by Karen Patten
Jan. 4, 2008

The 2008 911 Fitness Challenge begins January 7, 2008. The Fitness Challenge is a 12 week competition in which members of the 911 Community and the community at large create teams and compete against one another to lose the most body fat while gaining the most muscle mass for a $5,000.00 prize in each region! Prizes will be given away to winning individuals and teams from Alaska, as well!  more->

 

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Woodville inspired to take fitness challenge

By SHARON KERR Staff Writer

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Fit for a challenge!

Leaner, stronger, faster
By JILL DEWERT

Times Bulletin | Multimedia Editor| jdewert@timesbulletin.com

6/5/2007

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Common sense key to success for Doughboys

By SHARON KERR Staff Writer

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"Dogwood Doughboys" Win Spot in National Fitness Challenge

Jennifer Heathcock

May 11, 2007 - 6:48PM

A team from Woodville, the "Dogwood Doughboys," has won a spot in a national fitness contest by losing weight and body fat.

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THE DAILY HERALD

 Swift Current firefighters shed pounds to win
 

BY JENNA WANNER
The Southwest Booster

Three very dedicated firefighters stood their ground for 12 weeks to lose weight, and their combined efforts paid off.

Rod Smith, Darren McClelland and Curtis Nobel are the champs in the Canadian category for the ninth annual 911 Fitness Challenge.

The 911 Fitness Challenge is a national weight loss competition for those who work in the public safety field.

Just 12 weeks ago the team weighed in at 685 pounds and were hoping to get down to 600 pounds at the end of the 12 weeks. With daily exercise at the Training Zone, Yoga Connection, and the Fire Hall, the team was able to achieve their goal.

"We lost 86 pounds, so we did well," team captain Rod Smith explained. "We won the Canadian region, we lost out to a team in Houston by about four per cent."

Smith said the competition was something they were interested in doing from the start.

"The opportunity to gain muscle and lose fat and have a reason to do it seems kind of fitting. It's only 12 weeks. So we applied and it was like 60 bucks each. We got goodies like gym bags, then we got these weekly motivational emails and how to eat right and stuff."

The competition was divided into five regions, four in the United States plus Canada, with 50,000 participants around North America. As not enough interest was shown in Canada, Speedy Creek Fire was placed in a United States division.

"When it started it was Canada as a region and then the four other states. There was not enough Canadian interest so they bumped us to the States. We don't know how many teams there were in Canada but not enough of them to put up $5,000.

As a result of their weight loss efforts, the team has won airfare and three nights accommodations along with V.I.P tickets to an octagon match in Las Vegas. The trip will be taken on May 25.

The trip reward outweighs the temptations they avoided during the past three months.

"Yeah it was rough. There were always meetings and catered lunches with extra food, there was food like you wouldn't believe, then like a going away party and Super Bowl parties, so it sucked," said McClelland.

The Speedy Creek Fire Team has already looked at entering again next year.

Yarmouth police win national fitness competition

SOUTH YARMOUTH Over the winter, the Undercover Bodybuilders really let themselves go. They got flabby pecs, blob bellies, and droopy chins — all part of the plan.

The team Kal Boghdan, Drew O'Malley and Pat Carty — all members of the Yarmouth Police Department — won the national 911 Fitness Challenge for the second year in a row, it was announced late Tuesday.

They beat out not only fellow competitors from the Barnstable Fire Department Big, Fat and

Dumb, as they called themselves for the competition — but also at least 1,000 other teams from across the United States and Canada to win national bragging rights.

 

Oh, and that $5,000 check, weekend in Las Vegas and V.I.P. tickets to an Ultimate Fighting Championship match for winning the northeastern region isn't too shabby, either.

"We worked hard last year, but we worked even harder this year because we wanted that trip to Vegas bad," said Boghdan, 34. "The secret is realizing what the goal is. It is a fitness competition, not just a weight loss competition."

He and his teammates started with an average of 23 percent body fat and finished with an average of 5 percent.

 

Boghdan was gracious to the BFDers, who lost a total of 191 pounds. "I congratulate them," he said. "They did a great job dropping all that weight. That's definitely hard to do."

A couple of the now slimmer firefighters grumbled at the contest results. "It's just a bummer," said Barnstable fire Lt. Richard Ogonowski, 39. "We had too much weight to lose. Those guys were already muscle clad gym rats anyway."

He conceded that while BFDers didn't win, they could still walk tall. "I'm not bummed out or ashamed or embarrassed. We're in way better shape. I don't care what the numbers say. I'm proud of everyone," he said.

A healthy diet was key for Undercover Bodybuilders. Boghdan even managed to keep it up while his wife and friends sipped rum punch on vacation in the Caribbean.

"A lot of people go into this cutting everything out of their diet and not eating. But I ate six or seven times a day," he said. Team members skipped sugar and booze and ate protein. But they also ate tons of good carbohydrates like brown rice, vegetables, sweet potatoes, and wheat bread minus the refined sugar.

Almost every day, Boghdan lifted weights for two hours and did cardio exercise for 40 minutes. He and O'Malley coordinated their workout schedules because they work the same shift at the station.

"You don't have to take it to the extreme we did," Boghdan said. "We just want people at our place to be a little more fit, a little more health conscious."

Hilary Russ can be reached at hruss@capecodonline.com

Akron firehouse teams fight off fat and win

Lisa Abraham
Beacon Journal

Ken Love / Akron Beacon Journal

Akron firefighters from Station No. 2 show their low-fat taco salads. They are (from left) Dave Fuller, Matt Askea, Lt. Steve Stinson and Brandon Reedy.

They started out as a group of five, and now, they're down a person.

A 140-pound person, that is.

Remember those five Akron firefighters I told you about back in January? Well, their contest is over and together, they've lost 140 pounds.

The biggest loser was firefighter Dave Fuller, who shed 54 pounds, going from 312 pounds to 258.

Since the contest ended on April 7, Fuller has lost three more pounds, and he hopes to continue to lose.

Fuller said the weight loss has brought some pleasant surprises.

``I stopped snoring. I didn't see that coming,'' he said. ``And my knees feel better. I've been able to do more things with my kids for longer periods of time.''

Here's how the weight loss was divided up among the team members from Station No. 2:

Fuller, 54 pounds; Lt. Steve Stinson, 19 pounds; Brandon Reedy, 45 pounds; Matt Askea, 19 pounds; and Renee Reali, 3 pounds.

I questioned why they put Reali on their team to begin with -- she was just 135 pounds at the start of the contest -- but Stinson said it was Reali who first learned about the contest and suggested they get a team together.

The effort was part of the 911 Fitness Challenge, a 12-week national weight-loss and fitness challenge for emergency response workers.

Reali said that while her weight loss wasn't dramatic, she's proud of her new 25-inch waistline, down four inches.

And they're all proud of the way they're continuing to practice healthy eating habits, even though the competition is over.

On their lunch table last week were grilled chicken breasts, baked beans, coleslaw and sliced apples -- which have replaced French fries at a lot of their meals.

Fuller joked that the snack-food industry probably felt the biggest hurt from their dieting, although their captain, Jim Case, says he's still missing the fries.

Team members are still waiting to hear how they fared in the national contest -- they hope to find out this week -- but they were proud to proclaim themselves the winners in their bets with Akron Fire Stations No. 4 and No. 9.

Station 4 dropped out of the competition, Reali said.

The four-member team at Station No. 9, however, isn't about to concede.

While members have lost only 97 pounds total, they believe they may have lost a greater percentage of their body fat than their colleagues at Station No. 2, and are waiting for those results, firefighter Perry Lakins said. ``We're not giving up yet,'' he said.

Keeping food safe

And speaking of safety, check out this week's story on keeping food safe.

Years ago in another city, I reported on a story of a food warehouse being shut down because of deplorable conditions.

There were all of the horrible things you would expect (things so gross I am reluctant to mention them in a food column).

At the time, I got a letter from a reader thanking me for writing about the situation, and expressing great concern over the safety of food.

She closed with this line,``Our food, we better pray over it!''

I think of that line every time I get a new e-mail warning of one food recall or another.

From last year's spinach through the ongoing concerns over tainted animal feed, it seems that every week there is something new to watch out for.

I know that food safety is a great concern for our readers. An overwhelming number of the questions I get for the Ask Lisa column are about safety. How long can I keep this? How long can you freeze that? Is it safe?

We've tried this week to give you answers to a lot of those questions, and show you how a few easy steps, like careful hand washing and use of a meat thermometer, can go a long way in preventing food-borne illness.

Until next week, have fun -- staying safe -- in the kitchen.

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Cape Cod Times

Team BFD: losers with a lot to gain

By HILARY RUSS

STAFF WRITER

April 07, 2007 6:00 AM

EAST DENNIS — The tiny room was packed with big losers, stripped to their skivvies and all fired up.

Five Barnstable firefighters weighed in yesterday in a national weight-loss competition for first responders. And they lost — big time.

The BFD five — in this case they decided the acronym should stand for Big, Fat and Dumb instead of Barnstable Fire Department — dropped a total of 191 pounds and an average of 4 percent body fat each.

"I actually feel a lot better," said firefighter and EMT John Fleming, 35, who lost 36 pounds. "I know that they can carry me out of a burning building."

He was probably blasting his compadres' disappearing potbellies as much as his own vanishing waistline. "Must be jelly, 'cause jam don't shake like that," he ribbed as fellow firefighter Ed Poirier had his upper thigh pinched by calipers to measure body fat.

But amid the verbal jabs were half-naked high-fives as the BFD got to measure the results of 12 weeks of cardiovascular exercise, muscle building and better eating as they weighed in at Cape Cod Health and Fitness on Hokum Rock Road.

The guys were some of 6,000 people to take part in the 9th annual 911 Fitness Challenge for firefighters, police, military and other emergency and medical personnel. Teams of three to five people compete to lose body fat and gain muscle mass.

Five teams from the Cape are entered, including the "Cape Cod Emergency Call Girls." One team dropped out.

Last year's northeastern regional winners were the "Undercover Bodybuilders" from the Yarmouth Police Department.

The team is competing again this year, but the BFDs are giving them a run for their $49-per-person entry fee. They'll have to wait three weeks for organizers to tally final fat counts.

Proceeds will go to Shriners Hospitals for Children.

That gave BFDer Chris Beal, 33, husband and father of four, an extra incentive. His older sister once spent three months at Shriners in Boston, when she was a sophomore in high school and was seriously burned after her shirt caught fire.

"My parents didn't pay a dime for it, and she got world-class care," he said.

Last year, the national challenge raised $27,000 for Shriners, said contest founder Sgt. Jim Sayih of the Miami police.

Besides helping the children's hospitals, the contest boosts morale and healthy habits among others. Though only about 30 percent of the Barnstable Fire Department is participating, more than 60 percent works out regularly now.

They're not out of breath when they run to a medical call, and their uniforms fit better, BFDers said.

"I allowed myself to get in the worst shape of my life," said Barnstable Fire Lt. Richard Ogonowski, 39, who was officially the biggest loser yesterday with a weight loss of 56 pounds and a body fat loss of 8 percent. "You could go from a recliner to a burning building like that," he said, snapping his fingers.

Besides looking trimmer and feeling better, the two-day trip to Las Vegas, including tickets to an Ultimate Fighting Championship match, and $5,000 cash prize per team weren't bad motivators, either.

Ogonowski, husband and father of twin 5-year-old girls, plans to keep up the fitness routine.

"I worked too hard at this to ever go back," he said.

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Firefighting starts with fitness for trio

Published: April 17, 2007

Click this picture to view a larger image. THE PAIN is worth the gain to engineer Neil Gamez as he strains through a workout in the National 911 Fitness Challenge. AMY ALONZO/UNION DEMOCRAT

By JOSETTE BELARMINO

The Union Democrat

Three members of the Sonora Fire Department decided to take their job responsibilities to a new level.

Three months ago, Justin Grant, Neil Gamez and Sam Warren chose to participate in the ninth annual National 911 Fitness Challenge together under the name "Team Iron Core" with a goal to lose fat and gain muscle mass.

The 12-week competition takes place among members of the 911 community including active or retired police, firefighters, paramedics, emergency medical service providers, military personnel, correctional officers, nurses, physicians, or anyone else involved in 911 responder jobs.

The challenge was created by Jim Sayih, known as the "toughest cop alive," to encourage public safety employees to learn about and maintain a healthier, fitter lifestyle.

In this year's contest, more than 10,000 teams of three to five members competed for a $5,000 regional prize.

"I think it was a positive experience for me, but the hardest part was watching everyone else eat ice cream, beer or french fries," said the 27-year old Grant.

Grant began at 170 pounds with 9.9 percent body fat and finished at 183 pounds with 8 percent body fat.

"My goal was to gain muscle and lose body fat," said Grant. "I had no intention of losing weight ... I wanted to gain."

Grant, Gamez and Warren were required to weigh in every two weeks at The Club, a fitness center in East Sonora which was the official monitor of the team's progress. The staff also allowed the team to work out at the facility and helped by creating individual workout programs for each team member, incorporating different types of exercise to promote fat loss and overall wellness of mind and body.

"They all did very, very well," said club spokesperson and licensed nutritionist Danielle Green. "We wanted to start a program just like this one at The Club eventually, and we thought they could be a good example for others who might want to participate in this type of program in the future.

"We tried to have them come in and do different things to help their stress level, like (engage in) yoga or get massages."

"We have been working with them for the past few months, really focusing on our holistic approach to fitness," said owner Michelle Gratwicke.

Gamez, the brains behind the Team Iron Core operation, found out about the competition while reading an article about firefighters.

"I read that 50 percent of firefighter deaths were from heart attacks, which was really eye-opening," said Gamez. "I brought the article to the chief and the next day, in my box, was a flyer for the contest ... and it just went from there."

Gamez finished the program 26 pounds lighter and with 8 percent less body fat.

"If I just motivate one of my brother firefighters to get off their butt and be fit, all my sweat was worth it," said Gamez.

Warren weighed in at 207 pounds with 26 percent body fat and ended the competition at 185 pounds with 18 percent body fat.

"I definitely hit my goal," said Warren. "The dieting was hard. I don't mind working out once or even twice a day, but changing my eating habits was difficult."

The three occasionally exercised as a team, including cardiovascular sets, weights, yoga and kettle ball training. However, conflicting schedules often required lone workouts.

"We worked out individually most of the time and we would call and check up on each other and get progress reports," said Grant.

"The people at The Club were very motivating," Warren said. "They would post pictures of us at the facility and random people would approach us and tell us how great we were doing. They were so supportive throughout the whole thing."

The team will find out the results of the competition in the next few weeks.

"We have sent in our before-and-after photos and our numbers ... now we are just waiting for the response," said Warren.

And they plan to keep working on their overall fitness.

"I am going to change my workout now, and switch to more cardio to get my body ready for California Department of Forestry in June," said Grant.

"As firefighters we need to always be fit, so I plan on continuing to work out and keep off the pounds I lost," said Warren.

Proceeds from contest entry fees go toward the Shriners Children's Hospital.

For information on the fitness challenge, visit www.911fitness.com

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Nixa police take weight off shoulders (and waists) for 911 Fitness Challenge

By: Jason Michael, sports editor jasonm@cpimo.com

04/11/2007

For some, getting in shape after the New Year is a goal. But for members of the Nixa Police Department, it became an obsession. "Cops in general, they'll come to work at 10 at night, get off at 8 in the morning, have court at 1:15 and then it's back to work at 10," said Nixa Patrolman Tim Carpenter, who moved to the area from Alaska a year ago.



Members of Nixa 911 competed in the 911 Fitness Challenge for the chance to win $5,000 and a trip to Las Vegas to watch the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Pictured above is team Mmm...Mmm..Bacon! and its members Graham Applegate, Tim Carpenter, Jimmy Liles, Shawn Clark and Jeff Romero.

"Plus they have their families and special details so working out and eating right as an officer is tough."

That is why Carpenter introduced members of his department to the 911 Fitness Challenge, a national weight-loss contest for public safety officials-police, firefighters, paramedics, EMS, military, corrections, nurses, physicians and their spouses. The goal of the contest is to encourage teams of officials to lose fat and gain muscle as part of a 12-week competition to see who could lose the most combined body fat, gain the most lean muscle mass and show the biggest combined improvement.

And Carpenter's team "Mmm..Mmm..Bacon!," consisting of Cpl. Graham Applegate, Sgt. Jimmy Liles, Patrolman Shawn Clark and Sgt. Jeff Romero, lost a combined 156.9 pounds and added 67.1 pounds of lean body mass for a 75.6-percent improvement. Not only was that tops among the three Nixa teams, it might be the best in the country.

"When we started out, we were competing against 20,000 teams so we never thought we'd stand a chance," said Carpenter, who lost 42.6 pounds of fat and saw his body-fat percentage drop from 22.6 percent to 6.8 percent since Jan. 12. "The motivation was the challenge between each other."

While Carpenter said the personal achievement is nice, he won't scoff at what else was at stake-$5,000 and a trip to the Ultimate Fighting Championship in Las Vegas where the team would receive its check in the Octagon.

Last year, the top team from the Central Region, the region in which Nixa is competing, finished with a 40.9-percent improvement. The top team in the nation a year ago had an improvement of 63 percent.

"All three teams did great," said Angie Alexander, owner of Angie's Nutrition and Fitness in Nixa. "Most of the guys really like what they look like now. It's not about a diet, it's a lifestyle change."

Alexander, who performed the body-composition measurements and provided tips free of charge, said the teams did everything on their own, including working out and drawing up their diets.

"It was mainly eating a lot better," said investigator and Nixa Policeman of the Year Jason Hartsell, who lost 29 pounds and dropped his body fat from 24.4 percent to 6.2 percent. "(My wife Dianna) and I had a lot of fun working out. We weren't too bad to begin with, but now we have a lot more energy to play with the kids."

Carpenter, who celebrated his birthday with a handful of popcorn and his 22nd-wedding anniversary with grilled chicken and steamed vegetables, said while he's pleased with the results, it wasn't easy changing his lifestyle.

"The first two weeks were rough when the kids are eating pizza in front of you and you see the grease floating on top of the pepperoni and cheese," said Carpenter, who first competed in the event while in Alaska, although he never weighed out. "But we didn't do any cheat meals. We were pretty extreme."

That gung-ho attitude could result in the championship when final results are tallied in the coming weeks. It also brought about some eyebrow-raising behavior as the deadline approached.

"I've been up since 3:30 (in the morning) just lifting weights and riding a bike," Clark said the morning of the weigh-in. "I wanted to get in better shape for my job. As police officers, you eat on the go when you can and that often involves fast food."

When the results are posted, Carpenter said it won't matter if his team is standing atop the rankings. In order to enter the competition, each team member had to make a $50 donation to the Shriner's Hospitals for Children, something Carpenter said makes the whole affair worth the effort.

"We all donated 50 bucks of our own money to get into the contest," he said. "Seven-hundred and fifty dollars went to the (Shriners), so we all won. Plus, anyone that started to work out, lost a couple pounds and started eating right already won. We blew it out of the water."

But while the results have already been sent in, the teams don't plan on falling back into their old ways just yet.

"I'm going to eat oatmeal this morning," Carpenter said after the weigh-in. "I'm not going to ruin it yet. I'll try to stick with it a little longer."

And next year?

"I think they will stick with it for six or seven months, and then I'm going to have to come up with another challenge," Carpenter said. "But Applegate wants to do it again, because he wants to defend the title if we win."

www.911Fitness.com

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Team BFD: Losers with a lot to gain

By HILARY RUSS | STAFF WRITER | April 7, 2007

EAST DENNIS - The tiny room was packed with big losers, stripped to their skivvies and all fired up.

Five Barnstable firefighters weighed in yesterday in a national weight-loss competition for first responders. And they lost - big time.

Five Barnstable firefighters, top, posing for a photo before they began the 12-week challenge, are John Fleming, Ed Poirier, Richard Ogonowski, Kevin Brailey and Chris Beal. The same team, bottom, shows off trimmer form after a regimen of cardiovascular exercise, muscle building and better nutrition. The men dropped a total of 191 pounds and an average of 4 percent body fat each.

The BFD five - in this case they decided the acronym should stand for Big, Fat and Dumb instead of Barnstable Fire Department - dropped a total of 191 pounds and an average of 4 percent body fat each.

''I actually feel a lot better,” said firefighter and EMT John Fleming, 35, who lost 36 pounds. ''I know that they can carry me out of a burning building.”

He was probably blasting his compadres' disappearing potbellies as much as his own vanishing waistline. ''Must be jelly, 'cause jam don't shake like that,” he ribbed as fellow firefighter Ed Poirier had his upper thigh pinched by calipers to measure body fat.

But amid the verbal jabs were half-naked high-fives as the BFD got to measure the results of 12 weeks of cardiovascular exercise, muscle building and better eating as they weighed in at Cape Cod Health and Fitness on Hokum Rock Road.

The guys were some of 6,000 people to take part in the 9th annual 911 Fitness Challenge for firefighters, police, military and other emergency and medical personnel. Teams of three to five people compete to lose body fat and gain muscle mass.

Five teams from the Cape are entered, including the ''Cape Cod Emergency Call Girls.” One team dropped out.

Last year's northeastern regional winners were the ''Undercover Bodybuilders” from the Yarmouth Police Department.

The team is competing again this year, but the BFDs are giving them a run for their $49-per-person entry fee. They'll have to wait three weeks for organizers to tally final fat counts.

Proceeds will go to Shriners Hospitals for Children.

That gave BFDer Chris Beal, 33, husband and father of four, an extra incentive. His older sister once spent three months at Shriners in Boston, when she was a sophomore in high school and was seriously burned after her shirt caught fire.

''My parents didn't pay a dime for it, and she got world-class care,” he said.

Last year, the national challenge raised $27,000 for Shriners, said contest founder Sgt. Jim Sayih of the Miami police.

Besides helping the children's hospitals, the contest boosts morale and healthy habits among others. Though only about 30 percent of the Barnstable Fire Department is participating, more than 60 percent works out regularly now.

They're not out of breath when they run to a medical call, and their uniforms fit better, BFDers said.

''I allowed myself to get in the worst shape of my life,” said Barnstable Fire Lt. Richard Ogonowski, 39, who was officially the biggest loser yesterday with a weight loss of 56 pounds and a body fat loss of 8 percent. ''You could go from a recliner to a burning building like that,” he said, snapping his fingers.

Besides looking trimmer and feeling better, the two-day trip to Las Vegas, including tickets to an Ultimate Fighting Championship match, and $5,000 cash prize per team weren't bad motivators, either.

Ogonowski, husband and father of twin 5-year-old girls, plans to keep up the fitness routine.

''I worked too hard at this to ever go back,” he said.

Hilary Russ can be reached at hruss@capecodonline.com.

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Springdale firefighters taking up 911 Fitness Challenge

By Kevin Carbery
Sunday, January 28, 2007 1:06 AM CST

Maybe members of the Springdale Fire Protection District will win the XYIENCE 911 Fitness Challenge, a national competition for police, fire and military personnel. Even if they don't though, just participating in the event should prove to be a benefit, Tony Ochoa, a Springdale captain, said. "Hey, if they stick it out and lose five pounds, they've done something good for themselves," said Ochoa, who serves as a trainer for all of Springdale's firefighters. The contest runs through April 7. A team from each region of the country will win prize packages that include a trip to Las Vegas and tickets to the Ultimate Fighting Championship event. Fitness Challenge teams consist of three to five members attempting to lose the most fat and gain the most muscle during the contest period. "This is our first time doing this," Ochoa said of his department's involvement. "We have 11 people on three teams. "I wanted to use this as a tool to get our workout programs going for our group. They have a point system, calculating points on how much weight and body fat is lost during the time period." Springdale's Fitness Challenge teams are A Shift, which includes Capt. Chris Starnes, Capt. Hal Bestgen and firefighters Randy Gartner, Steve Temme and Matt Bay; B Shift, consisting of Ochoa and firefighters Anna Brown and Jeff Radman; C Shift, with members Capt. Chris Lindner and firefighters Duane Wagner and Jeff Weber. Enthusiasm for the contest has been high at the start, Ochoa said. "They're starting to kid each other, saying 'We're going to beat your team,'" he said. "These guys are taking this seriously. They're eating right, working out. "They're starting to plan meals together. They work out together. They're getting on each other about it." Springdale participants in the event said they were going into it with good intentions. "I'm working out more," said Radman, 30, who weighs 160 pounds. "We're working out as a team. Doing it as a group gives you more incentive to work out." Brown, 31, 151 pounds, has a weight-loss goal in mind. "I'm trying to be 135 pounds," she said. "I think it's going to be a good program. In combination with it, I' going to do a marathon in June." Bay, 34, 233 pounds, said it is a worthwhile effort, particularly since a member of his team is dealing with serious medical problems. "The whole team thing encourages you to work out," he said. "My team is dedicating our effort to Capt. Hal Bestgen, who is being treated for a serious illness. We've named our workout team Fighting for Hal 24/7. That really gives us motivation." Ochoa, 37, 229 pounds, competes in bodybuilding competitions. He said he sees where the 911 Fitness Challenge could help him improve his conditioning. "My body fat was 20 percent, so my goal is to get to 12 percent," he said. There is a $50 entry fee for participating. Money raised from the competition goes to Shriners Hospitals for Children. Participating in the contest is good for the firefighters and the people of the Springdale Fire Protection District, Ochoa said. "The No. 1 killer of firemen is heart attack," he said. "Even though we're on different teams, I want everyone in the department to be successful for the department. "I just want our taxpayers to see we're working out, getting in better shape, giving them bang for their buck." Ochoa noted that a number of other police and fire entities in the county are involved in the 911 Fitness Challenge.

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