Fitness is essential for some jobs. Not just to qualify but to maintain effectiveness within them. So being committed to keeping fit and keeping your body healthy at the same time is important. This could mean warming up or cooling down properly to keep your muscles safe, or perhaps learning how to rehydrate properly after a session. Athletes would be one example, but this would seem rather obvious, particularly if they are training for the Olympics. So, this article will explore non-sporting occupations in its examination of the subject of work-related fitness.
Army
The fitness level for the British Army is generally that a candidate should be capable of running 1.2 miles after a 0.5-mile warm-up jog of between 6.5 minutes and 7 minutes. In addition, those wanting to join the army must be able to run 1.2 miles in 11.5 minutes or quicker. This is the entry standard set for an adult soldier to enter for many of its roles.
Soldiers will be required to prove their fitness with regular runs and drills. It is important that they are ready for the front line in terms of their fitness, otherwise they will not only be no support to their fellow soldier but could potentially endanger their life as the proverbial lame duck.
To produce the same action as long distance running, a running machine or treadmill can be used. It can be judged that someone has run for a certain amount of time at the kinds of gradients that resemble mountainous regions and rough terrain.
Police Force
In the UK, the police have a fitness test that they use. It is called the CTPRT and designed specifically for the Police Service of England and Wales as the alternative to the 15 metre Shuttle run test. Following sufficient warm-up, the officer is required to run at a quick pace of 10.4 miles per hour on a treadmill. Every 2 minutes that they are running the gradient will, to make it extra challenging, be adjusted and raised by a designated amount.
These tests are important because there will be instances where officers need to run after suspects. It is vital that, as police cars are designed to travel at fast speeds to keep up on police chases, so are those officers on the beat. It is what gives an officer the edge over the criminal.
In many police departments, individuals in safety-critical roles, such as tactical officers, SWAT team members, or K-9 handlers, often undergo Safety Critical Medical examinations. These evaluations are designed not only to assess an individual’s physical fitness and overall health but also to determine whether they are able to work without posing a danger to others.
Furthermore, to maintain regular fitness, it is a requirement of police forces that their police officers spend time in the gym to keep up their fitness levels. Equally, fitness at home would be an alternative to pursuing lines of duty with effectiveness.
Fire Fighter
Apart from being brave, fitness is also an important attribute for a fire fighter to have. In fact, essential, as there will be times when individuals need rescuing. To manoeuvre another human being down a ladder and out of a burning building requires a good deal of strength as well as technique. Strength can be built-up by working hard on muscle-building fitness equipment, either at home or in the gym. Lifting dumbbells or performing bench press-ups will improve upper and lower body strength and using a rowing machine will achieve the kind of stamina required to pull several people out of an inferno. Supplements from a site similar to steelsupplements.com can help firefighters to achieve this sort of strength and stamina.
So, it is interesting to consider the occupations where fitness is essential. In all the above cases, fitness is acquired and maintained out of necessity. Whereas, in the case of an office worker, they will seek to pursue fitness out of leisure. Which one is more likely to have gym equipment at home is debateable? However, where fitness needs to be proven for a job, it will generally take the form of not proving gym membership but actual fitness. This will, in all instances, be tested for on a regular basis to not put work colleagues in peril due to a lack of it. This suggests, then, that the employees from the above services are highly likely to have gym equipment at home, just as those pursing it in leisure do, as a more cost-effective alternative to gym membership.