FireFlex Yoga Celebrates a Decade of Delivering Yoga, Wellness, and Resilience Trainings to First Responders

    SANTA CRUZ, CA, November 01, 2024 /24-7PressRelease/ -- FireFlex Yoga, a pioneer in the realm of mind-body fitness for First Responders, is proud to announce its 10-year anniversary. Since inception in 2014, FireFlex Yoga has been at the forefront of the First Responder yoga and wellness movement, providing a unique and transformative experience for Firefighters, Secret Service personnel, and Police. What began as a 10-week yoga class in a firehouse apparatus bay is today a nationwide wellness brand offering Train the Trainer programs, agency workshops, online courses, and leadership support for First Responders across agencies and across the country.

In this tenth year, FireFlex Yoga is launching donation-based streaming yoga classes for First Responders, with all proceeds gifted to a nonprofit serving First Responders. The inaugural nonprofit to benefit is Women in Fire, a nonprofit organization with a mission to support and empower women in the fire and emergency services. This online FireFlex Yoga class is created specifically for First Responders and anyone may join and donate at fireflexyoga.com. Participants will be able to join live or access the recorded class library later.

Today FireFlex Yoga is best known for its immersive 3-day Train the Trainer program that Founder Shannon McQuaide delivers on location. This "Conscious Warrior" training is delivered to Leadership, Line Duty Personnel, and Peer Support staff to teach them how to lead simple and impactful yoga sequences at their agency, which help to mitigate injury and decrease stress. She also teaches mindfulness skills to combat acute stress and increase self-awareness. The investment reaps dividends in preventative wellness and cultivates conscious leadership.

"As we celebrate our 10-year anniversary, I'm immensely grateful to the agencies who have welcomed FireFlex Yoga, from fire agencies to the Department of Homeland Security," said McQuaide. "After each training, I am filled with awe and thankfulness for the service of First Responders."

When Shannon McQuaide created her signature 10-week program in 2014, it was unique in utilizing the FMS (Functional Movement Screen) and MAIA (Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness) to measure impact. She correlated daily on-the-job firefighter movements with the FMS and supportive yoga postures. She gathered data before and after the 10-week series and the positive impact was measurable and repeatable. So much so, a research team at the University of San Francisco conducted a year-long study starting in 2018, gathering FireFlex before-and-after data across eight fire departments. The results were published in the academic peer-reviewed Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies noting improvements "were statistically significant and clinically meaningful".

In the program's first year, McQuaide noticed how First Responders did not need high-intensity crossfit-style yoga, they needed to slow down, decrease cortisol, tune in, and turn inward to de-escalate. Now more than ever, McQuaide invites First Responders to learn the subtle-yet-challenging skills of interoception, to connect with their breath and access compassion for their humanity.

Over the past decade, thousands of Firefighters and First Responders have learned practical interoceptive skills and how the Functional Movement Screen and yoga postures correlate to mitigating injuries while performing on-the-job physical tasks.

Battalion Chief Jason Golden of Southern Marin Fire Protection District, who's practiced FireFlex Yoga for years, said, "We are constantly in a state of hyper-awareness and it's important we find time to slow down. I have learned to do this by regulating my breath. Now when I hear the tones go off, I take a deep breath and feel my body calming down. This helps me think more clearly when I have to make decisions that will affect my crew and the public."

Key Highlights of FireFlex Yoga's 10 Years
- Train the Trainer delivered at CAL Fire, Howard County Fire and Rescue, United States Secret Service
- Taught FireFlex Yoga at renowned industry conferences: FDIC, Fireshows West, CAL Chiefs, Women in Fire, FDAC
- Featured in PTSD911 documentary about the impact of traumatic stress on first responders including dispatchers
- Advisory board member to Lexipol's CORDICO Wellness App
- Developed customized yoga training for yoga instructors who seek to support their local fire and police agencies
- Published The Conscious Warrior: Yoga for Firefighters and First Responders
- Strategic partnership with Sedgwick to reduce stress-related workmen's compensations claims for law enforcement agencies
- Program results published in the Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies
- Partnered with Active Wellness for five years (a national wellness company)
- Taught weekly classes in 22 firehouses across the Bay Area (pre-Covid)

Looking forward, McQuaide is developing a Conscious Leadership Training program, inspired by her master's degree in transformative leadership. "All leadership is self leadership and yoga teaches us more about who we are and how we lead in times of high stress," says McQuaide.

Looking back at her leadership journey, it was through hundreds of hours on the mat that McQuaide was able to navigate times of high stress, while keeping her thoughts rational and emotions regulated. Yoga taught McQuaide the capability to find an internal homeostasis despite external chaos and also that regardless of what is happening in the environment, we are never without the ability to choose versus react to what needs to happen next.

About FireFlex Yoga
FireFlex Yoga is a wellness program designed for first responders to mitigate stress and on-the-job injuries. Its flagship program in 2014 gathered quantitative data on first responders before/after a series of classes to measure results of daily fundamental movement patterns and interoception skills. The data consistently demonstrated physical and mental improvement for a high majority of first responders, which correlates to testimonials describing increased resiliency and decreased stress. Today, FireFlex delivers customizable trainings to first responders at state and federal agencies.

About Founder & Director Shannon McQuaide
Originally from a fire family (her father, uncle, sister, brother-in-law - all firefighters), McQuaide is an entrepreneur, a published author, leadership coach, certified diversity coach, and yoga teacher. With a bachelor's degree in chemistry and two master's degrees in spiritual psychology and transformative leadership, Shannon blends her immersive education and trauma-sensitive yoga training to deliver unique and impactful training to first responders and public safety agencies.

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