Health & Wellness: Are You Fit for Duty?

I used to train professional athletes, and every aspect of their fitness was measured and compared with their performance on the field. In the fire service, we don’t have the luxury of replay, referees, timers and/or performance evaluations for each call.

When you entered the fire service, you probably were tasked with some sort of entrance fitness tests that provided a baseline performance measure that’s required to perform the job. How do we measure fitness and performance levels after we join the fire service?

NFPA 1500: Standard on Fire Department Occupational Safety, Health, and Wellness Program

states that firefighters should perform a yearly medical screening and fitness assessment. The assessment should be supervised by a trained health professional and be composed of five elements: body composition, flexibility (mobility), muscular strength, muscular endurance and aerobic capacity.

Even if your department doesn’t pay or participate, you can take control of your own health and see your personal doctor to perform your medical. As far as fitness testing, there are some assessments that you can perform.

Body composition

Body composition describes your healthy weight more accurately and provides a better glimpse into your overall health than traditional methods, such as body mass index (BMI) and weight.

Why is body composition so important? Obesity is associated with an elevated risk of cardiovascular disease, hypertension, diabetes, sleep apnea and several types of cancer. The accumulation of fat specific to the abdominal area also is highly correlated with cardiac events. Further, higher levels of body fat can lead to a decrease in performance.

How to test: The most common way to determine body composition uses skinfold calipers to pinch the body in specific areas. The measurement is combined with age and gender and is input into a specific formula to provide a percent body fat estimate.

There are affordable bioelectrical impedance devices to determine body composition, or you can reach out to a local gym to see whether it has more accurate options, such as the InBody test.

The most accurate form of body composition testing is underwater weighing, which is performed at most universities and lab settings.

It’s important to test once or twice per year to determine trends.

Functional mobility

Unfortunately, many firefighters sacrifice mobility and flexibility training to work on their “calendar” muscles or bench press numbers. Yet, the more mobile that you are, the better that you can move your joints through their full range of motion and the less likely that you are to be injured on and off the fire/rescue scene.

The wall squat reveals functional limitations in the ankles, hips, and lower and upper back, which are places where firefighters tend to be tight and inflexible.

How to test: Face a wall with your feet shoulder-width apart and your toes three inches from the base and slightly turned out. Squat as low as you can, keeping your feet flat, chest up and back naturally arched. Don’t let any part of your body touch the wall.

Results:

●    Able to full squat in control (thighs parallel or less to the floor) = athlete

●     Squat halfway down = average

●     Less than halfway or falling over = needs work

Power

Firefighting tasks, such as forcible entry, require the speedy transfer of power from the body to a tool, as in swinging a sledgehammer. Power also helps firefighters to quickly drag heavy objects, such as hoselines and victims.

The broad jump is one of the purest gauges of raw power. It requires several muscle groups to fire at once. The stronger and more explosive that you are, the more force that you’ll generate and the farther that you will jump.

How to test: Stand behind a marked line and jump forward as far as you can by swinging your arms and bending your knees to propel you forward. Three attempts are allowed, and you must land on both feet without falling backward.

Results:

●     Jump greater than 7½ feet = athlete

●     5 ½–7½ feet = average

●     Less than 5½ feet = needs work

Muscular strength/endurance

An aggressive interior fire attack and scaling a ladder with heavy equipment to ventilate a roof, among other tasks, require a high level of both strength and the ability to work at near-maximal intensity in sub-minute bursts (anaerobic endurance). The more efficiently that you utilize oxygen, the more effective that you can be on the fireground.

A great way to test this is to perform a full-body, highly taxing movement. I personally like the deadlift-curl-to-press test, because it’s applicable to fireground movements.

How to test: Use dumbbells that total roughly 30 percent of your weight. Hold them by your sides with your feet shoulder-width apart. Stand up straight, keeping your back naturally arched and your head up, then push your hips back and lower your body until your thighs are parallel to the floor (deadlift). As you stand up, curl the dumbbells to shoulder height and then press them straight overhead. Return to the starting position and repeat as many times as possible in one minute.

Results:

●       18 repetitions or more in one minute = athlete

●       11–17 reps = average

●       10 reps or fewer = needs work

Core strength

Most people consider a strong core as equating to a nice six-pack, but the truth is that the abdominal muscles are a very small part of the core. The core actually consists of numerous muscles that stabilize the spine and pelvis and run the entire length of the torso. When these muscles contract properly, they create a solid base of support to generate functional movements.

The plank test is a great way to measure the control and endurance of the core muscles.

How to test: Lie on the ground face down with your elbows directly below your shoulders. Lift your hips and put your weight on your toes and forearms to form a straight line from your shoulders to your ankles. Hold this position for as long as you can. When your hips sag or your knees touch the floor, stop the timer.

Results:

●       More than 2 minutes = athlete

●       1–2 minutes = average

●       Less than 1 minute = needs work

Aerobic capacity

Aerobic capacity is the maximal amount of oxygen that your body can consume during high-intensity exercise and generally is considered the best indicator of athletes’ (particularly, firefighters’) cardiovascular fitness and aerobic endurance.

One of the easiest ways to track aerobic capacity is via the mile-and-a-half run.

How to test: Run/walk as quickly as you can. You can test on a track, measure out a course in your neighborhood or run/walk on a treadmill. (When running on the treadmill, keep the incline of the treadmill at zero.) Time how long it takes to finish.

Results:

●       Under 11 minutes = athlete

●       11–14 minutes = average

●       More than 14 minutes = needs work

Not everyone is a “runner.” The burpee really gets the heart working and mimics the intensity of the fire/rescue scene. Over the years, I modified the test to make it safer and easier on the shoulders.

How to test: Begin in a standing position with your feet slightly wider than hip-width and your arms at your sides. Bend over and squat down. Place your hands on the floor, slightly narrower than shoulder-width. While holding the upper body in place, kick the legs back. Land with your body in a pushup position—although you don’t perform a pushup. Keeping your upper body in place, pull your legs forward outside of your hands (to protect your knees). Rise up to the original standing posture, raise your arms overhead and add a jump. Repeat as many reps as possible in three minutes.

Results:

·         40 reps or more = athlete

·         20–39 reps = average

·         19 reps or fewer = needs work

The mirror test

“What does running one and a half miles have to do with me being able to do the job,” you might ask? I also hear, “The BMI test is inaccurate, because muscle weighs more than fat.”

In some cases, I agree that these tests might not correlate to the tasks that we do on the fireground, and there is a push to define minimum performance levels that then correlate fitness data to actual performance. Until then, you must perform the mirror test, which is the most important test.

How to test: Take a good look at your current level of fitness and evaluate where you truly are. Do you have some extra pounds that you would do well to lose? Do you work out consistently? When is the last time that you did strenuous work exercise while on SCBA? Are you doing everything that you can to minimize your health risks and to stay fit for duty?

If you have any doubts, start making positive changes.

I recommend performing these, or some form of fitness evaluation, every couple of months, to hold yourself accountable, to motivate yourself to improve your level of fitness, and to make sure that you are minimizing your and your crew’s risks by maximizing your fitness.