Adrienne Beach

Background

Adrienne joined the Performance Redefined team in the Summer of 2021. Her role is to provide administrative support for the education and training resources that are available to members as part of the F2T program. Adrienne has a varied academic and professional background, and has been a life-long proponent of the value that physical activity and exercise have in overall health and wellness. She feels very fortunate to learn and share her enthusiasm about the benefits of “moving well and moving more” with members of the fire service.

Activity Habits

Three to five days per week Adrienne performs cardiovascular and resistance training sessions in her home gym. She also regularly hikes trails in her neighborhood, walks her dog 2-3 times per day, and does lots of yard work and gardening. Adrienne is motivated to be physically active because it makes her feel better, improves her health, and is something that she enjoys doing with family and friends. She also recognizes that leading a physically active lifestyle can help her maintain the function she needs to engage in the activities meaningful to her as she gets older. Even though she enjoys being active, sometimes it can be challenging to find the time due to work and family obligations. However, she feels fortunate to have a home gym because it makes it easy for her to make the choice to exercise, even on days where her internal drive to do so isn’t as high. Making exercise part of her morning routine has helped engrain this behavior as habit, so she doesn’t have to rely too often on motivation to get moving (even though it is usually quite high!).

Perspectives on F2T and firefighter wellness and fitness

In Adrienne’s opinion, the F2T program is unique because it emphasizes the many ways that being physically active improves overall health and well-being beyond just being fit for duty. She believes that the program is also taking an innovative approach to implementation by developing resources (e.g., workshops, webinars) that can be delivered both in-person and in a virtual environment. This approach allows the F2T team to leverage novel ways of teaching skills and communicating information, as well reach more departments across North America regardless of size.

Adrienne sees the program adding tremendous value through its emphasis on building a community, which will allow the F2T team to learn from members across the continent and continually update and expand program resources. In this way, the education and training provided by the program is always focused on being actionable. She would like departments and fire fighters to know that it only takes small steps to make big change. The one words she would use to describe the value of the program is inclusive. She would advise fire fighters thinking about investing in their wellness and fitness that just being a little more active, more often, has the potential to change their lives.