Yet I see those same departments cutting their Training budget as an acceptable way to "do more with less."

We need to embrace a long held view of the United States Special Operations forces: "Equip the man; Do not man the equipment".  We have been putting our energy in the wrong place.  We have focused on manning the equipment.  Far too often our selection and assessment tools that determine if an individual has the ability to learn this trade are focused on meeting an arbitrary standard.  We spend our finite budget on technological solutions and on procedures because they are easy to grasp.

That is why I keep exploring this Fire Service Warrior ideal.   We have to start "Equipping the man".  We must hire the best and brightest, who have drive and clarity of vision about their duty, and then train them until they CANNOT FAIL.  Look at what members of the United States Special Operations Command do all over the globe: with minimum support, minimal oversight, and at times using indigenous weapons and equipment they DOMINATE on the modern battlefield.  Why?  Because they only select into the fold those who will make the selfless choices, who will train not until they get it right but until they cannot get it wrong, who will be guided by their mission and their ethos.

The time has come for the American Fire Service to return to its roots, to our sense of DUTY, but to add in a cultivated, tangible Spiritual Essence if we are going to improve.  Those who want to learn and excel will.  Those who are afraid of these ideas will express hatred and dismay at the very idea.  If you are sitting at your desk, at the kitchen table, or in the recliner reading this know that our time is now.  Ignore the naysayers, do not allow the fearful to dissuade you from striving EVERYDAY for excellence

Monday we are going to talk about Meditation and a means of practicing it.  Cheers

Are You?

I had a phone conversation with a Brother a few weeks back and he asked me, "Do you consider yourself a Warrior?"  I paused and considered it for a second and said that I did.  He said he didn't feel like he was because there were still holes in his game: he didn't know EVERY sprinkler hook up in his first due, things like that.  That conversation and a follow-up email got me thinking and I feel like I need to define more clearly just what it is to be a Fire Service Warrior.

I think being a Fire Service Warrior is a state of mind, a sense of purpose, rather than a piece of paper that hangs on the wall that says you have learned some defined set of technical skills.  Being a Fire Service Warrior is a living thing, you have to feed it an nurture it for it to continue.  Maybe you have reached an elite level of fitness and wear you SCBA all the time, but if you start to slack off you are not embracing the dedication that it take to be a Fire Service Warrior.

So, I think if you take an honest look at yourself and say, "I am doing my best everyday," then you are on that Warrior path.  We all falter at times.  We all have days were our get up and go has got up and went.  One of the challenges is when you are trying to follow a warrior lifestyle alone.  We are communal creatures.  We perform better when we are encouraged and validated by our peers, and ultimately we work harder when we don't want to let down another member of the team.  This is why its motivating to have a partner that you workout with or study with.  You push each other.

So, that brings me to the new project that we are undertaking through Spartan Concepts, Inc. The Fire Service Warrior Apprenticeship. 

The Fire Service Warrior Apprenticeship is an educational path that promotes and develops critical knowledge, skills, and abilities which improve the individual firefighter’s ability to thrive on the fireground.  The Apprenticeship program includes formal courses in fire service topics, development of elite levels of functional fitness, development of intuitive decision making and mindfulness skills, and development of resiliency and endurance for the physical, mental, and emotional challenges faced by the Fire Service Warrior.

Apprentices are guided in their training by the Ethos of the Fire Service Warrior.

·         Fire Service Warriors accept the duty to stand between their neighbors and unrestrained fire.

·         Fire Service Warriors acknowledge the dangers of their vocation and do everything possible to minimize those dangers except shirk our duty.

·         Fire Service Warriors believe that all human life has value and will do everything possible to save a human life.

·         Fire Service Warriors know that buildings do not spontaneously combust; if we aren't 100% sure the building is vacant WE SEARCH.

·         Fire Service Warriors acknowledge that to reduce the risk of Cardiac Compromise they will maintain an elite level of fitness.

·         Fire Service Warriors wear seat belts, helmet straps, SCBA, and all PPE.

·         Fire Service Warriors train EVERYDAY.

·         Fire Service Warriors own their responsibility to their Brothers and Sisters.

·         Fire Service Warriors honor our fallen by learning everything possible from their deaths and from the injuries and near misses of our compatriots.

·         Fire Service Warriors acknowledge the reputation of the fire service was earned by those who came before us, often at the cost of their lives, and strive to never tarnish that reputation.

The Apprenticeship includes daily fitness and self-study training, weekly group sessions for the presentation of topics and group physical training, open communication with Instructors and fellow students, and the Agoge.  The Agoge is a 52 hour workshop presented over a Friday, Saturday, and Sunday where Apprentices receive mentoring and are tested for the skills of physical, mental, and emotional resiliency and endurance.  The objective of the Agoge is to have each apprentice demonstrate the capacity to perform under simulated emergency response conditions for a 48-hour period.  Each Apprentice MUST successfully complete the Agoge to be eligible for graduation from the Apprenticeship and elevation to the Journeyman level.

Individuals interested in participating in the Apprenticeship:

1.     Must be an active member of a Fire Department

2.     Must be certified to the Firefighter II/Basic Operations Firefighter Level or equivalent

3.     Submit a written letter of interest to info@spartan-concepts.com including a current resume, list of all education and certifications held, and an essay describing your goals as a firefighter and your reason for wanting to attend the apprenticeship.

More information is available for those interested in participating in the Apprenticeship program.  The first Apprentice class will commence in the Fall of 2011.  Those interested should submit a resume and essay as required through Spartan Concepts.

See you at FDIC.