starting a weight/fitness room

[traumacode23]

I am a firefighter/emt on a small two house full/part-time department that dose not have a weight/fitness program what so ever. We have approched our chief as well as our fire board, their answer was a liabilty issue, and basicly said no. My question to you is if your department has a weight/fitness room and an estimated price. Any other sugestions will be very helpful. Thank you

[DeputyChiefGonzo]

Posted by Traumacode 23...

I am a firefighter/emt on a small two house full/part-time department that dose not have a weight/fitness program what so ever. We have approched our chief as well as our fire board, their answer was a liabilty issue, and basicly said no.

Having a weight/fitness room is a liability issue? So is having overweight, out of shape firefighters who could get injured in killed in the line of duty! The payout for fitness equipment is far less than the payout of overtime coverage for someone who is out IOD or the payout for a LODD!

Physical fitness is an essential in this business. I see a couple of alternatives here. One is to ask the Chief and fire board if they will pay for a membership to a fitness club...it would be done off property and off duty...no liability for the Department. Of course, I think this is scatology...you should be able to work out on duty...you can respond from there!

The other alternative is to invest in some free weights, maybe a few machines. In our weight room, we have dumbbells from 10 to 85 pounds, weight plates from 2.5 to 45 pounds each, a few free weight bars, a Maxicam machine (allows someone to do bench presses without a spotter and can be used for other exercises, like squats, shoulder press, leg press, etc.), a lat/cable pull machine, a leg extension machine, leg curl machine, a stair stepper and a treadmill. You could probably get a good weight room for about $5K if you are buying brand new equipment...it can be done with as little as $2K if you don't want to get too many machines (I feel that a stair machine and a treadmill are a must for cardio work)

Check with some of the health clubs in your area and see if they will donate some equipment to you. The health club industry is always replacing their equipment to keep up with the competition, they can use the donation as a tax writeoff and good PR.