This Firefighter Has A Lesson For Us. Consistency Rules Over Intensity.

Kirk Fredericks, a firefighter, with the kayak he built. He walks five miles a day and goes on regular paddles. Fitness has saved his life twice because he did what we all can do, which is practice fitness consistency.

*This is a 657-word short read about a guy who is not much different than you and me. Please read for the quick message.

By Ray Glier

Firefighters have to connect the dots in a hurry. So when Kirk Fredericks, 68, saw everything suddenly go to fire on the bottom floor of a three-story commercial building, he quickly turned and did a standing jump about 10 feet and escaped through a doorway to the sidewalk.

“The fire came out the door after me,” Kirk said.

The ladies on the hose who were behind him turned the water on Fredericks and he got away with just a crispy fire suit.

It was an athletic feat for an every day guy who stays in shape.

This Geezer Jock newsletter will get on a roll of stories about the older “freaks” who have enhanced their DNA with extreme exercise. You know the people I’m talking about: the 75-year old marathoner, the 90-year old decathlete, etc.

Kirk, who lives in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, walks five miles every day in good weather. I didn’t say he runs. He walks. Like you and me.

Fredericks does do some intense things—like taking his kayak out to duel 4-foot ocean swales—but he walks every day and that’s the lesson for Geezer Jocks.

You don't need intensity. You need consistency.

Kirk does not sacrifice what athleticism he has to dithering, idleness, and indecision. He exercises. He is not extreme, but he is consistent.

It saved his life when he had to dash from the doom of flames. 

Here is another story on how consistency saved Fredericks.

He was 58 when some academics in a college building caught wood shavings on fire. They were asked to leave the building and did not. They thought they could contain a building fire in a building.

Kirk, a fire chief in civilian clothes, went into the building to demand more directly they leave. In the process, Fredericks took some smoke. Turns out, the smoke became embedded in an artery and it blocked blood flow one day while he was driving. He had a heart attack.

“It was pretty close, I almost didn’t survive,” he said . “After I survived, I didn't have many things to correct. I never smoked. I didn’t drink much. Now I don't drink at all. It came down to stress and that smoke.”

The stress and smoke could not outperform the exercise he had piled on for years as a shield. Geezer Jock is here to remind you of the Health Bank you are going to need one day while looking up at a hospital room ceiling.

"I did two 5ks the week before my heart attack and then was out in deep snow bow hunting," Fredericks said. "If I wasn't in the shape I was I probably would have croaked."

Kirk lifts weights twice a week for an hour. Again, not superman stuff. He is lifting free weights you and I have available to us. It is the kind of consistency that can save your life. It's humble stuff, right?

Fredericks also paddles that kayak, which he built himself. He will take it out to open water, but he is not reckless.

“I’m 68, I don’t go looking for trouble,” he said.

Kirk has retired from the healthcare industry where he spent 40 years in operations. He has been a firefighter 34 years. He is now a grandfather of six, which is more motivation to stay healthy. One of those grandchildren is a firefighter with him.

Here’s more motivation. Geezer Jocks can identify with this.

“I walk around town here, and I look at guys that I know are my age, but they look like they're 20 years older,” Kirk said. “It’s terrible. They are on scooters because they're relatively obese. It's so preventable.”

I saw this quote this week:

“Many people assume that they can get away from the truth by avoiding thinking about it, but the natural law is inevitable, and the sooner it is recognized, the better.”— John D. Rockefeller, rich guy industrialist.

The truth about your fitness and health is for you to answer by yourself. Do it honestly and do it sooner rather than later.

Fredericks has had his honest reckoning. He does not avoid it.

“I don’t want to decline in my later years,” Kirk said, “so I’m focused on getting to end with fitness and then, when it's time, come to a screaming stop.”