Firefighter fitness is one of the hot-button issues in today’s fire service. In fact, last year’s Fire/EMS Safety, Health and Survival Week carried the theme of “Fit for Duty.”
With a vast range of options on the market, however, deciding the best type of equipment to use to improve fitness levels can be a challenge.
One possible option new to the market is the Sledbarrow. Designed by Toronto-based Andre Agate, a strength and conditioning specialist and former NCAA football player, the Sledbarrow is basically a wheelbarrow on steroids. The conditioning tool can be configured in three ways: as a wheelbarrow, as a drag sled, and as a drive sled.
The wheelbarrow configuration allows you to perform squats, shrugs, lunges, deadlifts, and a number of other tortuous full-body exercises.
In the drag sled configuration, users hook up one of the straps that come with the unit to their torso and drag the loaded sled behind them.
The drive sled configuration allows users to push the loaded sled in front of them, like a football player pushing against a blocking sled.
The Sledbarrow can hold up to 400 pounds of dumbbell plates while in the wheelbarrow configuration, and there are various hooks that allow especially masochistic users to add additional weighted chains and straps.
Mike Ruffo, a nine-year veteran of Toronto Fire Services, has been using the Sledbarrow to train for the Firefighter Combat Challenge, saying it’s helped him improve his conditioning.
“It’s good because dragging the Sledbarrow downhill mimics coming down stairs, which is the hardest part of the competition because you have a 20-pound tank on your back and you’re trying to hit every step,” he said.
That’s exactly what the machine was designed for — mimicking real-world exercises of the kind that firefighters face on the job. The YouTube video that of Ruffo working out with the Sledbarrow shows some of the ways firefighters can use the tool to train for their job.
“It truly mimics a lot of the actions they do,” Agate said. “It’s going to train your muscles so when you actually go into action you’ll be prepared in a way that just dragging a dummy won’t do.”
The Sledbarrow was designed with the intention of giving fitness enthusiasts and professionals one tool that is portable and functional. Find more details on the Web at www.sledbarrow.com.