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-wad 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.