By Linda Greer

news@joplinglobe.com

NEOSHO, Mo. — A project that was nearly a year in the making now has Neosho firefighters working up a sweat at work — and feeling better for it.

In August, the City Council approved spending $14,620 for fitness equipment from Play It Again Sports in Joplin, enough to furnish both Neosho firehouses with matching exercise machines.

“We rotate between stations,” said Deputy Chief Mike Eads. “This way, when the guys rotate stations, they can keep the same exercise program that they developed for themselves.”

Station 1 on College Street and Station 2 on Industrial Drive each has one weight machine, a treadmill, an elliptical trainer, a utility bench and dumbbells. The price included delivery and setup.

Getting the fitness rooms ready was the firefighters’ task. While Station 2 already had a suitable room that needed only minor alterations, Station 1 required crews to dismantle the old city jail. Four cells, a wall and a shower stall had to be taken out before new Sheetrock could be installed.

Working out Friday on the elliptical trainer, a stair-step machine that also works the arms, fireman Adrian Hitchcock said the biggest hurdle to completing the room was carrying out debris.

“Whenever we were hauling the concrete out from the floor, I wondered if we’d ever get to this point,” he said.

Hitchcock and fellow fireman Heath Crowder work out together twice a day, for one hour at each session. In the morning, it’s aerobics. In the afternoon, it’s weights and strength training.

Hitchcock said that with just two weeks of workouts behind him, he already is feeling better because of the cardiovascular exercises.

“The No. 1 killer of firemen is heart attacks,” he said as he steadily pumped the elliptical pedals up and down.

Hitchcock said the workouts also enable firefighters to better handle mental and physical stress on the job.

Eads said that besides building stamina and endurance, he hopes the higher level of fitness will reduce work-related injuries. Muscle strains and sprains are the most common injuries in the department, he said.

Eads said that before the new equipment arrived in late August, the firefighters brought in whatever old exercise machines they could scrounge together from family and friends.