There was grunting.

There was groaning.

There have been aches.

There have been pains.

A pop or two may very well be heard.

And there was sweat. Oh, sure. Numerous sweat.

In different phrases, it was a hit.

On Thursday morning, 17 members of the Naperville Fireplace Division gathered in a dimly lit room on the metropolis’s Security City campus and principally killed themselves twisting and turning for an hour doing yoga.

It’s one thing that’s supplied each different Thursday for hearth personnel as a way of providing each bodily and psychological coaching.

Many of those people are in form however that doesn’t imply they don’t get a strenuous exercise courtesy of Naperville’s Emily Martinez.

“Health is part of what we do,” division chief Doug Erwin mentioned. “However to this diploma? That is positively taking it one step larger.

“The remark you hear from the yoga program is that it’s wonderful how a lot you sweat whereas by no means transferring. You might be in the identical spot for an hour.”

However it has its rewards.

“Mobility, flexibility, peace of thoughts are all in all probability the important thing parts,” Erwin mentioned. “Together with that’s the strengthening of the core property of the physique.”

Firefighter/paramedic Matthew Montague, a member of the division’s Wellness and Health Committee, mentioned they launched this system six months in the past.

“It’s good for psychological well being,” he mentioned. “We have now a nerve-racking job so it’s a must to address the stress. Yoga has made it (simpler to) cope higher.”

Montague is severe about making his friends take their psychological and bodily well being significantly. Whereas it doesn’t seem like an issue in Naperville, firefighter and paramedic deaths throughout the nation are rising and Montague is troubled by a few of the research he has seen.

In line with one completed by the completed by the Nationwide Fireplace Safety Company, there have been 135 on-duty deaths in the US in 2021 — essentially the most since 2001, the yr of the World Commerce Heart bombings.

Whereas 65 have been because of COVID-19, the opposite 70 occurred whereas the firefighter or EMT/paramedic was on the scene of a hearth or emergency, responding/getting back from an alarm, collaborating in firefighting duties equivalent to coaching, or on name or standby at a location aside from their house or place of job.

The research doesn’t embrace suicides, Montague mentioned.

In 2018, a USA Right this moment research discovered that extra firemen died by suicide (103) than whereas on obligation (93), and that pattern has continued.

Having this class is one thing he believes is necessary for that cause, Montague mentioned.

“The yoga lessons have been organized to deal with psychological well being and health in first responders,” he mentioned. “The category has an awesome turnout.”

Martinez, who additionally teaches yoga lessons for the Naperville Police Division, has a comfortable spot in her coronary heart for first responders.

Her father, Kevin Whitman, is a former police officer and a Purple Coronary heart veteran.

And her personal yoga profession started due to some ache.

“I had unhealthy hips in my early 30s,” she mentioned. “I used to be making an attempt all the things. I used to be searching for one thing totally different and located yoga, and that labored for me. I’ve been practising it for 14 years.”

She additionally teaches at YogaSix and 360 Studios in Naperville.

“I train all ages,” she mentioned. “I’ve everybody from teenagers to these of their mid-60s. They’ve all totally different ages and skills.”

Yoga has been round for five,000 years, based on yogabasics.com, but it surely has blossomed in recent times.

“It’s gotten extra in style,” Martinez mentioned. “There are yoga studios in all places.’”

Erwin is a veteran of yoga. What he likes about it, he mentioned, is the number of workout routines.

“It’s nonetheless exhausting work, however you don’t do the identical routine each session,” he mentioned. “We’re all the time engaged on one thing totally different.”

Jeff Vorva is a contract reporter for the Naperville Solar.