title: Relationships between strength and endurance parameters and air depletion rates in professional firefighters.
abstract: The aim of this study was to quantify the physical demands of a simulated firefighting circuit and to establish the relationship between job performance and endurance and strength fitness measurements. On four separate days 41 professional firefighters (39 ± 9 yr, 179.6 ± 2.3 cm, 84.4 ± 9.2 kg, BMI 26.1 ± 2.8 kg/m2) performed treadmill testing, fitness testing (strength, balance and flexibility) and a simulated firefighting exercise. The firefighting exercise included ladder climbing (20 m), treadmill walking (200 m), pulling a wire rope hoist (15 times) and crawling an orientation section (50 m). Firefighting performance during the simulated exercise was evaluated by a simple time-strain-air depletion model (TSA) taking the sum of z-transformed parameters of time to finish the exercise, strain in terms of mean heart rate, and air depletion from the breathing apparatus. Multiple regression analysis based on the TSA-model served for the identification of the physiological determinants most relevant for professional firefighting. Three main factors with great influence on firefighting performance were identified (70.1% of total explained variance): VO2peak, the time firefighter exercised below their individual ventilatory threshold and mean breathing frequency. Based on the identified main factors influencing firefighting performance we recommend a periodic preventive health screening for incumbents to monitor peak VO2and individual ventilatory threshold.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomechanics in Sports, Technical University of Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: Stephanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Windisch
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomechanics in Sports, Technical University of Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Seiberl
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomechanics in Sports, Technical University of Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: Ansgar
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Schwirtz
authors.affiliation: Human Movement Science, Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany.|School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences, University of Queensland, Australia.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hahn
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000388:Air; D061388:Firefighters; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D053580:Muscle Strength / Q000502:physiology; D010807:Physical Endurance / Q000502:physiology*; D010809:Physical Fitness; D004856:Postural Balance / Q000502:physiology; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012119:Respiration