Fit for Fire: A 10-Week Low-Cost HIFT Experiential Learning Initiative between Underrepresented Kinesiology Undergraduates and Hypertensive Deconditioned Firefighters Improves Their Health and Fitness

Melanie Poudevigne,Da’Lynn Mills,Thomas Andre,Eon Campbell,Ximena Zornosa,Reginald Porter,Christina Day

doi:10.3390/educsci11010033

Abstract

The aims of this study were to investigate the feasibility of an experiential learning initiative led by minority exercise science undergraduates and to observe the adaptations after a 10-week high-intensity functional training (HIFT) program in 34 underrepresented, hypertensive, and overweight/obese professional firefighters (PFF; age: 36.8 ± 11.0 years, body weight: 97.3 ± 21.5 kg, height: 181.7 ± 6.6 cm; BMI: 29.2 ± 4.9 kg/m2). Data were analyzed for muscular strength and endurance, cardiorespiratory endurance, body composition, agility, flexibility, and readiness for change. The PFFs trained two to three times weekly during their work shifts at vigorous intensity for 40 min. Their resting diastolic blood pressure and resting heart rate significantly decreased. Improvements in agility, muscular strength, and readiness for change were observed. This HIFT experiential learning initiative was feasible and beneficial and improved the PFFs’ health and physical fitness with limited resources. Accredited programs in exercise science participating in low-cost initiatives may aid in mitigating public service workers’ compensation and injury rates to better respond to occupational demands.

Highlights

Experiential learning, such as services or experiences, has long been used as a principal constituent to foster the application of concepts and skills learned in the classroom to real-world public situations [1,2]
The purpose of the current study was to examine the feasibility of the experiential learning initiative and the changes in health and fitness parameters of a sample of professional firefighters subjected to a 10-week high-intensity functional training (HIFT) program
This study examined the benefits of HIFT by improving on the limitations seen in several studies [20,40]—in particular, where the authors stated that they were working with high-intensity training but did not report consistently checking that the participants were at high intensity during the vigorous exercise

Summary

Introduction

Experiential learning, such as services or experiences, has long been used as a principal constituent to foster the application of concepts and skills learned in the classroom to real-world public situations [1,2]. Previous studies examining learning in a wide array of disciplines found that experiential learning effectively leads to better learning results [4,5,6,7]. Service learning (SL), a form of experiential learning [8], is designed to foster a collaboration between students and community or health organization(s) to provide an opportunity to eventually apply learned KSAs to meet the needs of a specific community [9]. Researchers from several studies examining SL programs in kinesiology have documented the benefits of students’ participation, including enhanced levels of self-efficacy [10], moral development [11], deeper understanding contents [7], and greater interaction with culturally different individuals [12].

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Methods

Conclusion