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5 ñ FIT FOR FIRE Closed Captioning At this point, the facilitator should have
instructed you to complete the Self Study Assignment #1. After watching the video segment,
you will be asked to complete an additional assessment.
The wildland fire environment is constantly changing and your safety depends on quickly
recognizing and adapting to rapidly shifting circumstances. Your level of health and fitness
influences how you adjust to these changes. To gather more insight on these topics, we
sat down with two experts in their field.
Firefighters have kind of traditionally always been a real, [good job] kinda pull yourself
up by your bootstraps kind of population, and thatís good, that has a lot of benefits,
uh, weíre, weíre we tend to be a real hardy bunch. But I think one of the downsides of
that then is that at times, perhaps, we donít talk more about some of these more psychological,
or what often times gets called the ìtouchy/feel yî kinds of things with regard to what it
takes to perform real well and again it takes a whole lot more than being physically fit
to become a real good wildland firefighter. Youíve got to be psychologically strong.
And youíve got to really have your things are in order, environmentally with regards
to whatís around you, uh, in order to really have the decision space and mindset to be
able to successfully do the job. thereís gunna
be a very small area where they share a piece of common ground and thatís optimal performance
basically, but thatís really hard to get to.
But at times our environment, uhÖ, asks us, or even demands us, to be in or very near
that optimal performance zone. I think that as an organization there will
be a long standing relationship between fitness and our firefighters. If we look at the American
population, obesity is on the rise, heart disease is on the rise but the job isnít
getting any easier. So fitness will always be a critical component of firefighting no
matter how we look at it, you have to have the work capacity to do the job. Not only
for yourself but for your fellow firefighters because if you arenít able to do your job
that means they have to pick it up and do that job for you.
As an exercise program for a crew it needs to be balanced and have both that aerobic
fitness component of running, hiking, doing those sort of activities and the strength,
pull-ups, pushups, sit-ups, lifting weights. You need to have that balance.
as a firefighter your job is to pack heavy stuff around in the woods. The best way to
get ready for that is to pack heavy stuff around in the woods. In the spring time get
out, start hiking, get your boots on, start breaking them in
the National Fire Center, NIFC in Boise, has two publications regarding fitness training
programs. Thereís the Firefit program and the Fitness and Work Capacity. Both these
programs help firefighters design a work out plan based on the job demands. Firefighting
is a very specific occupation. The specificity of the exercise training to the actual job
is very critical in helping a firefighter have the appropriate fitness during the season
the University of Montana and the work of Dr. Brent Ruby, theyíd gone out during the
summer months to actual camps and tested firefighters. Looking at the energy demands that firefighters
have and from their work we found that firefighters spend 4,000 to 6,000 calories a day, which
is two to three times the daily American diet of 2,000 calories.
Thereís a Tech Tip produced by MTDC, ìFeeding the Wildland Firefighterî that kind of gives
a breakdown of what athletes, which firefighters are, should be consuming when theyíre working.
Carbohydrates consistently throughout the work shift have been shown by studies from
the University to improve job performance in the latter half of the day by up to 40
percent. The studies on protein are that it is not
helpful as carbohydrates during long duration activities or events. When you think of athletes
like a triathlete you donít see them eating a steak on their bike when theyíre doing
an Ironman theyíre having energy bars which are very carbohydrate dense
And if youíre eating those constantly throughout the day you usually donít have a problem
but people will have a candy bar and then not eat anything and they get that crash feeling
afterwards cause they have low carbohydrates. a big motto that weíd like to get out there
is to eat and drink frequently. It doesnít have to be huge amounts and thatís a big
misconception have is they need to be drinking a ton of water. They just need to be drinking
throughout the day to maintain their hydration status not you know itís not a set number
that some people say you need to drink ìxî amount of water bottles a day. It just, you
need to be drinking frequently throughout the shift and if you feel thirsty youíre
already behind the power curve, your body is already about 10 percent dehydrated at
least. The recommendations that MTDC has put out
in the past are for every two or three bottles of water you should have a sports drink to
kind of keep that water and electrolyte balance in check.
Meals have changed a lot since the old 55 gallon drums they used to just drop out and
say, ìhereís everything in a big stew, go to town on it.î Itís become a lot more science
based and these are the type of things we need to see in our lunches
Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are a great carbohydrate source and if you can tolerate
them they will be a lot more beneficial to you than a typical meat-*** that you see in
your lunch. Hey, you got your Snickers in my mayonnaise,
oh, you got your mayonnaise on my Snickers! These are two great taste that taste great
together. This upcoming summer hopefully there will
be a new lunch contract for catered lunches So in these new lunch contracts weíre recommending
that instead of a big bag lunch that you sit down and eat at one time that it contains
smaller, almost snack-like items that you can consume every you know, hour and a half
to two hours. That are high in carbohydrates and hopefully that will give firefighters
the energy they need to be able to do that job at the end of the day.
So, Just being physically fit, at least in my mind, is not enough. In order to do the
job successfully and effectively, we have to be more than just a physical stud. We,
we have to be able to handle the psychological challenges, whatever those are, whether itís
getting along with your crewmates or teammates, whether itís handling the stress that comes
from an emerging incident, Whether it comes from, from face and some sort of transition
uh, be it onto another crew or into another position or whatever it is and then environmentally
dealing with all the things that go on outside of work. In order to perform optimally, we
need to be able to do all those things.
and often times itís just a matter of doing a little map check and figuring out, all right,
Which one of them is my best area? Uh, that becomes my anchor point then, thatís, thatís
my strength? Which, which one of them is my area that most needs improvement? Well, thatís,
thatís the head of the fire, thatís the analogy that I use, thatís the one weíve
got to attack obviously. And then the way we get there is up the flanks of it, and thatís,
the, the area that is kinda a strength but not our best strength basically, so, just
kinda doing some self analysis and figuring out all right, where do I need work?, which,
which one of those areas uh, most needs my attention at this given time. Uh, and once
weíve figured that out, thatís, thatís the area we go, thatís the area that we start
working on. Realizing that uh, weíve also got a strength to which to go forth as we
try and do that. Thatís just kind of the analogy that I use
of, of equating it to the fire triangle. Which is, We need heat and fuel and oxygen uh in
order to get any kind of combustion. Uh, the same can be said with performance, we need
to be at our top physically, but we need to be at our top psychologically and environmentally
as well or weíre just not gunna get there. These concepts may not be entirely new to
you, by discussing them and working on the self-evaluations in your workbook, you will
reinforce your understanding of them and be able to react instinctively in the field.
For more information on these topics, refer to the resources listed in your workbook.