The Fire Service and CrossFit: The Perfect Combination

The Orange County Fire Authority (OCFA) serves 1.3 million residents in southern California. Responding from 60 fire stations, OCFA covers over 550 square miles. The OCFA has more than 800 career firefighters. To help them manage their fitness, the Fire Authority established a wellness and fitness program in October 2003 (IAFF and IAFC Wellness and Fitness Initiative). As a result of the wellness and fitness program, OCFA basically stumbled onto CrossFit. Starting in September 2004, our trainers began traveling around the country attending seminars and workshops on a variety of workout topics. Some of these courses were very informative. Some were a waste of time. The goal was to build a functional movement-based program, focused on performance.

OCFA management was open to the idea of changing the academy fitness program in hopes that the new program would help decrease the number and severity of injuries experienced in previous academies. In order to correctly evaluate the needs of the academy, a task analysis of the department's manipulative skills was done. The analysis revealed that the majority of firefighting tasks included squatting, lifting, pressing, and pulling. Tasks were typically done with 60 pounds of protective clothing and respiratory

It was during this time that a new member of the department, firefighter Tony Duchi, introduced his fire station crew to a web-based workout program called CrossFit. One of the crew members was Jeff Hoey, one of the department's 36 ACE-certified trainers.