Firefighting can be  an extremely physically demanding job, at an emergency call firefighters are required wear an extra 50 lbs of protective clothing and equipment. They are expected to be able to climb flights of stairs, carry heavy hoses and pull victims to safety. The stress levels on the body is so high that  the lead cause of fatal injuries to firefighters is a heart attack.

Because of this it is imperative that a firefighter be in the best physical shape possible.

The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) has guidelines for firefighter exercise expectations, and most fire departments have made it mandatory for their members to work out a certain number of hours per week.

However as the Los Angeles Times reports most of firefighters’ injuries might be as a result of exercising not firefighting. Jeannine Stein for the Los Angeles Times writes:

“A study released online Wednesday in the journal Injury Prevention looked at injuries sustained by 650 firefighters and emergency medical service workers (paramedics, engineers, inspectors and battalion chiefs) at 21 fire stations from 2004 to 2009. The frequency of injuries per year was on average 17.7 per 100 employees.

Almost 33% of all injuries happened during mandatory exercise during a worker’s shift. The exercises are geared to keep emergency workers in shape for the types of jobs they do and to prevent injury. Transporting patients accounted for 16.9% of injuries, training drills 11.1% and fireground operations 10.2%.

“Exploring the root causes of these events and the manner in which physical exercise is performed, monitored and evaluated,” the authors wrote, “should be of greater emphasis within the fire service.”