Firefighters can go from a resting heart rate to a racing heart rate in minutes. They lug ladders, hoses, tanks and other gear that can weigh 100-200 pounds. They twist and squat, crawl and duck in fast-moving situations.<\/p>\n
Nationally, two-thirds of firefighters\u2019 injuries are from strains and sprains, similar to competitive athletes. \u201cWe\u2019re finally getting it out there that firefighting is a strenuous job,\u201d said firefighter Andrew Wilke, a 22-year veteran. \u201cWe\u2019re ordinary people doing a job that has some unique demands.\u201d<\/p>\n
UW-Milwaukee associate professor and licensed athletic trainer Kyle Ebersole calls these first responders \u201coccupational athletes.\u201d After studying the unique physical demands of their profession for nearly a decade, he used his expertise and close relationships with the Milwaukee Fire Department to redesign departmental fitness and performance evaluations. His approach helps new recruits train better for the job and accelerates the recovery process for injured firefighters. Better health and fewer injuries also\u00a0means\u00a0major savings for fire departments and the taxpayers who fund them \u2013 $4 million in Milwaukee since 2010.<\/p>\n
Ebersole became interested in firefighter fitness in 2005 at the University of Illinois, where a faculty mentor was involved with the school\u2019s Fire Institute. For Ebersole, the work raised more questions.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was very little known about performance,\u201d he explained. \u201cHow do you help firefighters become better firefighters? How do you improve firefighter performance and injury outcomes?\u201d<\/p>\n
By 2008, Ebersole had returned to UW-Milwaukee, where he\u2019d been a professor and director of the athletic training program nearly a decade earlier. Networking through friends and colleagues, Ebersole connected with Luis Rivera, a physical therapist who introduced him to Jason Mims, health and safety officer for Milwaukee Fire Department.<\/p>\n
\u201cMims said he needed help reducing firefighters\u2019 injury rate and the costs involved,\u201d Ebersole recalled. \u201cLuis told him: \u2018I know someone who may be able to help.\u2019 That\u2019s where the three of us gelled this idea.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ebersole and his partners designed a plan to prepare Milwaukee firefighters for the physical rigors of the job. The department launched a Peer Fitness Training Program, which has certified 30 firefighters as personal fitness trainers since 2010. Others firefighters who want to establish personal fitness programs can now go to their colleagues for training.<\/p>\n
Ebersole does 10 continuing education trainings a year for the Milwaukee Fire Department\u2019s personal fitness trainers. He and UW-Milwaukee students working with him also can be found regularly at cadet trainings, testing new recruits. A ball throw measures power. A step test measures aerobic capacity. A plank exercise tests core endurance.<\/p>\n
Ebersole\u2019s contribution is just one part of a broad focus on firefighter wellness in the department. But he\u2019s credited with being a major reason the overall effort has succeeded, saving millions of dollars with fewer medical claims, less time lost at work and lower costs for replacements.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt could not have been done without Kyle understanding the vision and saying, \u2018How do we get there through training, through research, through some of the programs we\u2019re working on right now?\u2019\u201d Mims said. \u201cThe programs are so much easier to push through because the union buys in, because firefighters trust Dr. Ebersole. It\u2019s a partnership you can\u2019t even dream up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ebersole, Mims and Rivera now hope to scale up their Milwaukee success nationally. Their startup company, Tactical Athlete Health and Performance Institute, won a $25,000 entrepreneurship Ideadvance Grant from UW-Extension and already has studied firefighter fitness programs at more than 50 departments. The trio presented their program at the Metropolitan Fire Chiefs Conference in Las Vegas last year and are looking to land additional consulting contracts.<\/p>\n
Ebersole continues to teach in the Athletic Training and Physical Therapy programs in the Integrative Health Care and Performance unit and has four students \u2013 two at the graduate level and two undergrads \u2013 working with him on his research.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis work has created a palpable buzz throughout the active-duty firefighter population,\u201d said David Cornell, a doctoral candidate in kinesiology who\u2019s doing his dissertation using data from an intervention study done with firefighters in the field. \u201cThis buzz has led to others becoming interested, as well. Hopefully, the end products of this study can create an even bigger snowball effect across these departments and the community.\u201d<\/p>\n
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