Firefighter Functional Fitness is the essential guide to optimal firefighter performance and longevity. It provides all firefighters with the knowledge, mindset, and tools to:Maximize their fire ground performance Reduce their risk of injury and experiencing a line-of-duty deathLive a long, healthy career and retirementDesigned for firefighters by firefighters, this book shares the The 4 Pillars of Firefighter Functional Fitness: Physical FitnessRecovery and RestHydrationNutrition and LifestyleIt also reveals the The Big 8 concept, which includes over 100 photos and descriptions of functional exercises, movements, and stretches that are specifically designed to enhance firefighter performance. The Workout Programming chapter gives firefighters numerous options for putting The Big 8 into action, taking into account all levels of fitness. Additionally, each chapter provides practical action steps for both immediate improvement and long-term success.Must-read bonus chapters include:The Importance of Annual Medical EvaluationsAn Analysis of the Fire Service's Cardiovascular EpidemicFirefighter Physical Agility AssessmentsAddressing Organizational Barriers to FitnessFrequently Asked QuestionsAlarmingly, over the past 10 years, the fire service has suffered more than 1,000 line-of-duty deaths. Unfortunately, over 50% of these LODDs were attributed to heart attacks, strokes, and other medical causes. Firefighter Functional Fitness attacks these statistics by providing all firefighters with the tools needed to combat this epidemic.Firefighter Functional Fitness brings together the authors' combined 40+ years of fire service experience and decades of utilizing functional fitness principles. The result is an invaluable resource with the vital tools and knowledge that firefighters desperately need to not only enjoy a healthy and productive career, but also benefit with a healthy retirement.

Noted sports performance expert and bestselling author of Core Performance, Verstegen reveals the training program he uses with elite athletes and U.S. Special Operations Forces. As founder and president of EXOS, Mark Verstegen has trained the world’s top athletes in sports including the NFL, Major League Baseball, and worldwide soccer powers, along with the most elite “tactical athletes”—U.S. Special Operations Forces personnel. More than a decade ago, Verstegen’s groundbreaking book Core Performance revolutionized the fitness industry and made core conditioning and functional training mainstream. In his new book, Verstegen presents his most hardcore program yet: a demanding system that challenges readers to perform at the highest level. Borrowing heavily from his regimens used by the military and NFL-combine hopefuls, Verstegen breaks the system down into tough but easy-to-follow workouts that help readers become faster, more explosive, and more powerful while moving with greater efficiency and with far less potential for injury. If you’ve ever wanted to perform like the top sports champions or elite fighting forces, this is the book for you.

Pain does not have to be part of the normal aging process. Randy Raugh has taught thousands how to keep their body's muscles, joints, and bones feeling young. Here, he offers his approach to achieving a healthy, long life by focusing on maintaining healthy joints and providing specific strategies for doing so. Using Raugh's techniques and philosophy of body wisdom, readers of all fitness levels will learn how to: prevent injuries and heal physical damage accumulated over a lifetime; achieve better results from exercise while eliminating or minimizing joint and muscle pain; talk to their doctors about surgery and common misdiagnoses; and create a simple fitness plan that fits into their daily routines. Based on cutting-edge research, more than two decades of hands-on experience, and the stories of real people, Raugh provides an innovative exercise program, tips, and tools to build a strong, pain-free and youthful body.--From publisher description.

Discover functional training like you’ve never seen or experienced! This training is easy, fast and fun and it will revolutionize your health and athletic performance. It will become a new way of life! Functional training is a scientific method for personal training, workouts at the gym, at home or outdoors. The book is divided into three parts: The first, theoretical part explains the ‘why’ at the foundation of functional training; the second, practical part contains bodyweight exercises and exercises with various tools (sandbags, medicine ball, kettlebells). The final section proposes several specific training programs for strength, hypertrophy and weight loss. Welcome to the revolution in functional training! Get your focus and follow it!

Physical inactivity is a key determinant of health across the lifespan. A lack of activity increases the risk of heart disease, colon and breast cancer, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, osteoporosis, anxiety and depression and others diseases. Emerging literature has suggested that in terms of mortality, the global population health burden of physical inactivity approaches that of cigarette smoking. The prevalence and substantial disease risk associated with physical inactivity has been described as a pandemic. The prevalence, health impact, and evidence of changeability all have resulted in calls for action to increase physical activity across the lifespan. In response to the need to find ways to make physical activity a health priority for youth, the Institute of Medicine's Committee on Physical Activity and Physical Education in the School Environment was formed. Its purpose was to review the current status of physical activity and physical education in the school environment, including before, during, and after school, and examine the influences of physical activity and physical education on the short and long term physical, cognitive and brain, and psychosocial health and development of children and adolescents. Educating the Student Body makes recommendations about approaches for strengthening and improving programs and policies for physical activity and physical education in the school environment. This report lays out a set of guiding principles to guide its work on these tasks. These included: recognizing the benefits of instilling life-long physical activity habits in children; the value of using systems thinking in improving physical activity and physical education in the school environment; the recognition of current disparities in opportunities and the need to achieve equity in physical activity and physical education; the importance of considering all types of school environments; the need to take into consideration the diversity of students as recommendations are developed. This report will be of interest to local and national policymakers, school officials, teachers, and the education community, researchers, professional organizations, and parents interested in physical activity, physical education, and health for school-aged children and adolescents.

The Lifestyle-integrated Functional Exercise (LiFE) program is a way of reducing the risk of falls by integrating balance and strength activities into regular daily tasks. Unloading the dishwasher becomes an opportunity to improve strength. Brushing your teeth becomes an opportunity to improve balance. In the LiFE program, every daily task becomes an opportunity to improve balance and strength. This is a different approach to a traditional program where you would be required to complete a series of exercises a certain number of times a day for a set number of days each week. The trainer's manual outlines the principles of the LiFE program and provides a step-by-step guide for therapists and trainers to implement the program with their clients. It should be used in conjunction with the participant's manual so that the program is fully understood from both the trainer's and participant's perspectives.

This textbook focuses on the relationship between physical exercise and cognition, a very timely and important topic with major theoretical and practical implications for a number of areas including ageing, neurorehabilitation, depression and dementia. It brings together a wide range of analytical approaches and experimental results to provide a very useful overview and synthesis of this growing field of study. The book is divided into three parts: Part I covers the conceptual, theoretical and methodological underpinnings and issues. Part II focuses on advances in exercise and cognition research, with appropriate sub-sections on ‘acute’ and ‘chronic’ exercise and cognition. Part III presents an overview of the area and makes suggestions for the direction of future research. This text provides a cutting-edge examination of this increasingly important area written by leading experts from around the world. The book will prove invaluable to researchers and practitioners in a number of fields, including exercise science, cognitive science, neuroscience and clinical medicine. Key Features: Unique in-depth investigation of the relationship between physical exercise and brain function. Covers theoretical approaches and experimental results and includes chapters on the latest developments in research design. Examines the effects of both acute and chronic exercise on brain function. International list of contributors, who are leading researchers in their field.