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NFPA and most other organizations support exercising on-shift to promote health, wellness, and physical performance
By Jacob A. Mota, Ph.D., CSCS, Assistant Professor of Kinesiology, Director, Neuromuscular and Occupational Performance Laboratory

This article originally appeared in the Winter 2025 issue. View the full issue here.
We all know the grind: at least 24 long, unpredictable hours.
It affects everyone. Sometimes it’s the busy work, the mundane calls, the grocery runs. Sometimes, at hour 10 of overtime, that late-night tone drops for a working structure fire in a mutual-aid neighboring city.
No matter where or when it hits us, we smother our problems with caffeine or nicotine and push through. It’s easy to let the unpredictable nature of the job convince us to let our health and wellness take a back seat.
How else are we going to get “me” time?
The theory is that being in the best physical shape will make this job easier for years to come and far into retirement. The reality is that we must convince ourselves to prioritize exercise and not be afraid of exercising on shift (besides, being paid to exercise makes us professional athletes … right?) Joking aside, we all know the logistical and physical difficulties of working out on shift.
The question is whether this challenge is worth overcoming.
Benefits of Exercise
Exercise has many physical and mental health benefits. The scientific literature presents strong evidence that a combination of cardiovascular, strength, and power training can improve occupational performance for air management, balance, and injury risk.
Other data suggest that exercise can reduce the risk of certain cancers. More recently, physical exercise has been shown to be a great way to improve mental health: it’s shown to be on par with drug therapy in some studies. Another great benefit is that exercise sessions can improve sleep quality and duration – and in this job who doesn’t want that?
The takeaway is clear: exercise has many benefits for overall health and wellness.
But you can’t just talk about it. Regular exercise must be built into the daily habits of firefighters both on and off shift. It must be carefully planned, and that may be difficult. Resistance training should be heavy, and runs or cardio sessions should sometimes make your heart rate approach your maximum.
Working Out on Shift
As a scientist, I am unusual in that my background includes both firefighting and coaching in strength and conditioning. So I know that there are many challenges to be faced if you want to work out on shift.
Depending on your location, you may have limited resources available. Some cities have a single centralized fire department gym, others have gym memberships for their crews, while still others have gyms at each house.
Assuming you have access to some sort of facility, your challenges may be exercise selection, proper form and technique, and program design. Arguably the biggest challenge may be time. How long and how frequent should workouts be? How will you manage incidents that occur during a workout?
Many departments may allocate one hour of each shift to physical training. But when that hour actually occurs may be the tough part. When do you (or, when does your captain) carve out that hour? At night? First thing in the morning?
Either way, it’s very possible that your tone will drop during or immediately after that workout. What are you supposed to do if you’re in the middle of a high-intensity interval training session on an exercise bike when dispatch calls? The answer is difficult, but simple: you stop exercising and turnout, just as you would with any other call.
This is what many firefighters, old and new alike, worry about – and I get it. I often hear some version of this argument: “If the tones drop for the big call, I want everyone to be fresh and ready.”
This argument is valid, and it’s something I’ve experienced firsthand. But for many departments across the country these big calls are few and far between. There is a long-term, net benefit for fire crews to risk working out right before an average call rather than not working out at all.
Yes, I said risk.
Risk Factors
We know that when dispatch tones you out for an incident, big or small, and you’re in the middle of a training session or have just finished one, you might be fatigued. Depending on how tired you are, you may be at an increased risk of slipping, tripping, falling or encountering other musculoskeletal issues that could cause an injury.
But here’s the kicker: if you avoid working out for any reason, your body will deteriorate over time. Compare the 23-year-old boot to a 35-year veteran. Age-related deterioration can be slowed (and sometimes even reversed) with exercise.
The risk of regular physical training before a call-out is balanced, therefore, by many benefits.
Properly planned on-shift exercise sessions can help individual firefighters combat obesity, improve cardiometabolic health, and overcome mental health challenges. If individuals skip too many on-shift training sessions, the negative health consequences become more likely. And this may be the cause of the difficult staffing position much of the fire service finds itself in at the moment.
Workouts: How Often?
Not every shift has to have intense exercise sessions that exhaust you. In fact, as a strength coach, I would argue those should be few and far between.
Exercising as a crew presents great opportunities for team building – just look up your favorite college football team on YouTube in August for evidence. By exercising on shift, you’ll find that you and your crew will have increased energy and greater focus when you need it most – for a big incident or even just a midnight run.
No online resource can provide exercise recommendations for every fire department. Each station and shift is unique. Strength and conditioning programs for the fire service need to be individualized based on the needs of each department.
In some circumstances, it is possible for training goals to be individualized across companies. Some departments and their relevant city leaders employ full-time, certified athletic performance staff rather than simply leaning on team members who are great at CrossFit or bodybuilding.
Despite the many logistical challenges, NFPA and most other organizations support exercising on-shift to promote health, wellness, and physical performance. Individual departments and firefighters should be provided with the information necessary to decide when and how to participate in exercise training.
This article originally appeared within the Winter 2025 issue. View the full issue here, or browse all back issues in the CRACKYL Library.