040. Let's Give Them That Flame They Used to Have - Fire Athlete [Part 1]

In Part 1 of our series with Joff Fierro from Fire Athlete, we spark a conversation on firefighter fitness, exploring the challenges, triumphs, and transformative power of prioritizing health and well-being within the fire service.

🔥 Join your host, TJ, as he and Joff explore the unique hurdles firefighters face when striving to maintain peak physical condition amidst the demands of the job.

🏋️‍♂️ Joff sheds light on just how quickly fire service life can overwhelm a firefighter's life, especially when it comes to fitness. From grueling schedules to high-stakes emergencies, firefighters navigate a relentless whirlwind that often leaves little time for personal health and wellness.

🤝 Discover the importance of extending a helping hand to fellow firefighters who may be struggling with fitness challenges, fostering a culture of support, encouragement, and accountability.

💪 Explore the transformative potential of consistent firehouse workouts as Joff shares insights into the benefits of prioritizing physical fitness as a cornerstone of firefighter readiness and resilience.

🔥 Plus, unlock the secrets of Fire Athlete's innovative programs designed specifically for firefighters, offering tailored workouts, expert guidance, and unparalleled support on the journey to peak performance and well-being.

As a patron of Keep the Promise, you're not just supporting a podcast—you’re joining a community of like-minded, aggressive firefighters who want to be the best at their craft. You’ll gain access to daily workouts, weekly mindset meditations, and early access to the insights you need to stay on top of your game. Support Keep the Promise and take your place among firefighters who know that our st

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Transcript

TJ: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode of the keep the promise podcast. I'm your host TJ. And today I am joined by. How do I even describe this dude? I mean, he is a firefighter. He is an athlete, which is going to give you a glimpse into what we're going to talk about. He has mastered the art of communicating via memes and shit posting.

And generally one of those dudes that I love chatting with and whose brains I am excited to pick. So without further ado from fire athlete himself, Joff Fiero.

Joff: Thank you, sir. Thank

TJ: thank you for joining me today. How are you?

Joff: Great, man. I'm happy to be here. Thanks for having me on.

TJ: Of course, of course. I know we started having thoughts about doing this a while back and I'm glad we were able to connect and get this thing rolling. Life gets busy. You're over

Joff: Oh, absolutely.

TJ: in Phoenix. How's the weather?

Joff: Um, we're actually doing pretty good right now. It's gonna get hot this weekend. Um, and it's like once you, once we hit about 90, I think around here, it usually doesn't end. It just gets worse. But the weather has been absolutely gorgeous up until probably the next few days.

TJ: I remember I took a trip to Phoenix a few years back and it was awesome. Like hundreds of degrees dry heat. I wasn't even sweating. But then I realized how the desert was trying to kill me because I stepped out of the car and my flip flop like my soul started melting to the pavement. I'm like, Oh my god, this is insidious.

Joff: Yeah, dude. A lot of people can't, can't hang. Um, we get like, do you know what snowbirds are? Do you get snowbirds? Yes. We get a lot of those. Um, it's like a lot of our calls, unfortunately, is that they'll, they'll either leave too late or they'll try and stay through the summer. And they're just like, Oh my goodness.

Like how do you guys live in 110 degrees? And I personally, and people think I'm nuts. I love it. I love heat. I'm a desert rat through and through until I die. Like this is my place. I hate the cold. I cannot stand the cold, dude. It's terrible.

TJ: How is it wearing turnout gear and firefighting in that heat? And I'm asking because I spent some time in Lake Havasu City. So we can go into a moral discussion about building that place. But I'd be out there pushing the limits of the car's AC to the max at noon and I'd see guys outside training and turn on the camera and be like, you guys are absolutely off your rockers.

Like, I would run one call and just be dead for the whole rest of the shift.

Joff: it's, it's different, man. Um, that being said, like I've never worn turnout gear in negative 20, but I would imagine if you keep all that heat inside, right? Um, it's, uh, Dude, it's something you absolutely have to acclimate to. Otherwise, you're not going to be able to hang. It's something that I had to learn how to do quickly.

Um, but that heat, dude, like, you know, it's 110 degrees outside, but you have all that internal heat that's stuck inside your turnouts that aren't going to breathe, that aren't going to let out any of the internal heat. And it's just It can be your own personal nightmare for 20 to 30 minutes or it can be like, you know what, like closing that part of my brain off.

Let's just get this done because I know this is what we need to do and then I get to take it off and it's like the best feeling in the world.

TJ: Oh, that's true. I never thought about that part. 

Catch that little breeze if you're lucky and then suddenly the whole world is just amazing.

Joff: Yup. It's like, it's kind of like coming out of a, uh, an ice bath almost. Only opposite.

TJ: and I, you know, I, you, the bone that I pick with you and your ice bath is that one day you're going to final destination yourself and that chest freezer close. I'll be like, Hey, anybody seen Joff? Be like, no, he's like melted in his ice bath because he never secured it back.

Joff: Yeah, it's, I think about that, but I also hold my hands outside the freezer like this.

TJ: So at least I'm always going to hear you scream when it slams shut in your fingers.

Joff: Yeah, yeah.

TJ: Tell me a little bit about your life and how you ended up in the fire department. You're a Phoenix born and raised, right?

Joff: Yeah, born and raised. Um, so I grew up, uh, in north central Phoenix. Um, basically just normal, normal life. Yeah. Um, nothing too extravagant, nothing too crazy. Uh, went to Chatham mountain high school where, uh, I grew up skateboarding and I played a little bit of tennis. That was pretty much

it for my 

TJ: a dichotomy. 

Joff: Yeah, I know. Right. Um, very singular sports. Uh, I mean, unless you're playing doubles with tennis, you're, that's a, that's a single sport. Um, so, Yeah, pretty much that, dude. Um, after high school, I was a terrible student, man. I didn't know what I wanted to do. I had a couple ideas. Like I was really into photography and journalism, writing and art.

Um, and not, not like a normal, like, I'm going to go be a doctor. Sort of deal. I, I don't know how to explain that, but, um, failed at a community college, uh, worked a million odd jobs just trying to pay for my life outside of, uh, outside of school and work and whatnot, you know, just like trying to live, be a 20 year old, 21 year old.

And then, um, I met my girlfriend. Or my wife, girlfriend at the time. And, uh, her dad worked for the Phoenix fire department, but wasn't a firefighter. He was a, a tech that works on like the call boxes and the tones and stuff. And then if like an MCT broke, like the computers inside the truck, he would come fix those.

Um, and then when I met her, uh, we got to talk in and you know, I was like, dang, dude, this girl's really cool. I like really liked this girl, blah, blah, blah. and didn't have like, uh, like I didn't have a penny to my name, dude. I was just this dumb punk kid that was not doing anything with his life. And her dad kind of caught on pretty quickly and was like, what are you going to do?

Like when you want to marry my daughter more or less. And I was like, Oh, I don't know, dude. Like I'll figure it out. Um, and so we, I was a lifeguard growing up. Um, and I was good. I was really good at that. I liked doing that because it was outside. I got to do CPR skills and like first aid and like, you know, teach kids how to swim and you know, just be in the sun.

And so my girlfriend, my wife, I keep calling her my girlfriend, girlfriend at the time I was like, Hey, why don't you try like EMT school if you were good at CPR and like first aid and stuff? And I was like, yeah, sure. Okay. And it, dude, I got in there and it was taught the, it was a, uh, Like a month long, sorry, semester long class, right?

And it's taught by Phoenix guys. And it just, it clicked. I was like, Oh, I like, I like learning this stuff. This is cool. Like, I'm good at this. I can retain this information. And as some, as a kid who could not apply himself to anything in school besides art, because I liked to draw and doodle and do graffiti, like That I was like, Oh, I need to hold onto this.

So I got my EMT. Um, my grandmother passed away. The neighborhood fire department or the neighborhood, uh, fire station ran on her. I had just graduated EMT. Um, I got to see my firsthand look at what fire does outside of like fighting fires, which I had no recollection of. I didn't know. So I started talking to.

My girlfriend, my, my wife's dad,

TJ: She's going to kick your ass, bro.

Joff: she is, um, started talking to my wife's dad and he was like, yeah, why don't you start doing ride alongs? And basically from there I, it was like a stepping stone one after the other of learning how to be a part of a team, learning how to be physically fit, learn how to like just embrace the suck of being in turnouts.

many other things like applying yourself to being able to get a good interview so that a board will like you and think that you'll be a good teammate for 25 years. And it just, everything that I had never done in my life leading up to that was like, Oh, well I have to learn this like right now. And yeah, and now after five years of testing I've been on for just over five years.

TJ: So you were one of those who took him a long, long time. You were not one of those one hit wonders.

Joff: No, first try Friday as I like to

TJ: First try Fridays, that's a good 

one. I like that one. 

Joff: a, it's a skateboarding term that, uh, the, I don't know if you're familiar with skateboarding at all,

TJ: Tell me more. 

I used to roller blade, aka fall.

Joff: park, um, a famous park called the barracks in California, um, where they would shoot, like they had their own website and they would just shoot a lot of videos that they would put on YouTube of like, Crazy, crazy skate clips of, you know, professional skaters doing stuff.

And, um, one of them was first try Fridays. And if you could like land this certain trick, it was on Friday, you got like a prize. So

TJ: I like 

how that applies to the fire service, though.

Joff: Yeah.

TJ: It's, um, some, some, a few people have gotten lucky with that first try Fridays, but I think most of us have had to spend quite a bit of time getting, I think I had, I think it was to spend like two or three years applying to different departments. And I know that there were others.

You know, you hear the stories of the guys who spent six, seven, and they just never, ever, ever gave up.

Joff: Yeah. I, uh, I applied everywhere. Um, My second choice was Chandler Fire Department because I worked

with them for four and a half years on, uh, on their ambulances out there through AMR. But I was like a civilian EMT that was contracted to their specific fire rescues. Um, but my heart was in Phoenix, dude. I knew where I wanted to be.

Chandler would have been an incredible department to work for if I was smart enough to pass their test, but I applied everywhere.

TJ: So five years on, I assume you guys had to go through a fire academy or is it like some of the other places that you do your training first and then you get hired?

Joff: Uh, yeah, they, they host their own fire academy.

It is, uh, three, three months, about anywhere from like 14 to 16 weeks, depending on the time of year. And, uh, incredible experience all around. I did a firefighter one and two, um, just to make myself feel better. Well, that one, there was two reasons to understand the fire service more because my mentor at the time that I was writing along with was like, I remember this, this, this specific day we were, we went to this Wells Fargo building, um, downtown and we were talking about FTCs and I'm just standing there, brand new writer, like just stoked to be there cause I'm like standing with a bunch of firefighters and I'm like, Oh my gosh, this is so cool.

And, uh, the captain who was my mentor was like, Hey, do you have any idea what we're talking about? I was like, no, but like, we're going to go climb stairs and like do cool stuff. Right. He's like, yeah, uh, you should go through a firefighter one and two program. And I was like, all right, sounds good. And I, I think I signed up like within the week and dude, like kicked my ass.

Absolutely kicked my ass. And it's, it's three days a week. You know what I mean? It's not even an actual academy, but it like 100 percent put me in the right mindset of like where I was supposed to be. So that's why I was like, Oh, okay. I need to like, I need to be a lot better at this.

TJ: Did you finally learn about FTCs?

Joff: Yeah. Yeah. I finally learned about those and was able to reiterate that or regurgitate that information when alongs.

TJ: Where are you stationed these days? Tell me more about your station life.

Joff: Um, I'm a, uh, a B shift Rover.

TJ: Oh god, B Shift. Jesus. I'm gonna end this interview right now. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining us.

Joff: B shift stands for best shift, just

so 

everybody 

TJ: We're like buttholes.

Joff: Um, I, so I started off on a shift. It's kind of a, kind of an odd turn of events. So raised by the C shifters, right? That was who I was writing along with. Um, and when I got into the, what's

that? 

TJ: you're basically feral if you were raised by the Seashifters.

Joff: Jack of all trades, I guess. Where it just, I just. I don't know. Wanted to get to know everybody 'cause why not?

Um, , uh, yeah, raised by the C shifters, uh, helped out by them to get hired. Uh, I had a lot of, a few friends, very close friends on B shift. Um, and then when I got into the academy, all of my, my homies were a shift or were gonna go a shift. Um. I remember specifically I was like, well, I don't really know any a shifters and like, I know that like that's absolutely going to be way outside of my comfort zone.

So I'm going to go a shift and I got a spot on a shift and what did my booter year, my probationary year on a shift and then roved for about a year until I took a spot on rescue 17. As a B shifter. And now I'm on B shift and I've seen the light. No, no hate to my a shift brothers and sisters, but B shift is good life and maybe someday I'll, I'll see myself on C shift, but we'll see what happens.

TJ: Oh my god, you just keep going from bad to worse. We talked about you roving, and that is such a weird concept for me because we call them floats, and we have float officers. But that's about it. The only time that in my entire career that we've had any sort of floating firefighters was when we were opening a new station.

There were some delays, but everybody had already been assigned. So they basically said, Hey, the shift that you're going to work at this new station, you're just going to float to wherever we need you. So drive a fire engine or go ride an ambulance, whatever, until the station opens. So the concept of your assignment being just float is, um, it's truly unique.

It's something different.

Joff: It's, it's really interesting dude because we have so many firefighters that like They have to account for people being off, people being sick, vacation time, uh, we call them local 493 days, which is our quarterly day off. Um, like they have to account for all of that, like amongst like the sick pile, the injured pile.

We have a, I think our roving pool consists of like, I think it's two to 300 people, which is almost a full shift in itself. Yeah, it's, it's big because we have like I think it's close to 2, 000 members and I think 1, 500 of those are active. I could be completely wrong, but I know we have close to 2, 000. Um, so I call up every morning of my shift at 6 a.

m. and say it's called South deputy and they decide where everybody goes that day. And it's like, Hey, skip, how's it going? Jonathan Fierro. And they're like, Oh, uh, go to ladder 20 and drive. Yeah. Yes, sir. And that's where I'm at for the day.

TJ: Dude, that's wild. Not even like Telestaff to shift before know nothing. You figure it out that morning.

Joff: Yeah. Yeah. So you can get on telestaff in the morning and see if they've updated like, but because they're so busy trying to figure it out, like this, this spot needs ALS guys. And this guy, this spot over here needs an engineer, but the front seats, ALS and the back seats, BLS. And we have to, it's just like, I don't understand how they do it.

It's, it's nuts.

TJ: I'm glad we're not the only ones with those goofy rules because we try to make Telestaff automate the whole thing and the developers were like, uh, no, there's you're going to break the computer like you're going to break the AI.

Joff: dude. Dude. So. Apparently, I've heard before, like, there is like a button that they can just press, and it puts everybody in their spots where they would need people. But because we're such a dynamic department, and we have so many people, and unfortunately we have, you know, head butting from time to time, um, there's places where, like, certain people can't go.

And we, we're, you know, we take care of our own, like, that's what we have to do, and. So it's like, Hey, I, there's stations that I enjoy going to, you know what I mean? And there's stations where I'm like, nah, I could, I could do without going back there. Um, but like, I kind of attest that to, I don't think that's the right word.

Uh, I like to say like, I'll work with anybody, right? Be the guy that shows up, does his job, goes home. has a smile on his face and a good attitude. And, or I'm sorry, the guy or a girl,

TJ: Good save, good 

Joff: either one. 

TJ: Almost had me canceled there. So five years on and, um, what, tell me a little bit about fire athlete and we'll go into the life cycle of that. We'll go into what led you to start it and your goals, dreams, aspirations for that, but at what point did he decide, Hey, I want to do something more.

Joff: So I was doing work with, um, trying to figure out how I should start this. I was doing work with another company, um, that basically was like, Hey, we're going to start a firefighter fitness page. And I laughed and was like, good luck. Cause the, the market is so saturated with those right now that like, there's absolutely no way that that's going to be a thing.

We talked about it and, um, we got some more people involved and basically, um, they were like, Hey, we need a face and we need a coach. And so I met Adrian Hernandez, who is a fire athletes, head coach, Um, who works for Keeler River Fire Department as their, he's been a captain for quite a while and has like, it's like, I think it's 18 years in the fitness industry, just coaching and programming and being a jack of all trades of like, he, he runs their, um, their, uh, academies or did, uh, he stepped out of that field as of recently, but, um, just wealth of knowledge.

So I start picking his brain. He starts picking mine because I have the social media and he has the brains behind the fitness and he's like, I want you to go get these certifications to make us feel a little bit more legitimized and I'm going to start typing up some programs. And so we started with three base programs.

It was a push the line, which is our, um, our get fit, stay fit program. We had old salt, which is an injured wanting to come back to the truck program, which is a little bit slower, but kind of the same and moderate, same intensity. And then we had our wildland program. Um, So we started with those. We started, we're like, let's build a little bit of a team.

Let's do this. Let's do that. Had a couple ideas that didn't work out and basically we kind of just, We just kind of went. You know what I mean? Like, we got a, we got a website created, we got the Instagram created, and then we got the workout programs and just started trying to plug and play. Like, hey, we've got these programs that are going to help you with the fire service, help you get into the fire service, help you stay fit.

If you're trying to be a wildland firefighter, let's do that. And it kind of just flourished into what it is, um, on top of like, like consistent. everyday posting with social media and content creation. Like we also throw in like goofy videos to try and be more well rounded as opposed to like that. Just like we're hard hitters.

Like we carry the boats every day. We, who is going to carry the logs? Like, don't get me wrong. If that wakes you up in the morning, I love that. That's, that's not us. And that's not the kind of vibe that I'm trying to portray. 

TJ: And 

you're landlocked in Arizona. No boats.

Joff: Yeah, there's no voice.

TJ: No, I get that. You have to have that, um, I don't want to say variety, because that makes it seem kind of wishy washy, but it's that balance. Because there is such a thing as completely saturating yourself with the, like, Jacko Huberman, like everything, rah, rah, rah, rah. Like, amazing, amazing, amazing. Like, at some point, just be human.

And we're all firefighters, so we're all jacked up in the head anyway. And we all enjoy really crass and childish humor. Might as well speak to that as well. Because that's what makes us relatable.

Joff: Yeah, absolutely. Like, don't get me wrong, man. Like, what Jocko and Huberman do and, uh, what's his name, the guy that carries the boats?

TJ: Uh, Goggins?

Joff: Goggins, thank you. Sorry. Sorry, David Goggins. Um,

TJ: Just gonna run over 

there and 

Joff: they do is inspire millions of people. 

Joff: But like, I, I remember when we, when we were trying to start this, they were like, we need to be like, we need to be that, that hard go getter attitude. And I was like, that's not real life. Like, that's not fun. Like people get, I don't know if you blatantly scroll through Instagram like I do to get content ideas,

but. 

TJ: my secrets.

Joff: It's just my nightly routine, unfortunately. Um, like if somebody posts the same umbrella idea every single day, like it's just another inspirational quote one after the other. Like I unfollow that page because it's mundane and there's no, there's no like creativity to it. There's, there's nothing behind that.

And don't get me wrong. I'm not like. Like hating on pages that like only do that, but like give me something else. Give me personality. Give me creativity. Give me a different mindset of something else besides fitness is the only way. And if you don't have fitness, you might as well just go jump off a bridge. Like, dude, so when we started this, I was absolutely like, we are not doing that. We are not. We're not shaming people for not wanting to be the top tier fitness they can be. We're not fat shaming. We're not hate shaming firefighters that like, dude, that's one of my biggest pet peeves. And I know I'm getting off on a tangent

TJ: Go for it. I love it.

Joff: we, we hate on our own a lot sometimes. And that like, that hurts. That hurts me because this job takes so much from you. And life comes at you so fast with this job at like and to gain 20 to 30 pounds, especially with the way most of us eat is like, Hey, your, your level of fitness is going to decline quickly if you let it.

And that's kind of the problem, right? Like You should, we shouldn't be able to be in that area where we're allowing that to happen because we have a job to do. But at the same time, like, there's people that go to slow stations, have mental health issues, are having divorces, are like, their children are growing up, and like, there's no time.

And we're, we're like, we're shaming those people for living lives and doing, like, what they said they were going to do. in their interview in the first place. Like I'm going to be a good teammate.

I'm all for tough love. if it, if it needs to get to that point, but like there's also a level of like, we need to, we need to help. We need to outstretch that helping hand and not like look down on these people like, oh, you're just lazy. Shit, maybe they are lazy, but hey, let's inspire them to be better.

Let's give them that flame that they used to have in their, in their stomach when they first tried to get onto this job. Let's bring that back and let's figure it out why they lost it and let's build that fire. Let's build it back up. Because if we're not doing that, what are we, what are we doing for our future firefighters?

Like, I don't know.

TJ: I love that analogy. I love the analogy of of rekindling that fire because Spend long enough in the fire department and yours is gonna dwindle. Yours is going to, it might go out and you might find somebody who will help you light that candle. I mean, there's a picture of a fire that we had Christmas day, Jesus Christ, like six months after I left the academy. Buddy, I had enough chins to have their own zip code. Six months after being in the best shape of my life, like I took the picture, I'm like, holy shit, I am gonna find that bridge and jump out of it. A year ago, same thing. I was, I was in Amsterdam and there's a picture that I saw that I'm like, mother of God, the buttons on that shirt are about to go completely supersonic and take somebody's eyeball out. So what I want to pick your brain about is you've done this for a while and we know how frustrating it is because we can come to our brothers and sisters and say, Hey, here's a plan.

Here's the way that. your body will do better with this kind of food with this kind of exercise with this kind of routine. And we know that we're also stubborn. And we know that for somebody to tell us how to fix things, sometimes we don't, we're not very receptive. How how to say say that I have a shift mate who was in good shape, life happened, right stress eating, I'm guilty of that. And now they are not in the best fighting shape they could be. But They're also not receptive. Taking your experience, taking what you've done, what's the best way to go? And I'm saying this because I guarantee you people listening right now are going like, Oh shit, I know somebody like that.

Or like, Oh shit, that's me.

Joff: Yeah. Yeah. There's my, so my, my biggest thing is all you can do is ask, right? Like, when I would go into the gym, when I was at Station 17 for a while, I'd always ask, I'd be like, Hey, does anybody want to work out with me today? And I had Matt DeLaGarza, who's one of my best friends on the job, who's also a part of Fire Athlete.

Big, strong motherfucker. Right? Big dude. And he and I, most of the time, unless it was like a rest day or something, we would do stupid workouts together. And every day I would ask everybody else on that job or on that truck, unless like we were doing a skills course, which was usually a team building activity, which everybody joined in on most of the time, unless you're, you know, you're feeling down and out that day or dude, I'm sore, I'm tired, my back hurts, like blah, blah, blah.

We were doing those together. But outside of that, like lifting and like the cardiovascular workouts that we were doing, um, I would just ask. And every once in a while, they would jump in, you know what I mean? And like they, it's, you kind of see that like it clicks, like you're going to get people who are going to be like, no, I don't want to do that.

Like it, I'm going to go off in a couple of different angles here. One of the reasons I love CrossFit so much and because our, our functional fitness, however you want to call it, CrossFit is for everybody, right? Fitness has No discrimination. Your level of fitness has a level of discrimination, but fitness is non discriminatory in itself.

It's for everybody. So, if I am doing power cleans, and somebody goes, Hey, I want to do this workout, but I can't do that movement. That's crazy. I'm going to go, Well, take these two 20 pound kettlebells, or these two 20 pound dumbbells, and I want you to go into this position, and you're going to use your body mechanics to get those up to your shoulders.

Because you can't do this yet with this amount of weight. But I'm going to teach you how to get there so that you can get to the spot where you want to be. And it's, it's like that, that idea of giving that to people, right? Like I'm going to show you consistently every day that like, if I'm doing this, you can be doing this.

And yes, there's, there's like, people are like, Oh, no excuses, no excuses, dude, there are so many excuses. There's, there's so many, some, some not so good, some pretty valid excuses. Every once in a while, like, Hey man, my head's not in the right place today. I don't even want to be at the station. Like I am not in the mental space to be working out today and brother, that's okay.

Like that's, that's fine. We'll be here next shift too. We've got next shift and the one after that and the one after that for 25 fucking years, dude. And any help that you need along the way, I'm going to be here for. So I'm going to ask every single shift. Hey, does anybody want to work out today? Um, one of the bigger things when I first started anything fitness in my, in my genre, because like I said, skateboarding and tennis were my, my wheelhouse.

So team based activities were not. A thing for me and I had to learn how to work in a skills course based activity or in an engine company based activity. You know what I mean? So when I first started riding along and we would do skills courses, I would do my skills course before like I would take a little bit longer.

I'd be a little bit quicker and I take my stuff off and I'd go sit in the bay. And this is a dude who didn't know the culture, who didn't know, like, the stigmas, didn't know, you know, what you're supposed to be doing, and I'd have mentors come over, or backseat firefighters, and be like, hey man, the captain's still working, or the officer, the skip, you should still have your stuff off and still be working.

Because think of this as you're on the fire ground. If your captain's working, your ass better still be in gear. helping him or making his load lighter because he's been doing this for 15 years. Dude, you have two years on get to fucking work. And I would be like, Oh, okay. So I, you know, slowly but surely that starts clicking.

You start working harder, you start pushing harder, you start gaining more experience and suddenly you, you've dragged a tire before, right? I would hope so. Everybody says. That that's the hardest thing to do in a skills course, which it is. Most of the time, I think pulling ceiling is the hardest thing to do in a skills course because we don't do it as often.

Um, but the more you do it, the easier it gets, right? It still sucks, but it gets easier. You just have to do it consistently. And that's anything with fitness. You have to do it consistently. And when it starts getting easier is when you start pushing it more. When you start Adding more weight when you start running more miles, when you start doing more things to make you better every single day.

TJ: mic drop, huh?

Joff: Yeah, that's it. That's all dude.

TJ: I, one of the things that attracted me to fire athlete from the get go is, and you touched about it earlier is that I call it inclusivity and the questions that I sent you. And it's, it really ties into the mindset that I've been trying to cultivate myself and with people I know. And that is stop eating are young.

Let's stop shitting on each other for being different. Let's stop like, There's a lot of the fire service culture that I cannot wait for some of these boomers to retire for us to completely eradicate that culture, eating our young and treating them like absolute shit and fat shaming and skill shaming and doing all of these things.

I remember one of the guys that I went through the academy with you. I mean, I think he went to a good house, but I think I started fucking with him from the get go, like taking A glass of water and just dumping it on the floor for him to clean. Number one, I would have come back with a machete and just completely butchered everyone if they had done that to me. Um, is that an admission of guilt? I don't know. Is that like,

Joff: I don't think that's a mission. That's just,

TJ: what's that Tom Cruise movie with the like, the two chicks who are in that, in that pool that like, they can tell when the crimes are going to happen? 

Joff: Total Recall? No, No, you're yeah, you were right.

TJ: Minority Report?

Joff: Minority report.

TJ: yeah, I don't think they can get me for that one.

Point being, I told one of my mentors, who's a D. C. firefighter, that story, and he goes, That's cool, they can keep doing all that stuff. But the guy who's dumping that glass of water, he falls through a floor in a fire a couple hours down the road. All that his rookie's gonna be seeing with hatred in his eyes, while that dude is screaming for help, is, Oh, this motherfucker just fucked with me for so many hours.

Granted, we are obviously gonna save our own all the time. But it's just that mindset of like, you are new, you don't have the experience, I do, therefore you're a servant. I absolutely hate it. I, I, you are here to take over from me when I am gone. You are here to, you know, pass, to get the torch passed on to you and to continue doing this job.

You are not here to be my maid, you are not here to be my punching bag, you are not here to be the butt of all my jokes. Like, you are part of the team, you You're just a less tenured member and we'll get you there. And then, hopefully, you're going to pass on those same skills and knowledge and, and mindset to those who come after you.

So that's one of the things that I like about Fire Athlete is that you, I don't know, you keep it real. You guys, you guys are, are inclusive. We're being so woke. You are inclusive of, of everybody. And, um, And especially that, that population of firefighters who really need it. Who, who are right at that, that peak of like, Hey, I'm either going to get myself in shape or I'm going to fall right back down into old habits.

Joff: Yeah. Thank you. I appreciate that. Um, I haven't, I, you know, I've heard, I've heard rumors like we luckily like my department, I got out of that a while ago. Um, well before I was on, um, and I've, I've heard inklings of stories and whatnot, but one of the things that I, like, I pride myself on with our department is that we, yes, we pick and poke and prod at each other.

Sometimes more often than not, but, um, we're good with our probationary firefighters, uh, the ones that care. And there are a lot of them that care. And you know, there's, there's like, it's every department, right? There's, there's always the guy that doesn't want to train. That doesn't want to work out that doesn't want to train the new guy.

But everywhere that I have been roving around on the shifts that I rove around on. they, they care and it's great. It's like, Hey, what are we doing today is most of the time. Like the first question that's asked on the truck, it's like, well, we're going to check off our truck. We're going to make sure everything's working.

We're going to clean the bathrooms. We're going to clean the bay. We're going to do a once over on the, on the station. And then let's go train. Let's go shop for food and then let's work out after that. And then let's cook. Let's build camaraderie. Let's watch a movie. If time allows, because we're running so many freaking calls and so on and so forth and a structured, well planned day is, you know, key, you know, because you have your, you have your routine and a lot of younger firefighters that I've seen come on the job as of recent because of the shortage that we have in firefighters didn't do ride alongs.

They were just like, I want to be a firefighter, so I'm going to go take the test, learn how to interview the way that they want me to and get hired. And I've noticed like, as a few other people have that I've talked to that there is a decent significant amount, I'm sorry, a decent amount of newer firefighters that don't understand the culture yet.

So they're getting, they're, they're getting criticized. For not being the stereotypical booter probationary firefighter when they didn't know in the first place that this is what you're supposed to be doing. Um, there's, there's that whole mantra of booters are seen, not heard sort of deal. And I hate that.

Like, I get it. There's a time and a place for probationary firefighters to talk and, you know, share their feelings about things or ask questions. But, like, to just think that this person just is here to clean and train and cook for me and clean for me is just such an asinine thought process. Like, that's a human.

That's somebody that, like you said, you want to pull you through a floorboard if for some reason something goes wrong, and they're like, you know what? I really don't like this guy. And that's never gonna happen. But, like, If I had a backseat guy that treated me like crap, dude, that it would be, it would make life, it would make this job so much more less appealing.

You know what I mean? Like, why would you want to come to, to work where people just pick on you all day?